The Role That Built the Company May Not Scale It
Most founders begin as the center of everything. Vision, decisions, execution, and problem-solving all flow through them.
In the early stages, this works. Speed matters more than structure. Proximity replaces process.
But as the company grows, the role that once created momentum can quietly become the constraint. What made you effective at one stage may limit the business at the next.
This is not failure.
It is a stage shift.
Subtle Signs You Are in the Wrong Seat
Founders rarely wake up feeling unqualified. The signals appear gradually:
- Decisions pile up faster than they clear
- Operations consume time meant for strategy
- Teams wait for direction that should be obvious
- Growth feels possible but fragile
The business keeps moving, but only because you are pushing constantly.
How to Know If It’s Time for a COO
This transition starts with honest self-assessment.
Ask yourself:
- Are decisions slowing because they all come to me?
- Do teams execute well only when I’m involved?
- Am I solving operational problems instead of designing the future?
- Does the business rely on my presence more than its systems?
When these answers are yes, the issue is not effort.
It is role design.
What a COO Changes at the Right Stage
A strong COO does not replace the founder. They rebalance leadership.
The COO owns execution. They create operational clarity, define accountability, and ensure decisions happen at the right level. This removes the founder as the bottleneck and allows scale through systems instead of heroics.
The result is not less control.
It is better leverage.
The Bottom Line
Companies do not fail because founders lose capability.
They fail because founders stay in roles their companies have outgrown.
Hiring a COO is not about stepping back. It is about stepping into the role only the founder can play.
Explore the book The Second in Command (here) and learn how founders and COOs partner to scale execution without losing vision.
