SERVICES
Psychology-led People support for founder-led startups
The People Vault Framework
The road to scale is paved with good intentions - until they stop working.
The People Vault Framework maps the four eras most startups move through, so we can pinpoint where you are and what support you need most. Founder era - everything’s personal. Culture = founder energy, instinct + overextension.
Manager era - you’re no longer in every decision. You need clarity and first-time manager capability.
Culture era - values, pay, performance, progression start shaping the team.
Scale era - structure meets speed. You’re building for retention, leadership depth, resilience.
It’s principle-based, not process-based. We focus the work where it will make the biggest difference.
Commercially minded • People obsessed
Commercially minded • People obsessed
Services that build capability, not dependency
People Vault Discovery
Most scaling challenges are People challenges in disguise. You don’t need culture cracks or accountability drift piling onto a 60–100 hour week.
The People Vault Discovery is a fast, low-commitment diagnostic designed by a business psychologist. Complete a short assessment, meet for a 90-minute mapping session, and leave with a custom People Roadmap.
Build the base
When you’re growing fast, roles blur and everyone’s doing three jobs. Then turnover creeps up, motivation dips, and one departure hits harder than it should.
That’s how People debt starts.
If you’re under 20 people, you’re in the sweet spot: early enough that nothing’s broken, late enough that the cracks are showing. This is the moment to build foundations that hold: role clarity, onboarding that works, real rituals, values that guide decisions.
Most founders here don’t need a full People function. They need someone who can turn “we should have a performance process” into a structure that keeps your startup from derailing.
Mini People Team
By the time you hit 25–50 people, cracks become chasms.
Managers are underwater, feedback has stalled, and you’re still the cultural heartbeat, but you can’t be everyone’s manager forever. The scrappy “everyone does everything” energy that got you here, is now the thing holding you back.
You need real People infrastructure, but a full-time Head of People is too soon (or too expensive).
This is your fractional People function: me for strategy, associate support for execution. We embed the systems that matter at this stage, values that guide decisions, sensible pay structures, performance rhythms that work, and manager development that builds capability.
It’s not HR-by-the-hour. It’s the People team you’d hire if you could.
Partner on a project
The thing you keep pushing to next quarter.
Pay and progression needs real work, not the scraps of a monthly sync. Managers need proper development, not another lunch-and-learn. And your offsite deserves more than a Googled agenda the night before.
Some work needs dedicated focus.
These projects stand alone or plug in when your monthly scope needs extra capacity. Typical projects: manager development, pay and progression frameworks, handbooks, performance review design, EVP, values discovery/refresh, workshop and offsite facilitation, leadership coaching, 360s.
Each project is scoped around what you actually need, not whatever fits a package.
Not sure where to start?
Most founders start with a Discovery. It's the fastest way to see what you're too close to see clearly - and to figure out what kind of support actually makes sense for where you are.
The people patterns that don't show up on an org chart.
Every startup is haunted: past decisions, habits, founding stories and memories that quietly shape how teams work. Some ghosts hold us back. Some keep us grounded.
Organisational Ghosts is where you’ll learn to spot them early, understand the patterns driving your team, and avoid the traps that stall growing startups.