Insights
Field notes on operations and custom internal platforms.
Written for founders, COOs, and operators of 50–500 employee businesses.
- ·6 min read
The build vs buy fallacy for operations software
Off-the-shelf tools look cheaper and faster, but they routinely miss about 30% of your real workflow. Fully custom builds also fail more often than they succeed. The middle path is prototype-first: validate before you commit time and budget.
operationsfractional-cooconstructionmission-control - ·6 min read
What a $5M to $15M revenue jump actually requires operationally
Tripling revenue isn’t just more sales. It forces a rewire of headcount, handoffs, and systems. Here’s a practical breakdown of what must exist so 3x growth doesn’t turn into chaos.
operationsfractional-cooconstructionscaling - ·6 min read
How Fractional COOs turn playbooks into shipped systems
A playbook on Google Docs is a contract with intentions. Execution drifts. Fractional COOs need software as the enforcement layer to lock intent into workflow, reduce drift, and scale consistent outcomes.
operationsfractional-cooconstruction - ·5 min read
The hidden cost of running operations in WhatsApp
WhatsApp keeps teams connected but it creates a hidden 'lost-context tax': hours of rework, missed handoffs, and untraceable decisions. A construction GM's quick math shows how messaging-first ops quietly drains margin and momentum.
operationsconstructionfractional-coo - ·6 min read
Why ops teams outgrow spreadsheets at exactly 50 employees
At around 50 people spreadsheets stop being a tool and start being a liability. Here are the three predictable failure modes that appear at that scale, why they happen, and the practical replacements fractional COOs can deploy.
operationsfractional-cooconstruction