A Message from CEO and Co-Founder Lisa First-Willis

September 9, 2020

Our Journey

It’s hard to believe that it has been three years since we started Truvelop (Trigger Transformation Inc.). Our journey began with a chance introduction to our co-founder, Gerry Sandusky – the Voice of the Baltimore Ravens and WBAL Executive Sports Director. He had a unique and streamlined way of evaluating NFL player talent and approached me, with my 25 years of HR experience, about applying his method of assessment in a corporate setting. I took one look at his excel spreadsheet and instantly fell in love with the Performance/Attitude/Maintenance question construct and scoring—I knew it would be a perfect fit.

Industry research suggests that more often than not, companies struggle with annual performance reviews, as the process can be cumbersome and adds little to no value for the employee, the manager, and the organization. We wanted to depart from the standard check-a-box annual exercise and graduate to a model that included regular and ongoing employee evaluations where managers could share meaningful feedback in the moment when it counts.

We started working on the wireframes in July 2017, and by November 2017, we had a working digital prototype. By Spring 2018, we had a market viable product and began beta testing. We launched our commercial product at the end of Q1 2019 and started building out the product, sales, and support teams. By the end of 2019, our start-up had grown to 20 clients from a variety of industries.

March 2020 presented us with a unique opportunity to adapt and respond to the complex challenges employers are now facing, with some businesses operating with remote workers for the first time due to COVID-19. Throughout our journey, we’ve always used feedback from our amazing customers for updates and new features, so we asked our customers directly and consulted with industry experts. Based on that feedback, we released a number of new product features and enhancements to help organizations make evaluating and developing employees even more engaging, efficient, and actionable – regardless of where the employee is – in office or remotely. Feedback from the end-user on these enhancements has been extremely positive and we are seeing increased utilization rates as a result. We know from conversations with our customers and from daily usage statistics that our end users are engaging with our product – and with their teams – more than ever before.

The pandemic has brought countless challenges to the workforce – some of which have never been faced before. And we are well positioned for continued success and future growth as we have a solution already in the market that is addressing many of these challenges head on.

I know that running a business in normal times isn’t easy, let alone, running a start-up during a pandemic. We have worked tirelessly for the past 3 years and the commitment of our resilient team, our families and friends, our clients, and our investors has been the key to our success during these challenging times. Our proven ability to grow rapidly and strategically and the viability of our product speaks for itself. In many ways, I feel like we are just getting started and I can’t wait to see where this amazing start-up journey takes us next.

Stay healthy!

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