About Fractional Foundry

We're Kellie Hinkle and Cléa Hernandez: a couple of fractional leaders who gave up the full-time game for good. 

We've navigated the uncertainty, overcome imposter syndrome, and built thriving fractional businesses. More importantly, we've learned what it actually takes to turn expertise into sustainable, meaningful work.

Why We Built This

After decades of leading organizations, advising teams, and coaching professionals, we kept seeing the same pattern: Talented people with real expertise were sitting on the sidelines because they didn't have a certain title or believed they weren't "qualified enough" to claim their authority.

Meanwhile, organizations were desperately searching for exactly these people. The gap wasn't a skills issue. It was a belief issue.

We realized we could compress that learning curve for others. So we built Fractional Foundry to help motivated professionals see their own expertise, claim their authority, and build businesses around it. Without the five-year trial-and-error phase we went through.

Are you ready to launch your fractional career? Check out our Uncensored Readiness Checklist to find out.

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What is Fractional Leadership?

Freelancers, contractors, consultants, and fractional leaders all work independently, but they’re not interchangeable. They represent a continuum of scope and sophistication:

  • Freelancers deliver tasks. They’re hired for what they do - design, write, code - not for how the work fits into strategy.

  • Contractors manage functions. They bring extra hands and structure, often filling temporary roles or executing established processes.

  • Consultants provide expertise and insight. They’re brought in to analyze, recommend, and occasionally guide implementation.

Fractional leaders own outcomes. They serve as part-time executives who lead teams, make decisions, and integrate strategy and operations, bringing both accountability and experience without the cost and risks of a full-time hire.

Each tier brings a higher level of experience, influence, and investment, and the right choice depends on whether an organization needs more hands, more insight, or more leadership.

In short: Execution → Management → Strategy → Leadership.

To learn more, join our upcoming Fractional Foundry Launch Intensive

Why Fractional Foundry?

Fractional leaders aren't just consultants; we're builders and founders. We forge strategy, systems, and impact from raw potential.

A foundry is a place of creation, where ideas are shaped under heat and pressure into something strong and lasting. We don't wait for perfect conditions, we create them.

We step in to help organizations shape, refine, and strengthen who they are and where they're going. We bring the spark: the vision, strategic thinking, and grit, to forge new solutions, systems, and strategies that last.

Fractional Foundry is where expertise and experience align and innovation takes form.

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What We Believe

If you hold deep expertise in your field, you're already a leader, whether or not you've held the title.

Your background doesn't disqualify you. It qualifies you. When you claim your authority as a thought partner from genuine career and subject matter experience, you position yourself to charge what you’re worth while offering companies the strategic outside perspective they desperately need. 

Fractional work isn't easy. But when done right, it's absolutely worth it.

Is now your time to jump into fractional leadership? Our Uncensored Readiness Checklist will help ensure you have what you need to make the move.

About Us

Kellie Hinkle

Fractional Executive & Author

After two decades leading teams in nonprofits and tech education, Kellie now helps mission-driven organizations align strategy and operations. She's the author of The Fractional Leader's Playbook and works as a fractional COO, Chief Strategy Officer, and CHRO for organizations navigating growth and change.

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Cléa Hernandez

Fractional Brand & Communications Leader

As founder of Mythograph, Cléa brings over two decades of brand communications, narrative strategy, and leadership coaching. She helps professionals clarify their authority, communicate with confidence, and claim the space they deserve, whether they're building their first business or redefining markets.