Our Story
Our Story
Starting out in the industry in 2015, the team at Trail noticed first-hand how hard it was to run an effective financial advice business. Generating leads, following up with prospects, and effectively managing admin was a huge challenge for their previous financial advice business.
The hardest part of all? Clients were ready to do business online, but the advice industry was not. The team looked everywhere for great software to accelerate sales for mortgage and insurance brokers. The key detail here is 'great software', not some antiquated software built 15 years ago, based off an excel spreadsheet. They wanted something powerful yet simple, something they could be proud of presenting to their clients. Meeting people face to face is very important, but having the flexibility to work from anywhere, and do business with prospects the way they want was an advantage the team knew they needed.
When they couldn’t find software that was right for their broking business, they built it themselves. In under two years, while refining the product, their broking business settled over $200mn in mortgages. The team achieved this without any prior broking experience. Over 70% of their clients were advised and processed online, without ever meeting face to face. All of this while testing and refining their software. Their goal has always been to make great financial advice more accessible, which the team is uniquely positioned to achieve.
Chuck Slogrove, along with Ben Krebs & Jon Krebs sold their stake in the advice business to double down on their vision to bring next generation software to brokers around the world. They’ve packaged up the tools they used to run an extremely effective advice business and are making them available to all mortgage & insurance brokers for the first time. They are passionate about making great brokers extraordinary.
Do you want to have more time to build meaningful relationships with your clients, and spend less time on admin? Do you want to generate leads more effectively, and close more business?
Why choose Trail?
Trail is not another faceless company. We're invested in your business, and want to see you succeed. We'd love to have a chat with you about how Trail can make a difference in your business.
The Operations Team
Chuck Slogrove
Director
Chuck Slogrove understands financial brokers, having previously successfully exited from his own financial advice business. He is a graduate in Finance from the University of Auckland. He is responsible for the direction of the business.
Ben Krebs
Director
Ben is in charge of Trail’s product and systems. He is responsible for ensuring Trail is secure, robust, and reliable. He has experience working at a Microsoft Partner company, and has an engineering degree from The University of Auckland.
Sarah Johnston
General Manager
Sarah has been working in the broker space since 2000 where she helped to establish the Westpac Broker Channel before moving in 2004 into helping financial advisers to grow their business. Of late she has been in senior management of managing and leading aggregation groups. Sarah is responsible for the implementation of the direction of the business.
sarah@gettrail.com
Warwick Slow
National Sales Manager
Warwick assesses whether Trail is the right fit for prospective users. He looks to understand the intricacies of each individual business show them the value Trail can bring to their unique ways of working. He is also in charge of organising office birthday parties.
warwick@gettrail.com
Madison Wei
HR Manager
(On Maternity Leave)
Madison helps Trail find and develop the best people for the job at hand. She has a background in HR, accounting, account management and demonstrating IT software. Madison is also responsible for the well-being of all office plants.
madison@gettrail.com
Erica Danielson
Senior Client Support Specialist
Erica is responsible for ensuring that all of Trail's users receive the support they need as soon as possible. She has a background in IT with a true passion for helping others. Erica used to teach hula-hoop classes in New Jersey.
support@gettrail.com
Logan Solecki
Client Support Specialist
Logan's role is to support clients with their end-to-end use of Trail. He has a background in onboarding and supporting businesses in a range of CRM and SaaS software. In his free time he enjoys playing football and spending time with friends.
logan@gettrail.com
Angel Chessum
Client Support Specialist
Angel's specialty is supporting our valued clients in navigating Trail.
She is responsible for delivering quality service and meeting users' needs. Angel loves flowers, bubble tea and nice stationery.
Luna
Head of Barketing
The world's worst guard dog, Luna is a very enthusiastic greeter and will do literally anything for whatever it is that you're eating.
The Development Team
Farran Jonker
Product Lead
Farran's primary role is to bring new products to market and promote collaboration for awesome outcomes. His background in technology allows him to provide exceptional service and understand user needs. He is also in charge of keeping the office caffeinated with top-notch coffee.
farran@gettrail.com
Duy Dao
Solution Architect
Duy is responsible for building and upgrading features of Trail. He had worked as a university lecturer and project manager in Vietnam for more than 10 years. Duy loves dancing even though he doesn't know how to dance.
Phoebe Rolfe
Product Owner
Phoebe is in charge of planning new projects for the software and aligning the needs of both advisers and the business to ensure Trail is the best it can be. She has a background in international business and marketing. In her free time she enjoys creating digital art.
phoebe@gettrail.com
Gary Mar
SQL & Devops Engineer
Gary is responsible for all things data and Azure. He is very passionate about relational databases and considers SQL his second language. He is often seen at the local bar and joining two tables together. His co-workers consider him a wizard at photoshop and is prone to being silly at times.
Max Garner
Software Developer
Max brings in-depth knowledge of the development tools used at Trail. He is responsible for maintaining the speed and security of the software. He owns a cool dog named Wolfgang.
Lexi Xin
UX & UI Designer
Lexi is responsible for understanding users' needs and translate them into functional designs while balancing the business goals. She is passionate about product design, design thinking and systems thinking, and has a background in ecommerce and design education. Lexi loves to-do lists and crochet & she's a big fan of Seventeen.
Beep
Lap-happy Cuddlebug
Beep knows where to find that best lap! She is a great listener and attends to every cuddle and brushes - just make sure you put her on your lap!
The Vietnam Team
Su Pham Ba
Team Lead
Su is in charge of leading the Vietnam team and makes sure that everyone works and communicates well with the New Zealand team. Drinking coffee is his cup of tea.
Luan Nguyen
Software Developer
Luan works in the Vietnam team as a full-stack developer. He is in charge of building new features in Trail together with the team. He loves reading Chinese martial arts novels.
Son Do
Software Developer
Son works in Vietnam team as back-end developer. He helps develop new features and maintain the current system. He loves his lovely cat and travelling around Vietnam. He has a shelf with many books and anime figures.
Cuong Nguyen
Software Developer
Cuong is responsible for implementing new features and improvements for Trail. Cuong is a fan of mobile games when he has free time.
Thuan Nguyen Van
Software Developer
Thuan works in the Vietnam team as a software developer. He is responsible for implementing new features, improve old features for Trail. Besides programming, Thuan likes playing volleyball and cycling.
Nam Nguyen
Software Developer
Nam works in the Vietnam team and is responsible for implementing new features and improvements for Trail. Besides programming, he's also passionate about travelling and playing e-sports.
Kevin Nguyen
SQL & Software Developer
Kevin is responsible for extracting and replicating company data, loading it into various environments such as Data Import, Data Transfer, and Data Export. He evaluates the system's performance and resolves any issues before the data goes live, fulfilling his role in ETL. Apart from his programming expertise, he is crazy about football, traveling, and playing e-sports.