When to hire your first COO

The founder as bottleneck

In the first years, the founder decides everything and the company moves fast because of it. Then one day the queue outside the founder’s door becomes the slowest part of the business. That is the moment to look for three signs.

1. Decisions wait for you

Count the decisions that waited more than a week for your answer last month. If the list is longer than ten, the company is running at the speed of your calendar.

2. The same problem returns

Late deliveries, unclear ownership, a team that redoes work. When the same operational problem comes back every quarter, it needs someone who stays with it until it is gone.

3. You avoid the operation

Founders who no longer enjoy the operation start to avoid it. Meetings get shorter, and problems go to whoever is closest. A good COO takes over what you avoid, not what you love.

Before you hire

1. Write the three results the COO owns in the first year.

2. Give them the decisions, not just the work.

3. Agree how you will disagree, before the first disagreement.

The right COO makes the founder faster, not smaller. Hire for the problems you have now, and for the company you will be in two years.