Values Integrity Index For Start-ups Doing Work That Matters

Accountability Isn’t Just A Value. It’s An Operating System.

Ethixly audits whether accountability is just a value on your website or whether your strategy translates into aligned KPIs, clear guardianship, and measurable impact at every level of your startup. 

Why ethixly?

In early-stage companies, performance management systems are often introduced as the organisation begins to scale with the intention of strengthening accountability.

But if the underlying architecture is misaligned, those systems sit on unstable foundations…

  • Goals are set, but they don’t cascade cleanly.
  • KPIs exist, but they don’t connect across levels.
  • Roles are defined, but responsibility overlaps or diffuses.
  • Impact is discussed, but not structurally traceable.

Everyone is committed but commitment is not accountability. And over time:

  • Delivery slows without a clear identifiable cause.
  • Decisions remain concentrated at the top.
  • The founder becomes the coordination point for problems the system should be solving.
  • Underperformance becomes difficult to diagnose precisely.

What looks like a people problem is often a systems problem, and systems problems compound with growth.

Ethixly’s Accountability Diagnostic assesses whether accountability is structurally embedded across your organisation – from strategy to team to role. If it is real, it will be visible in your operating system. If it isn’t, scale – or due diligence – will expose it.

What We Audit

We assess whether accountability is structurally embedded across four layers of your organisation:

Strategic Alignment

  • Are organisational KPIs clearly outcome-based and tied to the overall vision?
  • Is each KPI assigned to one clearly identified owner in the organisation?
  • Are expectations clear when targets are missed?

Functional & Team Alignment

  • Do team KPIs directly and measurably contribute to company KPIs?
  • Are there conflicting targets between functions?
  • Is collaboration structurally supported, or dependent on goodwill?

Role Level Traceability

  • Does every role have defined outcome expectations?
  • Can each role’s contribution be traced upward to organisational goals?
  • Are these expectations used in hiring, onboarding, and probation reviews?

Leadership & Response Discipline

  • What happens when delivery slips?
  • Are performance discussions structured and documented?
  • Is underperformance addressed consistently across teams, and across the organisation?

We do not assess sentiment or culture perception.We examine your operating reality.

Who This Is For

This diagnostic is designed for:

  • Startups under 50 people.
  • Founders preparing to scale headcount.
  • Teams experiencing execution friction.
  • Companies hiring rapidly without defined role scorecards.
  • Organisations where the founder remains the escalation point.

If your operating model is still informal, this identifies where informality becomes structural risk.

“…But we already have OKRs”

Most organisations we work with do. Having a framework is not the same as having alignment.

We don’t assess whether a performance management system exists. We assess what it’s actually producing – whether KPIs cascade cleanly from strategy to team to role, whether roles have clear outcome expectations, whether delivery gaps are addressed consistently, and whether the founder is still the de facto escalation point for problems the system should be resolving.

OKRs describe intent. The Accountability Diagnostic examines operating reality.

What You Receive

You receive a structured Accountability Architecture Report, including:

  • A clear assessment of vertical KPI alignment
  • A visual map showing how goals cascade (or fail to cascade)
  • Analysis of role clarity and guardianship gaps
  • Review of how delivery issues are addressed in practice
  • Identification of structural risk areas
  • Prioritised recommendations to strengthen alignment

You will see precisely where accountability holds, and where it breaks.

What This Looks Like In Practice

Justice-focused non-profit | 15 people | Grant-funded | Europe

The situation: A small, mission-led organisation with no formal accountability frameworks in place. Values were assumed rather than defined. Hiring decisions were inconsistent. Leadership decisions were made sincerely but without a shared framework – which meant they weren’t always made the same way.

What the diagnostic found:

  • No agreed definition of core values existed at leadership level.
  • Role expectations weren’t documented or used consistently in hiring or onboarding.
  • No structure existed for holding the board accountable to mission delivery.

Outcome: Defined values gave leadership a shared language for decisions and expectations. Role clarity improved recruitment. The board established structured accountability to mission – not just to funder requirements.

Your Investment

Start-up Accountability Diagnostic: For organisations up to 50 people.

Fixed fee: £8,500

This includes:

  • Structured review of strategic and functional KPI documentation
  • KPI cascade and role traceability mapping
  • Accountability Architecture Report
  • 90-minute executive findings and risk review session
  • Optional: extra Leadership interviews (up to 4 senior stakeholders)

Duration: 3-4 weeks from kickoff.

This is a fixed-scope diagnostic. It does not include advisory time. It is a structured assessment of whether accountability is embedded across your operating model.

For organisations between 50–200 people, see here.

What Happens Next

After the diagnostic, you can:

  • Implement the findings internally, or
  • Engage us in a focused 30-day Accountability Implementation Sprint to:
    • Redesign your KPI cascade
    • Define role scorecards
    • Clarify decision rights
    • Establish clear expectations when targets are missed

We work with you to embed accountability into the structure and frameworks of your organisation

There’s never a perfect moment to do this…

Structural risk is easiest to address before the next growth phase — not during it. Every month an accountability gap persists, it compounds: decisions that should be decentralised stay centralised, performance issues that should be addressed structurally become personalised, and the operating model becomes harder to audit cleanly.

If you’re thinking “now isn’t quite the right moment,” that’s usually a sign the diagnostic would surface something useful.

 

Ready to find out where your accountability structure holds – and where it doesn’t?

Book a discovery call to talk through the diagnostic and whether it’s the right fit for your organisation

Book An Accountability Diagnostic Discovery Call →