The story behind stepUp
Mariana Koury, stepUp’s founder, built her career by reinventing herself. Without a ready-made path, she entered the business world through her own effort, learning, adapting, and proving that skills and resilience can open doors. With roots in adult education, her work has always been about helping others learn, grow, and unlock their potential. After years supporting larger corporations and teams, she realized that many growing businesses face similar challenges: finding the right balance between structure, people, and culture while staying true to their purpose.
That’s why she created stepUp: a consultancy born from experience, designed to help small and mid-sized businesses grow with confidence by combining strategy, people development, and culture in a practical, hands-on way.
For Mari, every step is about more than business performance. The real impact comes from investing in people, because when individuals flourish, businesses do too.
Photography by Noesha
How we work
No two businesses are the same. That’s why we design solutions as unique as the people behind them. By working side by side with your team, we shape growth paths that are practical, human-centered, and built to last.
Discover
We start by listening. Diagnosis through conversations, surveys, and context analysis to understand your reality.
Co-Create
We design with you, not for you. Together, we build tailored strategies, frameworks, and practices.
Implement
From ideas to action. We support business owners and teams in applying changes in day-to-day routines.
Evolve
Growth is continuous. We measure results, adjust what’s needed, and ensure long-term impact.
This service is for you if
You’re a business owner facing the challenge of scaling.
Your team has grown, but roles and processes aren’t fully clear yet.
You’ve reached a plateau and need new structures to unlock the next level of growth.
You want to grow without losing your culture and the human touch.