People Success for VC-Backed Startups

Built for organizations that take their people as seriously as their performance.

A boutique people & performance consultancy. We design programs that accelerate how new hires, managers, and founders ramp, integrate, and lead. Built entirely around your organization.

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"It's not faith in technology.
It's faith in people."
Steve Jobs
New Hire Success· Manager Training· Founder Coaching
The Challenge

When a company is newly-funded and scaling quickly, the early days are the riskiest.

"Talented people should not fail because no one built the conditions for them to succeed."

Scale responsibly. Every dollar spent re-hiring is a dollar that didn't go toward growth.

What the early days require isn't bandwidth. It's a close eye, a structured approach, and someone whose sole focus is setting your people up to succeed.

The organizations that get this right don't just retain better. They build teams that perform with less friction, less intervention, and less noise at the leadership level.

You need an insurance policy. The cost of getting it wrong shows up in the numbers.

Talent risk is portfolio risk.

You do your due diligence to insure against market risk, legal risk, and financial risk.
Most funds have no coverage against people risk.

Failed New Hire
$200,000
2× the average new hire salary
Recruiting fees, lost productivity, culture damage, and starting over. A distraction that sets you back a quarter.
Gallup
Failed Manager
$1,000,000
5–7× the average manager salary
Undertrained managers don't just underperform; they drive attrition. Every person who leaves takes knowledge, momentum, and morale with them.
DDI / SHRM
Failed Founder
Your entire investment.
The #1 reason startups fail
Team and leadership failure is the #1 reason startups fail, ahead of product and market fit.
CB Insights
Meet Prosper Studio - your people insurance.
The Solution

The people infrastructure your portfolio company needs, at the moment they need it most.

We plug in at critical moments, without the overhead of a full-time hire. Three programs, each built around your stage, your team, and your culture.

Program 01

New Hire Success

3-month engagement · Remote delivery

Startups hire fast and onboard slowly, or not at all. This program closes the gap with a structured 90-day coaching experience that helps new hires integrate quickly, build performance habits early, and commit to staying.

Key Themes
  • Integration & Onboarding
  • Performance Habits
  • Manager Relationships
  • Retention & Commitment
Book a Discovery Call→
Program 02

Manager Training

3-month engagement · Remote delivery

Your best individual contributors get promoted into management overnight, with no training and no roadmap. This program gives them the skills, frameworks, and confidence to lead effectively, quickly.

Key Themes
  • Leadership Identity
  • Feedback & Communication
  • Culture & Team Dynamics
  • Performance Management
Book a Discovery Call→
Program 03

Founder Coaching

3-month engagement · 1:1 delivery

Founder performance is a key determinant of portfolio performance. We deliver high-performance coaching built specifically for the unique challenges founders face daily, from board dynamics to personal resilience.

Key Themes
  • Decision-Making Under Pressure
  • Board & Investor Dynamics
  • Personal Operating System
  • Resilience & Clarity
Book a Discovery Call→
Pay Per Engagement Senior practitioner expertise, activated when your team needs it most.
What We Believe

Six principles that shape every engagement.

We address the complete range of factors that drive human performance, because how someone shows up at work is inseparable from how they're doing as a person.

01

Context is everything

A Series A startup is not a Fortune 500. We build around your stage, culture, and priorities, not a template.

02

Coaching changes behavior

Training tells people what to do. Coaching builds the habits that stick. We combine both for lasting change.

03

People are the strategy

The best strategies still fail without the right people. At the early stage, your people aren't just an asset. They are the product.

04

Results should be measurable

We define success before we begin: retention metrics, performance milestones, and engagement indicators.

05

The first 90 days matter most

Whether joining or leading for the first time, the early weeks set the trajectory. We specialize in making that window count.

06

Retention is a leadership problem

Most people don't leave companies, they leave managers. At startups, this compounds fast. We address root causes.

Our Proprietary Approach

The Full Stack Coaching Method

For sustainable high performance

Most performance programs address professional skills in isolation. We address the complete range of factors that drive human performance, because how someone shows up at work is inseparable from how they're doing as a person.

Mindset First

You can't build lasting habits on a fractured mindset. We start with values, identity, and the beliefs that drive behavior.

Personal Foundations Matter

Sleep, nutrition, and relationships are performance inputs, not personal luxuries. We address them directly.

Systems That Stick

We build structure that works for the individual, not off-the-shelf templates that fade after week two.

Accountability Accelerates

The coaching relationship is the catalyst. We hold the mirror and drive the pace of progress.

Accountability
Coach-supported acceleration
Systems
Structure that serves, habits that stick.
Personal Foundations
Sleep, nutrition, relationships, energy
Mindset
Growth, resilience, creativity, values
The Team

Your talent is in good hands.

Jacqueline Grant

Jacqueline Grant

Partner, Prosper Studio
Certified Coach HR Consulting Tech Startups Board Ready Recruiting & Talent

Professional Certified Coach and Certified Human Resources Professional. An entrepreneur and recruiter whose career spans Fortune 500 companies and high-growth tech startups across luxury hospitality, retail, professional services, and technology. Directly interviewed, hired, and coached thousands of people across Canada and the United States. Graduate of the Innovation Governance Program (iGP).

Kate Godard

Kate Godard

Partner, Prosper Studio
Startups & VC Leadership LSE Career Coaching Crisis Management

Startup operator, leader, and coach with deep experience in strategy, people development, and business building across finance, technology, and CPG. Built and led a team of 14 Career Success Coaches at a high-growth ed-tech startup, supporting hundreds of professionals through their first year at leading B2B SaaS companies. Holds an MSc in Management from the London School of Economics.

Next Steps

Set your people up to succeed
from day one.

Let us understand your team, your timing, and explore fit.

01

Discovery Call

We learn about your team, your current approach, and what you're trying to solve for.

02

Proposal & Alignment

We present a proposal and recommend the programs that suit your needs.

03

Two-Week Discovery

We customize our tried and tested foundational curriculum to create something truly bespoke.

04

Program Begins

We deliver the programming over 3 months, carefully tracking pace and performance.

Book a Discovery Call