HR for Startups
Senior HR support for Tampa Bay startups and tech companies from the first hire to 100 employees — built right the first time, so you're not unwinding contractor agreements and undocumented offers in the middle of a raise. I've built HR functions from scratch; for startups I bring the structure that scales and skip the parts that don't.
- HR leadership, for-profit and nonprofit
- 20+ yrs
- less first-90-day turnover after a new-hire mentoring program
- 35%
- saved for one client by exiting a PEO
- $38K/yr
Twenty hires in a year, and HR is a shared drive.
- 01
Contractors who are really employees
Set hours, company equipment, one client: the IRS and the Department of Labor call that an employee, whatever the agreement says.
- 02
Equity offers with no employment paperwork
Option grants and vesting schedules without an offer letter, job description or at-will language behind them.
- 03
First managers with no management experience
Your senior engineer now runs a team of six and has never given feedback, documented a problem, or let anyone go.
- 04
Multi-state and remote from day one
Employees in three states means three sets of leave, pay and notice rules, and a handbook that has to cover all of them.
Where startups usually start.
All seven are available. This is the order most startups actually need them.
- 1
HR Compliance
Classification, I-9s and multi-state basics before the next raise.
- 2
Recruiting
Structured hiring that scales past the founders' network.
- 3
Employee Handbooks
One handbook that covers every state you hire in.
- 4
HR Outsourcing
Fractional HR leadership until you're ready for a full-time hire.
- 5
HR Training
First-time manager fundamentals.
- 6
Employee Relations
The first difficult exit, done properly.
Earlier than most founders think. Classification and offer paperwork matter from the first hire; at 15 to 20 employees you need a handbook and someone managers can call; by 50 you're into FMLA and ACA territory. Fractional HR covers the gap until a full-time hire makes sense.
Yes. I review each role against the federal and Florida tests, plan the conversions, and handle the offer letters, paperwork and communication so it's clean.
Yes. I build state addenda into your handbook and flag the leave, pay and notice rules that differ, so one set of policies covers the whole team.
In diligence, yes. Clean classification, signed offers and acknowledgments, and a real handbook are things they ask for. An HR assessment before a raise tells you what they'll find.
Building a company and figuring out HR as you go?
Call, or send a message — whichever is easier.