Who is a Fractional COO & What’s Their Role In a Series A Stage Startup?

Going by the books, a COO is a senior executive overseeing a business’s day-to-day operations and reports directly to the CEO. These ‘day-to-day’ operations can be planning, organizing, hiring, quality assessment, etc.

But, not many of you might know this — a COO is often a former founder that was really good at operating and scaling business operations.

Let’s take an example to understand it better.

Imagine Jack — CEO of an enterprise software startup who raised series A funding.

He was able to scale the company and grow the team from just a few employees to dozens or even hundreds of employees by learning how to strategize and operate correctly, often through trial and error.

But here’s the catch; his customer acquisition cost was too high and wasn’t going down, so he was forced to shut the company down.

Seeing how he could massively scale up the operational part of the business, he decided to work as a fractional COO and replicate it.

This way, he is able to apply only what he is best at and work with a team of incredibly talented and motivated people who can handle the other aspects of the business.

That’s one example of how a COO is made!

Role of a Fractional COO in a Series A Stage Startup

What a COO can do, depends on the type of business you’re running. It also depends on what your exact requirements are when you’re looking to hire a fractional COO.

All COOs are not the same; some are more technical, some are more financial, whereas others are more growth-focused.

But most of them are sort of the ‘jack of all trades types’ (as in the case of Jack above) because, at some point in time, they were CEOs and had to learn everything crucial to keep a business afloat.

This is the main reason why COOs can do a lot of heavy-lifting for you.

Here’s what the COO can do for you:

• Process Mapping: A graphical visualization of how to get things done over a certain period of time; process mapping helps you increase business efficiency.
• Automating Tasks: COOs will use software like Zapier, Paragon, etc, to automate workflows, eliminate manual tasks (wherever possible), and save time and money.
• Hiring Teams: With a wide range of experience, a COO can help you hire for sales, customer success, account management, and more.
• Making a Business Plan: For an early-stage startup, a COO can help devise a business plan that will take them from 1 to 10 million dollars in just a couple of years.
• Budgeting: A COO can manage finances (to some extent) and assign a budget to each department to ensure the best use of funds.

And much more…

Note: Not every COO is a former CEO; some may be a VP of Operations who can help you onboard a sales and marketing team, or they may have a different unique background. So choose a COO that suits your specific needs.