MINI PEOPLE TEAM
Your fractional people function
YOUR FRACTIONAL PEOPLE FUNCTION FOR STARTUPS WITH 20-50+ PEOPLE.
You've found traction. Your team has grown past 20. And the informal systems that got you here are starting to crack under pressure.
Mini People Team gives you strategic partnership plus operational delivery, so you can professionalise your people function without losing what makes you special.
You're scaling fast, but your people can't keep up
You've spent the last year focused on product, fundraising, and your first customers. Your team was small enough that everything just worked - decisions happened organically, everyone knew what to do.
But now? Funding secured. Headcount doubling. You're making progression decisions on gut feel. Your onboarding is "here's your laptop, figure it out." You lost a good candidate last week because you couldn't match their salary expectations.
The people decisions you make in the next six months will compound. Get them right, and you build foundations that scale. Get them wrong, and you're firefighting at 30 people.
Build the Base gives you a trusted partner who understands startups. We help you build compensation frameworks, hiring processes, onboarding, and role clarity, without overengineering it. And because first time founders need more than systems, we blend people strategy with founder coaching.
This is for founders who:
(01)
Are watching retention slip. People aren't staying as long as they used to. You’ve lost a couple of top performers. You need clearer career pathways and better support, but you haven't had the bandwidth to build it.
(02)
Have managers who need development. You've promoted your strongest players into key roles, but they need constant guidance. You want them to own it, but right now, you're still doing most of the thinking.
(03)
Know the systems are breaking. Pay reviews are ad hoc. Performance conversations happen inconsistently. Onboarding varies. You've patched things together, but you need proper infrastructure before it all falls apart.
(04)
Are ready to delegate but don’t know how. You're still central to every people decision. You know it's not sustainable, and you want to focus on growing the business, not sorting out every people issue.
We’re now 50+ People and this framework has been transformational. Danielle's ability to transform and optimise People processes truly impressed us. She brought a fresh perspective to our organisation and helped us gain clarity on how to approach our People infrastructure.
“
Natasha Guerra, Founder + CEO, Runway East
how we’ll work together
1. We build your people plan
Leadership team interviews to understand business goals and current challenges. Team listening through pulse surveys or focus groups. We build your 6-12 month people plan with clear priorities and owners.
2.strategic partnership
Bi-weekly strategic sessions to stay aligned and make key people decisions. Founder and leadership coaching through complex people moments. Design of people systems that scale. Complex case management. On-demand Slack support.
3.operational delivery
Run day-to-day people operations. Execute hiring from job specs to offers. Build and deliver onboarding programmes. Document policies. Coordinate performance cycles. Free you from the operational grind.
4.manager development
We coach and develop your managers so they can handle performance conversations, give feedback, and make people decisions confidently. Better managers mean less escalation to you.
5.scope evolves with you
3-month initial commitment. Most partnerships continue long term as you grow and you’ll consider us part of your team. The work flexes to what you need, and you’re never tied into a long contract.
the people infrastructure that scaling teams need
What we’ll typically work on together
People roadmap and strategic planning tied to business growth
Retention strategy including career pathways and progression frameworks
Pay philosophy, salary bands, and structured review processes
Performance management systems that balance accountability and care
Manager development programmes to build internal capability
Hiring systems: scorecards, interview training, employer brand
Onboarding that integrates culture, role clarity, and early wins
Policy documentation and people operations handbook
Team structure and role architecture as you scale
People dashboards and metrics to inform decisions
Pulse surveys, exit interviews, and sentiment tracking
Values integration into hiring, feedback, and rituals
Development plans for your high performing members
Complex case support (underperformance, absence, safeguarding)
Founder coaching through difficult people decisions
who you’ll work with
I'm Danielle - Business Psychologist, Exec Coach, and Head of People.
I've held Head of People roles in fast growth environments. I know what breaks when you scale and how to fix it before it does. I've managed through high turnover, built people teams from scratch, and coached founders through their hardest decisions.
Our associate team brings operational delivery. They're experienced people operators who've scaled teams at startups. They handle the execution: running hiring processes, building onboarding, coordinating performance cycles, documenting policies.
You get strategic thinking plus execution capability - the combination most growing startups need.
what you’ll walk away with
Improved retention and team stability
Clear career pathways, fair pay structures, and better management reduce turnover. People stay longer, engage deeper, and tell their talented friends about you.
Confidence to step back
Whether it's maternity leave or just focusing on strategy, you'll know the people function runs without you being the single point of failure.
A team that can operate independently. Your junior hires develops the skills and confidence to own key processes. You get bandwidth back, and they keep growing
Manager capability that cascades
We develop your managers so they can handle performance, feedback, and people decisions confidently. Better managers = better teams.
Systems that scale
Performance cycles, pay reviews, hiring processes - all documented and repeatable. Structure that creates clarity and speed, not red tape.
Culture that stays intact as you grow
Values embedded into hiring, onboarding, rituals, and feedback. New people "get it" from day one, and the magic doesn't dilute as you scale.
Ready to stop being your own Head of People?
You've built something worth protecting. Now build the infrastructure that lets it grow.
Starting from £4,000/month | 3-month commitment. Pricing varies based on team size and scope.
The people patterns that don't show up on an org chart.
Every startup is haunted (even the brand new ones) - past decisions, habits, founding stories and memories that shape how teams work. Some ghosts hold us back. Some keep us grounded.
Organisational Ghosts is my newsletter on building teams that scale. You’ll get monthly-ish insights on the patterns shaping your startup. Stories and scars, practical tools, and better questions about team dynamics, culture, and leadership.