We know your world
We've seen what breaks first at scale-up stage.
The founders we work with aren't short on ambition. They're short on time. HR complexity crept in somewhere between the first ten hires and the next milestone — and now it's competing for headspace that belongs on the product.
1. Rapid headcount growth with no HR infrastructure to support it
2. Culture drift as the founding team dynamic shifts with every hire
3. Compliance exposure growing silently with your headcount
4. Culture drift as the founding team dynamic shifts with every hire
4. Org structures built for ten people that don't work at thirty
5. Performance management that's inconsistent or quietly avoided
6. HRIS systems creating drag instead of operational efficiency
7. Founder burnout from wearing too many hats for too long
Why M923 Consulting
Senior expertise. No full-time overhead.
For the cost of one junior in-house HR hire, you get a CIPD-certified senior team with deep tech sector experience, no onboarding curve, and no long-term overhead.
In-house HR hire Approach:
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One person, limited experience range
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3–6 month ramp-up time
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Fixed salary + NI + benefits
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Generalist capability at your stage
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Full-time headcount commitment
What We Do
Eight specialisms. One embedded partner.
Focused, deliverable packages with clear scope and clear outcomes — no bloated retainers.
HR Health Check & Roadmap
Structured audit of your HR position + a prioritised 90-day action plan. Know where you stand.
Culture Definition
Articulate, document and scale your culture so it grows with your headcount rather than eroding under it.
HRIS Implementation
From requirements gathering through to vendor selection, implementation, hypercare and analytics set-up.
Organisational Design
Structure teams, roles and reporting lines for your next growth phase — before a restructure becomes costly.
Policy & Compliance
Contracts, handbooks, compliance checks — the legal infrastructure that protects your business as it scales.
Culture-Fit Recruitment
End-to-end hiring for key roles with culture alignment built into every stage of the process.
Performance Management
Frameworks and manager capability that turn performance conversations from dreaded to productive.
Bespoke HR Projects
Change management, leadership development, and any HR challenge that doesn't fit a standard service.
Proof in Practice
From founder-led chaos to scalable structure.
For the cost of one junior in-house HR hire, you get a CIPD-certified senior team with deep tech sector experience, no onboarding curve, and no long-term overhead.
ESEMDEE (SMD), a social media tech start-up, came to us at a critical inflection point — scaling aggressively with real momentum, but at risk of the culture drift, structural inefficiency, and founder overload that derails so many scale-ups at exactly this stage.
We worked across the business: redesigning org structure, defining culture, building performance frameworks, training management, and running culture-fit recruitment as they grew.
"Professional, diligent and productive — with a very good understanding of the tech industry and the market. It has been a pleasure partnering on bringing our strategy to life."
Lorraine B (Client Relations Manager)
Social Media Development - Tech Scale-Up
Social Media Tech · Scale-Up Phase
01
Organisational Design:
Restructured teams and reporting lines for efficient, scalable growth
02
Culture Definition:
Translated founding values into documented, scalable culture
03
Performance Framework:
Built systems that made performance management consistent practice
04
Management Training:
Upskilled emerging leaders to reduce founder dependency
05
Culture-Fit Recruitment:
Hired the right people as the team scaled — fast and deliberately
Who we Work With
Tech businesses that have found their market and are scaling fast.
Whether you've grown through VC funding, bootstrapping, crowdfunding, or revenue-based financing — if you're scaling quickly and the people challenges are real, we're built for you.
The founders we work with are typically navigating some combination of:
• Rapid headcount growth with no HR infrastructure to support it
• Culture drift as the founding team dynamic changes
• Compliance exposure as employment law obligations grow with headcount
• Inefficient or absent HR systems creating operational drag
• Org structures that made sense at ten people but don't work at thirty
• Performance management that's inconsistent or avoided altogether
• The creeping risk of founder burnout from wearing too many hats
If one or more of these resonate, you're exactly who we work with.
We work with UK tech businesses that have found their market and are scaling fast — whether that's through VC funding, bootstrapping, crowdfunding, or revenue-based financing. What our clients have in common isn't how they're funded. It's that they're growing quickly, the people challenges are real, and they're ready to tackle them properly.
If you have a disruptive product, and need professional Human Resource Management— We're are here for you.
Ready to Scale with an organised Workforce?
Not sure where your biggest HR risk or opportunity is right now? Book a free 30-minute HR Audit Call with one of our senior consultants. No pitch, no obligation — just a clear-eyed assessment of where you are and what deserves attention first.
