GideonSoft is the go-to platform for leaders to optimize the full potential of their teams. Built by Horizon Performance, GideonSoft provides organizations with the tools, insights, and structure to measure, develop, and sustain human capital at every level.

In 2002, GideonSoft’s story began not in a tech lab, but in a classroom for the U.S. Army’s 18 Alpha course. Its founder was developing performance profiles for students using Scantron bubble sheets and Excel spreadsheets to track leadership and learning outcomes.

Recognizing the potential of data-driven evaluation, leaders within the Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) course invited the founder to help modernize the SFAS process. What began as a simple project soon grew into something far greater: a mission to transform how human potential is understood and measured.

In 2003, this collaboration gave rise to the “Whole Man Concept,” an approach that looked beyond numbers to evaluate candidates holistically, combining data with human judgment.

To support this vision, the founder, fresh from earning his PhD, led the Horizon Performance team to rebuild SFAS’s aging Microsoft Access database. Together, they created a digital evaluation system that ran on handheld Dell Axim devices. This early prototype was named Gideon, and it became the foundation for everything that followed.

As the SFAS program evolved, one challenge became clear: a single, centralized database could not keep up with the rapid pace of training cycles. The solution was groundbreaking, create separate “modules” for each class, all connected to a larger organizational structure.

This modular design became GideonSoft’s defining innovation. It allowed data to remain structured, scalable, and adaptable, setting a precedent that continues to guide the platform’s architecture today.

From 2007 to 2015, GideonSoft advanced through a major period of technical growth. The platform moved from Microsoft Access to a PostgreSQL database with BIRT analytics and a XUL interface, giving it the feel of a native application while running through the web.

By 2010, the front end had transitioned to HTML, and GideonSoft began building native mobile apps for iPhone and Android, adopting mobile data collection earlier than most of the industry.

In 2013, the system shifted to Microsoft SQL Server and SSRS, forming GideonSoft Version 3. By 2015, HTML5 reporting added stronger visualization tools and expanded the ways organizations could work with their data.

This era transformed GideonSoft into a more flexible and modern performance platform that helped leaders understand and act on their data more effectively.

The next era of GideonSoft focused on flexibility and reach. In 2016, the team adopted Xamarin, allowing a single codebase to deploy across both iOS and Android devices. This innovation streamlined development and ensured a consistent user experience.

In 2022, GideonSoft launched the Persistent Module, expanding its modular framework to support ongoing processes like recruiting and personnel management. In 2025, continuing our commitment to staying ahead of the curve and exploring new technologies, we integrated Artificial Intelligence and DevExpress Reporting tools into GideonSoft. That same year, the mobile ecosystem evolved once more, migrating from Xamarin to .NET MAUI, Microsoft’s newest cross-platform framework.

From its roots in a military classroom to its presence across organizations worldwide, GideonSoft has always been about people. It is a modular human capital platform built to help teams measure, develop, and elevate human potential.

For more than two decades, its guiding principle has remained the same: Technology should serve people, not the other way around.