Hands gesturing during a business discussion, with a laptop displaying operational strategies and metrics in the background, emphasizing the role of a Fractional COO in driving organizational efficiency.

Drive Operational Excellence with Kamyar Shah’s Fractional COO

Fractional COO Services for Growth-Stage Companies

Growth shouldn’t feel fragile.

If revenue is increasing but execution feels inconsistent, slow, or overly dependent on you as the founder, the issue is rarely talent. It’s structure.

I work with growth-stage companies to install operational clarity, decision cadence, and leadership systems—without the cost, risk, or premature commitment of a full-time Chief Operating Officer.

Who This Is For

This engagement is designed for founders and CEOs who:

  • They typically operate between $1M–$20M in revenue
  • Have moved past early chaos, but haven’t achieved operational maturity
  • Feel execution strain as growth accelerates
  • Are still the de facto COO—intentionally or not

This is not for:

  • Pre-revenue or idea-stage companies
  • Founders looking for task execution or project management
  • Teams seeking a helper instead of operational leadership

What’s Actually Breaking (Even If Revenue Is Up)

At this stage, operational failure is quiet.

  • Decisions slow down because ownership isn’t clear
  • Strong people deliver uneven results
  • Priorities shift weekly under pressure
  • The founder remains the escalation point for everything
  • Processes exist—but aren’t trusted or enforced

Revenue can mask these issues temporarily. Eventually, it amplifies them.

The Real Risk of Waiting

The problem isn’t inefficiency. It’s structural debt.

Without operational leadership:

  • Scale increases dependency instead of leverage
  • Accountability erodes quietly
  • Senior hires fail due to unclear decision architecture
  • Burnout concentrates at the leadership layer

Most companies don’t stall because the market disappears. They stall because the organization can’t keep up with itself.

What a Fractional COO Engagement Actually Does

This is not advisory theater.

A Fractional COO engagement focuses on:

  • Decision architecture — who decides what, when, and how
  • Execution cadence — rhythm, accountability, and follow-through
  • Operating clarity — priorities that survive weekly pressure
  • Founder unblocking — removing you from daily operational drag
  • Systemization — structures that endure beyond the engagement

The goal is not to run operations for you.
The goal is to make operations run without you.

Two Engagement Paths

Path 1: Stabilize & Build the Operational Backbone

Best for: Companies experiencing execution strain, inconsistency, or founder overload.

  • Diagnose structural bottlenecks
  • Establish operating cadence
  • Clarify ownership and accountability
  • Stabilize execution across teams

Outcome: A functioning operational backbone that supports growth instead of resisting it.

Path 2: Scale & Prepare for Permanent Leadership

Best for: Companies approaching the need for a full-time COO.

  • Mature systems and reporting
  • Reduce key-person dependency
  • Prepare the organization for permanent executive leadership
  • Ensure continuity beyond the fractional role

Outcome: A company that can absorb a full-time COO, or continue operating cleanly without rushing the hire.

How This Is Different

I do not:

  • Act as a task manager
  • Babysit teams
  • Replace the founder leadership
  • Create dependency on my involvement

I do:

  • Install systems that force clarity
  • Enforce execution discipline
  • Surface uncomfortable truths early
  • Build structures that survive my exit

Success is measured by how unnecessary I become.

Blind Scenarios

Scenario 1: A multi-million-dollar services company with strong sales but chronic delivery stress. Leadership meetings were frequent but ineffective. After installing decision ownership, operating cadence, and escalation rules, execution stabilized, and leadership shifted from reaction to planning.

Scenario 2: A founder-led organization preparing for aggressive growth but unable to delegate without chaos. The engagement removed founder-centric workflows, clarified authority, and installed reporting discipline—allowing the company to scale without adding management layers prematurely.

The First Step

If you’re unsure whether your company needs a Fractional COO—or what’s actually breaking underneath the surface—the right starting point isn’t a proposal.

It’s clarity.

Request an Operational Readiness Conversation



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