Retool's CEO on the operations behind winning early sales deals

In the months leading up to Y Combinator's Demo Day for the Winter 2017 class, David Hsu's fintech startup was on the brink of failure, burning through $1,000 daily and facing a dire financial situation. The team decided to pivot from their UK-based Venmo competitor to creating a tool that would allow for the drag-and-drop building of internal software, inspired by the custom software they had developed to keep their fintech operations running. This shift led to the creation of Retool, which they successfully presented at Demo Day, landing a $1.5 million enterprise customer pilot. Initially relying on outbound sales to gain traction, the company later experienced a dramatic shift to inbound sales after a successful post on Hacker News, leading to rapid growth and the hiring of a go-to-market team. Retool's success was further propelled by developing tools to monitor and support users in real-time, ensuring customer satisfaction and retention. Their journey to product-market fit was marked by a strategic shift in messaging and target market, moving away from legacy software users to focus on developers of internal applications, which ultimately led to substantial growth and a $50 million Series B funding round. Looking ahead, Retool sees significant opportunities in enhancing the quality of internal tools for businesses, aiming to improve efficiency and employee satisfaction.