Built with intention. Designed for clarity.

We’re a small software company with a simple belief—the tools we use every day should help us think more clearly, not less.

It started with a spreadsheet.

A few years back, my wife and I were exploring the restaurant scene in Baltimore. We loved it—the variety, the quality, the hidden gems tucked away on side streets. But we kept running into the same problem. A friend or family member would ask for a recommendation, and we’d have to dig through our memories trying to remember which place had the best seafood, or why we loved that cocktail bar so much. The details faded faster than we wanted.

So we did what felt natural—we built a Google Sheet. We picked categories that mattered to us, rated each restaurant on our own scale, combined the scores, and kept a running list of our favorites. It was surprisingly effective. We could look back and see exactly why a place earned its spot, decide which restaurants deserved a return visit, and back up our recommendations with actual data instead of vague impressions. Living in Baltimore, we’d become local experts in the food scene, and the spreadsheet gave us a legitimate system to stand behind.

But it didn’t last. Spreadsheets are powerful, but they aren’t built for this. Opening a Google Sheet on your phone, navigating the cells, keeping it updated in real time—it quickly became more effort than it was worth. The spreadsheet sat there, untouched, while we went back to relying on memory. We needed something faster. Something we could update in seconds, right when the experience was fresh. Something that actually fit into how we live.

That idea became Rate It.

What we stand for.

Distill Digital exists to do one thing well: take complexity and reduce it to something useful. But doing that well requires more than good intentions—it requires a set of principles we hold ourselves to every time we make a decision, from the first idea on a whiteboard to the product in your hands.

These aren’t aspirational statements. They’re the lens we use to build. If a feature doesn’t align with them, it doesn’t ship. If a business decision conflicts with them, we find another path. That’s what it means to build software with purpose.

Intentional

Every feature in our products earns its place. We don’t build for the sake of building—we start with a real problem, solve it simply, and stop there. No bloat, no distractions, no features that exist just to check a box.

Clear

Complexity in, simplicity out. That’s the core of everything we build. Our products take something that feels overwhelming—remembering and comparing experiences—and turns it into something you can capture in seconds.

Trustworthy

No ads. No data selling. No algorithms deciding what matters to you. We collect only what’s necessary, we protect it, and we never monetize it. Your ratings are yours—full stop.

Curious

Distill Digital was built for people who care about quality. Who notice the difference between good and great. Who want their tools to keep up with their curiosity rather than slow it down.

We build software that earns its place.

Distill Digital exists to do one thing well: take complexity and reduce it to something useful. Every product we build starts with a real problem—one we experience ourselves—and we don’t ship until the solution actually feels effortless.

That means no feature bloat. No artificial limits designed to push upgrades. No algorithms deciding what matters to you. We believe your tools should respect your time, your attention, and your data. Software built to last, not to go viral.

This is just the beginning.

Rate It is where Distill Digital starts, but it’s not where we stop. We built this company as a foundation—a launchpad for software products that solve real problems in the same thoughtful way. The same frustration that turned a Google Sheet into an app will drive everything we build next. We’re excited to see where that takes us, and we hope you’ll come along for the ride.

Our mission is simple.


Distill complexity into clarity. Building software that helps people capture, organize, and act on what matters most.