For startups
Managing people at a startup before you have a people team
You are a founder, a COO or the first operations hire at a startup between seed and Series B, with ten to a hundred and fifty people. Most of your managers were promoted from engineering, sales or design in the last year. There is no head of people yet, and the people questions land on whoever is least underwater.
The moments where people work goes wrong
The first review cycle the company has ever run
The company is two years old and has given raises on feel. Someone asks how promotions work. The founder realizes there has not been a written review yet, and the first one will set the tone for the ones after it.
Managers who were individual contributors last quarter
The best engineer now manages five people. He has not run a 1:1 before, does not know what to cover in one, and cancels them when a release slips, which is most weeks.
Quarterly OKRs that live in a slide deck
OKRs are written at an offsite and presented once. By week six, nobody can say whether their work moves any of them, and the end-of-quarter review is a scramble to remember what they were.
Per-seat pricing that grows faster than the round
The tool the company tried charges per seat, plus a module for reviews and another for engagement. Every hire raises the bill, and the finance lead asks why HR software costs more than the code editor.
Three reorganizations and an org chart from March
Teams have been reshuffled three times in eighteen months. The org chart is a slide that was right in March. New hires ask who they should go to and get three answers.
What it costs the company
The first cycle teaches people what reviews mean
A rushed or uneven first cycle teaches everyone that reviews are a formality. Undoing that impression takes more cycles than running the first one properly would have.
New managers lose good people quietly
A manager who skips 1:1s does not hear the early complaints. The first sign is a resignation from someone the company would have fought to keep.
Work drifts away from the company plan
When OKRs live in a deck, people pick their own priorities. The quarter ends with a lot of work done and the company objectives where they started.
How LVL Up helps
A first review cycle from a template
Pick a template, adjust it to your roles, and open a cycle with self-review, manager review and peer feedback. LVL Up sends the forms, reminds people and shows who has not started, so the founder sees what is stuck before the deadline.
OKRs on Growth that stay visible all quarter
Write the company objectives for the quarter and let teams set key results under them. Each goal has an owner, a due date and a status, and it stays visible between the offsite and the end of the quarter.
Structure for first-time managers
Each 1:1 has a shared agenda both people add to, notes, and action items with a name on them, and anything not covered carries to the next meeting. Upward feedback tells a new manager how it is going before it shows up as a resignation.
Slack, an org chart and a read-only API
Recognition shout-outs can post to a Slack channel. The org chart and directory read from the staff records, so a reorganization is an edit instead of a new slide. On Growth, a read-only REST API returns employees, goals, feedback, recognition and reviews for your own dashboards.
Where we are the wrong answer
LVL Up has no SSO or SAML; people sign in with email or Google. The API is read-only, so you cannot create or update records through it. It does not run payroll or manage equity. It does not read from your code repository, issue tracker or CRM, and it does not predict who will resign. It holds employment records for your staff, not client or customer records, and it does not replace your practice-management, matter-management or job-management software. OKRs, the API, career paths and the skills matrix are Growth features.
Which plan, and what it costs
Growth — Up to 100 people
$79/month, or $758/year
Growth is built for this stage: OKRs, the read-only API, career paths and the skills matrix on top of reviews, 1:1s, pulse surveys and recognition, at one flat monthly price for its band of people instead of per seat. A team under 25 that does not need OKRs or the API can start on Team; past Growth's limit, Scale adds department management for a company with several teams.
- • Everything in Team
- • Goals & OKRs
- • More AI coaching (500 requests a month)
- • Skills matrix & career paths
- • 1:1 video calls
- • Recognition rewards & team rituals
- • LVL Proof™ portfolios
- • API access
- • Founder-led email support
No credit card. The trial runs on Growth so you can see everything; pick Growth when it ends.
Getting set up
- Start the trial and import the team from a spreadsheet with each person's manager, so the org chart is right on the first day.
- Write this quarter's company objectives as OKRs and ask each team lead to add their key results.
- Give every manager a recurring 1:1 with each report, and walk the newest managers through the shared agenda before their first one.
- Pick a review template, adjust it to your roles, and open the first cycle with a deadline four weeks out.
Common questions
When should a startup run its first performance review cycle?
Once the company has managers who did not hire everyone on their team themselves, and before the first promotion decision someone will question. Run it after a quarter of regular 1:1s, so the review summarizes conversations people have already had instead of surprising them.
Does LVL Up support SSO or SAML?
No. People sign in with email or Google, and two-factor authentication is available. If SSO is a requirement in your security review, LVL Up is the wrong tool today.
What can the API do?
On Growth, a read-only REST API returns employees, goals, feedback, recognition and reviews. It cannot create or change records. It is meant for pulling people data into your own dashboards or warehouse.
How is it priced compared with per-seat tools?
Team and Growth are each one flat monthly price for a band of people, so a hire inside the band does not change the bill. Scale has a base that includes a set number of people and a per-person price above it. Every price is published on the pricing page.
Can it tell us who is about to quit?
No. It does not predict resignations. It makes some signals easier to see: pulse survey results, upward feedback about a manager, and 1:1 notes. Reading them is still a person's job.
What happens when the trial ends?
The trial is 14 days, no credit card, then read-only until a plan is chosen. Nothing you entered is deleted while it is read-only.
Related:
Start with your own staff list
Import your team, write this quarter's company objectives, and give every manager who was an individual contributor last year a recurring 1:1 with each report. Growth fits a company of up to 100 people.