Ops partner to founders of lean, fully remote teams.
Founders trust me with the hard stuff.
I've been lucky to spend the last decade building operations inside some really beloved, fully remote startups. I was Head of Ops at Product Hunt, built ops from scratch at Eric Ries' Lean Startup Co., which grew out of his bestselling book The Lean Startup, and helped scale I Will Teach You To Be Rich 3x, the personal finance company founded by bestselling author and Netflix host Ramit Sethi.
Before startups, I spent almost a decade in legal services, working directly with the SEC and the DOJ. Government agencies and lawyers don't rattle me, and neither does the under-the-hood stuff at a fully remote company, across time zones, countries and compliance rules.
Now I'm the trusted sparring partner founders call when things get hard. I take the under-the-hood stuff off their plate, so they can focus on product, customers and growth. And we work through the risks, the tradeoffs, and the things they can't say to anyone else.
Trusted by
Product Hunt
SeedAI
How I work
You're eyeing the next stage, but you're starting to see cracks. Your team seems to have slowed down. Everyone's busy, but you're not sure they're working on the right things. You know you can't get there until you set up the under-the-hood stuff you've put off, like finance, HR and legal. You're just not sure how. Your founder spidey sense says something is off, but you can't put your finger on why. Leading feels like a drag. That's where I come in!
Discovery
For when
Something's off, and you can't put your finger on why. You want an operator who's seen this stage to tell you what's really going on and what to fix first.
How long
About 3 weeks
You get
An honest read on your team, and an in-depth findings report.
"I hired a really talented team. So why do decisions still default to me?"
"People were hired for one thing. The company's changed. Now I'm not sure who owns what, and neither are they."
"I just found out someone's been manually checking Stripe every day, even on vacation. What else are people quietly working around?"
"Someone's asking to make a new hire. Do we really need another person?"
What you get
Listen. I talk with your team and ask the questions that go deeper than the surface. You get what's really going on, in plain words.
Dig up. The small workarounds your strongest people absorb, and the few patterns behind them. You get the high-leverage fixes to make now.
Align. Where people aren't on the same page. You get clarity on where you're headed, why, what they own, and what good looks like.
Assess. An honest read on your team. You get where they shine, what's holding them back, and where there's untapped potential.
Report. The gaps and what's causing them. You get an in-depth findings report: what to fix now, what can wait, and what to protect as you grow.
Ops build
For when
You're eyeing the next stage, and the foundation isn't ready. You need it done right, in a way your team actually adopts, so you're not back where you started.
How long
90 days
You get
An operational foundation your team can run on their own.
"I've been winging ops myself. Someone just got paid wrong, again, and I don't trust our outsourced back office to catch it."
"Another founder just mentioned sales tax. Wait, are we supposed to be paying that?"
"Can we hire someone in Europe? Contractor or employee? What are the risks and tradeoffs?"
"A new hire made a mistake because we never told them something important. We all just assumed they knew."
What you get
Build. Finance, HR, legal and compliance set up for the stage you're in. No borrowed playbook, no bureaucracy. You get a foundation that speeds your team up, not slows it down.
Set up. Payroll, benefits and hiring, wherever your team is. You get the right systems and people in place, so they just work.
Fix. The gaps from discovery, like approval thresholds and busywork that should be automated. You get simple tools your team actually uses.
Clarify. The few things each person owns and how they move the company forward. You get a team that picks the most important work without asking.
Capture. The context that lives in your head, in a knowledge base people actually use. You get good calls (and big swings) without pulling you in, and new people up to speed fast.
Step in. When something scary lands, like an IRS notice or a sales tax question, I figure out what's real and get the right experts on it. You get a setup so it doesn't happen again, and outside finance or legal teams doing what you actually need.
I can build quickly. Making sure it's embedded takes more time, and that's what the 90 days are for.
1:1 coaching and sparring
For when
There's a hard conversation you know you need to have. Your team is looking to you, and you're not sure what you should be doing differently.
How long
3 months of weekly sessions to start
You get
Conviction on the hard calls, and a feedback habit for you and your managers.
"My gut says something's off. But is this a moment for feedback, a clearer expectation, more context, or a harder conversation?"
"We're getting ready to raise. Is this the right team to take us where we're going?"
"One of my early hires was perfect when we started. Now they're in over their head. Do I bring someone in above them? And will I lose them if I do?"
Underneath all of it, it's people issues. And you can't really say any of it to your team or your investors.
What you get
Spar. Feedback, tough conversations, and the decisions you're not sure about yet. I'll tell you what I see, including the parts that are hard to hear. You get the tradeoffs talked through until you have conviction.
Equip. Simple frameworks and tools for the hard conversations. You get your own words, not a script.
Surface. You usually already know the answer deep down. You get help finding it, trusting it, and bringing your team along.
Practice. Feedback on real situations, not forced exercises. You get a regular habit, for you and your managers.
Grow. How to help each person find the overlap between what they want, what they're good at, and what the company needs. You get a team that's growing, and an honest read on who isn't.
Most founders still start with discovery. There's usually a lot to uncover, including things that have become invisible, even to the people on the team. That's where the aha moments are.
Every path ends the same way: hand off.
Your team runs it on their own, with the context and guardrails documented and embedded in the way they work.
Most problems are people problems. It's smart people with good intentions solving for different things. I help create the shared context that gets the team unstuck, focused on the right things, and moving forward.
Fix the root cause before you add anything.
It's rarely one big thing, and the fix is usually small. Finding it is the hard part. Not another hire, another tool, or a layer of AI on top of a problem nobody understands yet.
Start small and test it.
We don't need complex systems. We just need simple things to test and try. The kind people actually adopt, because it improves the way they work and doesn't add more to their plate.
Someone has to say the hard thing.
Often my job is saying what everyone already knows. It's usually a relief. Once it's out loud, it's real, and we can finally move forward. And if it's holding your team back, nothing's off-limits.
Look for the magical intersection.
People grow and do their best work when they can see the overlap between what they want, what brings them joy, what they're good at, and what the company needs from them.
Build judgment, not rules.
"That's just how we do it" doesn't scale judgment. It scales people following instructions. I make sure your team understands the why and the tradeoffs, so they can take big swings without pulling you into every decision.
I start with you.
Your team takes its cues from you. As you grow as a leader, the bar rises for everyone.
Founders I work best with
We'll get along if you…
Would rather invest deeply in the talented team you built, and want them taking big swings without looping you in on everything.
Want to grow up on your own terms: lean, fast, no bureaucracy.
Run a fully remote team and want to do it really well, even if that means skipping "best practices" built for companies that aren't you.
Care more about getting it right than being right, and would rather name the elephant in the room than work around it.
Know your team has outgrown the way it used to work. Getting to what's next means everyone grows (you included!), and you're up for the hard work that takes.
We're probably not a fit if you…
Want me to install a playbook you saw work somewhere else.
Need someone to keep things running the way they've always run, or handle routine ops upkeep.
Aren't open to questioning the sacred cows, even the things you or your team have poured years of time, energy and heart into.
Aren't ready to push your own development as a leader.
Need someone on call around the clock. I'm there for what's truly urgent, but I build systems so it rarely comes to that.
Questions founders ask
We don't need a full-time ops person yet. Is this for us?
That's usually who I work with. You're seeing some cracks you can point to, but you don't see the need for a dedicated person yet. I help you get the right things in place, and work with you to figure out when it's time to hire one.
What size teams do you work with?
For discovery and the ops build, I generally start with fully remote teams under 50, and help them through growth seasons from there. 1:1 coaching and sparring is for founders and senior leads at any size.
What types of orgs do you work with?
I've worked primarily with startups, but I also work with mission-driven orgs. What's important is what you value. You care more about getting it right than being right. You want the hard things said out loud. And you'd rather invest deeply in the people you have. That gives me the space to help you create the clarity, context and guardrails you need to run on your own.
For discovery, will you tell me what my team said?
You'll hear the themes, never who said what. That's what makes it safe for people to be honest with me.
Do we have to do the ops build after discovery?
No, absolutely not. I'll tell you what I can do for you quickly. I'll also tell you if you have the capacity and desire to keep it in-house by shifting some things around, or if you need someone else for the ongoing upkeep.
What happens after the 90 days?
It depends on what I find and what you agree is the priority. I can offer a monthly retainer after that, generally for high-level escalations and coaching, or specific projects you want taken care of.
How many hours a week do you work with a team?
It depends on the work.
Discovery depends on the size of your team.
An ops build is generally 10 to 15 hours a week, depending on what needs building.
1:1 coaching and sparring starts with 3 months of weekly sessions. After that, you can extend 3 months at a time, generally twice a month. It also depends on whether other senior leads want coaching too.
What does it cost?
Discovery is a flat fee, based on the size of your team. The ops build and coaching are monthly retainers, based on what needs to be built and who needs support: just the founder or senior leads too, and how often.
I may need support thinking through a restructure. Can you help with that?
Absolutely. If there's something specific on your mind, hop on a free intro call. I'm happy to talk through it and how I can help.
Do you do our accounting, taxes or bookkeeping? Are you our lawyer?
No. I set up the operational foundation and, if you don't already have someone, connect you with outside accounting, finance and legal experts. Then I make sure those functions work with your team and help it move faster, with simple tools that translate between those functions and the business, like a live dashboard or a calculator that shows what a new hire does to your runway. When you're ready to bring any of it in house, including HR or people, I can help you hire for that.
Get back to product, customers and growth. I've got the rest.
Finance, HR, legal, and everything in between. If you're starting to see cracks, or something feels off and you can't put your finger on why, there's usually a pattern underneath. I'd love to jam on it!
