We power businesses that power the gig economy.
Recruiting software that’s as flexible as the flexible workforce.
What’s in the name?
Crelate – Pronounced /krēˈlāt/
The heart of recruiting is relationship building. Our name reflects this belief.
Create + Relationships = Crelate
Our mission
Crelate was founded to help talent-focused businesses build relationships with an increasingly dynamic global workforce. We believe great things happen when people and business come together around a shared interest and mutual benefit. We build software that reflects our shared values of collaboration, transparency and equality to help everyone connect with better opportunities.
Crelate’s mission is to grow lasting prosperity for all through the empowerment of entrepreneurship and employment.
Our core values
Prosperity Engine
We are on a mission to be the most customer-centric talent engagement and recruiting software solution provider on the planet.
Whether we know it or not, we’re all gig workers now. Talent mobility is at an all-time high and the recruiting profession is rapidly adapting to meet this challenge; recruiting software needs to do the same.
– Aaron Elder, CEO of Crelate
Our Management Team
Board of Directors
Aaron Elder
Co-founder, CEO
Joe Onofrio
Five Elms
David Thacher
Product & Market Advisor
CEO & Co-Founder
Aaron leads Crelate’s customer-centric approach to product design. A self-taught developer, experienced consultant and visual arts major; Aaron brings a blend of design, technical skills and customer empathy to the products he creates.
Crelate is Aaron’s 4th successful product. The first was sold to Microsoft in 2001, where he led the Application + UX development teams for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 1.x to 3.0. After, Aaron and his co-founders, started a technical consultancy, which grew quickly to almost 150 strong. During this time, Aaron experienced first hand the challenges of recruiting and building a talent-based business. This business was sold to Avanade in 2010.
Leadership Team
After more than 20 years of successfully building high-growth technology companies, Jason is proud to join Crelate as its President. Jason will be focused on creating an environment that allows entrepreneurial, results-focused team members to thrive. Jason’s passion for people continues to grow, and he is inspired by the growth potential that Crelate offers. Growth for Crelate employees, Crelate customers, and the millions of lives the Crelate talent platform will positively impact in the future.
Kyle is a CPA with more than 20 years’ experience in accounting, corporate finance, and capital markets. Most of that experience has been spent leading teams within rapidly growing SaaS businesses. Kyle joined Crelate excited about the traction it had, the trajectory looking forward, and opportunity to further its mission to grow lasting prosperity through the empowerment of entrepreneurship and employment.
James grew his leadership style from his time in the U.S. Army, and has established a very collaborative environment for our Product Team to thrive in. With over 12 years of Project Management and Solution Architecture experience supporting enterprise customers, James has ingrained two traits into Crelate’s culture; A strong customer empathy, and an insatiable desire for improvement. Under James’ vision, Crelate is a very smart and intuitive application and our customers enjoy receiving new features at a release pace unrivaled in the industry.
Chris is a growth operator with 10+ years experience in the SaaS industry. He is responsible for overall sales strategy, go-to-market implementation, and day-to-day sales operations for Crelate. Chris has spent his years in both early-stage start-ups and larger enterprises. Chris is a people-first leader, with a passion for developing those around him and driving others to reach their full potential for themselves and Crelate.
Chris Hesson is a veteran of the recruiting and staffing industry, with deep experience consulting agency owners on their ideal tech stack, process development, and overall agency operations. Prior to his role as a trainer and consultant at MRI, Chris ran his own recruiting desk for multiple years, and worked in-house supporting technology initiatives for staffing firms. Chris now leads the Professional Services team with Crelate. He consults with new and prospective customers on how to make their onboarding and data migration seamless, as well as an opportunity to implement meaningful improvement to their existing processes.
Sarah is a customer-centric, results-driven leader with a passion of building software that helps put people to work. Throughout her career, Sarah has worked in small start-ups and large enterprise corporations. This experience combined has given her a concrete knowledge base of training and processes while still having flexibility and agility to take quick actions. As a former VP of Operations in the staffing industry, her real-world experience, industry expertise, and drive to improve the way people do business have directly and positively influenced our product development strategy and roadmap. Sarah is motivated by enhancing the customer experience and fostering a “leave it better than you found it” mentality throughout her team.
Since joining Crelate in 2016, Ian has taken the reigns on optimizing the customer experience while continually demonstrating value across both services and product. Through team alignment and scaling processes to improve revenue outcomes, Ian empowers his team to optimize each customer’s journey. Ian is motivated by growth and delivering increasing value to our customer base, while mentoring and guiding others to keep the engine of prosperity moving.
Pache is a dynamic, people-focused HR professional with progressive hands-on experience across the full range of HR verticals. Adept at building scalable people programs and advancing inclusive cultures of compassion, representation, and inclusion, Pache believes in extreme ownership and is highly resourceful, scrappy, a creative + analytic thinker, and effective problem-solver. I am passionate about the work I do in HR and love to build for impact. Pache’s goal is to always leave it better than she found it, and to enable and inspire the people around her to think big and push the box on what is possible so they can do the best work of their lives.
Lisa joins Crelate with over 15 years’ experience leading teams through rapid and complex changing environments. Skilled in effective and efficient change management strategies, Lisa brings with her a strong background in leading and developing teams through various growth stages in financial, medical, and hospitality industries. Lisa graduated with an MBA from the University of Phoenix and also earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Nevada, Reno.
Proud Member of
Proud Supporter of
TeamsCode
We’re proud to sponsor TeamsCode, a student run nonprofit focused on encouraging high schoolers to pursue Computer Science.
Learn more about TeamsCode and the great work they are doing here.
Chrysalis
Chrysalis is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a pathway to self-sufficiency for homeless and low-income individuals by providing the resources and support needed to find and retain employment.
Learn more about Chrysalis and the great work they are doing here.
Hopelink
Hopelink is a nonprofit organization working to end poverty. Each year, Hopelink helps more than 64,000 people through programs that provide stability and the skills needed to exit poverty.
Learn more about hopelink and the great work they are doing here.
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