I'VE SPENT MY CAREER IN THE FIRST SEAT.
Most People leaders inherit a function. I’ve spent my career building them — usually starting as the first person in the seat.
I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE
TO BUILD IT FROM ZERO.
I started my career as a team of one, owning People and recruiting at a startup that had never had either. It became the pattern of my career: joining venture- and PE-backed companies including Dropcam, OverOps, Dealpath, Sourcescrub, and Stellic as an early or first People hire and building the function as the company grew.
At Sourcescrub, I joined as the first People hire and grew into VP of People over five years, helping scale the company through its acquisition by Datasite. Across my career, I've built and led People and Talent functions across SaaS, fintech, devtools, hardware, and EdTech, standing up and managing teams in more than eight countries.
At a startup, the People leader also tends to own whatever no one else does. I've built compensation programs and hiring processes, but I've also negotiated office leases and managed build-outs. That's part of what I love about this stage: the work is rarely neat, and the job is figuring out what the business actually needs.
why first seat exists
Over and over, I've watched startups reach the same point: the People work is real, the decisions are getting harder, and someone needs to own it — but hiring a full-time People executive doesn't make sense yet.
The decisions made in that window tend to stick. How you hire. How you pay. What you expect from managers. How you handle the hard stuff.
First Seat Advisors exists to bring senior People leadership into that window.
The person you meet is the person doing the work. Senior expertise stays in the work from start to finish.
SENIOR FROM START TO FINISH
If something doesn't make sense for your stage — including working with us — we'll say so.
straight with you
We build the thing, not just the plan for it. Strategy matters, but we stay close enough to the work to get it done.
hands-on
No enterprise process for a 20-person company. We build what you need now, with enough structure to grow with you.
built for your stage
WHEN WE NEED SPECIALIZED EXPERTISE
We bring in trusted partners — from recruiting support to employment counsel — so you get the right expertise for the work.