In a time where 85% of employees mentally check out within their first 6 months and a bad hire costs north of $100K, companies are still relying on personality tests with the scientific rigour of a BuzzFeed quiz. And they're spending $4.3B annually to do it.

The problem isn't bad science masquerading as HR tech (though labelling employees "yellow dolphins" or "purple eagles" certainly feels that way). The problem is that even good personality insights are worthless if they don't change how managers actually manage.

That's where TALY comes in. They've built a platform that combines the only two scientifically validated frameworks for understanding human behaviour, then powered it with AI to guide managers through critical conversations and decisions.

The result? A 92% accuracy rate (vs. industry standard 80%) and a growing roster of blue-chip clients who are actually seeing value in personality insights for the first time.

This isn't just another HR tech play - it's the first time we've seen anyone crack the code on making personality insights actually actionable.

Meet the problem

The dirty secret of enterprise personality testing is that most of it sits unused after the first week. Companies invest thousands in these tools, run them during hiring or onboarding, then file away the insights in some forgotten corner of their HR portal. When they do use them, it's usually a one-time "insights session" that feels more like a corporate horoscope reading than actionable management intelligence.

"I'd been working in data and research for about 10 years, helping businesses use sound data to make better decisions," says founder Peter Treloar.

"When I came across personality profiling, I found it fascinating - there are these metrics that help describe people's behaviour and can make a massive difference in recruitment and team engagement - but almost no businesses are using them!"

He's right. While 60-70% of Australian companies do some form of assessment, only about 20% use reliable, science-backed profiling tools. The rest are stuck with outdated frameworks or pop psychology masquerading as enterprise software. This at a time when employee engagement has become the number one priority for managers navigating post-COVID workplace dynamics.

“The problem with personality tests isn't just accuracy - it's activation. Even the best personality insights are only valuable if they actually change how managers interact with their teams on a daily basis.”

Meet the product

TALY started by building a scientifically rigorous assessment platform that combines the "Big 5" personality traits with Emotional Intelligence factors - the only two frameworks with real scientific validation. This foundation delivers 92% accuracy, but it's what happens next that's genuinely innovative.

TALY takes these insights and feeds them into an AI engine that generates hyper-personalised coaching for managers at key moments in the employee lifecycle. Before an upcoming performance review? Here's a video briefing on how this specific employee processes feedback, based on their unique personality profile. Planning team changes? Here's how different personality types will likely interact and where potential friction points might emerge.

It's like giving every manager their own organisational psychologist who knows the whole team inside out - minus the hourly rate (and the management buzzwords).

Meet the founder

With over a decade in data science and research, founder Peter Treloar has spent years helping businesses make better decisions through data. 

Through his research consultancy Telmy (which he later sold to Schlesinger Group - now Sago), he saw firsthand how powerful reliable, science-backed profiling could be in improving employee experience. 

Peter's personality profile itself shows exactly why he's the right founder for this - highly collaborative, open to ideas, and with that rare ability to translate complex data into human insights. 

The opportunity

The market opportunity isn't just big - it's multiplying. Every business with managers is a potential customer, and in the post-COVID era, they're all feeling the same pain: keeping employees engaged is harder than ever.

This translates to a TAM of $158B by 2031, but what's more interesting is how TALY is approaching it. Instead of trying to replace existing HR tech stacks, they're building a layer of AI-powered intelligence that makes everything else work better. It's not just another tool - it's the bridge between knowing your employees' personalities and actually using that knowledge to make better decisions.

But the real opportunity is in the network effects. Every profile TALY processes makes their AI engine smarter, creating an ever-widening moat.

Early traction is telling. Motorola, Vendor Panel, and Maurice Blackburn don't typically bet on early-stage HR tech. Yet all three are using TALY, along with 98 other clients who've generated over 4,000 personality profiles. Monthly revenue has grown over 50% month-over-month over the last six months.

The future of work isn't just about where people work - it's about how they work together. TALY is betting that as teams become more distributed and dynamics more complex, managers will need more than just data about their people. They'll need intelligent systems that help them actually use that data.

As Peter puts it: 

"Engagement isn't a procedure or a platform - it's what happens IN the conversation between a leader and their people. This is the missing piece we're solving."

He sees a future where every crucial management interaction is informed by real behavioural science. Where AI doesn't just track employee engagement, but actively helps improve it by guiding managers through key moments in the employee lifecycle. 

Why we’re excited

The approach is spot on. While others have focused on building better tests or more engaging reports, TALY has solved for activation - turning static personality insights into dynamic management intelligence. Their accuracy rate proves they've nailed the assessment piece, but it's their AI-powered activation engine that could reshape how companies manage talent.

We started this due diligence process looking at TALY as a solution for other companies. We ended it planning to use their platform ourselves for assessing founders. That's exactly what makes TALY special - when you see what their platform can actually do, you can't help but spot new ways to use it.

While most companies talk about being "people-first," TALY is actually giving organisations the tools to prove it. The future of work will be built on better human understanding, and TALY is building the intelligence layer to make that possible.