Fractional executive leadership
Build an executive team at a fraction of the cost and scale your company faster! Sounds too good to be true? Read on!
Building a well rounded diverse executive team
Every company could benefit from a diverse, well rounded, and seasoned c-suite that brings specialized expertise for each perspective of your business objectives: Vision, Strategy, Business Development, Innovation, Product, Sales, Marketing, Finance, People and Culture, and Operations to name a few.
Generally a single founder CEO or CTO will have domain and technical expertise, with some hustle and vision skills, or will partner with one or two co-founders to form a CEO/CTO or CEO/CTO/CRO founding team. And this works to get from startup to product market fit when money is tight, the team is small, and the business is less complex. Everyone stretches and gets things done, learning and adapting along the way. As a company transitions to scale up, it needs to look at expanding its executive leadership team with more specialized expertise.
When is the right time to hire?
An experienced executive leadership hire (c-suite or VP) could cost much more than a regular team member. They might also be so specialized that their contributions, though important and timely, are focused on just one aspect of the business. That said, the right time to build a well rounded team is as soon as you can! But if money is tight, who should you hire first?
Who to hire first?
How do you prioritize who to add to the executive leadership team? Which is the right hire if you can only choose one? A sales executive is less pressing if you don’t have product market fit (though they could help with strategy and get the systems in place). A people and culture executive is less pressing if you don’t have a team yet (But they could help set you up for success and help you hire the best team!) A strategic CFO might be overkill for day to day operations (but invaluable for raising and modeling the venture.)
When you are sitting in the $1M – $5M revenue range you don’t really need each executive full time and can’t afford that much overhead, should you look for another jack of all trades to wear multiple hats? Would they also be a master of none? You want someone who has proven success in the startup through the scaleup phase of a private company. Even better if they’ve achieved goals that align with outcomes you are seeking.
Have your cake, and eat it too!
What if, instead of choosing who your only executive hire is… you could have them all for a reasonable price? By hiring fractional help, you get access to senior leaders that can give the right advice at the right time, and let your team execute on said advice. They can bring proven processes and the experience to know what works and what doesn’t.
Eat even better cake
In this fractional model you can also get access to experts who are not available on the full time job market, people with years of experience that have sold their companies, helped their boss exit, semi-retired, or started consulting. For example when I started helping one company, the founder was looking at a three year window to exit. I brought in a five person c-suite who had all grown companies beyond his target revenues, including two that had exited for at least the price he was hoping for. The entire cost for this group was a little more than a single experienced executive. This team will get him over the awkward hump where the advice is needed but the cash is tight. As the company reaches its goals, key people can be brought in full time to execute this group’s strategy.
Fabulous fractional fractionals
A fractional CFO firm I use frequently in my practice is much more than that, they are a fractionalized full service finance team. They break your needs like bookkeeping, accounting, comptroller, CFO, and strategic CFO into fractional time allotments based on the stage and size of your firm, then offer all the required services for a fixed fee monthly. Just like getting a full c-suite for the cost of one, you get all parts of your financial ecosystem at the cost of one. I can see this model working for sales and people ops too.
Closing thoughts
It’s important to have your vision set, your strategy roughed in and a viable business that is transitioning from startup to scaleup before you bring on a big team, you’ll waste time using your executives leadership to figure your business out instead of helping you scale it. Finance and people ops are the most common fractional services available, but strategy, operations, marketing and sales work to if you can find the right people and have an internal team that can execute.
Want to read more?
If you’ve made it through the startup phase to product market fit, check out my Business Growth Consulting practice.
If you landed on this page first, consider starting at the Prologue: Ehh?
Looking for more fresh business content?
Get articles, insights, and special offers from my newsletter
About Me
Hi, I’m a founder-CEO with 20 years of experience growing companies, building relationships, imagining the future, and creating new things. I started my entrepreneurial journey in 2002 when I founded my first company, creating visual effects for Hollywood TV shows, where I won an Emmy for ‘Lost’ and received four nominations.
In 2010, I founded an aerospace and defense technology startup and led the company through unbridled naivety, survival, bootstrap, dogged resilience, and scaling. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to sit on numerous boards and round tables comprising diverse companies, communities, people, and points of view. I’ve successfully sold to Hollywood giants like SyFy, Fox, ABC, and Disney, to aerospace leaders such as Boeing, Lockheed, and Babcock, as well as the Canadian government, securing multi-year multi-million dollar contracts.
Now, my mission is to help fellow founder-CEOs by bringing proven strategies and customizable playbooks into their businesses. I coach them on building a solid team and executing their plans while focusing on what they love to do, ensuring their business thrives. My coaching expertise lies in strategy, business development, B2B & B2G, marketing, sales, and creative problem-solving. I’m here to help you get your business working for you, not the other way around!
Awards
1 Emmy, 4 Nominations, News Maker of the Year, Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Team of the Year, Tech Company of the Year, Top 5 Moments in Television History (Lost – Pilot), 4 Time Top 75 Defence Company
Achievements
TEDx Talk, FuckUp Night Talk, Host of Western Innovation Forum, Trade Show Panelist, and Speaker.
Boards
Victoria Innovation, Advanced Technology & Entrepreneurship Council (VIATEC) Western Canadian Defence Industry Association (WCDIA), The Alternative Board (TAB), Vancouver Island Aviation Association (VIAA)
Hobbies
Painting, Running, Sailing, Hiking, Camping, Traveling, Reading, Cooking.
Great Books
Scaling Up, Unfuck Yourself, Good to Great, Everything is Fucked, The Untethered Soul. How to Sell an Elephant