Where most companies stand
Real traction, a team stretched thin, and no one whose job is the company itself: the finance, HR, and pipeline systems everyone assumes someone else owns. Founders are heads-down on the product and the customers. The operating spine either doesn’t exist yet, or it was bolted together to survive the last six months, not built to hold the next eighteen.
The unfair advantage
I bring the machinery from three organizations built end to end: Washington Office, Capital Atlas, and STATION DC. And I stay in my seat at STATION DC while I do it, a 700+ member national-security and dual-use technology community, with the investor, customer, and industry relationships that flow through it. An interim executive from an agency rents you a resume. I bring the systems, the network, and a track record of building both before, more than once.
What gets built
The same architecture every time, tuned to the company’s stage and market: accounting and finance infrastructure, CRM and pipeline management, HR and people operations, compliance and governance, security infrastructure, and the operating cadences and reporting that let leadership see the board in real time. Full detail on the playbook is on the Organizational Leadership page. Here is the order it gets built in.
Days 1–30 · Diagnose
- Full audit of what exists today: financials, contracts, HR files, vendor agreements, and the tools already in use, alongside the ones that are missing.
- One conversation with every function lead and every system of record, so nothing is inherited from an org chart instead of from reality.
- Stand up the operating cadence: a weekly rhythm, a shared dashboard, and a meeting structure that replaces status updates buried in Slack and email.
- Fix the one thing that is actively bleeding money or risk first, whatever it turns out to be.
- Deliver a build plan for days 31–90, sequenced and prioritized, so the team knows what is changing and when.
Days 31–60 · Build
- Stand up the core systems in priority order: accounting and finance infrastructure first, then whichever of CRM, HR, compliance, or security is the actual constraint.
- Vendor and contract cleanup: consolidate, renegotiate, or cut what isn’t earning its keep.
- Hiring and onboarding playbook live, so the next hire inherits a system instead of tribal knowledge.
- KPI dashboard live and reviewed weekly with leadership.
Days 61–90 · Operate
- Systems handed off to the team that will run them day to day, with documentation, not just access.
- Reporting cadence running on its own: leadership sees the board without asking for it.
- Where the strategic narrative needs directing alongside the operations, the same discipline extends to it: see Strategic Communications.
- A clear read on what still needs a dedicated operator, and a recommendation on whether that stays fractional or becomes a full-time hire.
How we’ll know it’s working
- Systems: every core function has a documented, repeatable process, not a person’s memory.
- Cadence: leadership gets a clear read on the business every week, without chasing it down.
- Capacity: founders spend more of their time on product, customers, and capital, and less on the business underneath them.
How the engagement works
- Fractional first: the diagnose, build, and operate work above runs a few dedicated hours a week, sized to the company’s stage and cash position.
- Structured for alignment: fees, and equity where it fits, are structured so I am paid the way the company wins. I price the way I play chess: the queen goes early when the position pays it back.
- Open to full-time: at 90 days, we evaluate together whether the seat becomes full-time. I am open to that where the company and the mandate are right.