Rick Hammell, SPHR

Rick Hammell is a Chicago-based serial entrepreneur, investor, and author with nearly 20 years of experience in HR technology and global workforce management. He is best known for pioneering the world's first 100% Direct Employer of Record (EOR) model, which he built into a multinational enterprise before stepping back to pursue new ventures. He is currently Founder and CEO of Helios, an AI-powered global payroll and HR platform. He identifies himself professionally as a "Founder | Chairman | Investor | Visionary | Author" — making his investor posture explicit and consistent across public channels.

• Pre-2015
  HR Practitioner — Director of HR & COO roles

  Began career in HR management and operations. Gained formative experience managing a U.S. government contractor's workforce in the Middle East, where he personally encountered the complexities of cross-border payroll — the seed of his first company.
• 2015
  Founded Elements Global Services (from his dining room table)

  Identified a market gap: no Direct EOR model existed. Built Elements from 10 employees into 300+ staff across 18 offices in 15 countries. Secured a $20M Series A from Guidepost Growth Equity. The company became one of the fastest-growing, most profitable EOR businesses in the sector.
• 2022
  Elements rebrands to Atlas — Hammell remains Founder & CEO

  Under his leadership, Atlas expanded to 19 offices and operations in 160+ countries. Named "Employer of Record Company of the Year" by the Global Payroll Association (2023).
• Aug 2023
  Steps down as Atlas CEO → Executive Chairman

  Retained majority shareholder status. Publicly announced focus shift: "investing in new ventures that will help companies compete in a borderless world." This is a pivotal signal — he was actively seeking new investment opportunities at this moment.
• 2023–
  Founded Helios Global Payments Solutions

  His third company. An AI-powered, all-in-one global payroll, HR management, and payments platform. Closed a $15.5M seed round in March 2025, backed by U.S., Canadian, European, and Asian investors, plus private angel investors and family office investors.
• Ongoing
  Founded Securities.io — Active investor and futurist

  Also founded Securities.io, a platform focused on investing in cutting-edge technologies reshaping entire sectors. Describes himself as a "futurist" dedicated to exploring how emerging innovations will shape the world.

Hammell's public positioning consistently pairs "Founder" with "Investor" — this is not incidental. When he stepped down from the Atlas CEO role in August 2023, he explicitly stated his intent to "invest in new solutions addressing how global businesses manage diverse workforces and fill gaps in the service-enabled technology world." His founding of Securities.io is further confirmation that investing in emerging, category-defining companies is a deliberate part of his portfolio strategy.

His industry expertise spans financial services, energy, life sciences, technology, government, nonprofits, private equity, and venture capital organizations. While his primary domain is HR and global payments, his investment thesis through Securities.io skews toward technology that reshapes entire sectors — a description that maps directly onto what Dynery is doing in the dining and local commerce ecosystem.

Critically, Hammell has lived the founder journey from inception to scale to partial exit — which means he understands the pre-revenue, pilot-phase risk profile well. He is not a traditional institutional investor expecting an immediate return profile; he is a founder-investor who backs vision and people as much as metrics.

Hammell's backstory is foundational to understanding him as a person and investor. His 2021 book, Getting Sh*t Done!: The Millennial CEO, documents his rise from homelessness at age 15 to building a global enterprise. This is not a polish-and-pitch background — it is a story of adversity, grit, and earned conviction. Several themes are relevant to Dynery:

• — Equity and inclusion are core values. Hammell has consistently framed his businesses around creating equitable opportunities — for small businesses, for international talent, for underserved communities. His second book-in-progress addresses race, inclusion, age, and equality in the boardroom. Dynery's mission of connecting local restaurants and food creators to trusted communities maps cleanly onto this orientation.
• — He builds from lived experience. Every company Hammell has founded came from a problem he personally witnessed. He respects founders who can demonstrate a similar authentic origin story. Wale should be ready to share the genuine "why" behind Dynery with specificity.
• — Technology as an equalizer. His language consistently frames technology as a tool for leveling competitive playing fields — for small businesses to "compete in a borderless world." Dynery's platform giving independent Seattle restaurants the discovery infrastructure that only chains previously had is a version of exactly this thesis.
• — Community and mentorship. He serves on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago, signaling a commitment to community investment, not just capital deployment. He has been a frequent conference speaker (SHRM, UNLEASH) and is active in mentoring millennial leaders. This suggests openness to relationships that go beyond a check.
• — Execution bias. The "Get Sh*t Done" brand is intentional — he has a known impatience with companies that grow without vision or that oversell before they can service. Dynery's honest pilot-phase positioning is a strength here, not a weakness. Lead with what you've built, not what you're projecting.

The surface-level industry mismatch (HR tech vs. dining platform) is real but not disqualifying for an angel investor of his profile. The following structural alignments are worth foregrounding in any meeting:

• 01 Equitable access for small operators. Dynery gives independent restaurants discovery and loyalty infrastructure that only large chains could previously afford. This is structurally identical to Hammell's thesis — technology democratizing competitive access for underserved operators.
• 02 Creator ecosystem as workforce parallel. Dynery's creator framework (Sara, Josh, and the broader ecosystem) is a form of distributed talent activation — independent contractors building value within a platform. Hammell has spent his career solving the management, activation, and compensation complexity of distributed human networks. He will see this architecture clearly.
• 03 Community-first, technology-second. Helios and Atlas were not pure SaaS plays — they combined human-on-the-ground expertise with technology infrastructure. Dynery's model (real restaurant relationships + platform) mirrors this hybrid approach.
• 04 Pilot-to-scale narrative. Hammell took Atlas from a dining-room-table startup to 500+ employees in 160 countries. He understands the pre-revenue, pilot-phase operating environment intimately. A Dynery Seattle pilot is a familiar starting point, not a red flag.
• 05 Black founder representation. Hammell has written explicitly about race and inequality in the boardroom. He has spoken at length about being a Black founder navigating capital markets. Wale sharing his own founder journey authentically — not as a talking point but as context — will resonate.

A few additional considerations worth tracking:

• — Industry distance. Hammell has no known background in dining, food tech, or consumer platforms. He will need the market case made clearly. The local dining market, creator economy in food, and loyalty/rewards dynamics in restaurants should all be framed specifically — do not assume sector familiarity.
• — Check size expectations. Hammell is an angel investor, not a fund. His investment style (Securities.io, personal investments) suggests he backs promising technology plays with a personal conviction check, not institutional sizing. Calibrate the ask appropriately. A strategic relationship that includes a smaller check may be more durable than pushing for a large anchor commitment.
• — Founder-investor, not board-investor. Hammell values velocity and execution. If he comes in, he will likely want to add value — introductions, thinking, peer counsel — not passive capital. Be prepared to articulate how you'd use his network (not just his check).
• — His own growth warnings apply to Dynery. He has explicitly warned against growing too fast without vision, and against overselling before service capacity is ready. Dynery's pilot-phase discipline is consistent with this — but Wale should be ready to address it directly if asked.

Hammell is a high-activity LinkedIn presence. His public email (rickh@helios.io) is documented. A cold LinkedIn message is viable given his active engagement on the platform.

• 01 Lead with founder-to-founder, not investor-to-prospect. Reference his book, his dining-room-table origin story, or his equity mission. Don't open with a deck or a raise. Open with a point of genuine alignment.
• 02 Name the parallel explicitly. "You built Atlas to give small businesses access to global workforce infrastructure they couldn't afford alone. We're building Dynery to give Seattle's independent restaurants access to discovery and loyalty infrastructure that only chains have had." One sentence. Let him draw the connection.
• 03 Offer a conversation, not a pitch. Given his bandwidth at Helios, a low-friction first step — a 20-minute call, a coffee if he's visiting Seattle — is more likely to land than a formal intro deck. The deck comes after rapport.
• 04 If there is a mutual connection, route through it. His board relationships (Big Brothers Big Sisters Chicago, Global Payroll Association, SHRM) and Chicago business community ties are worth mining for a warm introduction. A warm intro from a shared contact converts at 4–6× the rate of cold outreach at this level.
• 05 Mention the creator ecosystem explicitly. Securities.io is his investing vehicle. He is a futurist who invests in platforms that reshape sectors. Frame Dynery's creator-led discovery model as a new infrastructure layer for the dining economy — he will recognize the architecture.