A steady hand for the spiky path of scale.
Spiky Path is the partner founders and CEOs call when the company has outgrown the founding team's instincts — but isn't yet ready for a full executive bench. We bring twenty years of building people, structure and operating cadence inside scaling companies, then quietly leave it behind in your team.
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How we work together
Where founders
usually start with us.
Most founders start with a diagnostic or a focused transformation, then grow the relationship from there. Each programme is a self-contained piece of work with a fixed scope — no open-ended consulting hours, no surprise invoices.
01Business Health CheckCore Insights Report
Done-for-you · 4–6 weeks
A structured read of the business in four to six weeks — strengths, friction, and the strategic moves hiding in your own data. You leave with the decision memo your board has been asking for, and a sequenced 90-day plan. Most partnerships start here.
- 02Workshop
Vision & Strategy Intensive
Done-with-you · 1–3 days
Two days off-site with the founder and leadership team. We pressure-test the strategy, force the trade-offs that have been quietly stuck, and leave with a one-page plan, owners, and the next 90 days sequenced.
- 03Digital Transformation
HR Operating Model & HRMS
Done-for-you · 3–9 months · fixed scope
Your people function — rebuilt to match the company you're becoming, not the one you started. We redesign the operating model, write the policies and processes that actually get used, then select and implement the HRMS to run it on. We lead the programme, manage the vendor, de-risk the rollout, and hand over a function your team can run with confidence — not a system they're quietly working around. The single highest-leverage move most scaling SMEs make in their first hundred hires.
- 04Cohort Programme
OKR Bootcamp
Group programme · 6 weeks · cohorts of 20
A six-week cohort programme for scaling leadership teams. Our operating system for goal-setting, performance metrics and quarterly rhythm — codified, taught, and embedded by the end of week six.
Programme details - 05Ongoing Partnership
Fractional People & HR Support
Done-with-you · monthly retainer
A senior partner in the room, on retainer: 1:1 sparring with the founder, working sessions with the leadership team, and the people-and-org architecture that scaling companies usually build a year too late. Most clients move into this after a diagnostic or transformation.
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Something else on your mind? Most engagements grow into work that doesn't sit neatly in a programme — board prep, executive search, organisation design, the unglamorous middle of a fundraise. Pricing is fixed by scope, not hours, and shared transparently after a discovery call.
Discuss a partnership →In their words
Founders & C-suite operators we've worked alongside
A visionary mindset, paired with deep expertise. The changes implemented in our organisation in such a short period — at a global level — really made a difference.
One of the most exceptional people I've had the privilege of working with. Pivotal to our success — from performance management to agile culture and product launch.
A keen energy for driving company objectives creatively through the organisation, and sharp insight from a number of start-ups to bring to bear.
The Approach
Quietly rigorous. Refreshingly direct.
Region-fluent
Headquartered in the UAE, with deep experience inside MENA boardrooms — from early-stage tech to founder-led retail. We know the unwritten rules, and when to break them.
Tailored, never templated
No recycled decks. Every framework is shaped to the company in front of us, the team you actually have, and the quarter you're actually in.
Operator energy
Two-thirds of clients renew because we work like part of the team — sleeves up, opinions on the table, accountable to the outcome.
Free for founders · Email yourself a copy
The OKR Cadence Starter Kit.
The exact canvas, weekly check-in script and five failure modes we use inside the OKR Cadence Masterclass — the operating rhythm scaling teams quietly wish they'd put in last quarter.
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Who do you typically work with?
Founders and CEOs of post-Series-A companies, usually between 30 and 300 people, scaling into a stage where founder instinct alone no longer scales with them.
How is this different from a McKinsey or Bain engagement?
We don't parachute a team in with a deck. Engagements are led personally, with a small senior bench. We sit beside the founder, embed in your operating rhythm, and leave the capability inside your team — not in a binder.
What does a typical engagement look like?
Most relationships start with a Core Insights diagnostic (4–6 weeks), then continue as fractional leadership, board prep, or a quarterly OKR cadence. Two-thirds of clients stay on beyond the first engagement.
How quickly can we start?
We take on a small number of clients each quarter to keep the work senior. After a 30-minute discovery call we'll be honest about fit and timing — usually within two to four weeks.
Where are you based, and where do you work?
We're headquartered in the UAE and work with founders wherever they're scaling — across the GCC, the wider MENA region, and selectively with teams operating into Europe and beyond.
What does an engagement cost?
Pricing is fixed by scope, not hours, and shared transparently after the discovery call. Engagements range from a focused diagnostic to a multi-quarter fractional retainer.
Laura Dryden
Founder. Twenty years building the people, structure and cadence behind companies that scale.
A note from the founder
"I've spent twenty years inside scaling companies — as a Chief People Officer, an operator, a co-founder. I built Spiky Path to be the partner I wish I'd had in the room: steady in the noise, sharp on the trade-offs, and quietly relentless about the things that actually move the company forward."
Based in
United Arab Emirates
Working with
Scaling founders, everywhere