About 1st90
1st90 is a behavioral execution platform that turns large-scale transformations into measurable behavior change across the entire enterprise, from the executive suite to the frontline, in weeks.
Every transformation declares new behaviors. Almost none can prove they stuck. We're the proof layer.
Powered by 1st90
What 1st90 Does
How strategy becomes frontline behavior: built, deployed, and proven in one system.
An AI-native execution platform built on three engines. Your content becomes a behavior path, delivered five minutes a day to the people who have to live it, with organizational before and after data on whether it changed, in weeks.
Kyper Studio
Builds the path
AI-powered authoring turns your framework, model, or program content into a role-specific behavior path (micro-actions, reflections, AI coaching) in hours. Remix per cohort, role, or geography without starting over.
Kyper Shift
Delivers it daily
Five minutes a day in the tools people already use: mobile, browser, email, Teams, and Slack. Habit tracking, social momentum, and AI Coach reinforcement. 88% average daily activation across 50+ enterprise deployments.
Kyper Dashboard
Proves it changed
Real-time behavioral intelligence. Before and after data on the exact behaviors the program targeted, by cohort, role, region, and management layer. Board-ready proof that the work stuck.
What Makes 1st90 Different
Built for enterprise-scale transformation
1st90 has run behavior change for 10,000 leaders at a Fortune 5 energy company in 6 weeks and a 14,000-person rollout at Lockheed Martin. Per-coach models like BetterUp are designed around one-to-one sessions, which limits how many people a program can reach at once. 1st90 moves an entire organization together, on the same behaviors, at the same time.
From the executive suite to the frontline
Most platforms serve one audience. Axonify is built for frontline knowledge reinforcement, and executive development tools rarely reach below the manager layer. 1st90 runs one connected program from senior leaders to managers to frontline workers, so the behaviors leadership declares are the behaviors the frontline practices.
Every industry, every department
1st90 has driven measurable results in retail (J.Crew), manufacturing (Kohler), healthcare (DOCS Dermatology), defense (Lockheed Martin), energy, insurance, technology (SAP, Palo Alto Networks), and executive education (UNC Kenan-Flagler). Programs span leadership, sales, operations, change management, and AI adoption. The platform adapts to the transformation, not the other way around.
We measure behavior, not learning
Learning platforms like Cornerstone and Degreed track course completion and skills data. 1st90 reports organizational before-and-after data on the specific behaviors a transformation was built around. Kohler saw +32% in recognition and growth behaviors across 500+ plant leaders; J.Crew saw +39% in data-driven decisions across 500 managers in 4 weeks.
Instead of simply addressing boring or critical requests to team members, I now think more about the currency I can catch them with. This has saved me time, and the delivery of tasks has become quicker and more accurate.
Results in weeks, not quarters
1st90 programs run 4 to 90 days and produce measurable behavior change inside that window, with a +32% average performance improvement across the platform. Traditional training often waits months for a post-program survey. Leaders see progress weekly, while there is still time to act on it.
Who Uses 1st90
By level
- Executive teams aligning on a new strategy, operating model, or culture shift
- Senior leaders and people managers, from first-time managers to multi-site leaders
- Frontline workers in plants, stores, clinics, and field operations
- Sales teams adopting new execution behaviors, from local reps to global sales organizations
By organization
- Enterprise HR, L&D, and transformation leaders rolling out change to 500 to 15,000+ people
- Operations leaders in retail, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and defense
- Technology and consumer brands driving AI adoption and new ways of working
- Founder-led consulting firms and training, coaching, and executive education providers who want to extend client impact past the workshop
- Change management practitioners seeking ACMP-approved development through Change Leader Lab
Leadership
The operators, builders, and advisors behind 1st90, united by one belief: behavior change must be measurable.
1st90 was founded in San Francisco in 2010 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.
Paul Middleton
Paul spent more than 10 years at BTS as Managing Director of West Coast operations, leading strategy execution work for Fortune 500 clients including Nike, Walmart, Deloitte, Google, and Hewlett-Packard. He has personally facilitated training for more than 20,000 executives and managers.
Mike Heslin
Mike began his career at BTS building business simulations for company leaders, then served as General Manager for Lyft in Baltimore and Greater Maryland. He leads product and technology at 1st90, including the Kyper platform, and holds a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth.
Richard Hodge
Richard founded and led the Real Learning Company and co-authored The Mind of the Customer: How the World's Leading Sales Forces Accelerate Their Customer's Success. He has spent decades designing learning systems and facilitating executive sessions.
Susan Burnett
Susan has led talent and learning at some of the world's best-known companies, including roles as SVP and Chief Talent Management Officer at Gap Inc. and Chief Learning Officer at Deloitte University. She also held senior talent leadership roles at Yahoo! and Hewlett-Packard.
Jerry Poole
Jerry is the founder and former CEO of Acrometis and the co-founder and former COO of MedRisk. An engineer by training, he brings decades of experience building and scaling operations.
Ash Deshmukh
Ash is Co-Founder and CEO of Aventior, a technology company he started in 2017 to lead digital transformation for enterprise clients. He previously led digital transformation work at Deloitte and held engineering and technology roles at Infosys.
Brett Piper
Brett leads customer experience and success at 1st90, partnering with clients from launch through measurable results. He is the day-to-day partner for program teams across every deployment.
Drew Lincoln
Drew brings 12+ years in the Bay Area startup ecosystem, including two founding go-to-market roles at Partnered (Y Combinator W21, acquired by Crossbeam) and CarForce. He has a long history in mid-market and enterprise sales at Yelp and Crossbeam.
Vic Smith
Vic is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) with The Manager Lab, focused on developing effective people managers. Vic studied at Pepperdine University.
Alec Paitre
Alec is Founder and CEO of Kepos Consulting, which helps organizations across Asia build lasting working habits through experiential learning. He was previously Vice President at BTS Asia and holds an MBA from ESSEC Business School.
Meet the Team
How 1st90 Works
Define the behaviors
We work with your leadership team or partner to identify the specific behaviors the transformation depends on, by level and department, and set a baseline.
Build the paths
Your content and frameworks become daily behavior paths in Kyper Studio, tailored for executives, managers, and frontline teams.
Launch across the organization
Participants start daily 5 to 10 minute steps in Kyper Shift, on any device, in the flow of work, whether that's 500 people or 15,000.
Prove the change
Kyper Dashboard tracks behavior change in real time and produces before-and-after results within the program window.
A dedicated Customer Success lead, plus product support from our team
Email, scheduled check-ins, and Slack Connect for partners
4 to 90 days
Key Facts About 1st90
- Company Name
- 1st90
- Type
- Behavioral execution platform (B2B SaaS)
- Founded
- 2010, San Francisco, California
- Founders
- Paul Middleton (CEO & Co-Founder), Mike Heslin (CPO & Co-Founder)
- Headquarters
- Palo Alto, California
- Website
- https://1st90.com
- Core Offering
- Kyper, a behavioral execution platform (Kyper Studio, Kyper Shift, Kyper Dashboard)
- Services
- Behavior path design, enterprise platform deployment, behavioral analytics, partner program, Change Leader Lab (ACMP Qualified Education Provider)
- Scale
- Programs from 500 to 14,000+ participants, from executives to frontline workers
- Industries
- Retail, manufacturing, healthcare, defense, energy, insurance, technology, consumer goods, executive education
- Communication
- Email, scheduled check-ins, Slack Connect for partners
- Notable Clients
- J.Crew, Kohler, SAP, Lockheed Martin, L'Oréal, Palo Alto Networks, Lululemon, Gap, DOCS Dermatology, UNC Kenan-Flagler
- Customers Served
- 50+ enterprise deployments
- Participants Reached
- 50,000+ frontline workers and leaders
- Results
- 88% average daily activation; +32% average performance improvement
- Awards
- Palo Alto Networks Supplier of Excellence (2021); Brandon Hall Group Silver Award, Best Advance in Mobile Learning Technology (2020, shared with SAP and Advantage Performance Group)
- Competitors
- Axonify, BetterUp, Cornerstone, Degreed
- Social
- LinkedIn | Behavior Brief newsletter | One Habit podcast
One bottleneck was having everyone on the team feel like they needed to give input on everything. This was taking too much time and lead to decision paralysis. I have established clear roles and responsibilities for the team members with single people who have ownership of deliverables.
Very well done. The micro learnings made me think through my behaviors repeatedly and in real work situations. Perfect complement to a classroom training.
Frequently Asked Questions
Good strategy rarely dies on a single decision. It erodes in the distance between the boardroom and the frontline.
Companies set strategy with real conviction. Then it erodes as it moves toward the people who actually do the work — not because anyone stopped caring, but because nothing in the system was built to protect it. The gap between what leadership decides and what happens on the ground isn't a training problem. It's a design problem.
We believe the fix isn't another workshop, course, or offsite that fades in weeks. Lasting impact, real human flourishing for the people on the frontline, not just cleaner dashboards for leadership, comes from designing for durability, not chasing a single win.
That's what Kyper is: a system that closes the knowing-doing gap and keeps it closed. Shift puts daily micro-actions in the flow of work. Studio builds them. Dashboard measures behavior change live against the KPIs that matter. Proof over promises: measured in 90 days, not after the kickoff energy fades.
We started 1st90 because we'd watched too many good strategies die in the last mile. We built the structure to make sure they don't.
Behavior change is a science. We've made it a system.
Grounded in 15+ years of behavioral science and enterprise transformation, built for the flow of work, not the classroom.
The Habit Loop
As anyone who has tried to stick to a New Year's resolution knows, it's hard to build new habits and make them stick. The behavioral science behind habit building is clear — and it's why we designed the 1st90 experience around the Habit Loop.
Break down complexity into action.
Frontline workers receive bite-sized, role-specific content designed around one core behavior at a time. Information is introduced in context, never as abstract theory.
Every lesson triggers an on-the-job micro-action: a specific behavior to practice within the next 24 hours. Application is required, not optional.
Repeated cues, routines, and rewards wire the behavior into daily practice. Over 90 days, actions become automatic — measurable, sustainable habits.
Where learning science meets business outcomes.
Ebbinghaus showed that without reinforcement, people forget up to 70% of new information within 24 hours. 1st90's reinforcement engine counteracts the Forgetting Curve through spaced repetition and daily micro-actions — ensuring teams retain and apply what matters long after training ends.
Our Proven Process: 5 Simple Steps
- 1Set your goal
Define the specific behavior change outcome you want to achieve across your team or organization.
- 2Generate your path
1st90 maps a personalized 90-day behavior change journey tailored to your role, audience, and business context.
- 3Refine with AI
Our AI layer adapts content difficulty, pacing, and reinforcement cadence based on real-time engagement signals.
- 4Add your content
Layer in your proprietary materials, SOPs, or brand voice to make every lesson feel native to your organization.
- 5Preview and launch
Review the full journey, make final adjustments, and deploy to your frontline teams in minutes — not months.
Measurement and Impact: Maximize ROI through Data and Analytics.
1st90's real-time behavioral analytics surface exactly where adoption is accelerating, and where it's stalling. Leaders get live dashboards tracking behavioral KPIs, engagement rates, and performance lift, so every decision is backed by data, not gut feel.
From insight to action.
1st90 was built on a simple insight: organizations invest millions in strategy and almost nothing in the behavioral layer that makes strategy stick. We exist to change that.
Founded by former Chief Learning Officers, senior consultants, and enterprise technologists who've led large-scale change at the world's biggest companies — we built 1st90 to close the knowing-doing gap using micro-actions, behavioral science, and real-time measurement.
Today, we partner with consulting firms and Fortune 1000 clients to deliver measurable, lasting transformation, where strategy becomes daily action at the frontline.
Every strategy lives or dies at the point where your employees meet your customers. That's where we focus.
If you can't see it in the data, it didn't happen. We tie every program to observable behavior outcomes.
Deploying tools is not transformation. The gap between access and adoption is where we operate.
Our Journey
Founded by enterprise transformation veterans with a vision to bridge the gap between training and behavior change.
First partnerships with Nike and Gap Inc., reaching 10,000+ managers with behavior change programs.
Brandon Hall Silver Award for Mobile Learning Technology. Scaled to serve 50+ Fortune 500 companies.
Brandon Hall Gold Award for Leadership Development for Women (ElevateHER with Reprise).
Launched Comet, the AI-powered post-event platform featuring Foozi. Won Palo Alto Networks Supplier of Excellence.
Comet adoption accelerates. Platform serves as the execution layer for the world's most ambitious transformation programs.
Kyper Studio launches - 1st90's first AI-Native design platform to build behavior shift paths in weeks, not months.
The values that drive every program we build.
Behavioral Science First
Every design decision we make is grounded in decades of research on how humans actually change behavior. We don't guess. We apply what the science says works.
Frontline First
We build for the worker on the floor, the agent on the phone, and the nurse on the ward, not the executive in the boardroom. If it doesn't work for them, it doesn't work.
Measurement Over Opinions
We believe transformation is only real when it shows up in the data. Every program we run produces measurable outcomes tied to business metrics, not survey scores.
Speed to Execution
Strategy has a shelf life. We move fast — from Define session to deployed program in weeks, not quarters, because the window for change is shorter than most organizations realize.
Ready to prove your transformation worked, at every level?
Or email hello@1st90.com
Ready to execute strategy at the frontline?
See how 1st90 turns strategy into measurable behavior change — for the workers who actually move your business.