HyperGrounded

Our Mission

Teams are more connected yet less collaborative than at any point in modern work. We have more channels and more tools to stay in sync than ever before and yet cross-functional alignment is harder, not easier. AI compounds this by making it effortless to create in isolation and it tempts us to surrender our judgement entirely. We are so busy keeping the plates spinning that we’ve lost what has always been the source of our best work.

We are firmly convinced that we produce our best work when we do it together. It happens when each one of us is fully present and when we engage not only our heads but our hearts and our hands as well. It happens when we embrace each and every person’s strengths to create outsized results that reflect a diversity of thought and abilities. It happens when our passions collide. When we do this well, our teams become tightly-knit and people flourish.

For decades, collaboration software has tried to support the way we work by adding more communication channels. More chat. More threads. More notifications. What they have consistently missed is that communication is not collaboration. A new channel doesn't make us better at thinking together or relating to one another.

We believe it is time for something different. We don’t want any more collaboration tools that just move information between people. We want tools that develop our judgement, strengthen our reliance on one another, and ensure we are far more than the sum of our parts. This is our mission at HyperGrounded.

01.00.2026

Craig Kaes

I have spent over fifteen years leading engineering organizations in high growth technology companies from A-round startups to Fortune 100. At Jabber and at Cisco, I took tiny colocated startup teams and scaled each of them into mature geographically distributed organizations of hundreds. At SendGrid, I had the privilege of leading the Engineering and Technical Operations organizations from C-round through IPO and through the subsequent acquisition by Twilio. My teams tripled in size during this four year period but what I am most proud of is how they matured into one of the best organizations I have ever worked with. Since leaving Twilio, I have been advising Engineering and Product leaders on how to effectively scale and mature their organizations and processes.

Most of my 25+ years as Engineer, Leader, and Advisor has been within the collaboration and communication space. All of that 25+ years has been spent trying to work more effectively across organizational boundaries. During that time, I have seen us build more and better communication channels and I have seen us call them collaboration tools. They are communication tools. A true collaboration product would improve our ability to work more effectively together interpersonally. I have never seen such a critter. We founded HyperGrounded to address this need.

Contact Me

07.00.2025

Trystan Kaes

Howdy, I'm Trystan! A car accident ended my path toward professional jazz, and software engineering turned out to be the thing I was supposed to find instead.

Once I arrived, I moved fast. I interned at Twilio and joined full-time before being recruited to BetterCloud, where I went from Junior Engineer to Engineering Manager leading 17 engineers across two teams in just over three years. I shipped BetterCloud's AI-powered Self-Service Agent, and in 2025 I was named BetterClouder of the Year. At every junction, a consistent theme arose: my rapid growth came from serving as the connective tissue between teams, aligning people across functions, and helping folks cut through noise, escape silos, and write stories they could rally around.

I have spent my career manually compensating for a gap that every organization has and no tool addresses. After years of building people systems to bridge it, I know there is no reason tools can't do the same work. This conviction led me out of BetterCloud to found HyperGrounded and build a collaborative future that is human-shaped and a whole lot more fun.

Contact Me

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Our Mission

Teams are more connected yet less collaborative than at any point in modern work. We have more channels and more tools to stay in sync than ever before and yet cross-functional alignment is harder, not easier. AI compounds this by making it effortless to create in isolation and it tempts us to surrender our judgement entirely. We are so busy keeping the plates spinning that we’ve lost what has always been the source of our best work.

We are firmly convinced that we produce our best work when we do it together. It happens when each one of us is fully present and when we engage not only our heads but our hearts and our hands as well. It happens when we embrace each and every person’s strengths to create outsized results that reflect a diversity of thought and abilities. It happens when our passions collide. When we do this well, our teams become tightly-knit and people flourish.

For decades, collaboration software has tried to support the way we work by adding more communication channels. More chat. More threads. More notifications. What they have consistently missed is that communication is not collaboration. A new channel doesn't make us better at thinking together or relating to one another.

We believe it is time for something different. We don’t want any more collaboration tools that just move information between people. We want tools that develop our judgement, strengthen our reliance on one another, and ensure we are far more than the sum of our parts. This is our mission at HyperGrounded.

01.00.2026

Craig Kaes

I have spent over fifteen years leading engineering organizations in high growth technology companies from A-round startups to Fortune 100. At Jabber and at Cisco, I took tiny colocated startup teams and scaled each of them into mature geographically distributed organizations of hundreds. At SendGrid, I had the privilege of leading the Engineering and Technical Operations organizations from C-round through IPO and through the subsequent acquisition by Twilio. My teams tripled in size during this four year period but what I am most proud of is how they matured into one of the best organizations I have ever worked with. Since leaving Twilio, I have been advising Engineering and Product leaders on how to effectively scale and mature their organizations and processes.

Most of my 25+ years as Engineer, Leader, and Advisor has been within the collaboration and communication space. All of that 25+ years has been spent trying to work more effectively across organizational boundaries. During that time, I have seen us build more and better communication channels and I have seen us call them collaboration tools. They are communication tools. A true collaboration product would improve our ability to work more effectively together interpersonally. I have never seen such a critter. We founded HyperGrounded to address this need.

Contact Me

07.00.2025

Trystan Kaes

Howdy, I'm Trystan! A car accident ended my path toward professional jazz, and software engineering turned out to be the thing I was supposed to find instead.

Once I arrived, I moved fast. I interned at Twilio and joined full-time before being recruited to BetterCloud, where I went from Junior Engineer to Engineering Manager leading 17 engineers across two teams in just over three years. I shipped BetterCloud's AI-powered Self-Service Agent, and in 2025 I was named BetterClouder of the Year. At every junction, a consistent theme arose: my rapid growth came from serving as the connective tissue between teams, aligning people across functions, and helping folks cut through noise, escape silos, and write stories they could rally around.

I have spent my career manually compensating for a gap that every organization has and no tool addresses. After years of building people systems to bridge it, I know there is no reason tools can't do the same work. This conviction led me out of BetterCloud to found HyperGrounded and build a collaborative future that is human-shaped and a whole lot more fun.

Contact Me

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER!

Our Mission

Teams are more connected yet less collaborative than at any point in modern work. We have more channels and more tools to stay in sync than ever before and yet cross-functional alignment is harder, not easier. AI compounds this by making it effortless to create in isolation and it tempts us to surrender our judgement entirely. We are so busy keeping the plates spinning that we’ve lost what has always been the source of our best work.

We are firmly convinced that we produce our best work when we do it together. It happens when each one of us is fully present and when we engage not only our heads but our hearts and our hands as well. It happens when we embrace each and every person’s strengths to create outsized results that reflect a diversity of thought and abilities. It happens when our passions collide. When we do this well, our teams become tightly-knit and people flourish.

For decades, collaboration software has tried to support the way we work by adding more communication channels. More chat. More threads. More notifications. What they have consistently missed is that communication is not collaboration. A new channel doesn't make us better at thinking together or relating to one another.

We believe it is time for something different. We don’t want any more collaboration tools that just move information between people. We want tools that develop our judgement, strengthen our reliance on one another, and ensure we are far more than the sum of our parts. This is our mission at HyperGrounded.

01.00.2026

Craig Kaes

I have spent over fifteen years leading engineering organizations in high growth technology companies from A-round startups to Fortune 100. At Jabber and at Cisco, I took tiny colocated startup teams and scaled each of them into mature geographically distributed organizations of hundreds. At SendGrid, I had the privilege of leading the Engineering and Technical Operations organizations from C-round through IPO and through the subsequent acquisition by Twilio. My teams tripled in size during this four year period but what I am most proud of is how they matured into one of the best organizations I have ever worked with. Since leaving Twilio, I have been advising Engineering and Product leaders on how to effectively scale and mature their organizations and processes.

Most of my 25+ years as Engineer, Leader, and Advisor has been within the collaboration and communication space. All of that 25+ years has been spent trying to work more effectively across organizational boundaries. During that time, I have seen us build more and better communication channels and I have seen us call them collaboration tools. They are communication tools. A true collaboration product would improve our ability to work more effectively together interpersonally. I have never seen such a critter. We founded HyperGrounded to address this need.

Contact Me

07.00.2025

Trystan Kaes

Howdy, I'm Trystan! A car accident ended my path toward professional jazz, and software engineering turned out to be the thing I was supposed to find instead.

Once I arrived, I moved fast. I interned at Twilio and joined full-time before being recruited to BetterCloud, where I went from Junior Engineer to Engineering Manager leading 17 engineers across two teams in just over three years. I shipped BetterCloud's AI-powered Self-Service Agent, and in 2025 I was named BetterClouder of the Year. At every junction, a consistent theme arose: my rapid growth came from serving as the connective tissue between teams, aligning people across functions, and helping folks cut through noise, escape silos, and write stories they could rally around.

I have spent my career manually compensating for a gap that every organization has and no tool addresses. After years of building people systems to bridge it, I know there is no reason tools can't do the same work. This conviction led me out of BetterCloud to found HyperGrounded and build a collaborative future that is human-shaped and a whole lot more fun.

Contact Me

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER!