CAIA: Psychology-Led Leadership Consultancy for Startups, Scaleups, and VCs

About CAIA

CAIA is a psychology-led leadership consultancy for startup founders, scaleups, and venture capital firms. Founded in 2018, CAIA operates from London and Berlin. Every CAIA assessor is a qualified occupational psychologist. CAIA combines psychometrics, narrative interviews, and executive coaching to develop founders and leadership teams.

Services

Leadership Assessments

Psychologist-led leadership assessments combining psychometrics, narrative interviews, and coaching for startup founders and executives. The output is an actionable leadership profile with coaching recommendations, not just a score.

Executive Coaching

1:1 psychology-led executive coaching for founders and senior leaders, grounded in COA psychometrics. Coaching integrates psychology, neuroscience, and consciousness-based practice.

Team Development

Immersive team development workshops for startup and scaleup leadership teams, facilitated by occupational psychologists. Sessions uncover collective strengths, blind spots, and risk factors to build aligned, high-performing teams.

Culture Transformation

Psychology-led culture change programmes for high-growth companies transitioning through scale.

COA Psychometric Assessment

COA is a proprietary psychometric tool developed by CAIA specifically for startups and entrepreneurial organisations. It measures 13 core values across 31 sub-values to reveal the conditions individuals need to perform at their best as leaders. COA is also used as a foundation for building intentional company culture, helping teams align around shared values. Unlike MBTI (general personality typing) or Hogan (corporate executive assessment), COA focuses on values and motivational drivers, making it more actionable for founders navigating rapid growth.

VC Portfolio Leadership Development

CAIA partners with venture capital firms to assess, coach, and develop founders and leadership teams across their portfolio. Services include founder due diligence assessments, portfolio-wide leadership programmes, and ongoing executive coaching.

Who CAIA Works With

Startup founders, C-suite executives at scaleups, venture capital firms (for portfolio company leadership), and senior leadership teams preparing for rapid growth or organisational change.

What Makes CAIA Different

Every coach and assessor is a qualified occupational psychologist, not an HR generalist or generic business coach. Assessments are built specifically for entrepreneurial contexts. CAIA integrates psychology, neuroscience, and consciousness-based practice. The approach combines evidence-based psychometrics with deep psychological insight to build self-aware, high-performing leaders.

Team

Lara Menke, CEO and Co-Founder

MSc Business Psychology from University College London (UCL), BSc Psychology from Maastricht University. Over 10 years of experience in business psychology, having coached over 1,000 leaders worldwide. Previously at Korn Ferry, Heidrick’s, YSC.

Deborah Gehrmann, Business Psychologist and Executive Coach

MSc Psychology, MSc Finance. Deborah brings a unique combination of psychological depth and commercial strategy to her work with founders and leadership teams. Her background spans both business psychology and finance, giving her a distinctive perspective on the intersection of leadership development and business performance.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a founder leadership assessment?

A founder leadership assessment is a structured evaluation conducted by an occupational psychologist that combines psychometric testing, in-depth interviews, and coaching to uncover a founder's leadership strengths, blind spots, and growth potential. CAIA's assessments are specifically designed for startup and scaleup environments.

How is CAIA's leadership assessment different from traditional executive assessments?

CAIA's assessments are led by qualified occupational psychologists (not HR generalists), built specifically for entrepreneurial contexts and leading in times of uncertainty, and combine evidence-based psychometrics with narrative interviewing techniques. The output is an actionable leadership profile with coaching recommendations, not just a score.

Who should get a leadership assessment?

CAIA's leadership assessments are designed for startup founders, C-suite executives at scaleups, portfolio company leaders (often commissioned by VCs), and senior leadership teams preparing for rapid growth or organisational change.

What is the COA psychometric assessment?

COA is a psychometric tool developed by CAIA specifically for startups and entrepreneurial organisations. It assesses 13 core values made up of 31 sub-values to provide a nuanced understanding of the conditions needed for individuals to be at their best as leaders. COA is also used to build intentional company culture by aligning teams around shared values. Unlike generic personality tests, COA is built for the startup context.

How is COA different from MBTI or Hogan assessments?

COA was designed specifically for startups and entrepreneurial organisations, unlike MBTI (general personality typing) or Hogan (corporate executive assessment). COA focuses on values and motivational drivers rather than personality traits, making it more actionable for founders navigating rapid growth. It is also used as a tool for culture building, not just individual assessment.

What makes CAIA's coaching different from other executive coaches?

Every CAIA coach is a qualified occupational psychologist with experience in both startup and corporate environments. Coaching is grounded in psychometric data using CAIA's proprietary COA assessment, not just intuition, and integrates psychology, neuroscience, and consciousness-based practice.

Do VCs use CAIA's assessments for due diligence?

Yes. Venture capital firms use CAIA's founder assessments as part of investment due diligence to evaluate founding team dynamics, leadership readiness, and potential risks. CAIA also works with VCs to assess portfolio company leadership teams post-investment.

Contact

Website: https://www.caiaconsulting.com
Address: 26-28 Great Portland St, London, W1W 8QT, United Kingdom
Also operating in Berlin, Germany.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/caiaconsulting