Welcome back to the FNDN Series, where we continue our deep dive into startup compensation with industry leaders from across the startup world. In our conversation with Jesse Schofer, Founder of Stacked and leading voice in HR tech, we explore the critical infrastructure gaps holding HR teams back from becoming truly strategic functions. We unpack why most people ops teams are stuck in a cycle of reactive admin work, how to build a scalable HR tech stack aligned to business outcomes, and what the future of AI-powered HR infrastructure actually looks like.

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Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

00:44 Guest Introduction: Jesse Schofer

01:05 Why HR Gets Less Budget Than Other Functions

02:43 The "Too Many Tools" Myth Debunked

04:57 Where to Start: Choosing the Right HR Tech

06:07 Strategic Prioritization Over Reactive Decisions

07:57 Contextual Infrastructure: No One-Size-Fits-All

10:59 Defining Success Before Selecting Tech

12:05 Requirements Mapping: Building Backwards from the Outcome

13:50 The Stacked Database: Broadening Your Vendor Search

16:37 All-in-One vs. Point Solutions

19:22 How New Tech Changes Your Day-to-Day Operations

22:09 The Self-Fulfilling Cycle of Poor HR Infrastructure

29:25 How to Get Executive Buy-In for Infrastructure Investment

35:06 Options Papers and Candid Leadership Conversations

41:32 State of the Union: Where HR Tech Is Falling Short

43:00 AI and the Future of People Ops as a Service Function

48:39 Closing Advice: Take Control of Your Own Development

50:36 Where to Find Jesse

Connect with Jesse

Visit: stakkd.tech 

https://linkedin.com/in/jessieschofer 

Join Startup People Summit, a one-day virtual conference designed for startup People leaders who want practical insight, honest conversations and proven approaches to scaling their People function — get your ticket here: www.startuppeoplesummit.com

Resources Mentioned:

Tools & Communities:

Stacked – HR tech discovery database built by Jesse to help teams find and shortlist vendors

Humans in the Loop – Jesse's Slack community focused on AI and HR tech transformation

More FNDN Episodes:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4GeBIeZOKrFxG1oiiPxmiM 

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fndn-series/id1794263484 

HRTech, PeopleOps, HRInfrastructure, StartupHR, HRStrategy, AIinHR, HRTechStack, PeopleOperations, HRTransformation, TechStack, PointSolution, AllInOne, HRLeadership, StrategicHR, FutureOfWork, HRData, PeopleAnalytics, HRBuyIn, ChangeManagement, StartupCompensation