Learn more about the four ways I help for founders trying to scale a business that runs on more than instinct and guesswork.
Over the years I’ve realised that most of the initial enquiries I get from founders fall into one of four types.
- The first is operational. The business has grown past the point where the founder can carry it on instinct and a spreadsheet, but it’s not yet ready for a full-time COO at £150k+. The work is real and ongoing. These are fractional COO conversations.
- The second is project-shaped. There’s a specific operational piece in front of the founder – a restructure, an integration, a system rollout, an M&A process – that needs months of senior executive time and then doesn’t. That’s a consultant COO conversation.
- The third is more vague but often the founder has the operator they need, either themselves or someone in the leadership team, but they need an experienced voice in the room a few times a month. Someone who’s been the operator in scaling businesses, has the scars to prove it and can think out loud about the hard calls. That’s usually an advisor conversation.
- The fourth is the one founders take longest to ask for. The work isn’t operational. It’s the founder themselves – how they’re leading, where they’re stuck, what they need to let go of, what they’re avoiding. That’s a coaching conversation and it’s the one I came to last in my career.
Most founders need different shapes of help at different times. Some need two of these in parallel. The resources below set out what each role actually is, when it’s the right tool, what good looks like and the calls I’d make if I were sitting in your seat.
These are genuine operator perspectives not consultant’s website marketing copy. I’ve worked exclusively with founders of scaling businesses since 2014 – first running a digital agency we sold to the listed Panoply group, then as COO of that group (TPXimpact plc) as we scaled from £31.5m to £83m in revenue, and now as an independent fractional COO, advisor and coach working with tech-centric scale-ups in the UK and US. The guides reflect what I actually do, what I’ve watched work and what I’ve watched fail.
They’re quite long. Each one is a version of the conversation I’d want to have with a founder before we work together, not after.
Fractional COO.
When you need a COO but a full-time hire isn’t right.
Hands-on operational leadership for 5-12 days a month
Embedded in the leadership team
Owns operational outcomes alongside the founder
The right shape when the work of scaling is real and ongoing but the business isn’t ready for a £150k+ permanent hire – or when the founder needs to step out of the COO role they’ve been quietly carrying themselves.
> Read the fractional COO guide.
Consultant COO.
When the work is project-shaped, not ongoing.
Senior operational leadership delivered as a defined piece of work.
Examples include restructures, integrations, operating model resets, system rollouts or M&A.
Delivered in weeks or months
The right shape when there’s a specific operational problem in front of you and you want it sorted, not staffed.
> Read the consultant COO guide.
Founder advisor.
When you need an experienced operator in the room and on speed dial, but not on your team all the time.
An advisor who’s been the operator in scaling businesses
Scheduled regular meetings/calls
Ad-hoc support and advice when you need it
The right shape when you’ve already got the operator you need and want a more experienced voice as a thinking partner across the operational, leadership and growth questions that don’t have obvious answers.
> Read the founder advisor guide.
Founder coaching.
When you want to invest in yourself – how you’re leading, what you’re avoiding & what you need to let go of next.
Structured, confidential coaching programme with an ICF-accredited coach who’s also spent 26 years in businesses.
Designed to help you think more clearly, decide more wisely and grow as the person leading the business.
The right shape when the bottleneck is the founder rather than the org chart – and when you want to do that work with someone who actually knows what the running a growth business feels like from the inside.
> Read the founder coaching guide.
