Trellie was conceived in 2012 over lunch. Claude Aldridge and Jason Reid were sharing war stories about needing to talk to their spouses and not being able to reach them by phone.

They went over day-to-day complaints (Jason at the grocery store shopping for infant formula, calling his wife to double-check which was the right kind for his son, but getting his wife's voice-mail) and emergencies (Claude's wife missing an urgent call about his sick son at school). It was all too easy to imagine more life-threatening situations their families might face, with no certainty of connecting.

As the fries ran out, Claude and Jason concluded the problem was that their wives' phones were chronically buried in their handbags. The work bag, the purse, the diaper bag—they were like sound-insulated black holes where phones got lost. But what if a bag could help with communication instead of hindering it?

Within an hour, the concept for Trellie was born.

After four months, manufacturing and testing were worked out, prototypes were being made, vendors were sourced, and excitement was building. A few weeks later, Anita Newton came on board, developing strategy, marketing expertise and fielding new consumer research that emphatically confirmed the need for Trellie.

The need is everywhere phones are. With more mobile phones than people in America, we should be able to connect from anywhere, anytime. But do we? About half of all calls end up as messages rather than conversations. Sometimes that's not good enough.

Trellie means "Be Connected." That's our mission. The goal of Trellie is to develop simple, beautiful products that facilitate communication and solve real, everyday problems. Trellie wants people to be connected, whenever they need to be.