John-Miguel Mitchell

John-Miguel Mitchell builds cultures that can actually carry the weight of venture-scale ambition. At Ekipo, he works with startup founders, venture-backed CEOs, and VC firms from pre-seed through Series C who are tired of heroic effort masking structural problems. He tackles the hard issues leaders feel every day but rarely measure clearly: misaligned founders, fuzzy operating principles, brittle org structures, and people risk that sits just beneath the surface of growth. While most companies treat culture as branding or perks, John-Miguel treats it as infrastructure, and he knows exactly how costly it gets when that infrastructure is weak.

His starting point is a blunt, data-grounded look at reality through culture diagnostics and risk assessments that expose where trust, execution, and decision flow are breaking down. From there, he runs founder and leadership alignment sessions that get the real conversations on the table and turn competing instincts into shared operating ground. He helps teams codify culture and operating principles in language people actually use, then ties that to scaling and org design guidance that fits the current stage instead of some future fantasy. Venture firms rely on him for portfolio support and on-call advisory in high-pressure moments, because his input leads to cleaner decisions, tighter teams, and companies that can absorb growth without cracking.

When the room heats up and the stakes are real, leaders bring in John-Miguel to cut through noise and get to the move that protects both the business and the team. His style is calm, direct, and deeply practical, with no interest in theater or intellectual games. Clients walk away with sharper alignment, clearer structures, and a culture that supports speed instead of fighting it. If you are responsible for a cap table and a team, he is the partner you want on your side when the next hard call shows up.