This Former Deloitte Consultant Cracked the Code on Scaling Startup Teams Without Burning Them Out

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Anna Lenhardt is the founder and CEO of Lenhardt Partners, a company whose mission is to help venture-backed startups build people systems that scale. “We come in when things are moving fast and founders realize their structure, leadership, and culture are starting to lag behind the business,” she told Entrepreneur.

Lenhardt believes that HR will be “one of the biggest transformation agents” in the age of AI. “That’s why my work focuses on what I call Human Intelligence — designing how people, teams, and technology work together so companies can grow without burning out their people or breaking what makes them special,” she explains.

Lenhardt knows firsthand about the real threat of burnout and shared her experience of building a company that aims to help other entrepreneurs overcome the many challenges that successful startups will face.

The following are some of the insights from her interview:

She began her career at McKinsey & Company, then refined her HR expertise as a consultant at Deloitte and went on to help Oscar Health and Hippo Insurance scale and prepare to IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. Starting her own business, Lenhardt Partners, was risky. But she moved ahead anyway because she trusted the pattern she had seen over two decades: when founders invest in people and structure early, they move faster and break less. That conviction has guided the firm from day one and shapes how she advise leaders when they are tempted to chase trends instead of building solid foundations.

Last year, she realized she was working 100 hours a week and had become burnt out.  It was a wake-up call—especially because sustainability is something she advises her clients on every day.  How she was operating was not sustainable, to say the least. So she  hired more leaders, established a new partnership for the business, delegated more work, and established a clear roadmap for growth, roles and company evolution. That shift allowed her to double capacity without losing quality and reminded her that even as tools and automation improve, the real lever is still how we design roles, teams, and decision-making around human capacity.

Earning her master’s degree in counseling psychology fundamentally changed how she lead. It gave her a deeper understanding of how people think, react, and make decisions, which is essential when you are advising founders and executives in high-pressure environments. She also hold a master’s in the arts and am a classically trained opera singer, which means she takes preparation and performance seriously. You do not step on a stage unprepared, and the same is true for leadership moments.  A simple daily practice that supports all of this is evening meditation. It helps her slow down, reflect, and stay clear-headed so she can make sound decisions and show up steadily when things are difficult. That mix of psychology, discipline, and reflection is the backbone of how she design people strategies that work in real life, not just on paper.

HR is not a “nice to have” function. It is the operating system for how work actually happens. If you are entering this field, know that your job is to understand business and people deeply. It requires courage, clear judgment, and a strong spine.

An entrepreneur is the person who signs their name on the bet and then looks their team in the eye when it is time to deliver. It means taking ownership of your vision and standing behind it completely. Entrepreneurs move first, and they are responsible for what happens next.

At first, success meant security for my family. Now it means building things that last. That could be a company, a culture, or a team that continues to thrive long after I’m gone. It means creating a meaningful life where I have a positive impact on others and on society.

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