NuvoAir MedicalWhen I joined NuvoAir as the first people operations leader, the company had approximately 25 employees distributed across six countries with no formal HR infrastructure. There were no standardized onboarding processes, employment contracts were inconsistent across jurisdictions, and the founder was making all people decisions on an ad-hoc basis. With a Series A fundraise on the immediate horizon, the lack of compliance frameworks and talent strategy posed both legal risk and due diligence concerns that could derail investor confidence.
I prioritized compliance and legal exposure first, conducting a comprehensive audit of all existing employment agreements and partnering with local counsel in each of our six operating countries to develop standardized contract templates that met country-specific requirements. With that foundation secured, I built out structured onboarding and performance management frameworks over the following six months, knowing our growth strategy called for 50% headcount expansion in the near term.
The impact was significant and measurable. We successfully closed our Series A three months after I started, with zero HR-related flags raised during investor due diligence—our lead investor even specifically highlighted our people infrastructure in their investment memo. Over the next year, we scaled from 25 to 40 employees across eight countries with zero employment disputes or compliance issues. Employee satisfaction with onboarding, which had been unmeasured before my arrival, reached 4.2 out of 5 in our first formal survey, and the frameworks I established became daily tools for managers and new hires across the organization.
