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People Infrastructure Partners

The Infrastructure Behind High-Performance Teams

PIP builds the HR systems, compensation, and people operations that growing companies need to scale, without the cost of a full in-house team.

Eight service lines under one roof. One engagement, one accountable team, and none of the gaps you get from stitching five vendors together.

Build. Scale. Sustain.

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Why People Infrastructure Matters
65%
of startups fail on co-founder and people conflict, not the product
Harvard · N. Wasserman
$240K+
the cost of a single bad executive hire, across recruiting, ramp, and lost output
CareerBuilder
30%
of a bad hire's first-year salary, the floor cost of getting a hire wrong
U.S. Dept of Labor

What We Build

A Senior People Function, Without the Full-Time Cost

Eight service lines that give early and growth-stage companies the people infrastructure their next phase requires.

90-Day HR Infrastructure Build

A complete people operating system, policies, HRIS, onboarding, comp framework, compliance, and manager SOPs, designed, built, and installed in 90 days. Yours permanently, no lock-in.

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Fractional CPO & Advisory

Senior people leadership on a fractional basis, CPO Advisory for strategic guidance or Fractional CPO for full function ownership. Board presence, on-call ER escalation, and comp review included.

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Compensation Architecture & Pay Equity

Market-benchmarked salary bands, pay equity audits, executive comp design, and equity frameworks, built on Radford, Mercer, and Levels.fyi data. Board-grade and legally defensible.

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HRIS Implementation

Platform selection, full configuration, data migration, and go-live support for Rippling, Gusto, BambooHR, and enterprise systems. Multi-state compliance built in from day one.

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M&A / Restructuring Sprint

People-side diligence, post-merger integration, RIF support, and board-ready findings. For companies at inflection points where the people decision determines what happens next.

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PIP Academy

Manager enablement bootcamps, leadership development programs, live roleplay coaching, and HR upskilling, built for startup managers, not Fortune 500 training departments.

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Board-Level Strategy Sprint

Executive transitions, pre-funding people audits, comp redesigns, and sensitive workplace investigations. High-stakes engagements where people decisions determine outcomes.

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Embed & Scale

When the build is done, PIP places a dedicated HR Generalist to own and operate the system day-to-day. Sourced from PIP's bench, managed by PIP, convertible to a direct hire at any time.

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Who We Serve

Built for Companies at the Inflection Point

PIP works with founders and executives at the point where weak people systems start slowing the whole company down.

Series A–C

You just closed a round

Investors are watching. You're doubling headcount in 12 months. The ad hoc people practices that got you here will not get you through the next phase, and you know it.

25–500 Employees

Too big for ad hoc, with or without an HR leader

Under ~150 people with no senior People hire yet? PIP builds the function from the ground up. Larger, with an HR leader already in place? PIP brings project-based senior firepower (comp, HRIS, M&A, board diligence) where your team needs depth. Either way, we fill the exact gap.

First ER Incident

Something just made the cost real

A bad hire. A complaint. An exit that blindsided the whole leadership team. The moment you realize the infrastructure you don't have is the most expensive thing in the building.

Board Pressure

Your board is asking questions you can't answer

Comp benchmarking. Attrition data. Headcount justification. Culture metrics. If people questions are landing in the boardroom without clean answers, that's a PIP engagement.

International Expansion

You're crossing borders

US to GCC. Multi-jurisdiction compliance. Entity structuring. Employment contracts that hold up. PIP covers both sides of that expansion.

Talent Retention

You're losing people you can't afford to lose

Attrition is the symptom. Broken infrastructure (unclear comp, no growth path, undertrained managers) is almost always the cause. We fix the root, not just the response.

Our Engagement Model

From People Debt to People Infrastructure
in 90 Days

A structured engagement model that delivers real, durable infrastructure, not a deck of recommendations you'll never implement.

01
Diagnose
Weeks 1–2

People Debt Audit

We map your current people operations, surface the structural gaps, and prioritize the work that matters most for your stage.

02
Architect
Weeks 3–4

System Design

We design the compensation framework, HR policies, and people operations architecture built for your specific org size, culture, and trajectory.

03
Build
Weeks 5–10

Full Implementation

We implement end-to-end, HRIS setup, comp bands, handbook, performance cycle, onboarding program, manager training. All of it.

04
Operate
Weeks 11–12+

Embed & Scale

We transfer knowledge, train your team, and establish operating rhythm. Ongoing support available through our CPO-as-a-Service model.

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Free Assessment

Find out where your people infrastructure stands.

Take our 10-minute People Debt Audit™, a scored assessment across 8 categories from compliance risk to manager effectiveness. Free, no email required.

Take the Free Audit →
25+
Years of senior HR leadership experience across early-stage and enterprise organizations
PIP Bench
90
Days from People Debt Audit to fully operational people infrastructure
Engagement Model
50%
Cost savings versus a full-time Chief People Officer, with more strategic coverage
CPO-as-a-Service
Nyanya Diagne, Founder of People Infrastructure Partners
Nyanya Diagne
Founder

Built by Operators

Experience That Shapes Our Method

People Infrastructure Partners was built by practitioners who have spent 25+ years inside high-growth companies, not advising from the outside. We have run the HR function, built compensation architecture from scratch, managed the hard employee relations conversations, and sat at the executive table.

That operational depth is why our work is faster and more practical than traditional HR consulting, and why it actually holds up after we leave. We build for execution, not for decks.

PIP is based in Los Angeles, CA and serves clients across the United States.

Senior Practitioners Only

Every PIP engagement is led by a senior HR practitioner with executive-level experience. No juniors, no hand-offs, no learning on your time.

Built for Your Stage

We don't use Fortune 500 frameworks on seed-stage companies. Everything we build is calibrated to your headcount, complexity, and what comes next.

Fractional Capacity, Full Accountability

You get everything a CPO brings (strategy, systems, board presence) without the full-time salary, benefits, and hiring timeline.

Our Commitment

Practical over theoretical. Built to last. We create people infrastructure that your team can actually use, not a beautiful consulting deliverable that sits on a shelf after we leave.

✦ Senior practitioner on every engagement, no juniors
✦ Deliverables your team can actually operate independently
✦ Compliant frameworks built for your state & jurisdiction
✦ 90-day build cycle, then sustainable independence

Ready to talk? Pick a time directly on Nyanya's calendar, no gatekeeping, no intake forms.

Book a Discovery Call → build@peopleinfrastructure.io

Resources & Insights

Practical Thinking on People Infrastructure

Frameworks, guides, and practitioner perspectives for founders and leaders building HR infrastructure in high-growth companies.

Blueprint

The 90-Day People Infrastructure Blueprint

The complete framework we use to take a company from people debt to operational HR infrastructure in 90 days, what we build, in what order, and why the sequence matters.

15 min read Read the Guide →
Framework

How to Build Comp Bands Without a Big Budget or a Comp Analyst

A step-by-step framework for building market-defensible salary bands at any company size, the data sources, the methodology, and the common mistakes that undermine the whole structure.

12 min read Read the Guide →
Analysis

The Real Cost of Waiting to Fix Your HR Infrastructure

What the research actually says about bad hires, high attrition, and org dysfunction, and the inflection points where people infrastructure problems become company-threatening problems.

10 min read Read the Guide →
Guide

When to Hire Your First HR Person, and What Kind You Actually Need

The headcount triggers, organizational signals, and role-type decision tree that founders should work through before posting a job description for an "HR Generalist."

8 min read Read the Guide →
Free Tool

The People Debt Audit™: Score Your HR Infrastructure in 10 Minutes

The 8-category diagnostic we run at the start of every engagement, now available as a free self-assessment. Get your score across compliance, talent, performance, compensation, and more.

10 min assessment Take the Audit →
Coming Soon

Performance Without Bureaucracy: Building a Review Cycle That Actually Works

How to design a performance rhythm that gives managers real data, drives accountability, and doesn't turn into a once-a-year checkbox that everyone dreads.

In development Notify Me →

ROI Calculator

What Is People Infrastructure Actually Worth?

Adjust the sliders to reflect your company. See what fractional HR saves you each year.

Annual Cost of Broken People Infrastructure

Turnover Cost$0
Leadership Time Cost$0
Bad Hire Cost$0
Annual Savings with PIP $0

Estimates based on SHRM and industry benchmarks. Turnover calculated at 75% of annual salary. PIP cost modeled at CPO-as-a-Service midpoint ($84K/yr).

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Build the People Infrastructure
Your Next Stage Requires

Book a 30-minute introductory call. No pitch, no pressure, just a direct conversation about where you are and what would actually help.

Book a Discovery Call