We’re passionate about people - and about helping startups grow up gracefully. At Lenhardt Partners, we partner with founders, entrepreneurs, and emerging growth companies to build HR foundations that actually work. From scaling teams to preparing for a splashy public debut, we make the transition to “what’s next” seamless, strategic, and, yes, even enjoyable.
Anna Lenhardt helps founders build the people, culture, and leadership foundations required to scale into high-impact companies. She brings more than two decades of experience spanning McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, and senior in-house roles including VP of People at Oscar Health - where she scaled the organization from 250 to 1,000+ employees ahead of its IPO - and Head of People at Hippo Insurance, supporting the company’s NYSE debut.
Anna holds master’s degrees in counseling psychology and the arts and serves on the advisory board of Budgie Health and the board of CoachArt.
April is a seasoned people leader focused on future-ready talent strategy, performance, and organizational growth. Her experience includes high-growth technology environments such as Oscar Health and Datadog, where she built scalable career development, performance management, and retention programs that drove measurable cultural and business impact.
She previously advised global teams through roles with Estée LauderCompanies and YSC Consulting (Accenture), supporting organizations across EMEA and APAC.
Paolo is an HR operations leader with 15+ years of experience designing scalable people systems across startups, global enterprises, and mission-driven organizations. His leadership spans Ceribell, Tomorrow Health, andCarParts.com, with deep expertise in HRIS implementation, total rewards, compliance, benefits, and organizational development.
He is known for blending analytical rigor with hands-on execution to build infrastructure that supports sustainable growth.
Jessica supports Lenhardt Partners across talent acquisition, operations, and executive administration. Her background includes roles in recruitment and people operations at PlayVS, along with operational and financial experience across multiple organizations.
She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from California StateUniversity, Northridge, an Associate of Arts from Santa Monica College, and is bilingual in English and Spanish.
Sarah supports high-growth organizations in building scalable, people-centered HR operations and employee experiences. She brings more than eight years of progressive human resources and employee engagement expertise, most recently serving at Sumo Logic, where she led global initiatives across onboarding, internal communications, recognition, DEIB, and employee engagement for an international workforce. Known for translating data and feedback into meaningful culture and operational improvements, Sarah has designed end-to-end onboarding programs, managed company-wide surveys and ERG strategies, and partnered cross-functionally to drive clarity, connection, and consistency across organizations. Her earlier experience spans HR operations, recruiting coordination, and large-scale event and team management, giving her a well-rounded foundation in both the strategic and day-to-day dimensions of people operations.
Kristin Talastas is a people strategy leader with more than 20 years of experience helping organizations build and scale their people infrastructure during periods of rapid growth and change. Her expertise spans people operations, total rewards, HR technology, change management, and organizational design.
Throughout her career Kristin has held meaningful leadership roles at Lucid Motors, Volkswagen Group of Americas, Freddie Mac, Spring and Accenture, where she partnered with founders and executive teams to design practical, scalable people solutions that supported growth while strengthening culture and building human-centered organizations.
Aspire PR is a boutique communications agency delivering multi-dimensional public relations that connect brands with consumers in meaningful ways. Aspire helps founders and brands - from startups to major real estate developments - build visibility, momentum, and lasting recognition through strategic media, partnerships, and meaningful storytelling.
Alison is the founder and driving force behindAspire PR. With more than 20 years of experience, she represents luxury hospitalitybrands, niche tech start-ups and applications, acclaimed restaurants, boutiquehotels, and lifestyle companies, crafting strategic communications that elevatevisibility and drive growth.
The (A)Lyst Group is a boutique talent acquisition firm specializing in helping founders of early-stage venture-backed companies and hyper-growth companies retain talent and manage existing talent resources. After a combined 45 years in human capital and operations functions within early-stage hyper-growth companies and public companies, we launched our business with the belief that there is a better way for companies to attract and retain talent. We are primarily a referral-based business, working with company leaders and founders to partner in talent acquisition, sourcing, and recruiting management services.
Tim is passionate about people; he simply loves helping people connect with each other. A savant; he has an innate instinct for mutual connection. A passion and skillset he discovered as one of the first recruiters at PayPal over 20 years ago. This same passion allowed for a successful career helping companies like eBay, Tesla, Tokbox and Chegg maximize their human capital growth potential. Tim holds a Master of Business Administration as well as a Bachelor of Science in Finance from San Jose State University. He also holds an unofficial degree in rainmaking.
Rena loves to organize, plan and process. However, she learned early on in her career that in a startup environment your plans and process must be agile and iterative- the start of a career in controlled chaos operations that would allow opportunities to work alongside an extremely talented group of people that have founded companies like PayPal, eBay, Clairum Capital, The Founder’s Fund, Linkedin, Yelp, Kiva.org, Ironport, Matterport, Youtube, Affirm, Slide, SpaceX, Yammer and Palantir Technologies. Rena holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics with a concentration in Accounting from Saint Mary’s College of California.
Katiehas been a part of the Alyst team (joining forces with Tim & Rena) for the past 10 years, gaining experience across both recruiting, human resources and operations. She brings a thoughtful, people focused approach to talent and HR and enjoys building processes that support strong teams and positive hiring experiences. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management with an HR Certificate from the University of Phoenix and is passionate about helping organizations grow through great people.
