We run the operations. You lead the company.
An operating partner owns the machinery of a growth-stage company: the operating system, the revenue process, the customer funnel, the finances, the organization, and the major time-bound projects.
That frees you for the two jobs only a founder can hold: setting the direction and carrying the most important outside relationships.
The work mixes guidance with hands-on execution, on a weekly rhythm, and it scales from a VP of Operations load to a full COO load depending on what the company needs.
The work covers six areas
Every engagement starts from the same six areas. How deep we go in each depends on the tier.
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This is the spine. We turn the vision into two or three measurable quarterly targets, put every active initiative in one prioritized view with a repeatable way to say no, and run the weekly cadence that keeps the team accountable and you out of routine operations.
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A revenue process you can rely on: defined pipeline stages and qualification, a recurring forecast and deal review that catches stalled deals early, and the follow-up discipline that keeps committed deals from lapsing. As the engagement deepens: pricing and packaging, the CRM, and a second sales channel.
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An organization that can execute while you lead: clear functional ownership, a hiring roadmap in the right order, performance management with criteria people understand, and coaching for your first-time managers.
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Clear sight of the business: the five to seven metrics leadership steers by, a runway and burn model that holds up, unit economics that tell you what a customer costs to win and returns over time, and the board and investor reporting your stage calls for.
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We design the onboarding path that brings new users to first value, close the gaps between trial and paid, and build the churn and feedback loops that keep customers from leaving without a word. The product itself, and every decision about what to build, stays with you.
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The big, time-bound efforts, a raise, a launch, a partnership, run as managed programs, with the tracking and the training that keep delivery visible across the company.
The engagement comes in three sizes
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Full operating partner
12 to 15 hours a week. All six areas, owned end to end.
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Focused operating partner
Six to eight hours a week. We own the areas that need it most and guide you through the rest.
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Operating counterpart
About three hours a week. You execute. We advise, review, and hold the accountability.
Start with the Diagnose step
Every engagement opens with Diagnose, and you can buy it on its own, with no retainer attached. We sit with you for 60 to 90 minutes, with your numbers in front of us. If a couple of short conversations with your team would sharpen the picture, we have those too. Then we score how the company runs across all six areas, on a four-level scale from missing to reliable.
You leave with a scorecard for each area, the gaps ranked by what they’re costing you, and a plan that puts the work in order. We go through all of it on a readout call of 45 to 60 minutes.
The fee is $1,500, fixed. Sign an engagement within 30 days of the readout and the full fee comes off your first month. The plan is yours either way: run it yourself, or have us run it with you.
Ninety days in, your team runs the system
Month one is diagnosis. We map the gaps across all six areas, put out whatever is already burning, and set the targets and the weekly cadence the rest of the quarter hangs on.
Month two is the build. We work through the plan in order: the revenue process, the onboarding path, the numbers, the hiring roadmap.
By month three the focus shifts to handover. We document the system and train your team to run it. From there, the engagement reduces, continues, or grows.
Where the engagement stops
Product strategy and roadmap sit outside this engagement. Decisions about what to build belong with you or a product leader, and a company that needs both is usually better off with two specialists. Hands-on work past the agreed weekly hours gets scoped and billed separately, with notice.
We build it to leave
Everything the engagement builds — the cadence, the playbooks, the decision rules — belongs to your team when we’re gone. The measure of the work is a company that runs without us, and without you in the middle. You’re hiring us to make ourselves unnecessary.
Questions founders ask
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The machinery of the business across six areas: goals and the weekly cadence, revenue operations, people and hiring, finance and reporting, customer onboarding and retention, and major projects like a fundraise or a launch. Product strategy stays with the founder or a separate product leader.
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A full engagement runs 12 to 15 hours a week with direct ownership of operations. A focused engagement runs six to eight. The advisory tier runs about three, where you execute and we guide and review.
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A standing weekly session anchors the cadence. The hours average across the month, so a heavy week and a light one even out. Email comes back within a day, messages the same business day. Deadlines get met, or you hear early.
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The full and focused tiers run on a three-month minimum so the work has time to land. The counterpart runs month to month, and can start on a four-week opening term.
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Scope decides, and the title follows. The same engagement runs at a VP of Operations level or a full COO level, depending on the company's size and stage.