Title: Founder, CEO
Company: Wicked Technologies
Year founded: 2008
Capital raised to date: $1.2 million
Key investors: Declined to reveal
Truttmann’s hometown: Smithton, Illinois
Lives: Louisville
Education: Bachelors of Arts, Bellarmine University; Masters, University of Louisville
Hobbies: Anything outdoors, particularly with my son. Buying domain names for products I hope to build. Jigsaw puzzles. Problem solving over wine.
Describe what your company does.
Wicked Technologies is a smart bedding company. Our products focus on the detection and mitigation of excess moisture in the bed. The Wicked Smart Pad, our newest product, is a washable, sensorized bed pad that detects moisture in real-time and wirelessly alerts caregivers.
What are some major milestones in your company’s recent history?
Building the Wicked Smart Pad. We’ve added new team members and exercised parts of our brains we didn’t know existed. We also began selling it [business to business] in health care, unlike Wicked Sheets, which is strictly sold direct to the consumer.
What was your first job? What did it teach you?
I began babysitting when I was 10 years old. Looking back, it certainly taught me responsibility and communication. But at the time, I just thought I was getting paid to play and ride bikes.
I believe it was through babysitting and coaching youth soccer that it solidified my passion for teaching and caring for others. Now I get to “teach” when I do pitches or product demos and build products that provide comfort and better care for those experiencing discomfort due to night sweats, hot flashes or incontinence.
What is your best piece of advice for first-time founders?
The best time you can spend is time spent talking to customers or prospective users.
What (or who) has been the biggest contributor to your success?
Repeat customers … and my friends and family not discouraging me from any zany ideas that I’ve come up with for products.
What has been your smartest business decision?
Surrounding myself with people who are much, much smarter than I am and those who have a wide range of experiences in areas that I feel the weakest.
