Insights
The Operator’s Brief.
Practical writing on running a company that scales past its founder — operations, hiring, technology, and the numbers. One idea at a time, from people who run these systems for a living.
ISSUE N°012 · PUBLISHED WEEKLY · NO TREND-CHASING, NO LISTICLES
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Latest
N°012What PE operating partners do — and how to get the same discipline without selling equity
Read the brief →: What PE operating partners do — and how to get the same discipline without selling equityPrivate equity operating partners exist because ownership alone doesn’t create operational discipline — someone has to actually install it. In the first twelve to eighteen months after an acquisition, the operating partner’s job is usually the same short list regardless of the fund or the…
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N°010
Why we start every engagement with one problem
Every engagement we run starts the same way: bring us one problem. Not an audit of the whole business. Not a transformation roadmap. One specific thing that’s actually…
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N°004
Point solutions vs. an operating partner: why founders end up quarterbacking five vendors
By the time a founder-led company hits fifty or a hundred employees, it usually has a recruiter, a dev shop, a bookkeeper or outsourced finance team, and often…
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N°003
Signs your company has outgrown its operating systems (a 20-point checklist)
Most founders don’t notice the moment their company outgrows its operating systems, because there isn’t one moment. It’s a slow accumulation of small workarounds — a process someone…
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N°002
You don’t have an HR problem — you have a constraint on growth
Nobody wakes up thinking “today I have an HR problem.” Founders wake up thinking: we’re missing targets. I can’t find good leaders. Margins are shrinking and nobody can…