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The Home of Culture Research: The Business of Culture I 2026 I Download Now
The Culture Keeping Topline Pro Close to Its Customers
I DEEP DIVE INSIDER PROFILES
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Topline Pro has built its workplace around keeping employees connected to the small business owners their work is designed to support.
Running a local service business often means doing everything yourself. The work, the calls, the scheduling and the follow-ups can all sit with the same person, which makes growth increasingly difficult as demand increases.
Topline Pro was built to take some of that weight away. Founded in 2020 by Nick Ornitz and Shannon Kay, the company helps home service professionals manage the parts of their businesses that often compete with the work itself, from answering calls and booking jobs to building an online presence that helps bring in new customers.
The idea came from seeing how poorly many existing tools served local service businesses. Traditional software could demand too much time, DIY website builders could create more work, and lead marketplaces often came with high costs without solving the underlying problem. Topline Pro saw an opportunity to build technology around the way these businesses actually operate.
Today, more than 5,000 customers across all 50 states use Topline Pro. The platform has helped generate more than $1 billion in booked revenue through the app and more than 78,000 positive customer reviews.
Inside the company, the culture starts with a simple belief: people should be able to see who their work is helping.
Topline Pro works with roofers, landscapers, painters, cleaners and other business owners who are trying to create something sustainable for themselves and their families. The company wants employees to stay close to that reality rather than experience the customer as something distant from their day-to-day work. The aim is for people across the business to understand how their contribution eventually reaches someone trying to win another job or grow their company.
That connection gives the work a particular energy. In Topline Pro’s offices, employees are surrounded by reminders that what they build has a visible outcome for customers. The mission is not treated as a statement that sits separately from the work; it is brought into the way people talk about progress and recognise one another.
One example is the company’s Customer Booms. These spotlight specific customer wins and call out the teammates whose work helped make them happen. A successful outcome might trace back to a product improvement, a customer conversation or something less visible that eventually helped a local business owner get more work.
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The recognition is deliberately specific. Rather than celebrating performance in the abstract, the company ties the moment back to a real customer and a real result.
That connection also shapes how Topline Pro approaches experimentation. The company is still working through problems without an established playbook, so employees are expected to try things that may not work the first time. The standard for the work remains high, but getting there often means testing an idea and learning from the result.
There is relatively little appetite for unnecessary process around that. When someone sees a possible improvement, the expectation is that they should explore it rather than wait for perfect certainty before doing anything.
Topline Pro’s AI Employee of the Month award is one expression of that mindset. It recognises employees who spend time experimenting with new tools and finding useful ways to improve how they work. The point is not simply to use AI because it is available, but to encourage people to stay curious about how the work itself could be done better.
That willingness to experiment extends beyond technology. Employees are encouraged to step into unfamiliar situations and take responsibility when something needs moving forward. Public recognition is often used when someone takes a risk or handles a difficult situation well, reinforcing the idea that progress sometimes requires people to move before everything feels comfortable.
The company has also tried to make its cultural language reflect how people already work rather than designing an idealised version of the organisation and asking employees to follow it.
Its “No Bullsh*t” value is a good example. In practice, it is about people communicating clearly and saying what needs to be said without creating unnecessary complexity around it. In a business moving quickly, straightforward communication helps employees understand what is happening and what is expected of them.
The same directness applies to ownership. People who do well at Topline Pro tend to be comfortable taking responsibility for an outcome without waiting for someone else to define every step. The environment is still evolving, and many problems do not arrive with a ready-made process attached.
That makes curiosity important. Employees need to be willing to ask questions when something is unclear and keep learning as the business changes. The company also expects people to care about the quality of what they produce, particularly when their work will eventually affect a customer running a business of their own.
There is a social side to the culture too, but it comes through the work rather than sitting apart from it. Employees celebrate wins publicly and recognise teammates who have contributed to them. The camaraderie comes from people sharing responsibility for the same outcome and being able to see when their collective effort has worked.
That is particularly relevant for a company serving small business owners. Topline Pro’s customers are often doing demanding, practical work while managing everything required to keep a business running. The company’s employees are building technology intended to give those owners more room to focus on the work they are best at.
Keeping that customer visible gives the internal culture a clear point of reference.
As Topline Pro continues to grow, its challenge is to preserve that connection while the organisation becomes larger. More customers and more employees can create distance between an individual piece of work and the person it eventually serves.
The culture the company is building is designed to reduce that distance. Employees are encouraged to understand the impact of their work, take responsibility for improving it and recognise the people around them when that work creates a meaningful result for a customer.