Founding Clients
We meet companies at the beginning of their journey, often as their first recruiting or HR partner. From Series A to B, we help founding teams build foundational people strategies, make critical first hires, and scale intentionally from day one.
Real Stories of Scaling Up
There were about 20 people, living in and working from actual Airbnbs. The energy was raw, electric. We worked closely with them over five years, guiding their early people strategy, building out the team, and coaching founders like Brian through hypergrowth. We were a trusted advisor on everything from hiring Saggi as Head of Talent to structuring compensation as the company scaled globally. From a single apartment to a billion-dollar brand, Connery was there for the whole ride.
From a park bench to a rocket ship.Our journey with Rippling started on a park bench in San Francisco, just as they were signing their first office lease. Matt MacInnis, Rippling’s COO (and a longtime Connery client from his Inkling days), asked us to lead recruiting through Rippling’s early hyper-growth. At the time, Rippling was a Series A company with just 25 employees, scrappy, ambitious, and ready to scale.
In just 9 months, we made 88 hires across Engineering, Product, Design, Sales, Finance, HR, Legal, and Customer Success. We helped build the foundation of nearly every function. Key placements included:
It was the kind of momentum that doesn’t just build teams, it builds legacy companies.
As companies move into Series C and beyond, growth becomes more complex. We help leadership teams build scalable recruiting engines, strengthen HR systems, and establish the people programs required to support global hiring, new markets, and rapidly growing teams.
Real Stories of Scaling Up
Matt Cohler (then at Benchmark, a former client from Facebook) introduced us to Drew Houston, and things took off from there. Dropbox had about 20 people in San Francisco and no recruiting function. Connery stepped in to support their first key hires, embedding their first two recruiters. We worked closely with the founders, mentoring them as the team grew, and eventually transitioned into advising on HR. We supported the company through multiple phases: building the HR team, mentoring their new internal HRBP, advising Ramsay Homsany (General Counsel and Head of People), and supporting executive hires like the CRO and Head of Marketing. Over a decade-long partnership, we helped Dropbox grow from scrappy startup to global force, one thoughtful hire at a time.
We partnered with Mudflap just after their Series B, a pivotal moment when their momentum was high, but their teams were still lean. What followed was a period of rapid scale.In just over a year, we made 150+ hires, nearly doubling the size of the company. Key milestones included:
What started as a few key hires quickly evolved into a long-term partnership, helping Mudflap transform from a scrappy startup into a fast-scaling business with strong foundations across every core function.
Partnering with the VCs shaping tomorrow’s category leaders.
We collaborate with top-tier venture firms to support their portfolio companies from early traction to breakout scale, bringing strategic talent, HR, and compensation expertise every step of the way.
Real Stories of Scaling Up
Benchmark had just come in, and we helped founder Mikkel navigate everything from office space to hiring norms in the Bay Area. We worked closely with the team, sitting in on interviews, helping them hire Adrian McDermott as CTO (he’s still there 15 years later), and guiding their HR and people operations from the ground up. What started as a European startup in transition became a category-defining public company.
As Uber geared up to go public, we partnered with them to scale critical teams across Product, Design, and Mobility, including new initiatives like scooters and micromobility. It was a time of rapid growth, tight timelines, and high stakes. Our team helped build out the foundation of these functions at a pivotal moment, supporting Uber’s evolution from global disruptor to public company.
