Operational diagnostic for startups, calibrated to your stage (2–50+ people). Know where you stand, what to fix next, and what "good" looks like.
Beyond the diagnostic: an open ops wiki and a Virtual COO agent skill — both live in beta, both grounded in the same stage-aware playbook.
Active now: expanding the wiki process by process, tightening Virtual COO check-ins and quarterly health reviews, and publishing what we learn on the blog. Shipping as we go.
Works best with a COO or operational advisor. Self-assessment has limits.
"Ops are a mess! I think we need a COO." That's how many conversations start.
Often the fix isn't a hire yet — it's knowing which ops are actually broken versus which only feel urgent. Two patterns keep showing up: the all-rounder who hit the ceiling around fifteen people, and the product founder who duct-taped ops until it's visibly breaking. We built an open diagnostic and wiki so you can see that map before the next big hire.
Read: A Starting Point →Run the assessment for a scored map of your ops. The wiki is in place for essential processes in Foundation and First Hires — what good looks like, what to do, and warning signs — with later stages filling in. Read the blog for essays and deep dives.
Assessment from a handful of processes at founding to 30+ at scale — reliability, ownership, documentation, tooling, and headroom to grow. Calibrated to your stage, with a prioritized fix list.
Best for: New COO onboarding, pre-hire clarity, advisors working with founders.
Start diagnostic →Open playbook: essential processes covered for Foundation and First Hires; later stages growing page by page from reviewed sources.
Best for: Ops hires, founders fixing one process at a time, AI-assisted ops work.
Explore wiki →Deep dives, essays & observations. More opinion, and more explanation of why something matters than the Wiki.
New
Before you raise money — understand the VC model
How venture capital funds make money — and what that means for founders on the other side of the table.
Best for: Founders considering VC, or advisors helping them decide.
Read the post →Prefer a stage-by-stage browse? Stage roadmap →