People Operations Case Studies:
Scale Startup Zero to $10M with Embedded Talent Strategy
Client Profile
Data & AI consulting startup | Founder-led, bootstrappedThe Executive Problem
The company was built for growth, but talent was the constraint. Founders needed to scale leadership, delivery, and revenue teams simultaneously without an internal people function and without sacrificing culture, decision quality, or momentum. Hiring fast wasn’t enough. They needed a repeatable people operating model to scale the business in real time.
What We Did
We partnered as an embedded People Operations and talent leader, designing and executing a foundational talent operating model alongside the executive team. Our work included executive, sales, and technical hiring; full-cycle RPO support; role clarity and competency modeling; AI-augmented candidate assessment; and the design of retention, succession, and leadership readiness frameworks. Rather than treating hiring as transactional, we built a scalable people system aligned to growth.
The Outcome
- Scaled from 3 to 50 employees in 24 months
- Built leadership, delivery, and revenue teams in parallel
- Reached $10M in revenue with disciplined hiring
- Established repeatable hiring, retention, and succession practices
- Created a strong cultural foundation during rapid growth
Talent Operating Model & Playbook Design
Client Profile
Professional services company | GTM-led | 35 employees | Rapid growth, no formal people infrastructure
The Executive Problem
Hiring and people decisions were heavily founder-dependent. Roles were filled reactively, expectations varied by manager, and performance outcomes were inconsistent. As the company grew, leadership felt increasing strain but lacked a clear, scalable people operating model to support growth.
What We Did
We partnered with the executive team to design a foundational talent operating model aligned to how the business actually runs. This included role clarity and success profiles, hiring and performance decision frameworks, leadership expectations, and a practical people operations playbook that supported growth without adding bureaucracy.
The Outcome
- Improved quality of hire through clearer role definition
- Increased speed-to-impact metric substantially
- Reduced founder involvement in day-to-day people decisions
- Consistent expectations across teams
- A repeatable people operating model built to scale
Fractional People & Talent Advisory
Client Profile
Technology-enabled services firm | Engineering-led | 60 employees | Scaling without senior HR leadership
The Executive Problem
The company faced increasingly complex people decisions around hiring, performance, and retention, but lacked executive-level people leadership. Decisions were inconsistent across leaders, and hiring a full-time Head of Talent seemed too costly and mis-timed given the company’s stage.
What We Did
We served as a fractional People Operations advisor, embedded with the executive team. We guided leadership on hiring strategy, organizational design, role evolution, performance decisions, and retention risk - bringing structure, perspective, and discipline without building a full HR function or adding internal headcount.
The Outcome
- Increased confidence in executive-level people decisions
- Reduced reactive decision-making
- Stronger alignment between business goals and talent strategy
- Senior people leadership support without full-time overhead
- Fractional Talent Advisory provided clarity and leverage at the exact right stage of growth.
Succession & Leadership Readiness
Client Profile
Growth-stage company | 85 employees | Preparing for next phase of scale
The Executive Problem
The business relied on a small group of leaders, but succession planning was informal and reactive. Promotions were based on performance in current roles rather than readiness for future leadership needs. Executives lacked visibility into bench strength and mission critical employee risk.
What We Did
We partnered with leadership to design a practical succession and leadership readiness framework. This included defining future-state leadership expectations, assessing internal talent against those expectations, identifying capability gaps, and establishing a repeatable approach to succession planning aligned with growth.
The Outcome
- Clear visibility into leadership readiness and risk
- More confident promotion and development decisions
- Reduced reliance on reactive external hiring
- A succession approach aligned to future growth
- Succession planning shifted from theory to an executable leadership strategy.
