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Trellis

Most businesses run on knowledge in people’s heads. Trellis turns it into resilient operational infrastructure.
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https://trellissuite.com/
About this idea
Most small businesses run on knowledge held by individual employees. Even when processes are documented, they are rarely maintained or structurally tied to the roles responsible for execution. When someone leaves, takes time off, or shifts responsibilities, ownership becomes unclear, deadlines slip, and critical work can stall. Trellis solves this by structuring work around roles instead of individuals. Responsibilities, tasks, documents, and safeguards are connected directly to the role that owns them. Instead of relying on individuals to remember and coordinate work, Trellis makes ownership visible, defines backup coverage, and keeps execution moving even when people are unavailable. The result is operational resilience. Businesses move from reactive firefighting to structured execution, where knowledge is preserved, responsibilities are clear, and teams can operate confidently through growth, turnover, and change.
Impact
Small businesses power local economies, yet most operate on fragile systems where critical knowledge lives in individual employees rather than in durable operational structures. When someone leaves, takes time off, or shifts roles, responsibilities become unclear, work slows down, and leaders are pulled back into constant firefighting just to keep operations running. Trellis changes this by turning operational knowledge into structure. Instead of relying on individuals to remember how work gets done, Trellis organizes responsibilities, processes, and safeguards around roles so ownership stays visible and execution continues even as teams change. Businesses gain continuity, institutional knowledge is preserved, and leaders spend less time solving preventable operational breakdowns. The impact goes beyond efficiency. Clear operational structure reduces stress on teams, improves collaboration, and makes work more sustainable for the people responsible for keeping businesses running every day. Instead of relying on heroics or memory, teams operate within a system that supports them. Trellis helps small and mid-sized businesses operate with the resilience typically only found in large organizations with dedicated operational infrastructure. By making resilient operations accessible to smaller teams, Trellis strengthens not only individual businesses but also the communities and economies that depend on them.
What I'll do with $5,000
Trellis already has pilot customers secured who are ready to implement the platform and structure their operational roles, responsibilities, and workflows inside the system. The $5,000 grant will be used to support the onboarding and implementation of these pilot organizations. The funding will primarily support development and implementation work needed to refine Trellis’ onboarding tools and ensure each pilot company can successfully capture operational knowledge and structure it around roles. This phase will also allow us to gather feedback, validate the Business Resilience Platform model in real organizations, and document measurable improvements in operational clarity and continuity. By the end of this project, Trellis will have multiple fully implemented pilot companies, validated onboarding processes, and real-world examples of how structuring operational knowledge improves resilience for small businesses.
Quick Bio
After growing up in a family business and later working in VC & private equity-backed companies, Jillian saw the same operational problem everywhere & created Trellis!
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