Most founders think HR is just hiring and firing. Adam Reidel has spent 25 years proving that belief is one of the most expensive mistakes a growing company can make.

As a senior People & HR executive who has built HR organizations inside fast-growing, complex companies from startup to scale, Adam breaks down exactly what happens when founders treat HR as an afterthought and what it takes to fix it before it breaks the business.

In this episode, we cover the first 90-day playbook for a broken HR function, why salary compression quietly destroys morale, how to scale globally without creating compliance disasters, the real state of DEIB in 2026, and why ageism is now the most common hiring discrimination nobody talks about.

About Ready Set Exec: Founded by Managing Partners Patrick Shea and John Pezoulas, Read ...