Year founded:
2025
Tell us a little about your business:
Gravitas is a consulting firm built for small and mid-sized businesses that need real expertise without the overhead of an enterprise-sized budget.
Founded to bridge the gap between DIY business management and expensive, big-firm consulting, Gravitas brings together HR, compliance training, business management, and marketing & PR support under one roof — giving growing companies a single, trusted partner instead of a patchwork of vendors.
At the core of Gravitas's offering is full-scope HR consulting: hiring guidance, compliance support, employee relations, performance management, payroll and benefits questions, and everything in between. Rather than limiting clients to a rigid menu of services, Gravitas provides access to a dedicated HR consultant who handles whatever comes up — the same way an in-house HR hire would, just scaled to fit a small business's needs and budget.
Gravitas's small business retainer plans start at just $99/month, with no setup fees and no long-term contracts. Every plan includes a dedicated consultant, unlimited email Q&A with responses within one business day, a library of core compliance training (including Sexual Harassment Prevention, Workplace Safety, etc.), and a set number of monthly live consulting hours that scale with the plan tier. New retainer clients also receive a one-time branding/marketing consultation — a first step into a much broader set of services Gravitas offers beyond HR.
On the marketing and communications side, Gravitas helps businesses shape how they're seen — both by customers and within their own organization. That starts with image and brand development, giving businesses a clear, consistent identity to build on. From there, Gravitas offers limited digital marketing support, including Google Ads and Meta campaign assistance, alongside guidance on traditional advertising channels for businesses that want a broader reach. For companies managing their public profile, Gravitas provides public relations and reputation management, helping businesses navigate press, community perception, and crisis communication when it matters most. Gravitas supports internal communications and stakeholder messaging, helping leadership communicate clearly with employees, boards, and partners alike. And for individual leaders, Gravitas offers executive image and thought leadership development — coaching designed to help business owners and executives build their own public presence and credibility alongside their company's.
What sets Gravitas apart is a commitment to practical, honest guidance over selling software or locking clients into a platform. Gravitas doesn't sell HR systems — it solves business problems, drawing on real leadership experience across HR, communications, and operations to give small businesses the same caliber of support larger companies take for granted, delivered with the flexibility and personal attention only a right-sized firm can offer. All of our services are available fully remote.
What's a recent success story or milestone you're proud of?
One of our retainer clients came to us with a receptionist/medical assistant hybrid role they couldn't keep filled — not a sourcing problem, but a retention one. As part of our engagement, we ruled out the usual suspects (culture, management, compensation) and traced the real issue back to their hiring process itself: it was built around years-of-experience minimums and keyword filters, which told them who looked qualified on paper but nothing about who could actually do the job. We ran our own process instead, screening for evidence of the underlying skills, like empathy, patience, and an ability to deal with the public, through real conversation rather than résumé keywords. The candidate we placed actually had no healthcare background at all — her most recent job had been at a dollar store, and she never would have cleared the client's original filter. She's tracked well through her 30-, 60-, and 90-day reviews since, and we've kept up monthly check-ins with the client — she's on pace to hit her annual goals with strong marks from her manager. It's a good example of what Gravitas actually does: build a hiring process around what a role actually needs, not around what's convenient to filter for.
What do you love most about being part of this chamber?
What I love most about being part of this Chamber is what it represents — even without being local to the Kansas City area, being part of a network built by and for LGBT entrepreneurs means something. It's a statement of values as much as a business connection.
What would you like our chamber members to know about your business which isn’t necessarily obvious?
What we'd want members to know is that Gravitas is genuinely people-centric — not just in how we talk about our services, but in how we operate as a business. We built flat, affordable pricing specifically so small businesses could access real expertise without needing an enterprise budget, and every engagement starts with actually understanding the people involved, not just filling a checklist. Whether it's a hiring decision, a policy question, or a bigger project, our goal is always to support the humans on all sides of the table.
