Wendy Moore
Founder
Eleve Talent
Episode 40
Scaling Startups? Master Strategic Hiring & AI for Sustainable Team Success
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleSeptember 26, 2025 · 12:19
Thesis
“In rapidly scaling, resource-conscious early-stage companies, strategic hiring, clear organizational design, and the wise adoption of technology (especially AI) are critical for building high-performing teams that thrive sustainably.”
Show notes
Summary
In this episode of the Built by People podcast, Wendy Moore, founder of Eleve Talent, shares her career journey and insights into the challenges faced by HR professionals in today's competitive market. She emphasizes the importance of strategic hiring, role clarity, and compliance as startups scale. Wendy also discusses the critical role of technology and partnerships in HR, and the transformative impact of AI on the industry, advocating for its use to enhance the human experience rather than replace it.
Takeaways
- Wendy's career has always centered around helping people build.
- She emphasizes the intersection of technology and people in her work.
- Strategic hiring is crucial in a competitive market.
- Every hire must have a significant impact on the team.
- Role clarity is essential as teams grow to avoid confusion.
- Compliance infrastructure is vital for scaling teams effectively.
- Technology can help HR move fast without sacrificing quality.
- Partnerships with experts enhance HR capabilities.
- AI should be embraced to remove friction in HR processes.
- The future of HR lies in leveraging technology to enhance human connections.
What you'll take away
- 1In competitive and resource-constrained markets, focus on strategic hiring to build lean, high-performing teams where every hire counts.
- 2Prioritize role clarity and agile organizational design to prevent confusion, friction, and burnout as startups rapidly scale.
- 3Leverage HR technology and AI tools to streamline processes, automate outreach, and remove friction, thereby creating space for essential human connection and leadership.
- 4Actively manage compliance infrastructure and legal HR advising, especially when expanding across states or countries, to avoid unforeseen exposure.
- 5Embrace AI as a tool to enhance the human experience in HR, not replace it, by adopting early and adapting wisely.
What most organizations get wrong
- •AI is not about replacing humans; it's about removing friction and creating the space for what only people can do, such as connection and leadership, which will always remain relevant.
In Wendy's words
“My career has always been centered around helping people build.”
This quote succinctly introduces her overarching career mission and passion for building.
“The biggest challenge right now, both for me, my internal team, and then also every client we serve is hiring strategically in a highly competitive market, but being very resource conscious.”
This identifies the core, current struggle for HR leaders in early-stage companies.
“When startups scale, pretty much everything breaks.”
A blunt, realistic assessment of the challenges of rapid growth, setting the stage for discussing solutions.
“The top 2 I see are role clarity and then the compliance infrastructure.”
Highlights specific, critical foundational areas that often fail during rapid startup growth.
“If I could just wave that magic wand, I would zero in on role clarity, the org design, and how that evolves as a company grows.”
Emphasizes her conviction about the single most impactful area for improvement in scaling organizations.
“My advice would be don't ignore AI. It is already reshaping how we build and scale teams.”
Her ultimate parting advice, stressing the undeniable and transformative impact of AI in HR.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Hiring strategically in a highly competitive and resource-constrained market, where every hire's impact and cost is under scrutiny.
- •Lack of clear role definitions and ownership in rapidly growing startups, leading to duplication of efforts, dropped responsibilities, and accountability issues.
- •Outdated or 'scrappy HR setups' breaking down as complexity increases, especially when expanding across states or countries, leading to compliance risks.
- •Difficulty for founders to get out of the 'weeds' of operational HR tasks (tweaking workflows, rewriting processes) when they are both builders and editors.
- •Struggling to build lean yet high-performing teams that can still deliver under pressure and extreme uncertainty in the funding landscape.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Wendy Moore from Elevate Talent joins Built by People podcast
Built by People
The biggest challenge in HR is hiring strategically in a highly competitive market
What's the Biggest Challenge in HR?
What's keeping you up at night working with your clients during the season
What's Keeps You Up at Night?
When startups scale, pretty much everything breaks
What's the HR culture that's broken as startups scale?
What tools or partners are most critical to you today, or even maybe clients
What Tools or Partners Are Most Critical to Your Company's Growth?
Wendy: I'm hoping to see orgs running smoothly
WSJD Live: The orgs
People leaders have a responsibility to lean into AI to help build teams
A Day in the Life of AI
Wendy, thanks for joining us on Built by People podcast
Built by People Podcast
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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