90

Mark Abbott's frustration as a board member sparked the idea for 90. Having spent decades in finance—from working at a major bank handling oil and gas loans to helping take a company public (now worth over $50 billion)—he became obsessed with understanding why building companies had to be so hard. "Building a company is not this hard. It's not that complicated," he realized. He believed that with the right framework and tools, any founder could master the fundamentals of creating an organization where people are focused, aligned, and thriving.

The concept for 90 actually predated Mark's knowledge of the "traction" methodology. Back in 2005, he was planning to write his own book called "Connecting the Dots" and create accompanying software. After reading Gino Wickman's "Traction" book in the late 2000s, Mark realized Wickman had already simplified the core concepts better than he could. More importantly, Wickman was building an EOS coaching community—something Mark hadn't planned to do. When Mark reached out to Gino about joining the community to build software, Gino initially said it wasn't in their DNA. That changed, and Mark became the technical co-founder of 90, building a platform around the EOS framework.

Instead of fighting to build an audience from zero, 90 leveraged the existing EOS coaching network. By 2024, there were 828 EOS coaches worldwide actively selling and implementing the 90 platform. This wasn't Mark's original plan to build a coaching community—it emerged organically. The company expanded this partnership model dramatically, securing strategic partnerships with Vistage (serving as a sponsor) and the Exit Planning Institute, which has over 5,000 coaches. The latter arrangement included a revenue-share agreement between 10-20%, creating a scalable customer acquisition machine.

The partnership strategy worked phenomenally. With 13,300 companies now running on 90 and several hundred thousand users across those organizations, the platform has achieved remarkable scale. Mark notes that the average customer pays about $2,500 per year, meaning the 13,300 companies represent approximately $33.25 million in ARR (though he stated it as "$30 million revenue"). Growth rates were impressive in the early years (100%+ annually), moderating to 85% last year and slightly lower this year—a natural deceleration at scale. The company also achieved a 98% "Great Place to Work" certification, demonstrating that the platform's core philosophy actually works internally as well. Building an AI mentor bot called "Mas" (in development for 18 months) represents the company's next evolution, helping employees understand themselves and collaborate better across personality types.

90 has become a $30 million revenue company in roughly seven years by riding the wave of the EOS/traction movement rather than fighting against it. Mark's upcoming book, "Work 9.0," signals his evolution from purely software to thought leadership. The company is leveraging AI not for flashy features but for "useful intelligence"—helping organizations navigate developmental stages and providing mentor-like guidance to employees. With 828+ EOS coaches and 5,000+ Exit Planning Institute coaches actively selling the product, 90 has built a sustainable, partnership-driven growth engine that continues to scale.