She Builds for the Messy Middle

Not every problem gets solved right away. Some keep coming back, often messier, like payroll errors, missing timesheets, or delayed approvals. For small businesses, HR can feel like a mess that’s either too big to fix on your own or too small to get real help for.

That doesn’t mean there’s no solution. Sometimes, it just takes someone willing to start again, someone who sees the pain and decides to do something about it—even if the solution isn’t perfect.

A Woman Who Builds

This March, in honor of Women’s Month, we’re highlighting Kei, one of the driving forces behind Trellis. She’s spent decades building and scaling tech teams in the Philippines, leading operations at Canva Philippines and SafetyCulture Manila, growing teams from one person to hundreds. After years of helping build big companies, Kei decided to start again—this time for small to medium Filipino businesses. She and the team at Trellis created HR tools that fit the needs of Filipino teams and realities, filling gaps left by global platforms that are too rigid and local tools that can’t handle the full HR lifecycle. Trellis combines practicality, scalability, and empathy to build systems that help small teams work better, not harder.

Building with Persistence​

Starting over isn’t new to Kei. She spots gaps and builds solutions from scratch. Supporting women in business means making sure operations don’t get in the way, with payroll that works, HR records everyone can access, and timekeeping that doesn’t require extra conversations.

This Women’s Month, we celebrate her vision and the team that brings it to life, turning ideas into tools that actually work. Trellis is an end-to-end HR platform for Philippine MSME’s, from recruitment to offboarding, timekeeping, payroll, and approvals. It is built for businesses that deserve more than just workarounds, and for every woman and team member quietly shaping better systems.