Get real return from your most important business asset, your people.
I partner with you to co-create how you hire, lead, and run your team so you can make confident calls and your people actually drive the business forward.
I work with founders, entrepreneurs, and business owners.
Sound Familiar?
Who is modern day teams for?
I work with founders, entrepreneurs, and business owners.
Here's what usually brings them to me.
There's no playbook yet.
First hires, first fires, first culture conversations. You're building the team that will build the company.
Trust is the hard part.
Hiring support, opening a new location, stepping back from the day-to-day — all require handing pieces of it over.
Talent without systems.
Morale slips, roles blur, and you're suddenly spending more time on people problems than on the business.
Why founders trust this work
Bringing Big 4 rigor and startup scrappiness to the people side of your business.
Services
Ways we can work together
Every engagement starts with understanding where you are and what your people need right now.
People Strategy Diagnostic
A 30-minute call. I identify patterns and deliver a people strategy roadmap of what to do next.
Founders who know something's off with their team but aren't sure where to start.
- Diagnosis of top people challenges
- Quick wins for this week
- Written strategy roadmap
- Honest next-step recommendation
People Strategy Deep Dive
1.5-hour session. We go beyond the diagnosis and build a detailed, actionable plan tailored to your business.
Founders ready to tackle a specific people challenge: a bad hire, a culture shift, a leadership gap.
- Everything in Diagnostic
- Deep-dive into your specific challenge
- Detailed action plan with timelines
- Frameworks you can implement immediately
People Strategy Advisory
Monthly fractional people strategist. I embed alongside you to build systems and solve problems as they come up.
Founders who need an ongoing people partner, not a one-time fix.
- Everything in Deep Dive
- Recurring strategy sessions
- Real-time support between calls
- Someone in your corner as you grow
What I Help With
The people challenges that show up as your business grows
Every business hits these moments. I help you work through them with clarity and a real plan.
Get startedCase Studies
Work in action
Real examples of how I've helped founders and teams navigate change, build alignment, and create lasting impact.
Testimonials
What clients say
Niki and her team are different. This group has authentic intention. We applied affirmative frameworks to our challenges and envisioned what we want to achieve. It was a success with excellent connection.
Product Manager
High-growth medical device startup
Nikita has an obvious passion for the human side of business and shows clear interest in motivating our team, promoting an inclusive, uplifting culture, and utilizing each member's strengths for the achievement of collective team goals.
Founding Team Member
Early-stage startup
Nikita was a pleasure to work with. Her organization, clarity, and refined content made it easy to create a high-value experience for our program participants. Our audience is venture capitalists who are short on time and seek a high-impact experience.
Program Manager
All Raise (nonprofit serving the VC ecosystem)
Published Research
How Founder Leadership Shapes Startup Culture
Published research from Pepperdine exploring 5 leadership pillars that turn culture into a growth advantage. Based on interviews with 11 founders across diverse industries. 1,167+ downloads.
About
Experience that translates
I've spent 10+ years on the people side of work. I've lived in both worlds: Big 4 structure (ex-EY, leading 25+ recruiting searches with 90% acceptance) meets startup scrappiness (co-founder/COO who built people infrastructure from scratch, recruiting 100+ experts).
With an MS in Organization Development from Pepperdine and published research on how founder leadership shapes startup culture, I bring rigorous academic grounding to practical, hands-on work across 4 continents.
I care about questions like: How do you build people systems that grow with you, not against you? How do you create change that actually sticks? What's getting in the way of the next version of your team?
I Also Work With
Individuals and builders
Beyond working with founders, I bring the same depth to two other areas.
Shaping Modern Careers | AI Layoff Coach (Lina)
Job loss can shake your sense of identity, stability, and direction no matter how experienced you are. It's a human experience, not just a professional one.
I built layoff.coach to offer accessible, judgment-free support for people navigating layoffs. It's an AI-powered career transition coach grounded in my 10+ years of people strategy and career transition work, helping people process what happened, regain clarity, and move forward with intention - available anytime.
This isn't a replacement for personalized coaching. It's immediate, thoughtful support when people need it most.
Newsletter
How Will We Work
Career transitions, modern people advice for founders, AI through a people lens: trends, takes, and how to build with it.
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Let's talk about what you're building.
If you're navigating the people side of your business, I'd love to hear what's on your mind.
Open to consulting, project-based work, and embedded or in-house roles.