How Nytarra Naturals is Building a High-Performance, Aligned Culture with Stryde

Company: Nytarra Naturals

Industry: Consumer / Natural Products (Emerging Brand)

Stage: High-growth startup

SUMMARY

As a fast-growing organization, Nytarra Naturals found itself at a critical inflection point - where scaling the business required scaling team capability, building team alignment and strengthening culture.

In partnership with Stryde, Nytarra designed and implemented a structured approach to strengthen team cohesion, build managerial capability and embed a culture of high performance and accountability.

Through a combination of diagnostics, tailored workshops and team interventions, Nytarra is now building a shared language of leadership, enabling stronger conversations and creating a culture that can grow with the business.

The Situation

As Nytarra scaled, a few patterns began to emerge:

• Teams operated in silos, with limited cross-functional collaboration

• Managers were stepping into roles without formal leadership training

• Performance conversations were considered as salary review conversations only, missing an opportunity to be an all year round strategic people process

As Founder Tara Malhotra shared,

“We knew that while no framework can cover every situation in a startup, having a shared way of thinking about leadership and conversations would be invaluable for our team.”

The core challenge was clear: How do we build alignment, ownership and collaboration—without losing agility?

Solution – The Stryde Approach

Stryde partnered with Nytarra through a phased and highly customized intervention:

1. Starting with Alignment: Team Offsite

The journey began with a team-building and alignment offsite, designed to:

• Build trust across teams

• Surface collaboration gaps

• Create shared ownership for culture

This became a catalyst for several cultural shifts, including:

• Strengthening of a recognition practice (launch of a monthly program)

• Introduction of monthly town halls and weekly team meetings

• Stronger emphasis on ongoing feedback

2. Diagnosing What Matters

Stryde conducted 1:1 conversations and thematic analysis across the organization to uncover:

• Strengths to build on

• Gaps in the performance process

• Real challenges managers and individuals were facing

This ensured that all interventions were grounded in reality—not theory.

3. Building Capability Where It Counts

Based on the insights, Stryde designed targeted, role-specific workshops:

For Individual Contributors: Making the Most of Performance & Appraisal Conversations (building ownership and accountability)

For People Managers: Leading Effective Performance Conversations (driving accountability, feedback and team development)

These sessions focused on:

• Real scenarios from Nytarra

• Practical tools managers could use immediately

• Building confidence for difficult conversations

Participants found Stryde workshops to have practical value and immediate relevance. The performance management workshops proved highly relevant and useful, scoring above 4 out of 5 in every category. In fact, 93% felt confident they could immediately apply the concepts and skills they learned, and 95% found the skills they learned useful.

4. Creating a Shared Leadership Language

A key outcome of the intervention was the creation of:

• A common language for feedback and performance

• Greater alignment on what an effective performance management conversation looks like

• Tools that leaders could consistently apply across situations

5. Reinforcement for Real Change

Stryde worked closely with leadership to ensure this wasn’t a “one-time workshop”. The team worked closely with Nytarra to:

• Identify internal champions to role-model behaviors

• Embed practices into existing rhythms (1:1s, reviews, town halls)

• Encourage reflection and application post-sessions

The Impact

1. Stronger, More Cohesive Culture

Teams now operate with greater clarity and shared intent, reduced silo working and improved cross-functional work. They have common language, toolkits and skills at their disposal to make collaboration easier and communication more effective. The use learned habits like the Accountability Ladder and SBI Feedback Model for collaboration.

2. More Confident, Capable Managers

Managers are:

• More comfortable having performance conversations

• Better at balancing empathy with accountability

• More intentional in their leadership approach

3. Shift in Performance Conversations

Appraisals and 1:1s are now:

• More structured and meaningful

• Focused on development, not just evaluation

• Enabling more ownership from employees

4. Continuous Feedback Culture

There is a visible shift toward:

• Regular, ongoing feedback (not just annual reviews)

• Increased openness in conversations

• Greater willingness to address challenges early

With 97% of learners rating their facilitator as knowledgeable and 96% finding them engaging, the sessions created an atmosphere of trust and participation.  

Founders of Nytarra Tara Malhotra and Adheer Awasthi described facilitators as “the secret sauce.” 

“The Stryde facilitators walked the talk! They weren’t just training us on these tools—they were using them in real time. Seeing them apply the tools during training really reinforced their credibility.”

-Adheer Awasthi, Co-Founder of Nytarra

Key Learnings for Growing Organizations

Nytarra’s journey offers a few powerful lessons:

1.    Start with a Vision: Define your leadership challenges and align learning interventions with specific goals.

2.    Choose the right partner: Collaborate with a partner who will customize learning solutions and adapt along the way.

3.    Prioritize Skilled Facilitators: Insist on great facilitators who model behaviours, create a safe learning environment and hold participants accountable.

4.    Context matters more than content - Off-the-shelf training doesn’t work. Relevance drives impact.

5.    Managers are carriers of culture - Investing in them creates ripple effects across the organization.

6.    Measure what matters: Track the impact to reinforce new habits and demonstrate success.

Conclusion

As Nytarra continues to expand, the foundations established by Stryde are helping the company meet the demands of growth with consistency and clarity. With over 20 members trained - and more to come - Nytarra’s culture reset program continues to evolve alongside the organization. Nytarra’s story proves that leadership training isn’t just a one-time event - it’s a strategic investment that fuels growth, performance, and a thriving culture.

Looking to build a high-performing, aligned team in your organization? Let’s start the conversation.