Helping startups take the nextleap.

Meet the Founder

Hi! I’m Kelly Jeanes. I've led People and Talent teams through fast, early-stage growth at Series A-C startups including Sage, Check, Candid Health, and Grailed. I usually join as the first People and/or Talent hire and build the systems that takes teams from 20 to 150+ in under a year. Earlier in my career, I learned what great looks like at scale at Squarespace and Palantir.

Now, as a fractional People and Talent leader, I give early-stage teams senior leadership on a part-time basis, before a full-time hire makes sense. Some founders want a strategic advisor to think through big decisions with. Others want an embedded operator who gets in the weeds and builds. Many need a bit of both!

I've partnered with companies backed by Thrive Capital, Index Ventures, IVP, Goldman Sachs, Stripe, Oak HC/FT, 8VC, SoftBank, First Round Capital, and Y Combinator.

I grew up in northern Virginia and I hold a BS in Psychology from George Mason University. I spent six years living in Brooklyn before relocating to Denver in 2020. Outside of work, I enjoy pilates, snowboarding, cooking, and taking care of my two free-roam pet rabbits.

Connect with me on LinkedIn!

Offerings

  • I provide part-time leadership for Seed to Series C startups. My role is fully embedded and may include:

    • Running key projects including engagement surveys, performance reviews, compensation philosophies or compensation bands.

    • Setting up Talent systems such as foundational SOPs, ATS implementation, creating structured interview plans, referral programs, or setting up jobs within the ATS.

    • Embedded recruiting, which could include finding and onboarding full-time People and Talent team members, running a G&A or EPD search, or partnering with exec search partners.

    • Providing strategic guidance to founders and leadership teams, helping to shape a long-term People and Talent strategy while navigating key growth phases.

  • A tailored solution for individual HR or Recruiting projects. Main offerings include:

    • Employee engagement & pulse surveys

    • Performance reviews

    • Compensation philosophy & salary bands

    • ATS implementation and recruiting process design

  • I offer strategic partnership through weekly meetings to discuss your People and Talent-related needs. This could encompass a wide range of topics, from helping you create a hiring plan for a People or Talent team member, assessing or interviewing candidates, reviewing your team roadmap and strategizing on growth, to navigating key development areas and addressing any other challenges you may face along the way.

Testimonals

  • "Kelly has been an invaluable partner to Candid over the past year. She's been essential in defining, refining and executing against our performance management systems, onboarding and offboarding processes, and broader tooling/process optimization. Kelly brings a sharp, results-oriented focus to her work while also being an approachable, trustworthy advisor for complex people issues. Kelly holds herself, and our team, to a high bar, and that commitment to excellence has helped us build a stronger people function."

    Doug Proctor, COO and Co-Founder at Candid Health

  • "I had the pleasure of partnering with Kelly first as a fractional leader, and then for a year as our full-time Head of Talent Acquisition. Even on part-time hours, she felt like a full-time member of the team from the start. Kelly led our talent acquisition strategy through our Series C growth, building the TA team as we scaled from 45 to 150 people. What sets her apart is that she's both a strategic thought partner and a hands-on executor. She develops a thorough approach, then rolls up her sleeves to make it happen, while managing her team thoughtfully along the way. She brought in just the right level of structure for us to operate efficiently without losing speed. Kelly is endlessly curious about how to do her work better, and her integrity and reliability make her a partner any leadership team can trust. I'd recommend her to any company preparing for its next stage of growth."

    Jamie Kooperklang, Head of People at Sage

  • “Kelly is a talented, experienced, and driven People & Talent leader. I had the privilege of managing her for 2.5 years after she joined Check as our first People hire. She thrives at bringing order to the chaos of the early stage startup environment. At Check that meant putting in place the systems and processes we needed to scale from 15 people up to 100+ in less than 18 months. She's relentless about improving at her craft, impeccably high-character, and extremely reliable. Any startup looking to grow would be fortunate to work with Kelly.”

    Andrew Brown, CEO at Check

Looking to scale your HR and talent functions?

Contact me today, and let's explore how I can help support your team.