The seed for Trio Collective was planted many years ago. I was coming off a 2.5-year career break after a life-changing event and having coffee with a friend. It was late 2020, and we were taking advantage of a temporary parklet at Rose Park a local coffee roaster in Long Beach, CA. I was lost and searching for the next thing. My career path up to that point was paved by the great relationships I’d built and an impressive track record of getting things done. I’d worked on the agency side, was part of 2 successful IPO’s, an acquisition, and many roles across those orgs. 

My friend talked of their recent move to a collective and was the happiest they had been in their career. They stepped away from an industry they’d spent decades in to work a different way and they encouraged me to do the same. At the time, I had a utilitarian skill set that resembled a Swiss Army knife. My superpower has always been making connections: with people, patterns, and cross-functionally. I couldn’t see myself being successful without a specialization. Shortly after that chat, I returned to the rigor of startup life. 

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Someone recently said, to work in startups, one needs to be a “mental athlete.” They’re right. The days are long and the years short. Oftentimes, the team is small, and the list of priorities is enormous. To make progress, I needed contractors, agencies, and consultants. Some of them were great, while others created more work and made promises they couldn’t deliver on. Most of the time, I preferred to just be in the weeds instead of trying to get them up to speed. 

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Last fall, in the midst of multiple high-priority programs, a former boss and mentor reached out about a potential client. The timing couldn’t have been worse. I declined the project and found someone to take it on. Later that year, another opportunity came up. It felt like fate, and my wheels started turning. 

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I started to see an opportunity to create the collective reality I’d shied away from. The more I talked about the idea, the clearer the vision became. Startups are demanding and require a lot from the people building. Those who’ve been in those roles need a different way to work, and the people remaining need support from someone who’s been there. 

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Over the last year, and especially the last 6 months, so much has changed in tech and the world at large. As a result, the model is changing. We need to be flexible, versatile, and innovative. We have access to information and tools that have fundamentally changed how we work and how we think. Trio Collective represents that shift for me and everyone who has said yes and joined.

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We are in the Age of Aquarius. An era defined by disruption, decentralization, and the dismantling of old structures. The last time the world felt this kind of shift, the American and French revolutions rewrote the rules entirely. What's happening now in tech, in work, and in how we build things together is no different. Trio Collective exists for this moment, and for the people ready to meet it.