About Craft

Millions of writers, thinkers and innovators use Craft to capture their big ideas every day.

We believe that how you feel about the tools you use is just as important as the work you can do with them. That's why we're bringing the joy back to thinking, writing, creating and collaborating.

Origin

Founder's Story

Why Balint Orosz built Craft to bridge the gap between form and function.

Why I built Craft

Software that makes you feel great

I've always been a visual-first individual and I believe it's rooted in my early education. From the ages of 3-5, I lived in the US with my family, and attended a Montessori-style kindergarten for foreign-language pupils. We did a lot of creative exercises, drawing and crafts, and, while these skills have never been my strengths, I've always admired them.

I started coding at the age of 12 and, from the start, I didn't really focus on what the software did, but how it felt to use it. Even in the beginning I was creating animations and UX paradigms with the goal of making the software feel more professional and delightful to use.

With the first money I made, I bought a Mac and, for me, it represented the ultimate sophistication of hardware and software. Using it made me feel great. I felt good every day opening up that laptop and using the beautiful interface. I tried other platforms, but they never felt as good as the Mac.

For most individuals, how software made you feel wasn't important, but for me it was different. I was spending most of my waking hours in front of a computer, so how the software made me feel had a huge impact on how I felt myself.

The tools we use, shape us

I'm a big believer that our surroundings form us, and either charge us up with energy, or suck the energy from us. And that's also true for the tools we use every day.

Form and function must come hand-in-hand. Alone, either becomes frustrating, but if you strike the right balance the result is a tool that empowers you and fills you with delight. This is the case for physical tools — the right desk chair will serve you well from a functional point of view and fill you with admiration of its form every time you touch it. The small but important decisions made by the designers make it so great to use.

It's also true for digital tools. Software that frustrates you — no matter how powerful it is — will limit your ability. Instead of amplifying you, it distracts and frustrates you.

In many ways, I refuse to use software that I feel frustrates me or sucks my energy. I have quite a short attention span and become frustrated very easily. If I am frustrated, the quality of my work/interactions suffers. So for me, the statement above is exponentially true.

Writing and friction

The more I've progressed in my career — and the more the whole industry changed — the more important async and written communication has become. However, the tools available to do this were extremely frustrating to use, specifically for my 'on the go' lifestyle. They were also horrible when it came to expressing my digital identity.

There's just tremendous noise in modern text editors, and the output — despite the significant customization capabilities in these tools — is very hard to control.

I was frustrated by the process of collecting, expressing and sharing my thoughts. I was constantly distracted, often feeling like I was fighting a sluggish, complex tool, bloated with unnecessary features for my needs. And at the same time, I felt extremely unsatisfied with how the output represented me as an author.

This friction was at its highest on touch devices, where we're used to tools that are flawlessly executed by the best engineers in the world, like Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. Comparing our d2d tools to these just made it painfully clear how bad existing solutions actually were.

Complexity and power

For a while I thought too much complexity was the main issue and that tools needed to be more single-purpose so I started using minimal tools which were very limited. While getting started in these tools was easier, the frustrations started popping up very quickly. The lack of capabilities quickly became a blocker, and I couldn't continue to use these tools after a certain level of depth and complexity, which I hit quite early in my workflow.

So I understood there is a reason for complexity, but it has to be adaptive, and only visible when needed, instead of constantly distracting you.

Our digital output is our digital identity

Just like the clothes we wear or the car we drive, our digital output becomes an expression of ourselves. People judge by appearances in our digital world; how well the content is structured, how good the visuals look, etc. These things amplify or detract from your message and identity. Great tools help you amplify your message, instead of detracting from it.

Enter Craft

I knew I needed a tool that could empower me and fill me with joy every time I use it. Something that's both very simple to get started with, but goes very deep in terms of capabilities. A tool which could generate output I am proud to associate with my digital identity. For me, Craft is that tool.

I can rely on it wherever I am, and whenever I need it. The ability to structure docs with pages and cards means I can use different organizational methods to write longer documents, while still giving me control and clarity over the content.

The core thing that differentiates Craft for me from other modern productivity tools, is that I love to use it, and what we see in our community feedback as well; people feel the attention to detail and the love we've put into building Craft. Other tools might be functional, but they are frustrating.

Because Craft exists, I no longer start the day with apprehension, dreading where I will be spending most of my working day. I am now energized and excited for a day of thinking, writing and communicating in Craft. I love spending my day in Craft.

Balint @ Craft

Team

The people that make Craft

We’re passionate about building a tool that’s a joy to use, every single day. Let us know if you’re interested in working with us, we'd love to hear from you!

We're hiring

Investors

We're in good company

We're backed by industry-leading venture firms and some the world's most accomplished product founders and leaders.

EBRD Technology

Craft raises $12m in Series B round

Read Announcement

Creandum

Backing Craft — the only writing tool you need

Read Announcement

InReach Ventures

Craft Docs secures $8M Series A round

Read Announcement

Press Kit

Press Information

Interested in learning more about Craft or speaking to the team? Reach out to us at press@craft.do– we'd love to connect. Check out our press kit to download logos, app icons, and screenshots.

Download Brand Assets