Rho

About Rho

Rho is the modern banking platform built for startups. Open accounts in minutes, issue cards, manage expenses, pay bills, and close the books – all in one connected platform backed by real human support.

Before Windmill

As Rho grew, the team recognized the need to evolve its performance review process to match its scale. What had worked in earlier stages had become increasingly complex:

• Heavy preparation: Managers were spending significant time gathering work artifacts and feedback across tools.
• Slower cycles: Reviews stretched longer than intended, creating friction and pulling focus from day-to-day work.
• Limited visibility: Leaders lacked a unified, real-time view of performance across teams.

Rho’s People team set out to build a review process that worked with the rhythm of the business, not against it, something integrated into everyday work and engaging enough that employees would want to take part.

Rho’s Head of Talent & People, Devonaire Ortiz, explained their philosophy on people management:

"We are very driven by performance and the idea that people are the business. Our objective in all of our work is to get us closer to our mission of making finance frictionless. We believe that the people function is directly downwind of that mission rather than a side project."

Devonaire Ortiz

Head of Talent & People

LinkedIn

The Windmill Solution

Once implemented, Windmill streamlined every step of the performance review process.

The Actual Review Cycle:

• Self-reviews completed in ~2.5 days
• 360 reviews completed in 5 days
• Full cycle (self → manager) completed in 8 days, down from the industry average of several weeks

Windmill not only made the process faster, it made each review materially better.

"It wrote it [the draft of the review] in a very human way, in a similar way to how I would’ve written it. So now I’m just going through and polishing what was a better quality review than I would’ve written if I spent 3 hours on it."

Michael Szarowicz

CFO

LinkedIn

The Results

Quantitative Wins:

Qualitative Benefits:

• Managers finally had all feedback and work history centralized, giving them time back
• Employees felt more seen, organized, and prepared
• The People team ran a cycle that employees were actually happy with

Rho CEO and Co-founder, Everett Cook, described the impact on visibility and alignment across the company:

"The concept of Windmill was really powerful because it gave me and our senior leaders and managers superpowers to be able to really understand what our team members are working on, how they’re working together, blockers, and challenges."

Everett Cook

CEO

LinkedIn

And the personal impact was just as meaningful:

"The performance reviews used to be this thing I dreaded… and you gave me that weekend back. The ROI on this tool is very, very high—both from a personal how-you-feel-about-your-work standpoint and dollars and cents."

Michael Szarowicz

CFO

LinkedIn

Looking Ahead

Windmill is already transforming how Rho runs performance reviews, but the lasting impact is what it enables over the next few years: a deeper, more intentional approach to developing talent.

As Justin Wolz, VP of Marketing, put it:

"I want to think about the people on my team two years from now and where I need them to be. Windy really helps me do that and map out what are the attributes or experiences I need to start giving them and the time I need to start investing to get them there."

Justin Wolz

VP of Marketing

LinkedIn

Windmill doesn’t just make reviews faster.

It gives companies the ability to develop the teams they need today and the leaders who will drive tomorrow.

Rho is a fintech company, not a bank. Checking and card services provided by Webster Bank, N.A., member FDIC; savings account services provided by American Deposit Management Co. and its partner banks.