From a laundry room startup to a global workforce compliance leader, the company marks a milestone built on values.
KING OF PRUSSIA, PA — June 28, 2026 — People2.0, a global provider of workforce compliance and payroll services, today marks its 25th anniversary. Since its founding in 2001, the company has grown from a two-person operation into a global organization serving partners in 130+ countries, driven by a belief its founders held from day one: that doing right by people and doing right by business are the same goal.
The First of Its Kind
People2.0 was founded by Chuck Miller and David Van Soest, who identified a gap no one else had moved to fill. Staffing company owners were spending more and more time managing back-office operations, with less time and energy left for sales, service, and recruiting. Miller and Van Soest set out to build a company that would take that burden off the plate of their clients so those clients could focus on what they did best. To their knowledge, no one had done it before.
“Before starting People2.0, I started a successful staffing company… I was spending more and more time in the back of the house, the infrastructure, and supporting the growth, and less time working with our team in the front of the house on sales, service, and recruiting… it turned out that there was nobody in the industry who had this idea. And that was the genesis for People2.0,” said Chuck Miller, Co-Founder, People2.0.
Twenty-Five Years of Growth
In the early days, Miller worked out of the laundry room in his home while Van Soest ran operations from a one-room office in Westchester. They had phones, computers, and a model they believed in completely. What started as two people and a shared conviction grew into something neither could have fully anticipated.
Over 25 years, People2.0 expanded its services beyond staffing back-office support to include employer of record (EOR) and agent of record (AOR) services for enterprises, search and recruiting firms, and mass talent organizations across the globe. The company now processes over 1.2 million timesheets annually, completes roughly 10,000 independent contractor evaluations each year, and has maintained zero misclassifications across all regions.
People First, From the Start
Through all of that growth, the company’s core values have remained constant. People First, the company’s top value, was not a recent addition. It was the operating philosophy Chuck Miller brought with him from the beginning, shaped in part by early advice from Bill Rosenberg, the founder of Dunkin’ Donuts, who told Miller that the secret to success was simple: surround yourself with great people.
“Putting people first has always been the North Star in any businesses that I’ve been involved with… if you are disciplined about the people you hire and you find people that have similar values, that are principle-centered… all the way down the line. And that made a difference. And from the beginning, that was our North Star,” said Miller.
Partnership as a Business Model
That foundation carried through every phase of People2.0’s growth, including the acquisitions that brought the company into new markets and client segments and introduced new leadership. Steve Schaus, the company’s current CEO, joined People2.0 through one of those acquisitions and has since led the organization through its most significant global expansion.
“What People2.0 is about, it’s about partnership. And partners realize they’re stronger together and they win together… we understand it’s a tremendous privilege to do the work we do with our clients, and People2.0 would not have survived for 25 years and would not have gotten to where we are today without having great people and having strong support and partnership of our clients,” said Steve Schaus, CEO, People2.0.
For Schaus, the people-first model is not just a cultural commitment. It is a competitive one. As the employer of record market has matured and new technology-driven entrants have entered the space, People2.0 has made a deliberate choice to lead with professional services and human relationships rather than a self-service approach.
“We’ve made a conscious decision to focus on what we do best… which is essentially to be people first, to be a professional services organization rather than a technology first, self-service approach… what this people first approach means to our clients is they’ve got a team of professionals they have a relationship with… a team of professionals that they know will have their back through thick and thin. And I think that’s a big part of the DNA of People2.0. And it’s really the DNA that was put in place by Chuck and David right at the beginning in 2001,” said Schaus.
The Next Chapter
As People2.0 enters its next chapter, both Miller and Schaus see the same thing ahead: a growing global market, an increasingly complex compliance landscape, and an organization built to help its partners navigate both.
“I believe in the long-term potential for People2.0 and the global EOR sector is huge… People2.0 has the best team in the industry… the future is bright. The potential is so incredible,” said Miller.
Schaus echoed that outlook, pointing to the company’s relationship-first model as a strength that will only grow more valuable as the world of work continues to change. “I believe that human interaction will be of increasing value as technology becomes more powerful… that’s going to become even more valuable. Which doesn’t mean we can ignore technology… but it does play to our strengths and the strengths of our clients.”
To learn more about People2.0 and its EOR & AOR services, visit people20.com.
