Evette Ellis.
Evette Ellis
People
build
brighter
futures.
Founder-led people strategy

Evette
Ellis.

Founder. Strategist. People Architect.
People are the infrastructure.

I help founders build companies where the people strategy is as intentional as the business strategy.

Work with Evette → Enter the Found Circle

The people part
is the business
part.

People are not a function of the business. People are the infrastructure of the business — and it either holds under pressure or it doesn't.

Founder experience. Not founder theory.
The ecosystem
Know me · Learn from me · Build with me · Bring me into the conversation · Stay connected with me

Found

Learn from me.
The methodology and lessons built through years of actually building.
People & workforce
Legal & compliance
Transitions & identity
Investors & board
Inside Found →

Fractional
+ Coaching

Build with me.
Direct access, inside the business or alongside you as a leader.
Fractional leadership
Executive coaching
Talent & executive search
Trusted connections
Start a conversation →

Book
Me

Bring me into the conversation.
Keynotes, fireside chats, panels, podcasts, workshops and select appearances.
Speaking engagements
Podcast appearances
Panels & fireside chats
Moderated conversations
Book Evette →

Found
Circle

Stay connected with me.
Follow the thinking. Find the people.
Perspective & POV
People to know
People data & trends
Conversations & network
Enter the Circle →

You built the product.
You raised the money.

Now what about the people?

FOUND is the education for the stage that begins the day after the wire hits — when the real organizational, legal and governance work starts, and the ecosystem stops helping.

Inside FOUND →
About Evette

A founder-led platform at the intersection of people, business, entrepreneurship, leadership and workforce strategy — built on lived founder experience rather than borrowed frameworks.

Human
People stay at the center.
Earned
Substance over pedigree.
Bold
Clear enough to say the hard thing.
Optimistic
Serious work, held with possibility.
Read the full story →
Evette Ellis, seated portrait
The Found Circle Quarterly

People are the story.

A quarterly note from me about the people, data, ideas and shifts I think are worth paying attention to.

Bring me into the conversation.

Book Me

Let's talk about what we're not talking about.

Stages, podcasts, panels, fireside chats, moderated conversations, workshops and the rooms where the people questions actually get decided.

I listen first. I ask the questions. And then I'm willing to say the thing.
Keynotes · Fireside chats
Panels · Podcast appearances
Moderated conversations · Workshops
Evette Ellis
Conversations I bring to the room
Not a menu. A starting point.
01The people decisions nobody wants to make
02What building a company actually teaches you
03The gap between stated culture and experienced culture
04How people decisions affect burn, runway, growth and capital
05Leadership decisions that are easy to avoid and expensive to ignore
06Hiring, firing, restructuring, compensation and performance
07Representation, access, and what happens after someone gets into the room
08What leaders know but struggle to say
09How listening changes what leaders build
10The polished founder story versus the reality of building
Who's in the room. What they're wrestling with. And what conversation they need to have.

Every engagement gets shaped around those three things. Keynote, fireside, panel, podcast or workshop, the conversation is built for the audience in front of it.

Credentials & recognition
The full record
Education
Harvard Business School, Program for Leadership Development, Executive Education, 2024
Recognition
INC. Magazine Founders 500 Honoree, 2025
Time, America's Top Greentech Companies (ChargerHelp!), 2024
Newsweek, America's Greatest Startup Workplaces (ChargerHelp!), 2026
Grist 50 Fixers Honoree, 2023
dot.LA Entrepreneur of the Year
Boards & advisory
Commissioner, Climate Resilient and Sustainable City Commission, City of Long Beach
Strategic Advisor, Clean Cities Coalition on Energy and Environmental Justice
Steering Committee Member, PledgeLA
None of this replaces the work. It just proves it happened.

Smart, funny, and
happy to go there.

Share your event, audience, format and date. Stage, studio or podcast feed all count. Speaker kit, topics and past appearances available on request.

Book Evette →
Not booking anything yet? Stay in the conversation.
Found Circle →
Stay connected with me.

Found
Circle

Evette Ellis laughing

People are the story.
Let's talk about it.

The Found Circle is where I share what I'm seeing, thinking about, questioning and learning about people, leadership, companies, and the decisions shaping all three.

Come for the perspective.
Stay for the people.

Expect my perspective on what's happening in the industry, interesting people you should know, trends worth watching, numbers that make me stop and think, and conversations I believe more of us should be having.

For founders, executives, people leaders, operators, investors, advisors and anyone paying attention to how people decisions shape companies.

Join the Circle →

Follow the thinking.

My point of view, the people worth knowing, the data worth reading, and what is shifting underneath all of it.

Find the people.

Relationships, introductions and shared experience, because the conversations that help most usually happen between founders.

What you can expect from The Found Circle
Five recurring columns
“ ”

Evette's POV

What I'm seeing, thinking, questioning, and occasionally disagreeing with.

+

People to Know

People doing work I think deserves more attention.

%

People Data

A number worth noticing, and why I think it matters.

↗

What's Shifting

Changes in people, work, leadership, organizations and business that I'm watching.

P+P

People + Performance

Where people decisions meet business outcomes.

Find the people

Founders need founders.

The Circle is not only a place to follow my thinking. It is a place where founders find each other, trade what they are learning, and champion one another through every stage of building.

Come sit with us.
Request an invitation →
FOUND  /  THE CURRICULUM
BY EVETTE ELLIS  ·  EVETTEELLIS.COM
STRATEGIC PEOPLE ARCHITECTURE FOR FOUNDERS

Build the company
behind the company.

Four drivers. One method. Sessions that turn people strategy into something you can actually implement.

Each driver is mapped to one of the four numbers that decide whether the raise lasts: team, burn, runway and growth.

F UND
BY EVETTE ELLIS
People are the
infrastructure.
THE FOUND METHOD
EVERY DRIVER. SAME FOUR MOVES.
SEE IT
A real case. Here's what this looks like inside an actual company.
UNDERSTAND IT
The proven framework for thinking about it.
WORK IT
Test it against your own company and prove the path you choose.
BUILD IT
Leave with the work implemented, or ready to implement.
THE FOUR DRIVERS
SELECT A DRIVER TO EXPLORE
Four drivers
Delivered independently or as a full series
Post-raise founders
THE FULL SCOPE
4
Drivers, sequenced. Each includes a case, a framework, a position-creating activity and an implementation phase.
6
Sessions. One per driver at four hours each, plus an intro and a close. Divisible if a cohort needs it.
8
Artifacts in total, two per driver, built in the room. Implemented or ready to implement.
0
Theory-only modules. Founder experience, not founder theory.

You built the product.
You raised the money.
Now what about the people?

Bring FOUND to your founder cohort, portfolio or leadership team as a workshop, intensive or full curriculum.
START A CONVERSATION →
EVETTEELLIS.COM
Let's build something better.
Build with me.

Fractional Leadership
+ Executive Coaching.

Experienced counsel for the people decisions that shape companies and careers.

When the people decisions get harder, you don't have to make them alone.

I work alongside founders, executives, and growing companies navigating the people decisions that have real consequences for the business. Sometimes that means stepping inside the company to help build, solve, or lead. Other times, it means being the experienced voice in a leader's corner as they work through what comes next.

Work with Evette →
Evette Ellis
Built through experience.
Sharpened at Harvard Business School.
Founder + CPO  ·  $30M+ Raised  ·  Harvard Business School Executive Education  ·  15+ Years Building People & Teams
Two ways to work with me
Inside the business, or alongside you as a leader

Fractional
Leadership

Strategic, hands-on People leadership for founders and growing companies that need experienced senior-level support without hiring a full-time CPO.

Areas of support
  • ·People strategy
  • ·Organizational design
  • ·Executive and critical hiring
  • ·Recruitment strategy
  • ·Performance management
  • ·Compensation
  • ·Restructuring
  • ·Manager development
  • ·People infrastructure
  • ·Culture and employee experience
  • ·Workforce planning
  • ·Leadership team development
Talent + Executive Search.

From defining the role to understanding what the business actually needs, I help leaders make critical hires and can lead or support executive and key-role searches.

Executive
Coaching

One-on-one coaching for founders and executives navigating leadership, team dynamics, difficult decisions, career transitions, increased responsibility, and the realities of leading people.

Areas of coaching
  • ·Leadership
  • ·People management
  • ·Performance
  • ·Decision-making
  • ·Organizational complexity
  • ·Career transitions
  • ·Executive presence
  • ·Managing teams
  • ·Difficult conversations
  • ·Leading through change

Not motivational coaching. Practical, experienced counsel from a founder, operator, and People executive who understands what it means to lead.

The proof

Hundreds of
thousands saved.

At ChargerHelp!, Evette built the people function from zero: real infrastructure, automations, policies and process. It cut recruiting and agency fees, contractor and vendor spend, and the manual admin hours underneath both, saving the company hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Because it was built properly, she could transition out of the operating role without the company backfilling costly headcount to hold it together. That is the whole test of people infrastructure: it holds when the person who built it leaves.

Beyond People Ops

The right support doesn't always stop with me.

Building and leading a company rarely presents one problem at a time. A people decision can quickly become a legal question. A new hire can change your burn. A restructure can affect your financial plan. A fundraising milestone can completely change who you need on the team.

My role is to help you see those connections. And when the work requires expertise beyond mine, I can help connect you to trusted people who can move it forward.

Recruitment

Executive and critical hires, search strategy, role definition, candidate assessment, and trusted recruiting resources.

Legal

Connections to employment, corporate, and other legal expertise when decisions require counsel.

Accounting + Finance

Trusted resources for accounting, financial planning, compensation modeling, and understanding the financial implications of people decisions.

HR + People Ops

Support ranging from foundational systems and compliance to performance, compensation, organizational design, and building the People function.

Fundraising + Founder Support

Connections, preparation, and perspective around the intersection of fundraising, capital, growth, and people strategy.

Specialized Coaching + Advisors

When a leader needs expertise outside my lane, I can help identify and connect them with the right coach, advisor, or specialist.

You don't need me to have every answer. You need me to know the right questions, understand how the pieces connect, and know who to call when we need something more.

When leaders call me…

“I need to make a difficult decision about someone on my team.”

“I just stepped into a bigger role, and I need to lead differently.”

“My leadership team isn't working the way it should.”

“I need to restructure, but I want to do it thoughtfully.”

“I'm managing people who used to be my peers.”

“I'm preparing for what's next in my career.”

“I need to make a critical hire and I'm not sure what we actually need.”

“Our burn doesn't support the team we've built.”

“We're growing, but our People infrastructure hasn't caught up.”

“I need someone outside the company who understands the weight of these decisions.”

“Something isn't working. I need help figuring out what.”

Sometimes you need someone to help build it. Sometimes you need someone to help you think through it. I do both.
Why Evette

I help leaders make better people decisions, and build the systems to support them.

The perspective
  • ·Founder
  • ·Chief People Officer
  • ·Operator
  • ·Executive recruiter
  • ·Advisor
  • ·Coach
Growth. Burn. Runway. Culture. Performance. Capital.
People strategy is business strategy.
The experience
  • ·15+ years in workforce and People leadership
  • ·Co-founding and building ChargerHelp!
  • ·Building within a venture-backed company
  • ·More than $30M raised
  • ·Executive recruiting and team building
  • ·Organizational growth and restructuring
  • ·Harvard Business School Executive Education
  • ·Advising and coaching leaders

Need someone in your corner?

You don't have to arrive with the problem already diagnosed. A people challenge, a leadership issue, a critical hire, an organizational decision, or simply the need for an experienced outside perspective is enough to start.

Work with Evette →
Want this perspective in front of your audience instead?
Book Me →
Know me.
Founder  ·  Builder  ·  Operator  ·  Entrepreneur  ·  Executive  ·  Strategist …wife and mommy too!

People are not a function of the business.

I'm Evette Ellis, a founder, strategist and people architect. I've spent more than fifteen years on the people side of business, and most of that time I was the one accountable for the decisions.

What I do now, teaching, advising, coaching and speaking, comes out of what I lived: connecting people to careers, co-founding a venture-backed company, building its teams, and learning in real time how people decisions move growth, burn, runway, culture, performance and capital.

Evette Ellis, direct portrait
The Executive
Direct. Confident. Grounded.
Evette Ellis, seated portrait
The Strategist
Thoughtful. Experienced. Real.
Evette Ellis laughing
The Human
Approachable. Joyful. Authentic.
The beginning

I've always been in the business of developing people.

My first summer job assignment was at 14 years old, and even then, I knew I wanted to help people.

I could have worked at the local park or pool. Instead, I was drawn to helping my peers understand what it meant to be professional, how to show up, how to work, and how to begin seeing what was possible for themselves.

I didn't have the language for it then, but I was already doing the work that would define my career.

People
First, I developed people.
Teams
Then, I developed teams.
Business
And eventually, I built a business.
The work

That trajectory has taken me from workforce development to building within the cleantech industry to co-founding ChargerHelp!, where the work became bigger than developing talent. I learned to build teams, navigate capital, make difficult decisions, operate through growth and uncertainty, and understand how deeply people decisions shape a business.

More than 15 years later, the throughline hasn't changed.

01
Workforce development
02
Cleantech
03
Founder and operator
Built through experience.
Sharpened at Harvard Business School.
I had already spent years building, leading and operating. In 2024 I completed the Harvard Business School, Program for Leadership Development, Executive Education, which sharpened and widened what the work had already taught me.
What I've learned

The people decisions are the business decisions.

When you are the one signing off, you stop seeing people work as a support function. A hiring plan is a burn plan. A restructure is a runway decision. A leadership team that is not working shows up in performance long before it shows up in a conversation.

I learned that the hard way, inside a company, with real consequences, real people and real capital. It is the difference between having studied the problem and having carried it.

Growth. Burn. Runway. Culture. Performance. Capital. People decisions move every one of them.
What I believe

Human

People stay at the center.

Earned

Substance over pedigree.

Sophisticated

Executive, never sterile.

Bold

Clear enough to say the hard thing.

Optimistic

Serious work, held with possibility.

People are the infrastructure.
What I'm building now

Found

Venture-backed founder education. Learn the methodology.

Fractional Leadership

Bring me into the company to help build, solve or lead.

Executive Coaching

Bring me into your corner as you work through what comes next.

Book Me

Bring me into the conversation: keynotes, podcasts, fireside chats, panels and workshops.

Found Circle

Stay connected with me: my perspective, people worth knowing, the data and what's shifting.

Credentials & recognition
Education
Harvard Business School, Program for Leadership Development, Executive Education, 2024
Boards & advisory
Commissioner, Climate Resilient and Sustainable City Commission, City of Long Beach
Strategic Advisor, Clean Cities Coalition on Energy and Environmental Justice
Steering Committee Member, PledgeLA
Recognition
  • ·INC. Magazine Founders 500 Honoree, 2025
  • ·Newsweek, America's Greatest Startup Workplaces (ChargerHelp!), 2026
  • ·Time, America's Top Greentech Companies (ChargerHelp!), 2024
  • ·Grist 50 Fixers Honoree, 2023
  • ·dot.LA Entrepreneur of the Year
None of this replaces the work. It just proves it happened.
Next: what I teach from all of it.
Inside Found →
The throughline

I build people.
I build teams.
I build businesses.

What grounds me

And then, there's what grounds me.

Before any title, company, stage, or accomplishment, there is my faith and my family.

My faith in Jesus Christ shapes how I try to lead, serve, and move through the world. I am deeply rooted in the family that raised me, and today, much of my greatest joy comes from the family my husband and I have built together and from raising our sweet baby girl.

They are not separate from the work I do. They are a big part of why I care so deeply about building things that create opportunity, leave people better, and matter beyond me.

Let's build
something
better.

Real. Human. You.
What brings you here?
Speaking inquiry
Found Circle
FOUND programs
Fractional + Coaching