Operations

Operational Design

The problem

The processes that worked when you were 15 people in one office are failing at 50 people across three time zones. Board reporting is manual and unreliable. Delivery governance is informal and inconsistent. Your customers are asking about security certifications you don't have. Your investors are asking for operational metrics you can't easily produce.

This is a normal growing pain, but it's also a dangerous one. Companies that don't address operational maturity at the right moment either fail to scale or scale chaotically, burning cash and credibility in the process.

What we do

We've held CTO, COO, and board-level operations roles through exactly these transitions, and we know which operational investments matter at each stage and which are premature overhead.

Over a 2-8 week engagement, depending on scope, we work with your leadership team to design and implement the operational foundations for your next phase:

• Delivery governance that balances rigour with speed, using Lean/Agile methods adapted to your actual situation
• Reporting and KPIs that give your board confidence without drowning your team in overhead
• Security certification (ISO 27001, SOC2) with a pragmatic approach that achieves compliance without paralysing development
• Team structures and hiring plans that reflect where you're going, not where you've been
• Tooling and automation to reduce manual operational burden
• Contract and vendor management frameworks for companies entering enterprise sales

We have kicked off and supported ISO 27001 accreditation processes, transformed software development practices to improve collaboration and staff retention, and built operational frameworks for companies selling into government, financial services, and regulated industries.

What you get

Operational maturity that matches your ambition. The internal processes, reporting, and certifications that your customers and investors expect, implemented by people who've done it before and know what's essential vs. what's noise.

Fractional CTO

The problem

You need senior technology leadership but you're not ready for a full-time CTO hire, or your CTO has moved on and you need experienced cover while you recruit. Perhaps you're a non-technical founder who needs a trusted technology leader to work alongside you, or a board that needs confidence in the technology direction without hiring another executive.

The wrong answer is hiring too junior, too early, or too permanent. The right answer is often experienced, part-time leadership that gives you strategic direction, team management, and board-level credibility while you figure out your longer-term needs.

What we do

We provide fractional and interim CTO services, typically 1-3 days per week, for technology companies that need senior technical leadership without the commitment or cost of a full-time hire. This includes:

• Technology strategy and roadmap: aligning product and engineering direction with business goals
• Team leadership: managing, coaching, and growing your engineering and product teams
• Architecture and technical decision-making: the decisions that are expensive to get wrong
• Board and investor reporting: translating technology progress into language the board understands
• Recruitment: defining roles, interviewing candidates, and building the team you need for the next stage
• Vendor and partner management: evaluating build-vs-buy decisions and managing technical relationships

We've held CTO roles at venture-backed companies from seed through Series E, managed teams across multiple continents, and led technology functions through fundraising, M&A, and international expansion. We bring 25+ years of combined senior technology leadership across financial services, public sector, broadcast, consumer electronics, and AI.

What you get

An experienced technology leader, on your team, at a fraction of the cost. Someone who has done this before, knows what good looks like, and can provide the strategic direction and operational credibility your business needs right now.

Fractional COO

The problem

You have a product that works and a market that wants it. What you don't have is the operational leadership to scale without breaking things. Your founder is stretched across fundraising, product, and sales. Hiring, finance, vendor management, and delivery governance are handled ad hoc by whoever has capacity. The board is asking for operational rigour you can't yet deliver.

You know you need a COO, but a full-time executive hire at this stage is either unaffordable or premature. You need someone who has scaled operations before and can build the foundations now, not in six months when the problems are already expensive.

What we do

We provide fractional COO services, typically 2-3 days per week, for scaling technology companies that need senior operational leadership without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. This includes:

• Operational strategy and execution: translating board-level ambition into repeatable, measurable processes
• Cross-border team building: hiring, structuring, and managing teams across multiple geographies and cultures
• Financial operations: budgeting frameworks, resource allocation, and the financial reporting that investors expect
• GTM operations: aligning sales, marketing, and delivery functions so growth doesn't outpace your ability to serve customers
• Investor readiness: ensuring your operational story is as strong as your product story when you go to raise
• Vendor and partner management: building the ecosystem relationships that accelerate growth

We've held COO and CEO roles at venture-backed companies scaling from early revenue to $500M+ GMV, built and led teams of over a thousand people across the US, Europe, MENA, and Asia, and managed the operational complexity of cross-border expansion into some of the world's most demanding markets. We bring experience from companies ranging from seed-stage AI startups to eBay, Microsoft, and Symantec.

What you get

An experienced operational leader on your team, building the processes, teams, and governance that your next phase of growth demands. Someone who has done this at scale, knows what matters at each stage, and won't over-engineer what you need today.

Cybersecurity & Risk Governance

The problem

Your customers are asking about your security posture. Your investors want to know you take cyber risk seriously. You may be entering regulated markets that require specific certifications or compliance frameworks. And now AI is introducing entirely new categories of risk, from data leakage through language models to prompt injection attacks on AI-integrated systems, that your existing security framework wasn't designed to address.

Most scaling companies know they need to improve their security governance but don't know where to start, what's proportionate for their stage, or how to do it without paralysing their development velocity.

What we do

We provide board-level and executive cybersecurity and risk governance, ensuring your security posture is proportionate, credible, and aligned with your business objectives. This includes:

• Security posture assessment: where you are today, what the gaps are, and what's proportionate for your stage and market
• AI-specific risk management: guardrails for AI systems, data classification, prompt injection defence, output scanning, and the governance frameworks that regulators are beginning to require (DORA, EU AI Act, NIS2)
• Certification readiness: practical, velocity-preserving approaches to ISO 27001, SOC2, Cyber Essentials, and sector-specific compliance
• Risk management frameworks: board-level reporting, risk registers, and incident response planning
• Third-party and supply chain risk: assessing and governing your technology vendors, cloud providers, and AI platform relationships

We've built production AI guardrails systems with two-tier scanning (pattern matching and ML-based detection), implemented security certification programmes, and provided AI risk governance for regulated financial services firms. We bring the perspective of practitioners who have built secure systems, not auditors who review them after the fact.

What you get

A security and risk governance framework that satisfies your customers, investors, and regulators without slowing you down. Practical, proportionate, and built by people who understand that security is an enabler of growth, not a barrier to it.