Kickbox tools for US companies

More than 30 companies in 15 countries use rready’s KICKBOX approach to promote intrapreneurship. After winning a new client in the United States, the startup is expanding into the country with a new office and the first employee to serve its new market.

Swisscom spin-off rready provides its decentralized approach of KICKBOX to help organisations engage their employees in innovation processes in a scalable and active manner. Initiated by Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Adobe’s former Chief strategist Mark Randall, the methodology has led to thousands of validated ideas. “This is important because it is this validation phase where the methodological upskilling happens, and ideas get killed early – hence, budget is saved”, Ralph Hartmeier, Co-Founder & CCO at rready.

Over 220 ideas have been piloted or implemented, which are helping organisations save resources, optimize client experience, and generate extra revenue. The company has already supported more than 4600 intrapreneurs worldwide, with many of them reaching a GoldBox and some projects have been spun out into independent businesses. A recent example is Baloise’s Dream Home project, an initiative launched by Baloise employees in Germany to enable young people and families to turn their dream of owning their own home into a reality. After successfully making it through the RedBox and BlueBox phases, the team behind the idea received the GoldBox award in December, along with a seed capital of EUR 300,000. The team is now working on a spin-off process.

With Baloise included, rready serves more than 30 companies in 15 countries on four continents. Last year, the Zurich-based startup closed its first client deal in Latin America and started working with several governmental departments. A recent customer addition in the United States has now led to the expansion into the US where a new office is being set up with Neil Jarboe as the Vice President of Sales in the Americas. “The demand in the US is even higher than what we had initially expected”, elaborated Hartmeier. With this strategic move, rready brings back the concept to where it started – in the US by Randall, who will also join the startup as Board advisor. His experience and unique approach will be valuable for the company and its customers.

Besides the latest expansion, rready’s growth is highlighted by the increasing revenues – over the last two years, the company’s revenues have grown by more than 100 per cent year-on-year. It has more offices in Rotterdam, Uberlandia (Brazil) and Belgrade, and a team of around 40 professionals from 16 nationalities.

(RAN)