A senior operator runs your operations. You run the company.
Part-time COO, roughly two days a week, taking full ownership of operations: team management, hiring and firing, systems, reporting, vendor and process ownership. Fifteen years of operating experience inside SaaS companies and agencies, without the $250k+ full-time hire.
$7,000–$10,000/mo · ~2 days/week · 3-month minimum · founder-led companies at $1.5M+ ARR
What I own, and what stays yours
- I ownTeam management1:1s, performance, scorecard reviews and the weekly rhythm.
- I ownHiring and firingFull cycle, including the hard conversations.
- I ownSystems, reporting, vendorsSOPs, tooling, contracts and renewals.
- yoursThe company's directionVision, strategy and the decisions we agree stay with you.
You get a written report every week and a monthly KPI review.
This engagement is deliberately gated.
Fractional means a handful of clients at a time and real authority over your operations. That only works at a certain stage. I'd rather point you at the right engagement than sell you the wrong one.
Book a discovery call if
- You're founder-led at $1.5M+ ARR (SaaS or digital agency)
- Operations has outgrown founder-plus-ad-hoc management, and it's costing you deals, hires, or sanity
- You're ready to hand a senior operator real authority, including hiring and firing
- You want executive-level operations without an executive-level payroll commitment
Hold off if
- You're under $1.5M ARR: the done-with-you Implement engagement is the right entry point
- You want an advisor who suggests but never decides: that's the Pulse Check, not a COO
- You're not ready for someone else to run the team day-to-day
Too big for founder-led ops. Too early for a $250k COO.
Past $1.5M ARR, the operational surface area stops fitting in a founder's head: three functions hiring at once, vendors renewing on autopilot, reporting that only exists when someone asks for it, and performance issues that linger because nobody owns the hard conversation.
The standard advice is "hire a COO": a $250k+ base, six months of searching, and equity, for a company that needs perhaps two days a week of genuinely senior operating time. The fractional model exists precisely for this stage: full ownership, part-time footprint, and a clean transition path to a full-time hire when the numbers justify one.
Senior operations, without the executive payroll.
- Base salary, before bonus and equity
- 3–6 month executive search, then onboarding
- Full-time cost against ~2 days/week of true need
- Expensive and painful to unwind if it's a mis-hire
- Senior operator from day one, no ramp-up period
- Start within weeks, not quarters
- ~2 days/week, scoped in writing
- 3-month minimum, monthly thereafter, clean exit
What "full operations management" actually covers.
Before we start, we agree a written scope of ownership: what I own, what stays yours, and where the decision rights sit. Typically it covers:
From first call to owned operations in a month.
Discovery call
A frank conversation about stage, fit, and whether fractional is even the right answer. If it isn't, I'll say so and point you at what is.
Scope of ownership
Written agreement on what I own, what stays yours, and the decision rights in between, including hiring and firing authority.
Embed
I join your cadence, take over the management rhythm, and meet every team member. The team learns quickly that ops has an owner.
Operate & report
Operations run end-to-end, ~2 days/week. You get a written weekly report and a monthly review against the KPIs we agreed.
One number. No surprises.
Fractional COO
Start with a conversation, not a contract.
The entry point is a free discovery call: no pitch, no obligation. The scope of ownership is agreed in writing before anything is signed, the minimum is three months rather than a year, and everything is documented as we go, so nothing about your operations leaves if I do. If the fit isn't right, I'll tell you on the first call and point you to a lighter engagement.
Very valuable to have such a wise pair of hands at the wheel
Questions founders ask before handing over ops.
Why not just hire a full-time COO?
At $1.5–5M ARR, most companies need roughly two days a week of genuinely senior operating time, not a $250k+ executive with bonus and equity found through a 3–6 month search. Fractional gives you the seniority without the payroll commitment.
And when you do outgrow the model, the transition is part of the job: I'll help you scope, hire, and onboard my full-time replacement.
Can two days a week really cover our operations?
Yes, because the first thing a good operator does is install systems that remove the need for constant presence: scorecards, reporting rhythms, decision frameworks, clear ownership. Management is leverage, not hours. The written scope keeps the footprint honest, and if your stage genuinely needs more, I'll say so rather than stretch.
You'll really handle hiring and firing?
Yes, full-cycle: role scorecards, interviews, offers, onboarding, performance management, and the hard exit conversations most founders postpone for months. Final decisions on senior roles carry your sign-off; the process, the paperwork, and the difficult meetings are mine.
We're under $1.5M ARR. Can we still work together?
Not on this engagement: at that stage, a fractional executive is usually premature and the money is better spent installing systems. Start with the $770 Pulse Check or the done-with-you Implement engagement (from $2,500/mo).
How do I keep visibility once I'm out of the weeds?
You get a written ops report every week and a monthly review against the KPI set we agree up front: hiring pipeline, team performance, vendor spend, delivery metrics. You should see more of the business than you did while running it, because reporting finally exists as a system rather than a memory.
What's the commitment, and how do we exit?
Three months minimum, monthly thereafter, with 30 days' notice on either side. Because everything is documented as standard (SOPs, scorecards, reports, decision logs), an exit is an orderly handover to your team or to a full-time hire, not a cliff.
How is this different from the Implement engagement?
Implement is done-with-you: we build the operating system together and your team (and you) run it. Fractional COO is done-for-you: I run operations inside that system (the management, the hiring, the reporting) while you focus on product, sales, and vision. If you're not sure which you need, the free discovery call settles it in 45 minutes.
Hand over operations. Keep the vision.
Book a free discovery call. We'll talk stage, scope, and fit, and if fractional isn't the right answer for you yet, I'll tell you exactly what is.
Book a Free Discovery CallFree discovery call · written scope of ownership · 3-month minimum · from $7,000/mo