ABOUT
meet your new people partner.
HI, I’M DANIELLE 👋
and I’m obsessed with people.
I run The People Vault, a psychology‑led people partnership for founder‑led startups.
I’m industry and funding model agnostic. I’ve worked with VC backed startups, bootstrapped products, agencies, and hospitality businesses. I care more about where you are in the journey, and how the people side feels, than about which vertical you’re in.
I’m genuinely interested in what makes humans tick - teams, founders, culture, all of it. I’ve spent 15+ years studying it formally and informally because understanding people better makes me better at this work.
I’m endlessly curious about the collision of identity, work, and startups. Founding a company is one of the most psychologically intense things you can do: your sense of worth gets tangled up in it, you’re making high stakes decisions with incomplete information, and it’s a pretty hard job to get right. I think that deserves better support than a generic HR “best practice” framework.
MSc Organisational Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London
Professional Certificate in Executive Coaching (Henley, ILM7)
ICF ACC Coach
Accredited in Hogan, Facet5, Hucama and the Rocket Model
15+ years building and leading People teams in high-growth startups and scaleups
Startups look different. People problems don't. Spotting patterns became my job.
Before going independent, I led People at Entrepreneurs First - the place where technical founders find co-founders and build companies from scratch. I wasn't supporting tidy teams. I was watching chaos form in real time: brilliant people building fast, breaking faster, and figuring it out as they went.
That's where I started spotting the patterns. How founders' personal habits turn into cultural defaults. How early shortcuts become company folklore. How teams inherit ways of working that no one ever decided on, they just happened.
Brilliant founders. Same people problems.
Here's where you come in
These days I run The People Vault, working directly with founders and their teams.
Most founders don’t work with me because they want “HR.” They work with me because they want a thought partner who really gets it - someone who understands the founder context, won’t flinch when it gets complicated, and can help turn decisions into words, actions, and systems that actually work.
I’m not your investor. I’m not your co‑founder. I’m not your team. That’s the point. I’m the impartial voice in the room – the person you can tell “I’ve thought about firing everyone on this team” without judgement, and who can help you figure out what’s actually going on beneath the surface.
Early in my career I spent time in hospitality businesses, and the ethos of hospitality – noticing, caring, creating experiences for people – still shapes how I think about People work. Policies matter, but how people feel in the day‑to‑day interactions matters more.
I blend organisational psychology with startup realism and founder coaching: first principles thinking, pattern recognition, and foundations that stick. The goal is to build capability so you don’t need me forever. That said, I tend to build long term relationships with founders so you’ll always have me in your corner, even when you’re not actively working with me.
What founders say
Danielle's breadth of experience supporting startups and scale-ups means she's seen it all
...We benefit heavily from her coaching background. She keeps not only the team healthy, but us as founders too. One of the things everyone who works here talks about is the strength of the team, and I don't that would have been possible without bringing Danielle on.
— Jack Galilee, co-founder, Human Native
I honestly don't know where we'd be without her...
Danielle has been genuinely transformational for Shellworks...As a venture-backed company with a mission to create real impact, we knew the culture we wanted, but we didn't know how to build it. Working with Danielle changed that. She brings clarity to even the most complex situations, breaking them down into simple, actionable steps. She's show us that is is possible to build a high-performing, commercial company grounded in strong values and an ambitious culture.
...With Danielle, we feel in safe hands.
- Insiya Jafferjee, CEO, Shellworks
i’d love to get to know you, too
Tell me a bit about you, your company and the people side, and we can see if working together makes sense.