Groundwork serves two groups. Groundwork is for candidates, typically experienced Director-level-ish talent, across most functional areas, who want to keep building meaningful careers in part-time, project or interim roles, without the all-or-nothing tradeoff. And Groundwork is for employers, typically early-stage, mission-aligned companies that need senior-level support but not necessarily in a full-time capacity. For employers, we act as a complement to their existing recruiting solutions.

Groundwork is a talent service, for both candidates and employers. For candidates, we help with positioning and narrative, connect them to off-market opportunities through founder relationships, and stay close through role scoping, negotiation, and onboarding. For employers, we go deep on their business, help shape the role, and introduce vetted operators from our network. The Groundwork product is what happens when those two services work together.

Part-time, fractional, interim and project-based roles across almost all functions, but we over-index in Ops, Marketing, Finance, GTM, Growth, and People. To date, our placements have primarily been at early-stage companies, and 80% of the roles are designed in partnership with founders, and never publicly posted to their website.

We work best with early-stage companies (VC-backed or boostrapped!), where work can naturally scope to part-time, and founders are quickly adapting to hiring differently with AI. Many of our employer relationships are with founders who are parents themselves and understand firsthand the tension they're asking candidates to navigate. If you're the kind of company that sees flexible talent as a strategic advantage rather than a concession, we're probably a good fit.

Your own network gives you access to your first and second degree connections - your close and loose ties. Groundwork gives you several layers of expanded access. For candidates, we work directly with founders and hiring managers to create roles that are never publicly posted, and share those roles directly with you. You never have to publicly signal that you’re looking. For employers, instead of hiring insularly or informally for a part-time role, expand your reach to a highly qualified pool that’s otherwise hard to connect with.

We don't disappear after the introduction. For candidates, we stay close through onboarding and remain an ongoing resource for what comes next, whether that's navigating the role itself, thinking through the next opportunity, or simply staying connected to the network. For employers, we build a regular cadence to check in on the hire and continue thinking about evolving team needs. Most of our employer relationships started with a single hire and grew from there. That's a big part of what makes this model work well.

We're scared of deathbed regrets. For a certain period of life, when caregiving responsibilities are at their most intense, control of your schedule is valuable. There's not enough infrastructure to access work that gives you that control. That's why we're building Groundwork: to create a bridge through this chapter, and make it all a bit more joyful.

We've designed Groundwork to be available for everyone. For candidates, you don't pay anything. Our resources, network and job boards are completely free.

We fund Groundwork based on making successful matches. For employers, we'll take on a search without any upfront cost or risk, and are only paid if you move forward with a candidate.