Role : People & Culture / HR Business Partner — reporting to the founder
Location : Bellandur, Bangalore (in-office)
Type : Full-time, 6-month consultant period on probation
About Us:
We are a made-in-India AI + IoT product for the global hospitality industry. We're small, we're growing fast,
and we're building something the world will eventually pay attention to. The product works. Customers love it.
The market is real. What I need now is someone to help me build the team that takes us there.
I am looking for one person. Trustworthy. Smart. Capable. Loyal. And — most importantly — a builder, like
me. If those five words describe you, please keep reading
What I mean by each of those words
Trustworthy. You'll know everything. Compensation. ESOP. Performance issues. Founder conversations. The
good days and the hard ones. I need someone whose word is their word, who handles sensitive information with
the discretion of a partner, and who never makes me second-guess what was said in a room.
Smart. Not credentialed-smart. Actually Smart. You think clearly under pressure, you pick up new domains
without a manual, and you can hold your own in any conversation in this company — including the strategic
ones. You'll be designing compensation bands, ESOP structures, and performance systems from scratch. That
needs a sharp mind, not a template.
Capable. You close things. You don't just plan, draft, or coordinate — you finish. When I hand you a role to hire,
it gets hired. When I ask for a policy, it ships. When an employee issue surfaces, you resolve it. Capability for me
is measured in outcomes, not effort.
Loyal. I don't mean blind allegiance. I mean someone who chooses to be here, stays invested through the messy
phases, and pushes back honestly in private while standing shoulder-to-shoulder in public. Loyalty in a startup is
the willingness to build something for the long arc, not jump at the next offer.
A builder. This is the one I care about most. Builders see empty space and fill it. They don't wait to be told what
the process should be — they design it. They don't ask what the org chart looks like — they help draw it. If your
instinct when you spot a gap is to close it, you're a builder. If your instinct is to escalate it, you're not.
What you'll build with me
This role owns the entire people function from day one. There is no existing HR team to inherit, no playbook to
follow. You will build:
- The hiring engine. Sourcing, screening, closing, onboarding — across every function and seniority, from
sales freshers to senior engineering leaders.
- The performance system. Goals, reviews, feedback, and a real pay-for-performance culture — not a
checkbox exercise.
- Compensation and ESOP architecture. Salary bands, incentive plans, commissions, ESOP framework,
vesting, communication — the things that decide whether we attract and keep top talent.
- The culture. How we hire, how we recognize, how we handle conflict, how new joiners feel on day one.
Culture is set by what we tolerate and what we celebrate — you'll help me shape both.
- The operating rhythm. Policies, compliance, payroll coordination, employee experience, office operations.
The unglamorous spine that keeps everything else standing.
If you do this well, you won't just have built our HR function. With my backing & past CHRO
experience, you'll have built one of the strongest people foundations in the Indian startup ecosystem — with
your fingerprints on every part of it.
What it will actually feel like
I owe you honesty about this. The next 12–18 months will be hard. Long days. Multiple priorities at once. Urgent
things landing on top of important things. A founder who works without watching the clock and expects
the same energy from her closest team.
In return, you'll have real ownership, real visibility, real decision-making, and the kind of trust that's hard to find
anywhere else. The people who go through the build phase of a company with the founder are the ones who
shape it. That's the deal I'm offering.
If you give your best to us, We will give our best back to you. That has always been true here, and it
will continue to be true.
Who this is not for
I want to be direct so neither of us wastes the other's time:
- If you're optimizing for a 9-to-5 with predictable workloads, this isn't it.
- If you need a manager to tell you what to do each day, this isn't it.
- If HR for you means policy compliance and paperwork, this isn't it.
- If you treat hiring as a coordination function rather than a closing function, this isn't it.
- If you're between jobs and looking for the next stable thing, this isn't it.
- If you have changed jobs every 1-2 years, this isn’t it.
None of those are bad ways to build a career. They just aren't this role.
Background you'll need
- A degree in HR, OB, or a related field — Bachelor's or Master's
- Upto 5 years of hands-on HR experience preferably a combination of MNC & start up, with real ownership
of hiring end-to-end
- Working knowledge of Indian labour law and statutory compliance & some understanding of navigating
employment in global markets will be preferred.
- Strong written and verbal communication — you'll be writing job descriptions, policies, founder
communications, and offer letters
- Native fluency with AI tools — you should already be using them to make yourself faster
- Startup experience is a strong plus, but the right mindset matters more than the logo
