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FNDN
• Building startup compensation practices that clear, fair and competitive.

FNDN Series
• Insights and interviews showcasing startup people and compensation excellence.

Startup People Summit
• The 1-day virtual summit delivering the playbook on modern practices for building and scaling your startup people practice.

How to Become a HR Consultant
• Sharing every detail of taking a business from zero to $500k in revenue per year.

Matt McFarlane

In 2023 I left my job. In 2024 I started a HR consultancy. In 2025 I earned more money than I've ever made in my life.
 
If you're questioning whether the traditional career path is right for you, you're increasingly not alone.
 
Ever since starting my business, I have had People professionals reach out asking me how they can do the same.
 
I wrote a piece at the end of 2024 that is still my most read thing ever.
- Ten's of thousands of reads
- Dozens of emails and messages
- Who knows how many calls.
 
So I decided to take this as a sign that more people are either doing this, or interested — but they want to know how.
 
I don't have the playbook btw.
But I know what I did to get where I am today.
 
I know what worked for me, and I'm about to start sharing that in deeply transparent detail — down to every dollar I spend and earn. Where, when, and why.
 
My latest newsletter is here, and it's called 'How to Become a HR Consultant'.
 
The first edition to follow-up that original piece is coming out Sunday.
 
Get it hot off the press here: https://lnkd.in/gCrNXM-n

Building startup compensation practices 👉 Compensation Philosophy + Job levels + Salary bands.

Here's every salary I ever earned, and the 2 things it taught me companies get wrong with how they pay.
 
Job 1: HR Assistant — $50,000
Job 2: HR Coordinator — $57,000
Job 3: HR Coordinator — $60,000
Job 4: HR Business Partner — $68,000
Job 5: People & Culture Advisor — $66,000
Job 6: Senior People Operations Advisor — $95,000
Job 7: People & Culture Manager — $88,000
Job 8: People & Culture Director — $165,000
Job 9: Head of People — $150,000
Job 10: Senior Director of People Operations — $170,000
Job 11: Director of People Operations — $200,000
Job 12: Senior Director of People Experience — $230,000
 
When I reflect on these roles and the salary I earned, I think of two things.
 
1. Money definitely isn't everything (I took pay cuts for jobs).
 
2. I wouldn't have achieved the heights in salary I did, if I didn't change employer — frequently.
 
Time and time again, I see companies get this wrong by doing the following things:
They don't realise that salary gets people in the door, but growth keeps them there.

Their pay practices for current people doesn't keep pace with the pay practices for new people.
 
I took lower paying jobs because I felt like I'd stagnated. 

'One step back, two steps forward' was my thinking.
 
I also took jobs because I got fed up with 1-2% pay increase year-on-year, when the market (and my value) were moving faster.
 
The two work in tandem.
 
Money isn't everything, but that doesn't mean you can take your eye off it.
 
What role does salary play for you in your career?

Here's the roadmap every Head of People needs to grow their compensation practices and scale their startup (incl. some free resources).
 
Compensation is easily one of the most critical enablers of your business, which means it's a critical focus for you as Head of People.
 
Here is the maturity model you can follow for growing your compensation practices and scaling your company.
 
<50 people:
 
You're likely not in need of a lot of structure, but you do need to know the salary you have to offer to get people in the door.
 
– Here's 20+ free compensation benchmarks to start pricing those roles: https://lnkd.in/gnHDSVt3
 
50-100 people:
 
You're starting to mature and you need to define how you want to pay as an organisation.

You need a compensation philosophy to define your market position.
 
– Here's 20+ compensation philosophies you can use as inspiration for yours: https://lnkd.in/gSSHpyqV
 
– Need help actually building it? Here's the only playbook you'll need: https://lnkd.in/gNNch7m4
 
You need a job level framework to help you define and plan your org.
 
– Read how to develop one here: https://lnkd.in/gZZkPDVU
 
🪴 100-250 people:
 
Time to get serious about how you benchmark, and use something more robust to find the right salary.
 
– Here's every benchmark provider you need to know about: https://lnkd.in/gWNcYWN6
 
– But there's a lot, so if you need help actually choosing one, here's the playbook for that: https://lnkd.in/gQuMuMc4
 
🌲 250+ people:
 
You're getting to the meaty part of compensation management, with a significant cohort and higher expectations.
 
Time to consider getting out of spreadsheets and leveraging software that can help you administer compensation fairly and accurately.
 
Consider the following tools:
• Some of the vendors in the previous step handle compensation management, like Ravio or Pave
• HRIS like HiBob have a great integrated compensation module
 
Or, use a point solution like:
– CandorIQ, or
– Stello Inc.
 
Which stage are you at and what has been most important for you?

It's the start of the year. If you're like most of us, you're starting to think about what you get paid and how to have that conversation with your manager.
 
Just in time for 2026, I jumped on the This is Work podcast with Shelley Johnson to chat about everything to do with:
- Your pay,
- Your benefits, and
- How to actually have a conversation about your value (oof)

We tackle a heap of other topics too, including job hugging (what even is it?), why it's dangerous for employee and companies alike, and crucially, what everyone can do about it.
 
We also talk about why pay conversations are such a drag and how to make them that much more manageable.
 
If you're questioning your worth, or your employees are questioning theirs AND you want to know how to deal with it, this will be worth a listen.
 
And you're in luck, This is Work is on YouTube and Spotify, so if you tire of seeing my face (understandable) you can switch to my dulcet tone's, instead.
 
Spotify: 
https://lnkd.in/giZY9pAB 

YouTube: 
https://lnkd.in/gPwtG5fh

Skills based compensation is becoming more popular, but there’s one skill I’m yet to see, and its paid more than AI engineers.

Put your hand up if you know how to fold a fitted sheet? 

That’s right. You don’t. 

And if you think you do. You don’t. 

But the people with this skill set are arguably worth top 1% compensation. 

Check this out. 

I’d pay $100 for someone to fold my fitted sheet. 

That takes them max a minute (probably 10 seconds realistically) 

$100 a minute 
x 60 minutes an hour
x 38 hours per week
x 52 weeks a year 

= $12.48 million per year. 

So stop trying to climb the corporate ladder like a schmuck. 

Learn how to fold a fitted sheet.

If you're a People person and in Melbourne (or going to be) on the 12th of February, I'd love to meet you IRL.
 
I'll be speaking at HiBob's launch of In Good Company — a community for those in the People profession, spanning all geographies and industries.
 
You'll also be treated to a fireside chat with Elise Morris and Jodi Rosenthal, discussing the key trends shaping the People profession (and how to adapt).
 
So if you're in Melbourne on the 12th, register here: https://lnkd.in/gmVsXhh3
 
If you're not in Melbourne but interested in the community, check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gbUWzCZu
 
Hope to see you there!

Me coming into that meeting on Friday afternoon

There's 7 steps you can use to improve your problem solving by 430% and productivity by 500%. Oh, and it has absolutely nothing to do with AI.

You've heard of it before, but I doubt you often *actually* get there.

It's called being in flow state.

And in the upcoming edition of the FNDN Series, legendary flow state practitioner Dave Murphy is breaking down exactly how you can get there.

Dave has helped companies like Blackbird, Boston Consulting Group and TikTok leverage flow state for their success.

And I can attest to this myself. 

Creating an environment that enables flow state is exactly how I've built a solopreneur business that earns me double what my last salary was.

I credit a lot of that to the things Dave is going to cover in this edition.

Head over to FNDN Series to subscribe, and it'll be in inbox for you to read over your Sunday morning coffee.

One of the things I’ve inadvertently started this year is resetting my YouTube feed to only insightful or helpful videos. 

A couple of weeks ago I switched from my personal account to my work account, and suddenly my whole feed was almost entirely videos about things like:
- improving productivity, or 
- using AI better, or
- being healthier. 

All stuff I want to be focus on improving. 

So now I’ve set myself a goal. How long can I stay on this account only. 

Can I fill my time by learning something instead of doomscrolling or mindless entertainment?

Can I watch deeper videos instead of shorts (this one will be the hardest). 

Don’t get me wrong, I know this probably sounds business wanky, and fuelled by a mix of start of the year energy and hubris, but I’m keen to see if I can keep it rolling. 

How long do you think I’ll last?

Safe Places for Children

Strategic Leadership: Develop and execute IT strategies aligned with the organisation's goals and objectives.
Team Management: Oversee a diverse team of IT professionals, providing guidance, mentoring, and support for their growth and development.
Budget Management: Create and manage IT budgets, ensuring cost-effective allocation of resources for projects and operations.
Technology Roadmap: Define and maintain the IT roadmap, keeping technology systems and infrastructure up to date with industry trends and best practices.
Program Management: Lead IT and business projects from inception to completion, including planning, execution, monitoring, and reporting.
Vendor and Stakeholder Management: Cultivate and manage relationships with vendors, partners, and internal stakeholders to ensure successful collaboration and project outcomes.
Security and Compliance: Implement and enforce cybersecurity measures and ensure compliance with relevant regulations and standards.
IT Governance: Establish and maintain IT policies, procedures, and standards to ensure effective governance and risk management.
Performance Monitoring: Monitor the performance of IT systems and services, identifying and addressing issues proactively.
Continuous Improvement: Drive a culture of continuous improvement within the IT department, optimizing processes and services to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

General Manager Information Technology

- Responsible for the successful program delivery of NextGen(ERP Solution to replace HR, Finance, Recruitment & Content Management systems)
- Responsible for the delivery and ongoing development of the IT function;
- Responsible for essential IT operations, including systems, security tools, applications support, cloud and on-premise infrastructure;
- Responsible for maintaining hardware, software and licensing registers to ensure they are fully maintained, accurate and available for audit, compliance and reporting purposes;
- Ensures a customer-oriented business partnering approach to the organisation to enable effective and efficient quality delivery of services to customers;
- Ensures IT is an enabler to the organisation, setting, monitoring and reporting on service levels, performance, governance and risk for both for internal teams and external IT vendor partners;
- Ensure integrity in IT support services, compliance with laws and regulations;
- Ensures IT security is robust and comply with the laws and regulations;
- Ensures IT projects (both internal teams and external partners) is planned, monitored, reported and delivered through the principles of project and change management and achieves the goals of the stakeholder and the delivery of the overall IT roadmap;
- Contributes to the design, development and implementation of the organisations business intelligence function to deliver credible enterprise data and reporting to enables business insights, informs decisions and priorities.

Information Technology Manager

Magical Getaway Foundation

As a Board Member of the Magical Getaway Foundation, I have the privilege of playing a pivotal role in shaping the direction and impact of our organisation. My responsibilities include providing strategic guidance, participating in critical decision-making processes, ensuring fiscal responsibility, and advocating for our mission to bring hope and transformation to Australian children and families facing adversity. I am honoured to contribute my expertise and passion to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those we serve.

Board Member

FTMO

Proprietary Foreign Exchange and Equity Trader

Domino's Pizza Enterprises Limited

•	Manage a delivery team of high performing Engineers
•	Manage the availability and reliability of Domino’s Australian Network, Storage, Virtualisation, Desktop, Mobility, Telephony, Audio Visual, Cloud and Access Management Services. 
•	Leading all Infrastructure 24x7 critical incident events to ensure a timely and successful service restoration. 
•	Translate business objectives into work streams, aligning technology and business strategy. 
•	Manage the roadmap for the team’s domain, aligned with the business priorities. 
•	Ensure that team purpose and objectives are clear and linked to the broader IT Strategy and Department roadmap. 
•	Work closely with Iteration Managers, Project Managers and other Delivery Managers to deliver initiatives utilising appropriate structured methodologies. 
•	Coach and empower team members to stay accountable for delivery, risk and issue management while assisting them by removing blockers. 
•	Provide coaching, mentoring and professional development opportunities to ensure all human single points of failure are removed using cross-skilling and different role exposure for team members in line with career development plans. 
•	Develop a team environment that fosters engaged team members and high performance in a diverse and potentially distributed team.
•	Proactively monitor, measure, manage and address performance issues with team members. 
•	Build strong relationships with internal customers, stakeholders, suppliers and other teams to ensure accountable deliverables meet expectations with time, scope and cost. 
•	Provide technical advice and thought leadership to senior management and customers with a view to influence business strategy, deliver technical solutions that drives innovation through business outcomes. 
•	Manage team operations, including portfolio planning, resource workload, financial governance, processes/procedures and risk management.

ANZ Infrastructure Engineering Manager

Suncorp Group

•	Project-manage the delivery of IT solutions including the building, testing and implementing of solutions, upgrades and developments.  

•	Provide high level service support to a unique customer base consisting of the CEO, Board Members and other executive management representatives. This includes the management, planning, development and testing of the IT environment for key management events such as half year/full year financial result release, conference management for up to 200 customers and key board level presentations.  

•	Provide exceptional customer service through SmartBar engagement channel which provides face to face IT support in 4 CBD locations

•	Plan and manage the workflow including the achievement of daily and ad-hoc projects, leading and supervising a team of up to 18+ IT employees across 3 states. 

•	Manage executive level project and ad-hoc support with responsive turnaround time and a consistent focus on innovative strategies and solutions. 

•	Accountable for policy development and the establishment of key SLA’s that influence the overall customer service delivery and levels expected across the team. 

•	Team leadership with a focus on goal development, training needs analysis and building a fully competent team with the ability to support daily and project management needs. 

•	Effective management of external vendors and the negotiation of service support to align with enterprise needs and linking the user interface between these stakeholders. 

•	Generate and prepare a fortnightly incident report and identify key trends to isolate issues and create innovative solutions. 

•	Represent the department and provide advisory service to a broad customer base and business services, ensuring contemporary and responsive IT solutions and initiatives are recommended, scoped and implemented.

Group Executive & Premium Support Delivery Manager

ADICTS Entertainment

ADICTS is an emerging dance music promotions team focused on providing the ultimate entertainment experience. Responsible for the mammoth showcase that is their premier club night series, Breaks & Enter, ADICTS’ profile is rapidly growing in notoriety. With a strong foundation in the Australian dance music community, ADICTS is committed to becoming a prominent force across the globe.

The core production team comprises of three DJs and a technical media publishing subject matter expert with backgrounds in engineering, sales & marketing, information technology, printing and graphics design.

ADICTS formed in June 2006, the brainchild of five friends, who realised that there was much room for improvement in the delivery of dance music events in Australia and that between them, they had most of the skills, assets, affiliations, ideas and drive to be responsible for this advancement. Thus what was then, ADICT Crew, was born – an acronym for its members first names: Anthony Radaza, David Kuczynski, Iyan Barry, Chris Verner and Tate Brammer. Their final member – Sang Pham. joined Sept 2006, the team was aptly and appropriately renamed to “ADICTS”.

ADICTS launched their first club night event, Breaks & Enter, together in December 2006, and since then, the boys have taken the Brisbane Dance scene by storm, drawing records crowds to BarZuka and then blowing away all other competition in the breakbeat scene after a move to the GPO Hotel and a weekly format. Half way through 2008, ADICTS shook the local scene announcing the last ever Breaks & Enter party at the GPO Hotel - a massive party that will go down as one of Brisbane's finest broken beat events. A month and a half later, the night re-opened at its new home and returned breakbeat to its Australian origin, the Empire Moon Bar with a twice a month format. Since it’s inception, Breaks & Enter has consistently drawn mass audiences and has hosted a plethora of popular international, interstate and local artists.

Owner / Director

Little Jumbo

Day to day business management 

a)	Stock control and cost cutting
b)	Meeting set wages and purchasing budgets for bar
c)	Staff stock wastage
d)	Balancing of all revenue gained by the venue
e)	Sourcing techniques to reduce costs with out reducing service
f)	Checklist compilation and management-Systemization of procedures and adherence
g)	Applying Customer to staff ratios at most efficient and optimum levels
h)	Oversee function attendances
i)	Convey Jorge Culture and Experience through staff to customer
j)	Assisting in achieving revenue targets and wages targets
  	
Guide, motivate, mentor train and manage team

a.	Carry out all house rules and standards consistently and in professional manner
b.	Desig and deliver relevant training in keeping in the standards set by the business 
c.	Monitor/ supervise/ liase with Assistant Managers 
d.	Staff motivation and attitude 
e.	Maintain, controlling and setting standards so as all staff all expectations and objectives 
f.	Ensure  whole establishment is presented at the level expected at all times – including cleaning, general running and maintenance of the business, all menu compilations and quality control of product (including food and alcohol)

Build and strengthen relationships with customers and suppliers 

a.	Customer service and liaison
b.	Point of call for all suppliers and ensuring a positive relationship 
c.	Set the standards of customer service for other staff to emulate 
d.	Consistently devolving new technique to increase levels of new business

Marketing & Sales

a.	Marketing and advertising of the venue
b.	Public Relations – Required to be the face of Little Jumbo
c.	Selling the venue in general
d.	Database Management (friends & fans)
e.	Special Event Planning
f.	Function Planning
g.	Marketing Support
h.	Networking and liasing with clients/potential clients
i.	Weekly newsletters
j.	Corporate functions and special events
k.	Strategies for increasing customer base
l.	Regular communications with media

General Manager

Duties:
•	Be completely knowledgeable in all retail / corporate products.
•	Achieve individual sales targets of 130 joins and other call center metrics (KPI’s)
•	Take ownership of sales leads, setting goals and tracking performance against these.
•	Pro-actively share successful techniques with peers and fully participate in all team activities
•	Member of the committee to restructure the employee commission program

Achievements:
•	Top 5 sales of November 2005
•	# 1 Sales for December 2005 
•	# 2 Sales for January 2006
•	Top 5 sales of April, May, June, July, August 2006

Direct Solutions Consultant

Intertranz Container Lines Inc

•	Establish business relations with foreign freight forwarding companies
•	Obtain and maintain large accounts
•	Give direction to the marketing department and provide training for new applicants
•	Devise  entry level testing program for new applicants and wrote detailed training manuals used to better develop not only their selling skills but also to better familiarize them with local and overseas clients 
•	study  current market trends
•	Determine international rate fluctuations and give advised accordingly on what actions should be taken
•	Develop and hold marketing seminars
•	Travel overseas to meet with foreign agents
•	Perform regular evaluation of company employees and made recommendations on actions to be taken pertaining to tests results
•	Submit  detailed weekly report regarding all sales activities inclusive of profit/loss, account status and potential client targets

International Business Development Manager

As an accomplished IT executive, I bring a strategic approach to leading complex technological initiatives. With a career spanning several dynamic industries including banking, insurance, telecommunications, quick service restaurants (QSR), and shipping, I have honed my expertise in delivering enterprise-level IT solutions and infrastructure optimisation. My approach is deeply rooted in thought leadership, where I continuously seek to combine innovative strategies with practical applications in the IT landscape.

Currently, I am leveraging my extensive background in a non-profit environment, focusing on utilising technology to drive organisational efficiency and impact. I excel in managing large-scale projects and programs, ensuring alignment with broader business goals and delivering tangible commercial results. My leadership style is transformative, emphasising team development, coaching, and fostering engagement to build high-performing teams.

Key to my role is the implementation of quality assurance and continuous improvement practices, ensuring a responsive and agile IT infrastructure. I am adept in areas such as infrastructure management, cloud transition, and IT optimisation, aligning them with organisational policies and processes. My skill set extends to workflow planning and execution, stakeholder engagement, system building and testing, as well as analytics and problem-solving.

I am recognised for my strategic leadership and business acumen, having developed a reputation for influential negotiation and the ability to drive change across various business environments. My commitment to excellence is reflected in my adherence to Quality ISO: 9000 standards and my proven track record in project management and program delivery.

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Matt McFarlane

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The Battle

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Iyan B.

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