Who we are
The Brave Work Project provides fractional HR and business development support for organizations who need outsourced HR so that they can stay focused on building and scaling their products and services.
We partner with growing companies who need real, hands-on HR support but aren’t ready to hire a full-time internal team or who need support while a team member is on leave.
Our work is practical, embedded, and operational. We write policies. We build performance frameworks. We handle onboarding, documentation, and manager support. We take work off leadership’s plate so companies can keep moving.
But we don’t do it on autopilot.
HOW WE WORK WITH CLIENTS
Most of our clients come to us saying some version of:
“We need HR—but not a full-time hire yet.”
So that’s where we start.
As a fractional partner, we step in to:
Stabilize people ops
Clean up what’s overdue or unclear
Build the foundational systems growing companies need
Support managers without turning them into therapists
Reduce the background noise of people problems
As trust builds, we also help leadership teams see:
Where systems are creating unnecessary load
Which issues are urgent vs. structural
How to scale without normalizing burnout
No forced timelines.
No sweeping culture programs.
No fixing what you’re not ready to fix.
WHAT MAKES BRAVE WORK DIFFERENT?
We do the work you already know you need—through a lens that most HR never brings.
Traditional HR often optimizes for:
Compliance first risk avoidance
Tsk-tsking at people to get things done
Process for process’s sake
Brave Work optimizes for:
Clarity over complexity
Systems that reduce friction
Policies that protect people and leadership
Structures that scale without eroding trust
Everything we build is informed by an anti-burnout, systems-aware approach—not because we’re trying to run culture initiatives, but because we know that poorly designed systems come with a cost.
You don’t need HR that tells everyone what to do.
You need HR that builds supportive people operations infrastructure from the inside, out.
KATE SWOBODA, FOUNDER OF THE BRAVE WORK PROJECT
Hey there, I’m Kate, founder of The Brave Work Project. I’ve spent years working inside growing organizations to help build people systems that actually work in real life.
I’ve led and supported people operations across startups and established companies, doing the unglamorous, necessary work: writing policies, building performance frameworks, supporting managers, handling onboarding, and making sure companies don’t accidentally create chaos as they scale.
I’m calm in complexity, direct when things are muddy, and deeply allergic to performative HR.
I bring a burnout-informed, systems-aware lens to everything I do—not as a culture initiative or leadership trend, but as a practical safeguard. Poorly designed people systems don’t just slow companies down; they quietly exhaust teams, strain managers, and create problems leaders end up paying for later.
My approach is straightforward: I take real HR work off your plate, build structure where it’s needed, and help you grow without turning your company into a bureaucracy—or burning out the people who make it run.
The credentials: I have a Masters in Psychology, a PCC from the International Coaching Federation, and both my SHRM-CP credential from the Society for Human Resource Management and my PHR credential from the Human Resources Certification Institute.
My superpowers include: Knowing when a meeting could be an email; helping people articulate what they need when they can’t quite find the words to explain it; and helping stressed out business leadership get focused on the priorities that matter, most.