FEMALE-FOUNDED TECH SET TO DISRUPT THE $60 BILLION HR CONSULTING MARKET

Emily Firth and Rhiannon Stroud release progressive new talent marketplace - offering organizations fast, flexible, and transparent access to verified People and Culture Experts

Taking on the “Big Four” by offering innovative talent solution

*TruthWorks founders Rhiannon Stroud and Emily Firth*

TruthWorks – a new tech-enabled, two-sided marketplace specialising in People and Culture expertise - has a bold ambition: to do for HR consulting what Booking.com did for travel, by providing organisations with fast, flexible, transparent access to specialist experts, without the overheads and bureaucracy of traditional firms.

Founded by industry leaders Emily Firth and Rhiannon Stroud, TruthWorks connects business leaders directly with a curated global community of verified specialists across every major People and Culture discipline: from Employer Branding and Employee Experience to DE&I, AI and People, Change Management, Leadership Development, Operational HR and more.

The TruthWorks platform allows business leaders to:

Compare expertise and fees transparently from verified Experts globally.
Read ratings from other HR leaders to see real-world impact, not just polished case studies.
Book talent in a fast, seamless and secure way, simplifying procurement complexities.

“Businesses are looking at a $60 billion problem when it comes to HR, People and Culture support. The speed of change in their businesses requires unprecedented agility. But legacy consultants are slow, rigid, and expensive.” Emily Firth, Co-Founder of TruthWorks explains: “Our network was full of brilliant independent People and Culture talent. They kept telling us that clients loved their work, but that the hoops they had to jump through to get booked were incredibly challenging. So we set out to de-risk and democratise working with the right Expert directly, instead of engaging an entire consultancy firm.”

A USD＄60 billion market ripe for disruption

While workplaces have changed dramatically, the People and Culture consulting model has barely evolved in decades. Most advisory work is still dominated by legacy firms operating in the same way they always have. HR leaders are now under intense pressure to do more with less - tackling everything from AI integration to employer branding, with smaller teams and budgets - making external expertise more critical than ever.

Yet when support is needed urgently, organizations still default to slow, costly, process-heavy consultancies that often rely on freelancers behind the scenes while charging for layers of overhead.

Global demand tells the story. The global HR consulting market is valued at $60 billion and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7 percent between 2021 and 2028 (source SHRM), while HR outsourcing is expected to rise from $31.2bn in 2024 to $56.4bn by 2034 (source HRBP online)

At the same time, the pool of highly skilled independent People and Culture experts continues to grow. Despite their agility and expertise, accessing them is still perceived as risky. Procurement barriers and poor discoverability push organisations back to big-name firms, limiting direct access to the specialists doing the real work.

That’s the gap TruthWorks set out to close.

“This isn’t tech for tech’s sake,” says Rhiannon Stroud, Co-Founder of TruthWorks. “It’s a response to a system that no longer fits the need. We’ve been consultants, agency owners and client-side leaders. We’ve seen the system from every angle - and we know where the friction lives. These are challenges that won’t wait for procurement cycles. When your organisation needs a People or Culture expert, you need the best one now - not in six months.”

“This platform is just the kind of bold disruption we need in HR. As leaders, we need fast, effective expert solutions that respond to real-time People and Culture challenges. TruthWorks is focused on exactly that.” Arne-Christian van der Tang, CHRO, TomTom

Experienced co-founders who know the industry - because they’ve lived it

Firth and Stroud are respected and progressive thought-leaders who are sought-after speakers in the People and Culture space. Before starting their previous business together - a 7-figure indie consultancy - Firth led Employer Branding at Booking.com across 200 markets. And Stroud, a 30 under 30 industry ‘one to watch’, was instrumental to the acquisition of boutique People and Culture consulting firm Synergy by McCann.

The founders are backed by an advisory team that includes leaders who have scaled and sold multimillion dollar companies, and a CTO who is a cybersecurity expert and founder of multiple tech businesses.

“Working with TruthWorks is genuinely refreshing,” says Tatjana Obenaus, Head of Employer Brand at Prosus Group. “The quality and agility are remarkable, and what I value most is the courage of the Experts to speak the truth. They care deeply about their clients and are committed to real impact.”

To find out more about TruthWorks,
sign up free to explore the platform here
https://www.thetruthworks.co/

BOOK A DEMO HERE

TruthWorks

The first marketplace with specific People and Culture specializations across all domains of organizational culture, available on-demand.
TruthWorks already serves leading clients including Prosus, Criteo, Arval (BNP Paribas), TomTom, Zalando, Edenred, City Football Group and FrieslandCampina.
The company has received private investment and is planning a H1 2026 seed round.
Platform roadmap includes AI-optimised booking, contracting, and service delivery.
‘Verity’, a truth-telling AI agent, is in development to enhance collaboration and reduce inefficiencies common in traditional consulting.
TruthWorks’ community model produces insights and thought leadership from a global collective of Organizational Culture Experts - offering hundreds of perspectives rather than a single consultancy view.