At Bold Tech, we’re incredibly privileged to have worked with the Bilt team since April 2021 - it’s now been more than four years of working together to build their internal tools on Retool!
Back in 2022, we wrote a little about Bold Tech & Bilt’s story so far, but we’re excited to share some updates since then.
Since we started working together, Bilt has evolved from a small team to a company of approximately 200 employees. Their network of properties has expanded to 4.5+ million homes, and they have become a company valued at nearly $11 billion.
Naturally, this has meant that their internal tooling needs have scaled too, with the need to unify data across even more staff and teams. We reconnected with Tracy Crone, Senior Director of Technical Integrations, who has remained our energetic Retool champion at Bilt for all these years, and Stefan, Bold Tech’s Senior Developer, who manages the Bilt engagement.
Tracy, it’s been a pleasure working with you for so long (over 4 years!). How has Bilt changed as a company since you started?
Bilt has grown so much! Since I started, we have increased the size of our team and significantly expanded our product offerings. I’d say that this growth comes from the fact that we’re always focusing on what’s working, double down on that, and the fact that we always listen closely to our members and partners.
How has this affected your internal tools and systems? How have they evolved?
Bilt has really seen that having a system like Retool, where apps can be quickly built and easily adapted, is a great fit for our constantly evolving product. Since Retool is the main platform for all internal employees, we’ve now created modules for each new product, ensuring all our teams have the self-service infrastructure they need.
Back in 2022, we built your property manager app with a centralized admin control panel for managing key data - do you still use this app? How has it changed or grown?
We do, but it’s evolved significantly! We now have a bulk update feature that lets us slice and dice updates by columns or feature flags, or even upload a list of IDs and apply targeted changes to those records. We’ve also built a reusable pop-out page module, which consolidates all of our property parameters. This page is visible across all associates, including those without edit permissions, ensuring everyone has consistent visibility.
I love working with Bold Tech, mainly because they get us. They’ve grown alongside us, so there is a level of shared knowledge that just leads to faster delivery.
Stefan - as Bold Tech’s lead developer for Bilt’s engagement, can you tell us a little bit about what your team has been working on lately?
We still maintain the property manager app, but it has undergone significant UI updates to keep pace with the team’s changing needs and to take advantage of new Retool features that enhance the user experience. We’ve expanded the admin panel to include new tools such as the user dashboard and payment apps. With Bilt’s rapid growth, one of the most impactful additions has been building out the bulk editor tools, which allow the team to efficiently manage data at scale.
We’ve also made major improvements to the security infrastructure for Bilt’s Retool apps. Since Retool’s native logs can be tricky to navigate, especially for non-technical users, we built a custom app on top of audit_trail_events. This makes it much easier for managers to narrow down logs, search payloads and paths, and review activity in a way that is more user-friendly than digging through raw API calls.
Beyond Tracy’s teams, Bilt's Marketing and Brand teams have also embraced Retool, developing their own CMS system for managing campaigns, benefits, and other key initiatives.
Tracy - you’ve worked with Retool for a long time now. What role has it played for Bilt?
Retool is vital to how Bilt supports our internal associates, which allows our developers to focus on outward-facing customer needs. Of particular importance are the training tools that Bold Tech has made available, which help us keep expanding our use of the product, and all of this is essential as we continue to grow.
How have you found working with Bold Tech? What do you want us to build next?
I love working with Bold Tech, mainly because they get us. They’ve grown alongside us, so there is a level of shared knowledge that just leads to faster delivery. Next on my list: more automation. We’re just getting started with our new automated workflows, and the possibilities are endless!
Sophie Becker
