For Private Equity & Portfolio Companies

People infrastructure
built for the speed
PE demands.

Post-acquisition stabilization. Carve-out readiness. IPO-track people systems. Management team development. Built by an operator who's run HR inside PE portfolio companies — not a consultant who's read about it.

PE-backed SaaS — scaled HR through hypergrowth and IPO track

Enterprise PE environment — board dynamics, operating partner cadence, institutional expectations

Referred by a PE firm to support a portfolio company post-acquisition

SPHR · 20+ years HR executive leadership · Published author

Talk to an operator → Read the PE case study

Post-Acquisition / Day 1–90

Payroll, compliance, policies, benefits. The foundation that has to work before anything else can.

Growth Infrastructure

Job leveling, competency models, performance systems, hiring architecture. Built to scale, not patch.

Leadership Development

Shared management framework, coaching culture, RippleIQ deployment. The layer that retains and develops the team through the hold period.

Exit Readiness

People due diligence prep, org design, management continuity. The HR story that holds up under scrutiny.

What We've Seen

The people function is usually the last thing built and the first thing that breaks.

PE firms are expert at identifying value. They're less consistent at building the people infrastructure that captures it. A newly acquired portfolio company with a brilliant CEO, a strong product, and broken HR systems is a common story. The HR function that worked at $20M ARR does not work at $80M ARR under PE ownership.

The gaps show up fast: payroll errors that erode trust before culture has a chance to form. Undefined roles that make it impossible to hold anyone accountable. A management team with no shared language for how leadership is supposed to work. Compliance exposure across states the company just expanded into. A CEO who's spent her entire career as an industry expert and is navigating board dynamics for the first time.

These aren't talent problems. They're infrastructure problems. And infrastructure problems have infrastructure solutions — if you bring in someone who's operated inside the environment before.

6mo

Average time to stabilize HR post-acquisition

Without dedicated infrastructure support. With it: 60–90 days for foundational systems.

$2M+

Average cost of a mis-hire at the VP level

In a PE environment with compressed timelines. Bad hiring process is expensive. A good one pays for itself.

1in 3

PE-backed CEOs who struggle with the operating partner dynamic

Not because they can't lead — because they've never had to manage up to PE expectations before.

Who This Is For

Three conversations we have
more than any other.

PE Operating Partner

You need the people function fixed without pulling your operating team off more strategic work.

You've seen this before: a portfolio company with real potential and an HR function that's two years behind where it needs to be. You need a senior operator who can walk in, assess quickly, and execute without handholding.

You're calling us when Post-acquisition. Pre-add-on. Board-flagged people risk. CEO transition. Multi-state expansion.

Portfolio Company CEO

You're an industry expert navigating PE ownership for the first time — and the people function isn't keeping up.

You know your market. You know your customers. You've never had an operating partner in the room, a 90-day reporting cadence, or an HR function that needs to perform at PE speed. We've been in that room. We speak both languages.

You're calling us when Your HR function is behind the business. Your managers don't have a shared framework. You need infrastructure, not a training program.

CHRO / Head of People

You've just landed at a PE-backed company and inherited an HR function that's not built for what's next.

You know what good looks like. You're now in an environment that needs to get there fast. We work alongside CHROs as a senior fractional resource — not as a replacement, as an accelerant.

You're calling us when You need to compress a 12-month infrastructure build into 90 days. You need a peer, not a vendor.

What We Build

Organized by where you are
in the investment lifecycle.

Every engagement is scoped to your stage. We don't sell programs. We build what the company actually needs, in the order it actually needs it.

Phase 01 — Post-Acquisition Stabilization

Foundation Build

The work that has to happen before anything else. Getting the HR function operational at PE speed so the CEO can focus on running the business.

Payroll audit and process stabilization
Recruiting function design and implementation
Policies, benefits, and employee handbook
Job descriptions and role alignment
Immediate compliance risk assessment
Multi-state employment law compliance

Fractional retainer · $18K–$25K/month

Phase 02 — Growth Infrastructure

People Systems Architecture

The structural layer that supports scale. Built for the 18-month growth plan, not the company's current size.

Job leveling framework across all functions
Competency models tied to performance expectations
Performance review system (designed for actionable feedback)
Compensation architecture and pay equity
AI-powered hiring and technical screening infrastructure
HRIS evaluation and implementation support

Project engagement · $25K–$50K

Phase 03 — Leadership & Culture

Management Team Development

The layer that retains and develops the team through the hold period. Built on the Ripple Leadership System™ — methodology, AI coaching, and organizational architecture.

Shared management philosophy and framework
Book deployment as cultural artifact (Building a Coaching Culture)
RippleIQ AI coaching for all managers
Coaching Culture Score™ baseline and tracking
CEO coaching and PE navigation support
90-day adoption support and measurement

Consulting engagement · $50K–$85K

Phase 04 — Exit Readiness

People Due Diligence & Org Design

The HR story that holds up under scrutiny. Built for the process — not assembled at the last minute.

People due diligence preparation and documentation
Org design for the next stage of growth
Management continuity planning
Retention architecture for key talent
Culture and engagement data for the data room
CHRO search support if needed

Project engagement · $25K–$75K

How We Engage

Two ways to work together.
Both built for PE timelines.

Track A

Fractional HR Leadership

Embedded, ongoing. We operate as your senior HR function — in the room, on the calls, making decisions. Not advising from a distance.

$18K–$25K/month

3-month minimum · renewable quarterly

Senior HR operator embedded in the business
Weekly operating cadence with CEO and leadership team
Full functional ownership of HR systems and compliance
Recruiting and hiring process management
Board-level people reporting and metrics
RippleIQ access for full leadership team included

Track B

Project Engagement

Scoped, time-bound, and specific. For companies that need a defined deliverable — not ongoing support.

$25K–$85K

per engagement · 60–90 day scope

Defined scope and deliverables agreed upfront
Executive readout at project close
Suitable for one-time infrastructure builds
Often transitions to fractional retainer post-project

How operating partners use us

Most PE firms engage us at the portfolio level — one retainer that covers multiple companies at different lifecycle stages. If you have three portfolio companies with HR gaps and one budget line, that's a conversation worth having.

Case Study · PE-Backed Technology

PE acquisition. Industry-expert CEO. HR function built for a different world.

A PE firm brought us in post-acquisition to stabilize the HR function of a portfolio technology company. The CEO was an industry expert navigating PE ownership for the first time. What started as a compliance cleanup became a full people infrastructure build — payroll, recruiting, job leveling, performance systems, multi-state handbook, and a coaching culture framework for the entire management team.

Read the full case study →

Referred directly by the PE firm

Operating partner referral

HR systems built or rebuilt in the engagement

100%

of managers equipped with a shared leadership framework

Multi-state

CA, NY, IL, CO, NYC — compliance ahead of growth

Why This Is Different

You're not hiring a consultant who studied PE. You're hiring an operator who worked inside it.

📈

PE-backed SaaS — IPO track

Full-stack HR leadership through SaaS hypergrowth and IPO track. Scaled people systems, reporting structures, and leadership infrastructure under a PE operating model.

🏢

Enterprise PE environment

PE-backed SaaS at enterprise scale. Navigated the board dynamic, the operating partner relationship, and the people expectations that come with institutional ownership.

🤝

PE firm referral — portfolio company

Trusted by a PE firm to support their portfolio company directly. Not sourced from a vendor directory — referred by the firm itself.

📘

Published author — Business Expert Press / Harvard Business Publishing

Building a Coaching Culture: The Ripple Effect — the operational framework behind every engagement. Endorsed by the CPO of Delta Dental and Dorie Clark.

What the work sounds like

Kim's framework cuts through the noise. Heart and Backbone is the most useful model I've seen for helping managers hold both empathy and accountability at once.

Brian Sherman EVP & Chief People Officer, Delta Dental of California

SPHR · 20+ years

Fortune 500 · PE-backed SaaS · Healthcare · Civil engineering · IPO track · Carve-out environments. Not a generalist HR consultant. A senior operator who's run the function under real PE pressure.

Regional Leader & Faculty, Hacking HR (20,000+ HR professional community) · Author, Building a Coaching Culture · Creator, RippleIQ AI coaching platform

People infrastructure built for the speed PE demands.