Join top startups by outsourcing HR to a trusted partner.

Ask us anything! Feel free to drop a line at hello@abstractops.com

AbstractOps acts as your unifying human resources API. Instead of hiring a VP of HR who you pay a lot to but really ends up pushing paper, AbstractOps automates the mundane yet risky work of HR. We help you identify the best tools such as Gusto for payroll, Pulley or Carta for cap table and stock option management, Deel for overseas contractors, and how to deal with all the nitty gritty regulatory issues such as how to register and pay appropriate taxes in each State where you have employees. With AbstractOps, you can stop remembering to file paperwork or pay various jurisdictions for your remote workforce.

In short, HR involves multiple steps and multiple tools. Understanding how to use each one in concert with the other is a huge contextual time burden. AbstractOps acts as the API connecting each one. Instead of taking hours to just onboard or offboard an employee (as an example), you can do it with one click via AbstractOps.

Gusto and Rippling are great tools and we recommend them...for payroll. The problem both have is that they are focused on payroll. Guess what? Human Resources is about far more than just payroll. HR is about hiring, firing, paying, insurance, retirement, government regulations, and financial considerations.

Using Gusto or Rippling on their own only gets you so far. You still need to figure out the regulatory and legal implications of your new hire or how to "best" fire an under performer. Googling answers only gets you so far. Your corporate attorneys are not HR experts. Once you hire that new person, you need to update your financial projections. Rippling and Gusto won't do that for you. They also won't warn you when your option pool is filled and you need to create a new Board action to start a new employee option pool.

One common confusion about AbstractOps is that we're building our own HR tools. We're not! Fantastic solutions exist up and down the HR stack that can solve almost any human resource problem. However, each solution has its nuances and reasons for why it's perfect for your company at this moment in time. AbstractOps is your operations partner. That means it is our job to know you, your stage, your preferences (i.e. super frugal or want the "best"), your future growth plans in comparison to money that you have in your bank account. With that information in hand, acting as your operations partner (almost like your Chief Operating Officer), we can recommend the best tools. Via our clients, we have seen and tested most solutions in the market.

A few that we recommend:

• Payroll: Gusto if you're early-stage (up to about 25 employees). Rippling for 25 - 100 employees (and you're growing quickly - if your employee count is not changing much, Gusto may be better and easier).
• Cap table and option management (including 83bs): Pulley.com and Carta. Carta is the big player in the market but it can be tough to manage. Pulley is an up-and-coming player.
• Insurance: Vouch is a fantastic option.
• Background checks: Checkr or Certyn are both quality options.
• 401ks: We love Human Interest!
• Contractors: Letsdeel is a low cost but generally easy to use option.
• HR lawyers: depending on your situation, we have dozens we can recommend at any price point.

For startups, the top 5 outsourced HR tasks are:

• Benefits Management
• Risk Management Outsourcing
• Recruitment and Temporary Staffing
• Payroll Management
• Staff Rewards and Recognition Management

Certainly. In fact, startups and small businesses have all the more reason to outsource HR. This is because the time available per person is scarcer in the case of a startup. And to add to the pressure, the responsibilities per person are significantly greater within a startup. In order to manage HR properly, your 'HR person' (normally one of the founders) has to learn how to use every single tool in the entire HR stack. Considering that the founder is also concentrating on product development and customer acquisition, this is a tall ask. In fact, this is the reason why large businesses have their own HR operations team – so that each team (product, sales/customers, and HR) can focus and be the best at the corresponding task. 

But startups can rarely afford this privilege. As a result, outsourcing HR ops becomes a tremendously effective solution. 

1. Gives back time: The benefit felt by founders on Day #1 of outsourcing HR is a sudden surge in the amount of time available to them. This extra time is then allocated to beneficial pursuits that nurture business growth. These pursuits include sales, marketing and product development. Hundreds of hours per year are saved in this way. 
2. Expert supervision: Outsourcing human resources makes it possible for a startup's HR processes to be under constant supervision of HR experts. This means that a startup's HR policies, processes and practices are continuously assessed to ensure an efficient approach to human resources.
3. A specialist's dedication: Passing responsibility of HR to a third party implies that an HR specialist is dedicating their energies to time-intensive tasks and paperwork. They become responsible for updating data stored in all your tools, records and systems so that everything is up-to-date.
4. Minimized risk: Startups that outsource HR always report minimized legal or/and regulatory trouble because they never miss a filing. They don't have to remember to file paperwork or to pay various jurisdictions for their remote workforce. Third-party HR specialists ensure that companies do everything by the book, which invariably results in Increased compliance.
5. Customized Advice: Outsourcing makes top-class advice for how to run your business better available. Specific questions or pain points that are relevant to your particular company are also easily addressed. After outsourcing HR, you don't need to zero down on the legal/regulatory implications of a new hire or how to "best" fire an under-performer (and risk going through with the wrong answers). All this is taken care of.