It started with a blinking cursor |

A blank file.
A few keystrokes.
print("hello, world")
You ran it.
And the computer responded.
You told a machine what to do – and it listened.
That moment has sparked millions of journeys.
Kids in bedrooms. Students in labs. Curious minds in internet cafés.
A generation – and then another – learned the magic of software.
They stayed up too late.
They built games. Tools. Mods. Scripts to make life easier.
They shared zip files on forums. Burned CDs for friends.
They made things. Because they could!

But the software we built changed

Small tools made by small teams gave way to big tools and big teams.
Suddenly, we have massive platforms backed by massive money.
We got jobs.
We went to stand ups.
We joined sprint planning calls and added tickets to Jira.
Software became a business.
And business became the reason software existed.

There's nothing inherently wrong with software at scale

Enterprise software pays the bills.
It keeps the lights on. But something got lost along the way.
That magic.
That feeling.
That spark.
That joy of creation.

What if it could be different?

What if you could build a tool just for you – because you needed it?
What if it didn't require five services and a Terraform config?
What if you didn't need to be a "professional developer" to make it happen?
What if writing software was like picking up a power drill – a tool to get something done?
Not a startup. Not a business. Not a side hustle.
Just a piece of software that works. That's yours. That you own. That you can share (if you want to).

Personal software is coming back

AI is lowering the barrier to entry.
Serverless hosting is erasing the friction.
Frameworks like Redwood are simplifying the plumbing.
You don't need to ask permission anymore.
You don't need to scale.
You don't need to monetize.
You just need a reason.
An itch to scratch.
A thing to build.
It's a personal software revolution. And it's coming.

Redwood is here for that reason

We started Redwood to help developers build faster.
To reduce friction. To accelerate creation.
Now, we're going further.
We want to be the toolkit - and the movement - behind personal software.
Software you can build, own, share, and modify (like it used to be).
Software that solves your problem.
Software that doesn't try to lock you in or track your usage or upsell you into a higher tier.
Because here's the thing:
The joy of writing software, and the joy of using it - they should go hand in hand.
We want to bring that joy back.

The Personal Software Revolution

We believe software can be personal again.
Not just technically, but philosophically.
Owned. Forkable. Shareable. Local. Beautiful.
Built for use, not for scale.
Built with love, not venture funding.
Built for yourself - and maybe a few others.
If this resonates with you, come join us. We're not just building a framework.
We're building a future where software is yours again.