What would you like to know?

Answer

fractional COO

The consistent failure mode is a founder who wants the outcome without ceding control. A fractional COO with responsibility and no authority becomes a well-paid observer, and the engagement ends after two quarters with a slide deck nobody implements. The second failure mode is scope inflation: the role starts as operational systems and drifts into fundraising, product and sales because those are the fires currently burning.

• The problem is diagnosable and bounded — a broken delivery process, an unmanaged cost base, a hiring plan nobody owns.
• The founder genuinely delegates authority rather than adding an expensive adviser to the same decision queue.
• There is a defined endpoint: a permanent hire, a systems handover, or an agreed set of implemented processes.
• The engagement is at least two days a week. Below that, most of the time is spent re-establishing context.