Rachel Midtlyng
Rachel embeds with early-stage SaaS, AI, and growth-focused companies running small, distributed teams at the point where the founder is still acting as the default HR department and headcount is about to outgrow that setup. She steps in to build the HR foundation from the ground up: employee handbooks, HRIS platforms, benefits and 401(k) plans, offer letters and employment agreements, recruiting pipelines, and PEO transitions. At a 10-person energy startup preparing to hire quickly, she stood up their handbook, benefits, 401(k), Rippling HRIS, and applicant tracking system while actively recruiting for their open roles. Her instinct is always to automate repetitive admin inside the HRIS rather than leave behind manual busywork, so the systems she builds keep running smoothly for the team long after her engagement wraps up.
What Rachel Does Best
- Building HR foundations that scale: For early-stage companies with a hiring plan in motion and no internal HR team yet, she builds the essentials (handbooks, HRIS, benefits, 401(k), and offer packets) designed to hold up at three times the headcount so nothing has to be rebuilt next year.
- Post-acquisition compliance cleanup: When a business doubles through an acquisition and inherits inconsistent employment paperwork, she reissues clean employment agreements, completes I-9 verifications across the team, updates the handbook to current labor laws, and puts clear leave policies in writing.
- Automating manual HR busywork: From PTO and sick leave accruals tracked in spreadsheets to semi-monthly payroll prep and multi-state compliance posters, she automates recurring administrative tasks inside the HRIS and hands valuable hours back to leadership.
- Recruiting setup and execution: For lean teams hiring across multiple roles without an in-house recruiter, she configures the ATS and job board integrations and runs candidate sourcing herself until the team is ready to take the reins.
Recent Engagements
- 60-person fitness company with six gym locations: After an acquisition doubled the company's headcount, leadership needed to resolve inherited compliance gaps and standardize how people were managed across all six locations. Rachel issued updated offer letters and employment agreements, completed I-9 verifications for all 60 employees, brought the employee handbook current with state and federal law, designed a leadership bonus structure, and built a clear leave management process. The business closed major compliance exposures and established a consistent, fair process for employee leaves.
- 10-person energy startup: Preparing for a rapid hiring push with no HR structure in place, the founder needed a complete HR foundation built quickly. Rachel wrote and rolled out the employee handbook, launched company benefits and a 401(k) plan, implemented Rippling HRIS, configured the Rippling ATS with external job board integrations, and recruited for open roles. The startup gained a modern HR tech stack, competitive benefits, and an active recruiting engine ready for growth.
- 6-person consulting firm: A small consulting team needed compliant, low-maintenance HR processes that would not bog down leadership. Rachel automated PTO and paid sick leave accruals in their HRIS, set up a QSEHRA health benefit and 401(k) plan, put state and federal labor law posters on autopilot, and managed semi-monthly payroll until it could be transitioned smoothly to the firm's accountant. Manual HR admin is off the founder's plate, replaced by systems that run quietly in the background.
Experience
- Chief of Staff • Boutique Finance and Accounting Firm (serving early-stage startup clients, 20+ person remote global team): Served as the sole HR and People Operations leader, strategic partner to the Founder and CEO, and culture builder for a 20+ person distributed global team over three years, fostering a close-knit team culture and reliable day-to-day operations.
Education & Credentials
- BBA, Marketing, California State University, Long Beach • 2023
- Rippling Certified, Payroll Operations • 2026
- Claude 101 • 2026
Meet the rest of the team
.png)
.png)
Beau Graves
Ryan Hutchins
Ryan founded Peak Business Valuation, a national firm that delivers 1,100+ business valuations and 150+ equipment appraisals a year. He works with business owners who are buying, selling, or growing — and need to know what they actually have. His focus is quality, accuracy, and making sure the number means something.
Jason Parr
Jason has spent 30 years going deeper into one discipline while most firms go broader. He joined Peisner Johnson in 1996 and built his career there learning every service line, working through every kind of situation, and eventually becoming President and CEO. The Sales Tax People has completed 35,000+ projects for companies ranging from regional mid-market businesses to large multinationals. His clients are CFOs, controllers, and the accountants who serve them, usually calling when the exposure has already been building quietly for months. He'd rather you call before that point.
You've Got the Vision.
We've Got the Fractional
Team to Build It.
A fractional CFO who knows your numbers. A fractional CMO driving your pipeline. An HR leader building your people systems. Sales tax specialists keeping you compliant. Valuation experts ready when you need them. All embedded. All executing. All backed by Ampleo Intelligence, our AI platform.
You've Got the Vision.
We've Got the Fractional
Team to Build It.
A fractional CFO who knows your numbers. A fractional CMO driving your pipeline. An HR leader building your people systems. Sales tax specialists keeping you compliant. Valuation experts ready when you need them. All embedded. All executing. All backed by Ampleo Intelligence, our AI platform.
You've Got the Vision.
We've Got the Fractional
Team to Build It.
A fractional CFO who knows your numbers. A fractional CMO driving your pipeline. An HR leader building your people systems. Sales tax specialists keeping you compliant. Valuation experts ready when you need them. All embedded. All executing. All backed by Ampleo Intelligence, our AI platform.
You've Got the Vision.
We've Got the Fractional
Team to Build It.
A fractional CFO who knows your numbers. A fractional CMO driving your pipeline. An HR leader building your people systems. Sales tax specialists keeping you compliant. Valuation experts ready when you need them. All embedded. All executing. All backed by Ampleo Intelligence, our AI platform.