Part-time ops, for teams of 5 to 30

Part-time ops for SaaS and AI startups.

Your people ops and back office, run for you: onboarding, payroll inputs, contractor paperwork, your inbox and calendar. For founders still doing it at night. From $600 a month.

  • Month to month, cancel with 30 days' notice
  • Everything stays in your own accounts
  • Your first onboarding plan is free
Sulagna Adhikary
It's 10:58 pm for me in India

Sulagna Adhikary

People ops and operations, part-time

in

“I've handled onboarding at Forvis Mazars and on Uber's global HR team (on contract), and ran payroll for 550+ people at HCAH. A ten-person team deserves the same care.”

Live time with New York

On weekdays, 9:00 am to 10:00 am your time, plus my call evenings.

FreeA first-week plan for your next hire, before you pay anything.

Experience from teams at

  • UberGlobal people ops, contract, 2026
  • Forvis MazarsHR generalist (HRBP), 2025
  • HCAH IndiaHR executive, 2023 to 2025
  • Medica Group of HospitalsHR intern, 2023
  • M.P. Birla GroupHR trainee, 2022
  • Gusto
  • Rippling
  • Deel
  • Remote
  • Justworks
  • BambooHR
  • Notion
  • Slack
  • Zapier
  • Make
  • Jira Service Management
  • Google Workspace

Former employers, named to show where the experience comes from. Not clients, and no endorsement implied.

Working with someone you will never meet in person

Other side of the world. Still fully in your control.

Paying someone you have never met, in another country, is a real risk with money you just raised. Here is exactly how that risk is handled.

  • You see my face, not just messages

    We start on a video call, and live time continues on the schedule your package sets, on your Zoom or Google Meet. You always know who is doing the work.

  • You see the work in writing

    A written report every Friday on Operations and up, a monthly snapshot on Essentials, and a shared tracker in your own tool, open at any hour.

  • You hold every key

    I work in accounts you create, with only the access each task needs. Remove my access any time; everything I built stays yours.

  • You risk one month, not a year

    Month to month, paid in advance, 30 days' notice. Start with a free onboarding plan before you pay anything.

  • Your team's data is protected

    Two-step verification on every account, nothing copied to my devices, and a DPA with the EU clauses for UK and EU teams.

  • Paid like any contractor

    Invoices in US dollars, by bank transfer or Wise, or through Deel or Remote if you already pay contractors there.

The old way

When nobody owns operations, the founder does. Usually at night.

At 5 to 30 people, HR and admin are real work but not yet a full-time job. Here is what founders try, and where each one falls short.

Doing it yourself

Your evenings

  • Product work slips
  • New joiners get a messy first week
  • Renewals and contractor paperwork get missed

A full-time ops hire

A full salary

  • Median US HR specialist pay is $75,940 a year, before benefits
  • 40 hours a week for work that is part-time at your size

A PEO or HR service

Per person, per month

  • Advice and a payroll engine
  • Nobody runs your onboarding or touches your admin

An assistant

An hourly rate

  • Admin gets done
  • Onboarding and contractor paperwork still land on you

Part-time ops, from me

$600 to $2,000 a month

  • Someone who knows HR and operations does the work, inside your tools
  • A fixed scope every month, with a report every Friday
  • For US teams, done before your day starts

Salary: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Human Resources Specialists, median pay May 2025 (bls.gov).

What I run

Your people ops and your back office, run as one job.

At your size neither fills a week on its own. Together they are the operations hire you have not made yet.

People ops

New joiners ready before Day 1. Leavers closed out on their last day.

Onboarding, offboarding, records in Gusto, Rippling, Deel, Remote or Justworks, payroll and EOR inputs before the cut-off, contractor documents across countries.

Priya joins Monday

On track

Backend engineer, contractor through Deel

  • Contractor agreement signed and filedOps
  • Created in Deel, documents collectedOps
  • Laptop delivered WednesdayOps
  • 6 of 6 accounts liveAdmin
  • First-week goal agreed with DanManager
  • Day 1 welcome call, 9:30 amFounder
Example. Names and dates are invented.
How people ops runs

Your back office

Your inbox triaged and your day confirmed before you start work.

Calendar across time zones, replies drafted for your approval, one register of every subscription, the numbers for your investor update.

Your week, Monday

Sent 6:40 am your time
Calendar
Tuesday 10:00, investor call. Prep note attached with last month's numbers.
Inbox
4 replies drafted for your review. 11 notifications filed.
Renewals
14 days Figma annual plan. Keep 6 seats or drop to 4?
Decide
Two offsite venues quoted. Summary in the shared folder.
Example. Names and dates are invented.
What the back office covers

Automation

The repeated work, automated in your first month.

Built in Zapier or Make, inside your accounts, so it keeps running even if you stop the retainer.

New joiner flow

Running
  1. WhenA start date is set in your HR platform
  2. ThenOnboarding checklist created in Notion, every step dated
  3. ThenAccount requests posted to your admin
  4. Day minus 5Reminder to the manager: buddy and first-week goal
  5. FridayOne line in the founder's report
Example. Names and dates are invented.

India team

People in India? That is home ground.

Indian payroll inputs through your EOR, POSH, notice periods and pay benchmarking.

For teams with people in India

Reporting

A report every Friday.

Five headings in the same order every week, with one called "Needs you".

Data

Your data stays in your systems.

Least access, two-step verification, and a DPA with the EU clauses for UK and EU teams.

Data and security

People ops is about people

A new hire decides how they feel about you in the first week.

Priya joins a 12-person startup on Monday. Here is her first day, two ways.

Without an ops person

  1. 9:00Laptop still in transit. It ships Wednesday.
  2. 9:20No Slack invite. She emails the founder from her personal address.
  3. 10:45The founder stops building to reset passwords.
  4. 4:30She wonders if she made the right call joining.

With part-time ops

  1. 9:00Laptop arrived Friday. Every account works on the first try.
  2. 9:30Welcome call with the founder, then a buddy who is not her manager.
  3. 11:00Her first-week goal is written down: one real piece of work by Friday.
  4. 4:30She has met the whole team. The founder spent the day building.

An illustration. Priya and the company are invented; the steps come from the first-week onboarding plan.

Proof

Three years of HR and operations at scale, now part-time for small teams.

Every number comes with the story behind it on a call. Full background

8,000+

employee records kept accurate in Workday and Oracle HCM

Uber, global people ops, contract, 2026

96%

of 220+ monthly lifecycle tickets resolved within SLA

Uber, global people ops, contract, 2026

550+

people on a monthly payroll, with zero statutory penalties

HCAH India, 2023 to 2025

350

people across 3 offices, as the HR generalist

Forvis Mazars, 2025

Pricing

Find your package in 20 seconds.

Fixed scope, fixed monthly price. No setup fee, no annual contract.

How many people are on your team?

What do you want off your plate?

Your fit

Essentials

$600 a month

Onboarding, offboarding, platform records and your calendar, for a team of up to 10.

Talk about EssentialsCompare all three packages

Essentials

$600 a month

The people-ops basics, run properly, for a small team trying this for the first time.

Talk about Essentials
  • Up to 10 people
  • Onboarding and offboarding, platform records, leave and contractor documents
  • Your calendar
  • A monthly snapshot
  • Replies within 1 working day

Operations

Usual fit at 10 to 20 people

$1,200 a month

People ops plus your own inbox and calendar. The package most growing teams need.

Talk about Operations
  • Up to 20 people
  • Everything in Essentials, plus monthly payroll or EOR inputs, contractor admin across countries and a handbook in Notion for your lawyer to review
  • Calendar and inbox, plus a register of software subscriptions and vendors
  • A written report every Friday
  • 2 hours on 2 days a week

Operations Partner

$2,000 a month

The part-time operations person you would otherwise hire as employee number 10.

Talk about Operations Partner
  • Up to 30 people
  • Everything in Operations, plus a performance review cycle or draft pay bands
  • Everything in Operations, plus investor-update numbers, expenses, invoices and travel
  • One of: your India team, people reporting or hiring support
  • Friday report plus a monthly people page for your investor update
  • 1 hour every working day

Add-on Hiring support from $600 a month, when you provide a sourcing seat or a sourcing vendor. Month to month, cancel with 30 days' notice. Full details and terms

  1. Ready before Day 1

    Every new joiner has documents collected, accounts requested and a written first-week plan before their first day.

  2. Closed on the last day

    Every leaver's access checklist is completed on their last working day. Where I have no admin rights, your admin clicks the final buttons from my list.

  3. Nothing renews by surprise

    Every software subscription and contractor contract sits in one register, with renewals flagged 30 days ahead.

  4. A report every Friday

    Five headings in the same order every week, with one called "Needs you". Written so it takes two minutes to read.

What I never promise: legal outcomes or cost savings. Both depend on the law and on your decisions.

How it starts

From first call to a running operation in a month.

  1. 01

    A 20-minute call

    Your team, your tools and what is eating your week. I tell you which package fits, or that I am not the right fit.

  2. 02

    Scope in writing

    Within one working day: the package, what is in and out, a start date and a short agreement.

  3. 03

    Week one: access and audit

    Accounts with only the access each task needs. Every tool, contractor and renewal mapped.

  4. 04

    Month one: running

    Checklists for your company, the register built, the first automation live, the first Friday report sent.

How it works, and when I am online in your time zone

Fit

Good fit, and not.

Saying this early saves you a wasted call.

A good fit

  • SaaS, tech and AI startups of 5 to 30 people in the US, the UK or Europe
  • A team spread across countries, or contractors paid through Deel or Remote
  • A founder doing HR and admin after hours
  • US or European startups with people in India

Not a fit

  • Teams over about 40 people that need a full-time people leader.
  • Companies looking for US or European employment-law advice. That is your lawyer's or PEO's job.
  • Full recruiting with no sourcing seat and no sourcing vendor. A recruiter is the better fit there.
  • Customer support or sales lead research.

FAQ

Questions founders ask first.

All questions or ask on a call

How is this different from hiring an assistant?

An assistant handles admin. I bring HR and operations experience as well: onboarding and offboarding, your HR and payroll platform, contractor paperwork, policies and reporting. Your own admin is half the job, and it is done by someone who also knows the people side.

How is this different from a PEO or an HR service like Bambee?

A PEO or HR service gives you advice and a payroll engine. Nobody there runs your onboarding or keeps your calendar. I do the work inside the tools you already pay for, and your PEO or lawyer stays the source of legal answers.

Do you give legal advice?

No. US, UK and European employment law belongs with your lawyer or PEO. I run the process and the platform, and I flag questions to them early. My own legal depth is Indian statutory law, which is useful if you have people in India.

You are in India. How does the time difference work?

For US teams, most of my working hours fall while you sleep, so the work is done before your day starts. On three evenings a week I take live calls until 10:30 pm IST, which is about 1:00 pm in New York in summer. For UK and European teams my working hours cover your whole morning and early afternoon. My working week is Monday to Friday, India time.

Which tools do you work in?

Yours. I am hands-on with Gusto, Rippling, Deel, Remote and Justworks, and I work in Notion, Confluence, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack and Jira. Automations run in Zapier or Make.

Get a first-week onboarding plan for your next hire.

Tell me the role and the start date. I will send back a plan written for your company, free, whether or not you hire me.