From Talent and People Experts to Tech Innovators: The Founding Journey of Givver

Over the past few months, Cynthia and I have often been asked about our transition from HR professionals to founders. Embarking on the journey from HR backgrounds to creating Givver has been an enjoyable roller coaster for both of us.

Our story began back at university, where we first crossed paths and eventually ventured into the realm of HR, gaining valuable experience along the way. I immersed myself in the complexities of payroll, collaborating across departments to ensure accurate payments and assisting the Finance team with monthly reconciliations. Meanwhile, Cynthia thrived in identifying and nurturing talent within European startups.

In 2016, I became an early employee at Rollbox (later acquired by Personio), taking on the role of Payroll Product Manager. I was responsible for developing payroll APIs for various countries, including Mexico, Colombia, Germany, Spain, and the UK, and worked on strategic partnerships with companies like BambooHR, Factorial, and Personio. Concurrently, Cynthia made her mark at companies such as Checkout, Revolut, Curve, Tymit, and Sequence, building and nurturing teams that propelled these organisations forward.

We frequently discussed the HR/People Ops landscape, growing increasingly frustrated with the fragmented and complex tools available. We shared a belief that HR, Payroll, and Finance teams deserved better—tools designed with their specific needs in mind, from an insider perspective.

After engaging with over 150 People Ops, Payroll, and Finance leaders, we've identified several critical issues with existing solutions:

1. Dependency on Payroll Aggregators: Many UK companies rely on third-party payroll services, facing delays from slow calculations, processing times, and team dependencies. At Givver, we focus on reducing both external and internal dependencies to streamline operational processes.
   
   

2. Manual Verification Processes: The reliance on manual solutions and spreadsheets for payroll verification continues to be a significant bottleneck. Givver is committed to replacing these outdated practices with automated systems designed to proactively detect and resolve potential discrepancies.
   
   

3. Data Fragmentation: People data is spread across multiple systems and those systems do not talk to each other. The absence of a centralized data source results in fragmented information and manual errors. Givver aims to create a unified source of truth, thereby eliminating inconsistencies and improving efficiency.
   
   

4. Lack of Standardised Processes: The challenge of managing employees and contractors across different countries often means dealing with multiple systems and processes, which can lead to errors and inefficiencies. Givver strives to implement standardised, streamlined processes across the board.
   
   

5. People Debt: People debt arises when companies overlook the importance of developing a robust support infrastructure, resulting in employees feeling undervalued and an imbalanced focus on external achievements over internal team development. Givver plays a crucial role in mitigating people debt by offering scalable, dynamic solutions that evolve alongside startups and scale-ups, ensuring that as your business grows, your team feels supported and empowered.

   
   

Thus, Givver was born—a centralised platform designed to foster collaboration among teams, streamline internal processes, and empower companies to focus on their people and their core mission of growth.

Our journey as founders has been deeply rooted in collaboration, resilience, continuous learning, and the invaluable support of incredible people around us. Since 2022, we have been part of the Sie Ventures, led by the remarkable Triin and Jess. From the beginning, we have aligned with the Sie mission, as diversity and equality resonate with our core values, and the Sie Team has played a pivotal role in Givver’s development, providing essential advice, support, and networks that have enabled us to navigate challenges and accelerate our growth beyond expectations.

Our beta customers have been essential to Givver's journey in crafting the platform and building the next generation of Global People Ops, starting to turn the HR tech industry on its head. There's immense satisfaction in building a platform that both Finance and HR departments love.

But our vision extends far beyond mere business growth. At Givver, we're on a thrilling journey to transform the business landscape. We aim to revolutionize how businesses operate by automating the tedious, non-essential tasks, thus allowing companies to concentrate on what truly counts—creating nurturing and engaging workplaces.