About

Pooja Samuel(She/her), Founder

Hi, hello! I’m Pooja , founder of Colere and a people and culture leader with over seven years of experience helping early-stage companies build thoughtful, people-first foundations for growth.

The through line of my career has always been serving clients through relationship building. It began in high school at an esthetics school, where I built lasting connections with clients. Later, I helped grow a coworking space with a pretty unique model, where the focus was on creating a strong, connected member community. That same commitment to service eventually led me into HR, where I found that supporting “internal clients”, employees, was a natural extension of the work I’d always loved. Whether designing equitable systems, enhancing employee experience, or partnering with leadership, my focus has consistently been on people and the connections that help them thrive.

Through Colere, I carry this forward by helping early-stage companies scale with clarity, care, and intention. I believe HR should be a catalyst for culture, belonging, and business success, not just a compliance function. My work spans talent acquisition, total rewards, employee experience, and organizational design, with an emphasis on building strategies that grow with a company rather than against it.

At Colere, the goal is simple: partner with founders to establish strong roots, design scalable systems, and nurture inclusive cultures that create lasting success for both people and businesses.

Outside of work, I enjoy exploring new restaurants or cooking at home, investing in my long-term wellbeing through strength training, spending time with my two orange cats, traveling, enjoying a moderately fast car, dancing around to hip hop, and unwinding with a classic 90s or 2000s sitcom.