The latest addition to our offices in Chicago is a small, elegant statue proclaiming TraknProtect as winners of the E20X Entrepreneur Judges Award at this year’s HITEC show. In one way, it’s almost hard to believe that my company – which started out with an abundance of ideas but with a distinct shortage of funding and resources – should have become the industry’s ‘little engine that could,’ achieving not only the approval of our peers and adjudicators at HITEC, but also attracting a client list from some of the most forward-thinking names in hospitality. On the other hand, it seems an almost natural progression, an endorsement of the work, dedication and belief of our team at TraknProtect, and of the sustained confidence of our customers we are privileged to work alongside every day. Either way, one thing I know for sure is that we couldn’t have done it on our own.
When Arun Sobti and I started the company in 2013, it became immediately clear that TraknProtect would only succeed if we could build a solution that was elegant and easy to integrate into any hotel’s back of office systems without the need for extensive reengineering or custom-built accommodations. We succeeded in that goal and today a major reason customers come to TraknProtect is the ease of onboarding our solution offers, and how they can achieve employee safety literally at the touch of a button. It’s that same belief, that has built TraknProtect’s reputation as a solution that plays well with others; that participates gladly, integrates easily, and that has also enabled us to forge some of the most amazing partnerships in the industry.
As we’ve built TraknProtect we’ve always known we’d need help, and much of that help has come from the people who continue to play an important role here everyday – our staff, our advisors and investors and vendors across a dozen different disciplines and skill sets. But even so, a myriad of business goals have always lain beyond just our own capabilities as a company. The solution to that, of course, lies in the power pf partnerships and particularly with the relationships we have forged with some extraordinary leaders in our industry. With the help of Allbridge, for example, we are now able to offer TraknProtect to a wider audience of customers, seamlessly incorporating the power and capabilities Ruckus also provides to that partnership. Our partner SONIFI, whose constant mission is to simplify technology, will be including our employee safety devices, inventory and room tray and vendor monitoring as part of their service offering to hotels. Elsewhere, we have partners helping us enhance and support our solution, providing even more value to our customers and building on our own resources to bring TraknProtect to new markets with the ability to support more customers’ safety and efficiency goals.
We don’t consider the power of these relationships to be just good business sense that serves our joint business ambitions, they also help build and shape our belief systems in an effort to help create a safer hospitality industry. Through our relationship with VENZA, for example, we’re together helping to champion an end to human trafficking, especially of the trafficking of children in hospitality. Those kinds of initiatives aren’t lofty goals, they’re essential business sense and they cement our reputation as a company who is serious in our mission to enable safety and hospitality to all.
So as I look at our new shining trophy I’m realizing that our achievement is a shared celebration. We haven’t trod our road alone and I’m grateful for the support and guidance of those partners who share our journey. What we’re learning as we begin to more fully appreciate the remarkable growth potential of TraknProtect, is that it’s not just about the company you keep. It’s about how well you play together.