John Ratliff, founded Appletree Answers in 1995 from his two-bedroom apartment and grew it through a number of acquisitions to 24 locations and 650 employees before selling it in 2012. He was passionate about making the lives of his employees better and living/breathing the culture.
It showed up in the company’s growth and in a reduction of employee turnover from the average of 100% to just 18% between 2008 and 2012 by using a key initiative called “Dream On.” Think of this as Make-A-Wish but for employees. And this translated into getting 11x what most other companies in this industry receive as a valuation.
