Robin Duke
Robin embeds with small to mid-sized startups at the point where the everyday essentials like payroll, onboarding, and compliance need real structure, and the team itself needs someone who brings genuine warmth and connection, whether everyone is remote or simply heads-down in fast growth. She builds reliable HR operations where nothing gets dropped, and she is just as comfortable energizing a culture committee and hosting a global all-hands as she is organizing a company's HR workflows into a lasting system built to serve the team long after her engagement ends. One CEO shared that he could always count on Robin to be a step ahead, noting that her ideas were consistently met with, "That's so smart." She loves writing a clear, practical SOP just as much as planning the team gathering that makes a scattered workforce feel connected again.
What Robin Does Best
- Building HR from scratch: She stands up practical HR infrastructure from the ground up for early-stage startups, giving founders clean systems before rapid growth creates bottlenecks.
- High-volume, welcoming onboarding: She steps into fast-growing startups and high-turnover industries that need to hire and onboard quickly without losing the personal touch or dropping compliance details.
- Connecting distributed teams: She helps remote and fast-moving companies build intentional culture, clear internal communications, and team rhythms that keep good people engaged and retained.
Recent Engagements
- 35-person Series B SaaS company • HR Manager: The company needed dependable day-to-day HR operations paired with a warm, people-first presence to bring together a workforce that had drifted into silos. Robin revitalized the culture committee, planned and led a global all-hands that reconnected employees to each other and the company's mission, and built automated HR workflows so no detail fell through the cracks. Employees felt more connected and supported, and trust across the organization grew.
- Seed-stage SaaS startup • HR Manager: Building a new company from the ground up, the founder wanted to get HR and compliance right from day one after seeing compliance gaps create headaches in past ventures. Robin brought the startup into full multi-state compliance, protected the business from costly penalties, built core HR operations from scratch, and organized the entire HR playbook inside a clean Notion hub designed to stay with the company as it scales. The founder got peace of mind and time back to focus on product and growth.
Prior Experience
- HR Manager • Series B Art and Design Studio: Served as the sole HR leader during a critical phase of rapid expansion. Managed end-to-end recruitment, onboarding, and offboarding, wrote employee handbooks, and launched performance management frameworks. Oversaw payroll administration, benefits enrollment, and HRIS data integrity while maintaining full state and federal labor law compliance.
Education & Credentials
- SHRM-CP • 2024
- B.S., Psychology, Utah Valley University • 2024 (Dean's List)
Outside Work
Robin keeps an active birding "life list," adding new species whenever she spots one, and reading is her favorite way to unwind. She and her husband love planning weekend road trips around great local food and time outdoors, and as new East Coasters, they are thrilled to call Portland, Maine home. Her HR career started almost by accident: while working full-time as an artist and people manager at a design studio and studying Art Therapy, she noticed the company's people operations could not keep pace with its 200% annual growth and pitched herself to build the function. The executive team said yes, and she has been building HR for growing teams ever since.
Meet the rest of the team
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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.