We acquire companies with real promise.
Then we build the business to match.
Our focus is on companies shaping the future of work. We bring the operating experience, expertise and network to take things further.
Companies
Where we’ve acquired, and where we’ve backed founders we believe in.
The People People Group
Membership platform for HR & talent
North America’s largest vetted community of HR, Talent and People Ops professionals, with 6,000+ members. They get fast answers from peers, find roles, and meet at events all year.
Agentnoon
Workforce planning
Turned slow, spreadsheet-bound workforce planning into a visual, collaborative tool, so leaders could see the impact of org changes in real time. Now part of Dayforce.
Runner
AI agents for operations
Teaches AI agents how your team handles a process, tests them against past cases until they get it right, then deploys one for every customer.
Purposely
Employee volunteering
Helps companies create and run employee volunteer programs that lift engagement and build lasting connections with nonprofits in their local community.
From a founder
“Tim helped me turn The People People Group into what I’d always hoped it could be. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.”
A note from the founder
Hi, I’m Tim. I’ve spent my career helping emerging companies grow into scalable businesses, both as a founder and an operator.
When a young company stalls, the instinct is often that money is the constraint. In my experience, capital is rarely what’s missing. More of it can do more harm than good: it papers over the real issues and funds side quests the business couldn’t otherwise afford. It makes a company “bigger” before it makes it better.
The first customers tell you you’re onto something. They don’t tell you what to build next, how to serve them profitably or how to reach and serve many more. That’s the gap I call business-model fit: working out where the economics make sense, how they could evolve and what the company could become. It takes experience and judgement to see that path, then focus and discipline to build it.
There are small companies everywhere with that first proof of promise. Most never make the leap.
I started Atomic8 to change those odds, one company at a time.
Our backers
Backed by people who’ve built companies.
Atomic8 is backed by venture firms and experienced private investors. Their capital helps us grow, and we regularly turn to them for candid advice from people who’ve built businesses themselves.
What we look for.
Revenue is optional. The rest mostly isn’t.
People already use it
Real usage and early retention. Not a deck, not a waitlist.
It changes how people work
Hiring, managing, planning, belonging. Our lane, and we stay in it.
A founder who knows the customer
You can describe who buys, why, and what they complain about.
A founder in it for the long run
You care what happens to the product and the people after the deal, not just what the deal pays.
Something hard to copy
A name customers ask for, a community that keeps coming back, or a corner of the market others overlook.
Room to scale
A market with real headroom, where capital and better operations turn into growth.
Questions founders ask.
Do you only acquire?
Acquiring is our focus: we take high-potential companies and bring them to scale. Occasionally we invest in or advise founders we believe in, as we have with Agentnoon, Runner and Purposely.
What stage and size do you look at?
High-potential companies shaping the future of work, usually with between $0 and $50,000 in all-time revenue. Revenue isn’t required; real usage of the product is.
What happens to the founder and the team?
Founders choose whether to stay, step back or advise. We believe a business should be able to thrive without its founder, but if you want to stay, we’ll make that work.
How long does it take?
Thirty days from first conversation to signed documents. If a deal can’t come together in that time, it probably isn’t the right one.
What happens next
Send a short note
Fill in our short form with a few lines on what you’ve built and who uses it.
Hear back from me
A personal reply within two days, whether or not it’s a fit.
Talk it through
A conversation about you, the business, what you’ve tried so far and what we think it could become. If there’s a fit, we’ll follow with a proposal or letter of intent.
Built something people love? Tell us about it.
A short note is plenty. You’ll get a personal reply within two days.