Operations Consulting + Fractional COO
Fix how the company runs. Keep execution with your team.
I work with founder-led technology and tech-enabled companies that have outgrown the way they plan, decide, and execute.
Operations consulting diagnoses, designs, and implements solutions to defined operating problems. Fractional COO work provides ongoing senior operating ownership. Your leaders run their teams. I help the company run as one.
Now accepting applications Q4 2026 Apply →The operating condition
You probably know this situation.
The company has capable people. But too much still depends on you, or the next stage of growth demands a different way of operating.
- Cross-functional decisions keep coming back to the CEO.Decision rights
- Leadership meetings surface updates but do not resolve tradeoffs.Cadence
- Priorities change faster than the team can absorb them.Focus
- Functional leaders hit their own goals while company priorities slip.Alignment
- You need a growth plan your people, resources, and operating capacity can support.Scale
- You are debating a COO hire without a clear definition of what that person should own.Role design
None of this means the team is weak. It usually means the company grew faster than the way it runs.
Two ways to work together
Choose the shape that fits the problem.
Operations consulting
Fix the system. Hand it back.
A defined company-level operating problem, a fixed scope, and a clear end date. I diagnose what is holding the company back, design the changes, and work with your leadership team to put them into practice.
Choose a focused operating engagement for a specific problem or a 90-Day Operating Reset for broader changes to how the company runs. In both, we agree on what changes and who owns it after handoff.
Explore consulting engagementsEmbedded fractional COO
Keep senior operating ownership in the room.
I join the leadership team as fractional COO in an ongoing monthly relationship. I own the company operating cadence, stay in the room for cross-functional tradeoffs, and help the team run the system quarter after quarter.
Your functional leaders still run their teams. This is not daily operations management or interim executive coverage.
See what I ownStart with the work the company needs. A consulting engagement can end with a clean handoff or lead to ongoing support. There is no required sequence.
Not sure what needs to change? Start with the $2,499 Operating Diagnostic.
Within operations consulting
Scope the work around the problem.
Focused operating engagement
Typically four to six weeks, focused on one company-level operating problem: planning for growth, removing a founder bottleneck, redesigning roles and decision rights, or deciding where limited resources should go.
We diagnose the constraint, design the solution, and implement the first agreed changes with your team. You leave with clear decisions, named owners, and a practical plan for what comes next.
90-Day Operating Reset
For companies that need broader changes to how they plan, decide, and execute. I find the operating constraint, redesign the two or three mechanisms behind it, and install them with your leadership team.
We run the system on real work, stabilize it, and transfer ownership to someone inside the company. Some companies take the reset and run it themselves. Others continue into an embedded relationship.
Inside the 90-Day Operating Reset
Install it by running it.
Days 1 to 30. Find the constraint.
I interview you and the leadership team, sit in the operating meetings, and watch how decisions actually move. I map ownership, escalation, priorities, and the points where the system stalls.
Outputs
- One written operating diagnosis
- A map of the primary constraint
- Agreement on the two or three mechanisms to change
Days 31 to 60. Redesign and install.
We redesign the minimum operating system the company needs: priority architecture, decision rights, leadership cadence, scorecards, and escalation rules.
Outputs
- Clear company priorities and owners
- Decision and escalation rules
- A leadership cadence built around decisions rather than status
Days 61 to 90. Stabilize and transfer.
We run the system on real work and fix what does not hold. The rules get documented. The internal owner takes over, or the embedded relationship continues.
Outputs
- A working operating cadence
- A trained internal owner
- A before-and-after review and next-step recommendation
The boundary
Senior operating work. Not outsourced operations.
I do
- Diagnose company-level operating and growth constraints
- Work directly with the CEO and leadership team
- Translate growth plans into priorities, resources, and operating requirements
- Redesign roles, decision rights, and escalation
- Install the operating cadence and accountability model
- Coach the internal owner through adoption
- Stay in the room for cross-functional tradeoffs in an embedded relationship
I do not
- Run daily operations for you
- Join routine standups
- Replace functional leaders
- Cover an open executive seat full time
- Take turnarounds or acute cash crises
- Monitor Slack around the clock
Your leaders run their teams. I help the company run as one. If you need a full-time executive in the building every day, I am the wrong call and I will tell you quickly.
You and your team bring the expertise in your customers, industry, and market. I bring the operating experience. Where the work needs specialized regulatory, technical, or industry judgment, we involve the right expert.
A fit usually looks like this
- Founder-led technology or tech-enabled company
- Roughly $1M to $30M in revenue and 5 to 150 people
- Past product-market fit
- Leaders exist beyond the founder. At the early end, that can be your first one or two leads.
- The founder is willing to change personal decision behavior
- For consulting, someone inside the company can own the changes after handoff
I will turn away
- Pre-product-market-fit companies
- Companies needing daily executive coverage
- Turnarounds and cash crises
- Companies without a management layer
- Founders unwilling to change how priorities, decisions, or authority work
The operator behind the work
Experience in the seat. Not a borrowed playbook.
I have held the COO seat three times and the CRO seat once across public and private technology companies. I was an early team member at Automattic, later operated at Tucows, and now run Helm.
I have worked across revenue, product, technology, finance, and G&A. The value is not a universal framework. It is knowing which operating problem the company actually has, what to change, and what not to add.
- Automattic
- Early operating experience inside a distributed company that scaled globally
- Tucows
- Public-company operating and executive experience
- Helm
- Current founder and CEO, building an operating-system software company
- Between Two COOs
- 67 long-form operator conversations
The operator corpus
What 67 operators taught me about where scaling breaks.
Between Two COOs is not a testimonial attached to this page. It is an ongoing body of research. Across long-form conversations with COOs, presidents, chiefs of staff, founders, and investors, three patterns repeat:
- Execution breaks when priorities are stated but tradeoffs stay implicit.
- Founder bottlenecks persist when authority is delegated without decision rules.
- Management systems fail when they create reporting work without changing decisions.
The patterns inform the diagnosis. Your company still gets a specific one, not a borrowed playbook.
How the relationship works
Attention, with clear boundaries.
I run Helm full time. That shapes the boundary of this offer, not the seriousness of the work.
I do not sell daily operating coverage. I work directly with the CEO and leadership team on the decisions and mechanisms that require senior operating judgment.
Working commitments
- A scheduled CEO working session each week
- Leadership and implementation sessions as the work requires
- Written review of the operating materials we agree on
- A two-business-day normal response window, with an agreed urgent standard
- For consulting, a defined scope, start date, end date, and internal owner
- For an embedded relationship, participation in the agreed company operating cadence
A smaller place to start
Operating Diagnostic · $2,499
You have an operating problem, but the cause or next step is unclear. We focus on one defined problem, diagnose what is behind it, and build a recommended 90-day action plan.
This is a standalone diagnosis and recommendation. Implementation is scoped separately if you need it.
Discuss a diagnosticFair questions.
You run another company. Will I actually get enough of you?
That is the right first question. The engagement has a fixed cadence, defined commitments, and a clear boundary. If your problem requires daily executive attention, it requires a different operator and I will say so on the call.
Can a part-time COO actually work?
Sometimes no. If the job is daily management, emergency coverage, or constant firefighting, no. If the constraint is priorities, decision rights, cadence, and accountability, a part-time senior operator can change the system without becoming another dependency.
What does consulting actually deliver?
We agree on the operating change we need to make, then work on the company's real decisions and execution. A focused engagement implements the first agreed changes. A 90-Day Operating Reset installs and stabilizes the broader operating system. Documents support the work; success is measured by what changes in practice.
How do I choose between consulting and fractional COO?
Consulting fits a defined problem with a clear outcome and handoff. Fractional COO fits an ongoing need for senior operating ownership across the leadership team. After consulting, your internal owner takes over. We can discuss further support if it is useful.
Are you using this to sell Helm?
No software purchase is required. If Helm is ever genuinely relevant, I will say so directly and you can decide. The operating work stands on its own.
What does it cost?
The Operating Diagnostic is $2,499. Focused consulting and the 90-Day Operating Reset are fixed-fee engagements. Fractional COO work is a monthly retainer. I do not bill hourly. Engagement scope and pricing are discussed privately after the fit call.
Start somewhere useful
Bring me the operating problem.
We will decide whether it needs a diagnostic, a focused consulting engagement, a 90-Day Operating Reset, ongoing fractional COO support, or a different kind of operator.
Book a fit call