• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 3, 2019

Austin-based YouEarnedIt and HighGround have merged to rebrand as Kazoo. The combination of the two companies reflects their commitment to integrated people management aimed at increasing productivity, as well as recognition and rewards platform for employees.

Paul Pellman has stepped in as the combined company’s CEO. Marketers may remember Pellman as the CEO of Adometry, which focused on click-fraud protection and attribution. Pellman formerly served as the director of Google Analytics.

Google acquired Adometry in May 2014. 

The new name celebrates the combined companies. “It’s a bit provocative and reflects a platform that supports a purposeful workplace,” Pellman said. In early October he joined the company, but didn’t officially announce his appointment until today.

“I’m a startup guy and just want to get back to running a business,” he said, adding that to be successful you must have a great company culture -- “the aspect of building an evangelical company, where you’re selling something new in the marketplace.”   

Kazoo’s tagline -- "We took a word and made it mean something new. Something bolder" -- boasts supporting customers like Hitachi, Kia, Kaiser Permanente, Meredith and Patagonia, among others that will eventually extend this platform to the company’s customers. Kazoo also will add behavior bonuses and analytics.  

YouEarnedIt, which launched in 2011, enabled companies to provide recognition and rewards for their employees. Former CEO Autumn Manning led the company through multiple investments and the acquisition of HighGround, a human relations software firm, last year.

On Wednesday the company rebranded to Kazoo, added the tagline "when work is working," and named Pellman as the new CEO. YouEarnedIt and HighGround had previously operated as separate businesses.

“If the company was around when I was running Adometry, I would have acquired the platform in a heartbeat, a New York minute,” he said. “I saw for four years while at Google, how they have a major emphasis to make sure people are happy and aligned.”

Retention and motivating employees has become so important the lower unemployment becomes, he said, and that’s a lot of what Kazoo does.