TOP 100 MAGAZINE

Melisa Koutz Fich

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Scaling a company has long relied on outdated playbooks, guesswork, and fragmented tools not built for today’s fast-moving, AI-driven world. Melisa Koutz Fich is rewriting that playbook. As a first-time founder and CEO of JadeIQ, she’s leading a paradigm shift by building an AI-native system that transforms how companies scale—intelligently, strategically, and with precision.

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JadeIQ isn’t another AI-powered tool, it is a comprehensive rethinking of scaling strategies crafted by someone who has experienced the highs and lows of rapid growth firsthand. JadeIQ is built on Melisa’s 13 years of hands-on experience in recruiting and HR, scaling some of the most successful startups of the last decade, including Airbnb and Robinhood. Unlike conventional HR tech systems built by engineers or venture capitalists, JadeIQ’s framework is grounded in real-world success and is designed to align all talent decisions with a company’s revenue goals and long-term vision.

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“I’ve done every role in recruiting, led hiring teams, and built systems that fueled two of the biggest IPOs in tech,” she explains. “Yet companies are still scaling talent the same way they did ten years ago. That’s why only 1% ever reach unicorn status, and most startups fail to reach their next stage. They’re scaling wrong.”

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Melisa’s track record speaks for itself. She started her career at Google, mastering the art of sourcing and in-house recruiting, before joining Airbnb as a senior technical recruiter specializing in engineering, data science, and machine learning. She then took on the director of talent acquisition role at Robinhood, where she helped grow the company from 100 employees to a publicly traded company on NASDAQ. Later, as head of recruiting at Mercury, she honed her hypergrowth scaling strategies.

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Melisa is a first-generation college student, she earned a full-ride scholarship to play softball at Stanford, where she graduated with honors, earning a B.A. in psychology, an M.A. in communication and media studies, and a minor in sociology, pre-law. While originally on track for law school, she found her passion in recruiting and building organizations from the ground up—and never looked back.

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Now, as CEO of JadeIQ, Melisa applies first-principles thinking to reimagine scaling in the AI era. Founded in 2024 and based in Denver, CO, JadeIQ replaces fragmented HR tech stacks with an interconnected, AI-powered operating system. Much like Palantir’s interlinked data systems, JadeIQ turns raw talent data into actionable insights.

 

By harnessing the power of AI and grounding her strategy in proven industry experience, she is focused on pioneering the future of enterprise intelligence. JadeIQ stands as a testament to what can be achieved when visionary leadership meets innovative technology.

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With bold vision and game-changing technology, Melisa Koutz Fich isn’t just building a company—she’s leading the future of intelligent scaling.

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Melisa Koutz Fich
Co-Founder, CEO
JadeIQ
Website: www.jadeiq.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/melisakoutzfich
Instagram: @mjk_fich