Retool reviews

3.6

68% would recommend to a friend

(129 total reviews)

David Hsu

65% approve of CEO

58% positive business outlook

Retool has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 129 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Retool employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

129 reviews
1.0
Jul 26, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Even leadership is aware that the only pro is the free food.

Cons

Avoid this company at all costs. You'll leave the office feeling drained and depressed. There's no culture, leadership doesn't care about the people...it's truly a soul suck. They say they have competitive benefits but they actually don't. The benefits are just ok and there are no real perks

2.0
Aug 25, 2023

Core flaws make it hard to succeed

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Smart and ambitious GTM team

Cons

Leadership does not set a strategic vision, and pushes blame to managers and the team. The company is extremely thrashy and disorganized. Can feel as though leadership thinks they're in an episode of Succession. Internal politics are brutal, at the expense of focusing on customers. Lots of favoritism and reward to those best at playing internal politics. Everyone is overworked and unhappy but still celebrating false accomplishments. This is not a place to learn from your leaders.

4.0
Nov 17, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Retool is a great place if you want to have a lot of ownership/autonomy and work on big, cool stuff. The product is rad and there's so much to do; pretty much anything you work on will be impactful. The office is great and well-managed; I love working there. I have a lot of confidence in the future of the company/product. Everyone at Retool is very high caliber, and people who are dragging down the team/company (including managers) are performance managed quickly but fairly. This includes people who are negatively affecting culture and team morale. Some people find this stressful, but it can also be great because people who are making your life miserable at work WILL get dealt with (fairly, including having a chance to adjust their behavior unless it's very egregious) much more quickly than at other companies. If you're intrinsically motivated, independent, and good at what you do [relative to your level of experience], Retool is a great place for you. If you're not, you should probably not even apply.

Cons

I do not agree with a lot of the recent 1/2 star reviews. Retool is a company with high expectations and so isn't for everyone; my guess is some people who were unfortunately bad fits for their roles or were part of the unfortunate layoffs are bitter about how it turned out. Retool is in the middle of a couple of awkward transitions: becoming a bigger/more mature company, the end of the ZIRP era, shuffling leadership, and refocusing its strategy. The company has made some big stumbles in these transitions. There's a lot of tech debt, the culture is not great (though the company is making some pretty valiant and consistent efforts to improve it over time), and the strategy is still in flux. That said, the company seems to be taking these things seriously and I have faith we'll figure it out in the long run. Retool is also a very very young and hacky company. People are high caliber relative to their level of experience, but there's a lack of overall experience in many parts of the org. That is also an opportunity for applicants, though: if you are highly experienced, you can probably come in and have a huge impact and mentor a lot of younger professionals to level up.

Viewing 4 - 6 of 129 Reviews

Glassdoor has 129 Retool reviews submitted anonymously by Retool employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Retool is right for you.