Our mission
"To give every family technology that sends kids back to the real world — with minds that are growing and a family that's closer."
A founding family walking together at sunset, from toddlers to teens
Our story

Built by a family, for families.

Trellis didn't start as a business plan. It started as a fight about screens — the same one you've probably had at your house. It was summer, school was out, and every day was turning into a negotiation: how much tablet time, which shows, why can't I, five more minutes. We could feel the summer slipping away from us, and we didn't like the version of it we were getting.

We're Travis and Krystina — two parents with five kids who are wonderful and loud and completely different from each other. We tried the chore charts. We tried the printable schedules. We tried the apps, and the apps were the most discouraging part: they either wanted to babysit our kids with more screen time, or they were built for some imaginary tidy family we've never met.

So we built our own thing. It was rough at first — but it did two jobs no app we found would do together. It gave our days a shape the kids could see and own, and it made the reward for finishing your day something we did together. Pick the movie. Stay up late. Teach Grandma what you learned. The screen was the doorway, not the destination.

Then we added the part we'd been paying for in tutoring: a patient coach that starts by finding where each child actually is — not where their grade level says they should be — and grows with them from there. Five kids, five completely different learners. One of the things we believe most deeply is that "behind" and "ahead" are the wrong words for children. There's only where they are, and where they're going.

Our kids were the first testers. They are, to this day, the most brutally honest product team in the industry. When something is boring, they simply stop — and that tells us everything we need to know. Trellis is the version they didn't stop using.

We named it Trellis because that's the whole idea: a trellis doesn't force a plant to grow. It just gives it something sturdy to climb, and gets out of the way.

What we believe

The promises we run the company on

The screen is a doorway, not a destination.

Every reward in Trellis is meant to point off the screen: family movie night, a late bedtime, a family game night. If Trellis is the app your kid uses least but talks about most, we did it right.

No ads. No data selling. Ever.

Your membership is our entire business model. That means we answer to the families we serve — not to advertisers — and the more families we earn, the more we can build for them.

Every kind of learner. No labels, no boxes.

Academy starts by meeting each child where they are and celebrates the next step from there. We will never rank your kid against someone else's.

Families first, always.

We build in the open and say what's true — we'd rather tell you what we haven't built yet than oversell what we have. Our ambition is big and it's simple: put this in the hands of as many families as we can. What you see on this site is what's actually in the app.

Travis laughing with his young daughter outdoors
Across every generation

The best technology ends in a moment like this.

Most apps pull kids deeper in. We wanted the opposite — the moment a child looks up from the screen to share something with the person right next to them. A belly laugh with a parent. A lesson explained to a grandparent. A win passed around the kitchen table. When technology leads to connection instead of capturing attention, it's finally doing its job.

Grow with us

Trellis is open to every family now. Try it free for 14 days — and if you write to us, it's really us who answer.

Get Trellis free for 14 days
No ads. No data selling. Cancel anytime.