The growth trajectory at Chris Ronzio’s software company, Trainual, has been meteoric.
It was founded in 2018 and grew by 500% in its first year. In 2019, Ronzio got the chance to pitch the company in front of Steve Wozniak at the inaugural DesTech awards, winning Most Promising Startup of 2019. The company also earned first place in the Phoenix Entrepreneurial Opportunity Contest in the same year.
In 2020, Ronzio was named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist in the Desert Mountain Region. He then won the award in 2021. Trainual landed on Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces list in 2021 and Forbes’ list of America’s Best Startup Employers in 2022.
“Chris has been on fire the past few years as Trainual has grown,” his team said.
Trainual offers software to transform how small businesses onboard, train and scale their teams. With Trainual, organizations reduce the time it takes to get employees up to speed while making every need-to-know detail accessible from anywhere in the world. Thousands of small businesses in over 180 countries grow their teams with Trainual.
Ronzio’s team described him as a lifelong entrepreneur. He started a video production company at age 14 and learned several lessons, including that business growth requires streamlined processes that make the business less reliant on its owner. That challenge led to Ronzio starting a consulting company called Organize Chaos, which allowed Ronzio to work with hundreds of small business owners to refine their operations. He recognized a pattern that was dragging down many of his clients — institutional knowledge with no central reference point for that information.
That was the impetus for Trainual, which started as part of Ronzio’s consulting services that he eventually marketed as its own business. Since then, Trainual has grown from three employees to 85 and raised more than $30 million from venture capital groups.
“Every phase the business grows through, I have an opportunity to rise to the occasion of being the right leader for the business at that new phase,” Ronzio said. “And for me, the best way to continue to be an industry leader is to continue being a great leader for Trainual. And I think if I’m focused on making Trainual a great business and keeping the people here happy and satisfied and challenged, then externally, people will keep seeing that example and thinking of me as an industry leader.
“The goal is not to be influential. The goal is to be useful and helpful and successful at Trainual. And I think that the influence kind of follows that.”
Outside the business, Ronzio has a regular column in Inc. Magazine, a successful podcast called “Organize Chaos” and he recently published his book, “The Business Playbook.”
Ronzio was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a child, and he works with and contributes to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, funding its annual gala. Ronzio was named a corporate honoree of the organization in 2021.
