People function, bought as a seat

Rely on Lock, not luck.

Don't hire a People department. Buy a seat in one.

science · technology · engineering · new manufacturing

Alignment is the hard problem. We do not call it easy.

What this is

A shared bench

Lock is a shared-services co-op for the founder or CEO of a 15–150 person science, technology, engineering, or new-manufacturing firm. Members stay the employer.

We help you stand up payroll, HRIS, broker, counsel, EHS; we do not run them; you stay the employer.

This door is Wave One of a Snowball: a free commitment, a published count, a threshold derived from a real constraint, everyone converts together or no one does. The first instance is a turnover benchmark at get2great.com/cohort. This is the second. Different problem, same method. Lock is not on that site.

What this is not

Not a department you rent

Not a PEO. PEO is refused.
Not a payroll bureau, recruiter, or HRIS.
Not a fractional-CHRO hour block. n=1 is that. A co-op is not.
Not a People Analytics Toolbox product.
This site does not sell a membership unit.

The object

Threshold

Global

UNSET

Formation threshold — economic, not statistical

The threshold is not yet published. The number will be derived from bench cost — so that no founding company subsidizes a department — not from a revenue target. It will not be chosen as 3, 5, or 10 to look ready.

A shared People bench is not a co-op while one company pays for the whole function. n=1 is a fractional hour block. The co-op works when enough founding companies share the bench that no one member is subsidizing a department. The number will be derived from bench cost — salary, load, and the minimum set of seats that keeps any one company from carrying the function — not from a revenue target. Until that derivation is finished and published, the threshold stays unset.

Published count unit: confirmed founding seats. Interval: no confirmed founding seats.

Per cell

Cells are cut by size band, sector, and geography. Interval and count only — no means, no identities, no employment data. The cell-release threshold is unset, so every cell reads below reporting threshold.

Every cell: below reporting threshold.

How cells are cut

Interval	Count
15–40 · science · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
15–40 · science · US other	below reporting threshold
15–40 · science · outside US	below reporting threshold
15–40 · technology · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
15–40 · technology · US other	below reporting threshold
15–40 · technology · outside US	below reporting threshold
15–40 · engineering · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
15–40 · engineering · US other	below reporting threshold
15–40 · engineering · outside US	below reporting threshold
15–40 · new manufacturing · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
15–40 · new manufacturing · US other	below reporting threshold
15–40 · new manufacturing · outside US	below reporting threshold
15–40 · other · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
15–40 · other · US other	below reporting threshold
15–40 · other · outside US	below reporting threshold
41–80 · science · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
41–80 · science · US other	below reporting threshold
41–80 · science · outside US	below reporting threshold
41–80 · technology · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
41–80 · technology · US other	below reporting threshold
41–80 · technology · outside US	below reporting threshold
41–80 · engineering · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
41–80 · engineering · US other	below reporting threshold
41–80 · engineering · outside US	below reporting threshold
41–80 · new manufacturing · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
41–80 · new manufacturing · US other	below reporting threshold
41–80 · new manufacturing · outside US	below reporting threshold
41–80 · other · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
41–80 · other · US other	below reporting threshold
41–80 · other · outside US	below reporting threshold
81–150 · science · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
81–150 · science · US other	below reporting threshold
81–150 · science · outside US	below reporting threshold
81–150 · technology · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
81–150 · technology · US other	below reporting threshold
81–150 · technology · outside US	below reporting threshold
81–150 · engineering · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
81–150 · engineering · US other	below reporting threshold
81–150 · engineering · outside US	below reporting threshold
81–150 · new manufacturing · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
81–150 · new manufacturing · US other	below reporting threshold
81–150 · new manufacturing · outside US	below reporting threshold
81–150 · other · Pittsburgh	below reporting threshold
81–150 · other · US other	below reporting threshold
81–150 · other · outside US	below reporting threshold

Price on maturity

Ladder

Prices are not yet published. They will not appear as $0. The ladder is ready for a founding rate, a next rung, and an end price, plus the metric that governs the rise. Price rises on maturity of the shared bench — load actually carried — not on a sales target. The metric that governs the rise will be published with the first price.

Founding rateunset
Next rungunset
End priceunset

Free · non-binding

Leave a founding-seat commitment

Not a membership unit. Nothing is charged here. The unit that counts is a confirmed founding seat: the founder sat the diagnostic hour, will sit the monthly people review, and confirmed in the conversion window.

Sixty minutes · founder only

Diagnostic hour

Fit or kill — not a demo, not a buy. The founder or CEO sits it. You leave with a one-page writeup in two business days.

We kill the conversation if you want a PEO, a search, or if the founder will not sit people decisions.

Or write mike@peopleanalyst.com with subject Diagnostic hour.

Four failure modes, held

How this is held

The threshold is derived from bench cost, then left alone. We do not move it.
The published count is confirmed founding seats, not email sign-ups. Sign-up is not the act that creates the bench.
Waiting is not a better deal. The ladder rises on maturity. Founding is the first rung, once a price exists.
Governance is written before any member people-data exists. Read it. This site collects email and entity shape only.

If the threshold is not met by the close date, nothing is charged, no membership unit is issued, commitments carry forward. A company that cannot wait may take a Lock Management LLC contract after a diagnostic. That contract is not a co-op seat.