The Situation

A 30-to-40-person Brazilian SaaS company, 14 months into their U.S. market launch, six weeks away from closing a Series A. They have seven U.S.-based employees, a Delaware LLC that has never been properly structured as an employer, and an investor data room with no People section.

None of their U.S. workers have been correctly classified. None have signed compliant employment agreements. The Operations lead in Brazil is managing U.S. headcount with the same HR norms that govern their São Paulo office.

The trigger is the due diligence questionnaire from their lead investor. One item requests documentation of employment classification, I-9 verification, and benefits administration for all U.S. employees. They have none of it. They arrive at Performance HR Partners with 120 days to close the round and a workforce that is legally exposed at every layer.

The Challenge

PHRP engages under the People Foundations tier to stand up a complete U.S. HR infrastructure within 90 days. The scope covers five interdependent risk areas:

• Worker classification & legal exposure: U.S. employees misclassified or missing compliant agreements entirely — creating IRS, DOL, and state labor authority exposure
• I-9 & work authorization gaps: No I-9 process, no work authorization verification, no documentation trail
• Investor due diligence risk: Data room entirely missing a People section — a visible red flag to institutional investors
• No U.S. employment infrastructure: No handbook, no U.S.-compliant onboarding process, no state-specific policy framework
• Cross-border HR governance: Brazil-based operations team managing U.S. headcount with local norms — creating structural misalignment between employment law realities

The Approach

PHRP applies the People Foundations methodology across three structured 30-day People Sprints, sequenced by risk priority and investor timeline:

Sprint 1 — Compliance Triage & Classification Correction: Full classification review of all U.S. workers. Compliant employment agreements executed. I-9 process stood up with retroactive remediation where possible. Immediate risk items documented for investor disclosure strategy.

Sprint 2 — Infrastructure Build: U.S. Employee Handbook drafted with multi-state coverage. Onboarding suite developed with I-9, FCRA-compliant background check protocol, and benefits enrollment workflow. People data room section built to investor diligence standards.

Sprint 3 — Investor Readiness & Handoff: Data room People section finalized and reviewed for diligence completeness. New hire cohort onboarded through the newly built process. Leadership briefed on ongoing compliance obligations. PHRP retained for ongoing Fractional People Partner support.

Illustrative Results

In a scenario like this, the company closes the Series A with a complete, investor-ready People infrastructure — and zero open compliance incidents. The lead investor cites the People infrastructure documentation as a differentiating factor in due diligence.

• All U.S. workers properly classified with compliant employment documentation before investor close
• I-9 compliance established from zero — including retroactive remediation strategy for existing employees
• People data room section built to institutional investor standards, cited as a positive differentiator
• New hire cohort onboarded through the newly built process post-close
• Fractional People Partner retained to build the next layer of infrastructure for growth to 50+ employees