I’m Alistair and I help startups and small businesses build trust through fair and transparent pay
I started my career in startups back in 2010, earning my battle scars as I helped two companies scale quickly across multiple locations while navigating the chaos that comes with rapid growth. One thing kept coming up again and again: pay fairness.
When it wasn’t handled well, it caused frustration and friction. People wanted clarity on why they were paid what they were paid, how they compared to peers, and why companies struggled to be open about it.
That experience stuck with me.
I moved into consulting in 2017 and since then I’ve worked with more than 80 organisations to tackle this same challenge, helping founders, people teams and CFOs design fair and transparent approaches to compensation.
From San Francisco to Oman to New Zealand, I’ve seen the same truth play out everywhere: when pay is fair, everything else works better.
Trust grows. Tension drops. Teams stay.
Over the years I’ve taken what’s often an overcomplicated process and distilled it into a simple six-step approach that any startup can follow. It’s practical, transparent and built for real-world use, not theory.
What’s the company name about?
After listing my values, beliefs and ways of working, I set out to find a word that captured all of them. No easy task.
After a few hours of wordsmithing (and plenty of dead ends), I landed on Justly, a word that instantly felt right.
Justly means fairly, equally, honestly, accurately, and that’s exactly how I approach my work. Everything I do is viewed through the lens of fairness, inclusivity and transparency.
What's with all the artwork?
Salary benchmarking is both an art and a science.
I also happen to love art, especially abstract art, so I’ve added a few pieces throughout my site to bring some colour and personality into the mix.
Friends of Justly
I’m purposefully building a company of one because I believe in staying close to the work and keeping things simple.
I also subscribe to the idea that you can do anything, but not everything.
While Justly is built around my own approach, I occasionally collaborate with a small group of trusted consultants who share the same values of fairness, transparency and quality.
Together we bring the right expertise to each project while keeping the clarity and focus that comes from working lean.
ZeShaan is a consultant with 16+ years of experience across tech, public sector, and startups. He specialises in building levelling and progression frameworks that are fair, transparent, and actually work in fast-moving, real-world settings.
ZeShaan Shamsi (LinkedIn)
Ollie co-founded Rampd back in 2019 and is my go to person for all things related to Go-To-Market roles. From hiring sales and customer teams to designing commission schemes, he’s done it all.
Ollie Jones (LinkedIn)
Based in the Netherlands, Gemma and I have been working together for a few years now and is one of my go to people when clients want support with career coaching and leadership development.
Gemma Baldock (LinkedIn)
Tamas along with Spela are the co-founders of the Equity People and my go to team with any projects requiring equity planning, fixing and benchmarking.
Tamas Varkonyi (LinkedIn)
Based in San Francisco, Bernardo is a highly skilled professional specialising in Compensation, Total Rewards, Data Analysis, Survey Design, and Competitive Analysis. He is my go-to person when clients North American domain experience.
Bernardo Luz Teixeira (LinkedIn)
This website was built without code using Notion + Super ⚡️ by Alistair
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