We became the strategic partner we wished we'd had.
We've scaled teams through acquisitions, IPOs, and hyper-growth. We've seen what breaks companies and what makes them extraordinary.
Our Story
We serve as embedded partners who get into the work with you - bringing the precision, the pattern recognition, and the honest counsel that only comes from having been there before. We've seen what breaks companies at scale and what makes them extraordinary - and we've spent our careers building the people foundations, talent systems, and cultural conditions that make the difference.
We don't theorize about what great people strategy looks like - we've built it, stress-tested it, and refined it across hundreds of engagements. When you work with us, you get a team of seasoned operators who have already seen what you're about to face - and built the playbooks to navigate it. PCT exists to be the people and talent partner that exceptional founders and teams deserve.
In good company.
Our north star
To build better founders and companies by creating the people, culture, and talent foundations that generational companies are made of.
Our Values.
Leading with Aloha
We show up with genuine care — for founders, for candidates, for each other. We create space for the full human behind the title. It's the foundation of every transformation we facilitate.
Experts in Our Craft
We are sought out for the caliber of our work, not the stage of the company we serve. We bring the same precision, rigor, and intentionality to a 10-person founding team as we do to a pre-IPO organization. A++ is the only standard we hold ourselves to.
One Degree Shifts
We believe the most powerful changes aren't dramatic overhauls - they're intentional adjustments that compound into transformational outcomes. We move with the focused velocity of elite athletes: not just fast, but fast in the right direction. Small adjustments, compounded over time, that change your destination entirely.
Meet the Team
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Tianna Johnson
Founder
Tianna is an Olympic-level athlete, a mom, and someone who has spent her career scaling teams through the moments that define companies. GitHub through Microsoft's acquisition. Lyft from 400 to 7,000 for IPO. Notion from 20 to 600 during its $500M to $10B valuation jump. Through all of it, one thing stayed constant. The right people, in the right culture, with the right support around them, change everything. That's what PCT is built on. -
Lea Rausch
Strategy & Operations Partner
Lea has spent her career making vision real. A seasoned startup operator across the US and Australia, she has worked with family offices, VCs, and high-growth companies to drive expansion, navigate inflection points, and build the programs and relationhips that make things happen. She is the thought partner and second in command that every founder needs — the person who takes the ambitious idea and figures out how to execute it. Calm on the surface, always in motion underneath. -
Caitlin Cooke
Talent Partner
Caitlin was the first Head of Talent at GitHub — where she and Tianna first worked together building one of the most celebrated engineering teams in tech. Since then she has taken that same founding-team operator mindset across some of the most defining moments in the industry. She scaled ID.me from 100 to over 1,500 employees, advised 200+ seed through Series B companies at Andreessen Horowitz, and has spent her career helping founders make the hires that define culture and velocity. She understands the difference between filling a role and finding the person who changes everything.
Ready to build something exceptional?
Frequently Asked Questions
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From founding engineers to Chief People Officers, we work across technical, GTM, product, and people functions. We specialize in the hires that define culture and trajectory. The ones where getting it wrong is not an option.
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We don't believe you have to choose. We move with urgency and precision because we have already done the work of building the networks, the pattern recognition, and the playbooks that let us move fast in the right direction.
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Yes. Some of our most meaningful work has been with first-time founders navigating their earliest and most critical hires. We show up with the same care and expertise regardless of how many times you have done this before.
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We are one of Ashby's most experienced implementation partners with 100+ launches. Beyond Ashby, we work with Rippling, Lattice, Leapsome, Gem, Juicebox, and more. We recommend what is going to fit best for your team and your stage of growth — and then we build it out properly.
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We are not a staffing agency. We are embedded partners who get into the work with you. We bring the pattern recognition, honest counsel, and strategic thinking that only comes from having built exceptional teams ourselves. We will tell you when something is not the right fit. That is not something an agency will do.
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It means we work inside your team, not alongside it. We are in your tools, in your Slack, on your calls. You get full visibility into our process, real-time collaboration, and honest counsel throughout. No black box. No handoffs to someone you have never met. Just experienced operators accountable for every outcome.
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That is exactly what we do. Talent placement is one part of what we offer. We also build the systems, programs, and culture that make exceptional people want to stay. From your first hire through every stage of growth.
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We work with venture-backed technology companies at every stage of growth. From founding teams making their first critical hire to pre-IPO organizations navigating complex transformation. The caliber of the work stays the same regardless of where you are.
Still have questions?
We're here to help.