Founders: What It Takes to Build the Team That Can Actually Scale
The COO Isn’t a Cost — It’s a Catalyst
In deep-tech and advanced manufacturing, most startups don’t fail on technology — they fail on team structure.
Not because they hired the wrong people, but because they never built the right systemand culture to let those people win. At the growth stage, founders face a turning point: the company no longer needs more discovery — it needs execution discipline. That’s where the leadership model must evolve, especially around the COO role.
1. DO Bring in Operators Who’ve Scaled Before
Scaling is not a technical problem; it’s a management discipline.
Founders should surround themselves with leaders who have lived through the chaos of growth — who understand how to build systems, integrate functions, and industrialize processes. The best COOs and VPs of Operations have built supply chains, product roadmaps, and financial transparency that turn innovation into revenue.
They know when to tighten controls, when to accelerate, and how to make capital work like oxygen, not gasoline.
2. DON’T Hire for Comfort
A common trap: hiring executives who make the founder feel comfortable instead of those who make the company stronger.
It’s tempting to recruit agreeable or less-experienced leaders who won’t challenge your vision — but high-growth companies need friction, not flattery. Smart founders hire people who are better than they are in their domains — and then get out of their way.
3. DO Define Clear Ownership and Decision Rights
Bringing in seasoned operators only works if you give them authority.
Too many founders bring in “COOs” who don’t actually control operations — they hold the title but not the levers. When every major decision still routes through the founder, the title is meaningless — and the consequences are real.
Execution slows to a crawl. Launches slip. Revenue gets delayed.
The very people hired to accelerate scale become frustrated and disengaged because they’re accountable for outcomes but powerless to deliver them. If the COO can’t make cross-functional trade-offs, reallocate resources, create a go-to-market ecosystem or adjust the plan without a founder’s sign-off, you haven’t hired a leader — you’ve created a bottleneck and worse, put the company at risk.
4. DON’T Confuse Intelligence With Experience
Technical brilliance ≠ operational readiness.
Founders often promote smart internal engineers or scientists into leadership because “they know the product.” But scaling requires more than product knowledge — it demands process literacy: governance, cash discipline, quality frameworks, and data transparency. In other words: your smartest technical person might design the product, but they probably shouldn’t run the factory.
5. DO Evolve From “Builder” to “Enabler”
Founders who scale successfully know when to let go. They transition from doer to leader, from being the expert in everything to being the architect of experts.
They don’t just hire a COO — they empower one. When founders and COOs operate as a synchronized system — vision and execution, creativity and control — scale becomes predictable. That partnership separates companies that stall at Series B from those that reach IPO or acquisition.
6. DON’T Wait Until It’s a Crisis
The best time to build a qualified scaling team is before the wheels start wobbling.
If you’re already missing launches, burning cash without progress, or losing senior talent, you’re late. Operational leadership isn’t overhead — it’s your insurance policy against wasted capital and missed market windows.
Closing Thought
Great founders create technology. Great COOs create the system that delivers it — repeatedly, reliably, and profitably. The companies that make it — from Tesla’s DeepScale acquisition to Nanosys and Upstart — all mastered the same principle: they didn’t just hire experience; they empowered execution. If you want your innovation to scale, don’t just find a COO who can manage operations.
Find one you can trust to build an enterprise — and then give them the space to do it.