The ideal time to bring in People Operations support is once you’ve found product-market fit (PMF). Before achieving PMF, your focus should be entirely on your product and market validation. At this stage, your team should remain as lean as possible.

Once PMF is established, it’s time to scale your team to capture market share, and that’s when People Operations becomes critical to ensuring you hire, onboard, and retain the right talent to fuel growth.

Yes! Our team is fully employee-facing. We integrate directly into your Slack, email, wikis, and other team docs, which allows us to answer employee questions and take on all of the People Operations tasks and projects. We act as a seamless extension of your existing team, handling all of the HR and People needs so your team can focus on growth.

Not necessarily. We work with the tech and providers you already have in place. However, if you're considering a new HRIS or payroll provider, we can recommend the best options and facilitate smooth implementations. We’re passionate about integrating and automating systems to minimize tech debt and administrative work over time. If we see that your current setup is inefficient or will cost you more long-term, we’ll say something and recommend alternatives that will be a better fit. We’re really passionate about fully integrated tech stacks, and if that’s something you’re interested in, we’ve got you covered—from implementation to training and company-wide rollout.

We specialize in high-growth startups, typically in the 10-100 employee range, that don’t yet have a dedicated People team. Our clients span industries including AgTech, EdTech, PropTech, Web3, FinTech, and B2B/B2C SaaS, from pre-seed to Series A.

Already have a People Lead or Generalist in place? If they need additional support, mentorship, or guidance but you don’t have the budget for a full-time hire, we can help. Reach out or schedule a call to discuss a bespoke solution that will help 10x their impact without inflating your burn rate.

A fractional Head of People (and the team behind them) provides a more personalized, integrated experience compared to a PEO. While PEOs offer administrative support, we offer dedicated, high-touch guidance and a strategic partner who works directly with your team to drive growth and create a great employee experience. We can also collaborate with your PEO if one is already in place, ensuring you get the best of both worlds.

In our experience, most early-stage teams either don’t need a full-time People hire yet, or they underestimate the level of experience they actually need and end up under-hiring. Hiring a Head of People (or even a strong People Lead) is one of the most difficult and critical hires a startup can make. The role has a huge impact on team performance and company culture, but unfortunately, much of the available talent in the market doesn’t fully understand its scope.

Founders often end up with someone who focuses narrowly on employee experience or administrative tasks rather than driving meaningful business outcomes. A great Head of People is a strategic operator: focused on increasing revenue, designing teams for maximum performance, and creating a cohesive employee experience from the first recruiting touchpoint to offboarding.

Another common challenge is defining “People Operations.” At Ghost, when we talk about People Ops, we mean the full HR function: compliance, admin, employee relations, experience, training and development, business partnership, and even manager and executive coaching. But not everyone defines it that way. If you do decide to hire in-house, we strongly recommend pressing candidates on what “People Operations” means to them — otherwise, you risk hiring someone with a much narrower view than your business actually needs.

Finally, our clients love the flexibility and scalability of working with Ghost. You get the expertise of a senior People Operations team through a single point of contact without the overhead of a full-time hire. That means no payroll taxes, no benefits, no PTO tracking, and no long-term commitment. Just deep experience, real strategic impact, and a fractional model that grows with you.

Each engagement is tailored to your company’s unique needs, but it starts with a focused onboarding workflow so we can integrate quickly and get up to speed with your business, your team, and your current systems. We’ll conduct a deep assessment of your People strategy, processes, and pain points. From there, we’ll build a roadmap that aligns with your business goals.

This might include projects like developing a cohesive culture strategy, creating your first onboarding program, implementing performance management systems, designing internal communications, scaling compensation structures, and more. We take ownership of day-to-day People Operations while also helping you see around corners and stay two steps ahead—that’s our specialty.

Eventually, you’ll likely reach the point where a full-time People hire makes sense. When that time comes, we’ll support the search, join the interview process (if you'd like), and create a comprehensive onboarding plan to ensure a smooth transition.

And don’t worry, we keep it flexible. All engagements are structured as month-to-month retainers with a 30-day cancellation notice. If priorities shift or it turns out we’re not the right fit, you won’t be locked in.

Executive Coaching is designed for founders, executives (Director level and above), VCs, and high performers who are looking to elevate their leadership skills, drive strategic growth, and optimize team performance. And yes, it’s also a bit like therapy. It’s a safe space to unpack the challenges of leadership with a trusted partner who’s also been there and can provide the tools to overcome any obstacle.

Emerging Leader Coaching, on the other hand, is for high-potential individuals on your team who are stepping into greater responsibility and are tagged for future leadership roles. It’s a meaningful way to invest in their growth as they prepare to take the step from individual contributor to leader. We help them develop their voice, tackle new challenges, and build a strong foundation for effective, authentic leadership.

Both coaching services are completely tailored to your company’s specific goals and include personalized 1:1 sessions, priority access, and ongoing support.

Why do we offer this? Because we’ve seen it happen time and time again in startups: You have a standout individual contributor who’s making a huge impact, and when the time comes for their team to have a dedicated Manager or Director, you promote them, thinking they’ll naturally thrive in the new role. But what often happens? They struggle. The skills that make someone a great IC don't always translate to effective leadership. Without the right coaching, these employees flounder, their team suffers (low performance, low engagement, high turnover), and the business loses momentum.

This 1:1 coaching offering removes the need for generic, company-wide manager training programs (which often fall flat in early-stage companies). Instead, we tailor each coaching engagement to the individual coachee. No more one-size-fits-all PowerPoint presentations that no one will remember.

That said, we don’t leave your other managers high and dry. We love creating dedicated wikis for each company with resources for your managers to reference, ensuring they provide a consistent and effective experience for all employees and teams across the org.

We’re experts in scaling People Operations for fast-growing teams because we’ve done it at companies like Coinbase, quip, Bungalow, and more. We know the unique challenges that come with rapid growth. We’ve seen 2-3x headcount growth in less than 12 months and navigated the growing pains that accompany it. We've also managed complex situations like RIFs, pandemics, and market volatility—all of which can impact both your current team and your ability to attract top talent.

Whether you’re ramping up hiring, refining company culture, or optimizing performance management, we partner with you to build scalable systems that grow with your team. From pre-seed to Series A, we help lay the operational foundation that will support your long-term growth, attract top-tier talent, and keep costs manageable as you scale.

At Ghost, we treat confidentiality and data security as top priorities. We follow strict protocols to safeguard any sensitive information, whether it’s related to employees, compensation, or business strategy. You can trust us to maintain the highest level of professionalism, discretion, and security at every stage of our engagement. We’re committed to protecting your data and building a relationship based on trust and transparency.

We measure success through tangible impact. Whether that’s boosting employee engagement, streamlining HR processes, or improving leadership team effectiveness. From day one, we collaborate with you to define success and align our efforts around key metrics that matter most to your business.

Our clients consistently see improvements in team performance, operational efficiency, and employee satisfaction, leading to stronger organizational health and a more engaged workforce.

That’s because we’re Ghosts. 👻

Just kidding. We’re not on LinkedIn anymore. We found the platform increasingly noisy, outdated, and more useful for recruiters than operators. Most of our business comes through referrals and word of mouth, so LinkedIn just wasn’t where our clients were finding us or where we were finding real value.

We’d love to see something better take its place. Until then, you can book a call and connect with us over Google Meet. And it goes without saying, but we’re happy to provide references upon request.

Our pricing varies depending on the service—whether hourly, retainer, project-based, or coaching engagements. To determine the best fit for your team, we recommend reaching out directly to discuss your needs.

For our Fractional Head of People offering, we charge:

$30,000/month for full-time

$15,000/month for part-time

These rates include a dedicated Head of People and a full People Operations team (coordinators, generalists, and possibly business partners) behind the scenes. When you factor in the costs of hiring full-time employees—salaries, benefits, payroll taxes, perks, and other miscellaneous expenses—our monthly retainer is a more cost-effective solution than bringing on even one full-time hire, not to mention a whole team.