Helping startups take the nextleap.

Fractional People & Talent leadership for Series A-C startups growing from 20 to 150+.

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, with a focus on early-stage talent acquisition. I usually join as the first People and/or Talent hire and build the systems that take teams from 20 to 150+. 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

  • Senior People + Talent leadership for your next stage of growth

    Whether you're about to make your first 10 hires or you need to scale to 150+ and need someone to mentor your IC Recruiter or HR Generalist, I’ve done this at a number of early-stage startups and I can help.

    How I can help

    My core expertise is early-stage talent acquisition: building the growth strategy, headcount planning, hiring plans, interview process design and hiring manager enablement. I also lead key People Ops projects like performance reviews, engagement surveys and compensation. Most clients bring me in as their fractional Head of People + Talent, and I also partner with founders as an advisor or on focused projects.

  • A senior People + Talent leader on your team, part-time, until a full-time hire makes sense.

    Engagements run in 3-9 month blocks, so we can set clear goals, make real progress and decide together what comes next. All engagements include:

    • Weekly check-ins with founders

    • A seat in your leadership meetings

    • Mentoring your Recruiter or HR Generalist

    • Being active in your Slack, so I'm in the loop day to day

    Every company needs something different, so we'll focus on whichever of these matter most right now:

    • Hiring strategy and headcount plan tied to your growth goals with clear priorities and timelines

    • Structured interview process and scorecards

    • Hands-on leadership of critical searches

    • People + Talent team support

    • People Ops programs like performance reviews, engagement surveys, and compensation philosophy and bands

    • Leadership team partnership on org design and people issues

    • Hiring and onboarding your full-time People or Talent leader when the time is right

  • A senior sounding board for founders and People + Talent teams.

    For companies that already have someone running the team day to day, and don’t need a hands-on operator. I join your hiring and headcount conversations, help shape your team growth strategy, and mentor your People + Talent team members so they have a senior partner in their corner.

    • Weekly sessions, plus async support over Slack or email

    • Typically 2 to 5 hours a week

    • Monthly retainer, 3-month minimum

  • Focused support for a specific project, with a clear scope and timeline.

    I come in to build and document to hand off the project so you can run it on your own. Common projects include:

    • Headcount planning and hiring plan

    • Interview process design and interviewer training

    • ATS implementation

    • Performance review cycle

    • Employee engagement or pulse survey

    • Compensation philosophy and salary bands

    Fixed fee based on scope.

Testimonials

  • "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

Let’s chat

Whether you're about to hire your first 10 people or you need a People & Talent leader to scale to 150+, I'd love to hear what you're working on. Book a free 30-minute call and let's figure out the right fit!