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°011
The numbers a founder should see every Monday morning
Most founders don’t lack data. They lack a small, trusted set of numbers they can look at on a Monday morning and know, without having to double-check or…
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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°009
Onshore accountability, offshore economics: how to outsource without losing control
Most founders who’ve tried offshore outsourcing and pulled back don’t describe it as a talent problem. The work, in isolation, was often fine. What they describe is a…
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N°008
Employer of record, explained for founders: when it makes sense and when it doesn’t
At some point in a growing company’s life, someone finds the perfect candidate, and that candidate happens to live in a country the company has no legal presence…
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N°007
AI is an accelerator, not a strategy: where AI actually pays off in a 50-person company
At around fifty employees, almost every founder gets asked some version of the same question — by a board member, an investor, a peer at a conference —…
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N°006
Fixed-price software builds: how to buy development without buying hours
Most software gets bought by the hour, one way or another. Even when the invoice says “project,” the estimate underneath it is somebody’s guess at hours multiplied by…
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N°005
What “quality of hire” actually means — and how to measure it
Ask most founders what “quality of hire” means and you’ll get a feeling, not a measurement. “We know a good hire when we see one.” The trouble is…
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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…