CALIFORNIA PEOPLE OPS PEOPLE
Deep roots in HR expertise, helping startups and small businesses bloom.
Poppy is a California-based HR consulting firm for startups and small businesses. With 30 years of combined HR experience from tech startups, we build the people foundations that let your company grow.
Poppy Seed Program
2 hours of free HR consulting for qualifying seed round founders.
Bay Area born, Silicon Valley trained, and rooted in California employment law.
Why Poppy?
We're named after the California poppy, our state flower, a nod to the gold rush, good vibes and the kind of success this state is built on. Like the flower, we're rooted here, born in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Our team brings 30 years of combined Human Resources experience from tech startups, where we learned how to build people programs that hold up when everything is moving fast. Today we help businesses of any size and industry. From early stage startups to established small businesses, we grow teams they're proud of.
- 30 yrs
- Combined HR expertise
- 100%
- Tailored, never templated
- CA + SF
- Employment compliance depth
What we help with
Practical startup HR support: from payroll and performance management to HR tech and AI workflows.
Custom internal tools, built with AI
We build lightweight tools around the way your team actually works: no forcing your process into someone else's software.
AI workflows
Automate the repetitive manual work so your small team gets hours back every week.
HR processes
Hiring, onboarding, performance management and offboarding.
Business systems
We recommend and implement the payroll, HRIS and people systems that fit your stage and budget.
HR projects & initiatives
From comp reviews to employee engagement programs, we scope it, run it and hand it over cleanly.
HR tech product advice
Building a new HR tool? We've worked with most of them and can share what HR leaders are actually looking for.
Executive search & recruiting
We find and hire the leaders and early team members who fit your stage, from search strategy to closing the offer.
SF & California compliance
Stay on the right side of San Francisco and California employment rules as your headcount grows.
Our approach
Every company grows differently, so we don't hand you a template. We work hands-on inside your business to build HR solutions that fit how your team actually operates, so founders can get back to the work that matters most.
- 01
Discover
We learn your business, your team and what's actually slowing you down.
- 02
Build
We design HR foundations and tools tailored to your stage, never off-the-shelf templates.
- 03
Support
We stay close while it takes root, so your team can run it without us.
Let's Grow Together
If you're seed round or bootstrapped, we'd love to meet you. Through the Poppy Seed Program, qualifying seed round founders get 2 hours of free HR consulting, real help with your people questions, no strings attached.
Join the Poppy Seed ProgramLet's dig into solutions together
Tell us a little about your team and we'll get back to you within two business days. Prefer to talk? Book a free 30-minute conversation.
Accessibility
We care deeply about being accessible to everyone. Poppy is built on inclusive people practices, and we hold our own website to the same standard: clear language, keyboard-friendly navigation, readable color contrast, descriptive labels for screen readers, and a built-in read-aloud and larger-text tool you can open from the Accessibility button in the corner of the page.
We aim to meet WCAG 2.1 AA and review the site as it grows. If any part of this site is not accessible to you, please reach out to us. Tell us what you ran into and we will fix it and get you the information you need in a format that works for you.
Email hello@poppypeopleops.com and we will respond within two business days.