When is the right time to make senior level hires for your startup? It’s the million-dollar question for UK tech startup founders.   

You’ll reach a point in your startup journey when you will need to identify the key positions in your senior leadership team – your C-suite A-team. No man is an island and the same (metaphorically) applies to tech founders and CEOs. For your startup to scale (and scale successfully), you’ll need distinct skills and capabilities, as well as leaders who can both deliver on your vision, and mobilise it.   

Whilst some of these C-suite roles are clearly defined (we all know what a CEO is, for example), others are a little more fluid. The COO – Chief Operating Officer – is a good example of this, despite it arguably being one of the most valuable.  

So, what is a COO?  

Generally considered the second-in-command, your COO reports to the CEO and is a senior member of your leadership team.   

Whilst the COO role will invariably differ between startups, your COO is ultimately responsible for steering your business’ operational processes and systems, securing the functionality of your startup and ensuring that operational growth is sustainable.   

Do I need a COO for my tech startup or scaleup?  

No, not necessarily. A COO certainly isn’t a compulsory appointment and it’s unlikely that you’ll need a COO in place from day one (and in fact, some tech startups won’t need one at all). Largely it depends on certain variables – such as the market or industry you’re in, your size and growth stage, the complexities of your business, your long (and short) term plans, and your internal capabilities.  

That said, there are certain situations that might call for you to make a COO appointment sooner rather than later.  

If your startup is growing rapidly, appointing an experienced COO will support that trajectory by ensuring that your internal operations can maintain pace with market demand. Bringing onboard a COO who can put in place an effective roadmap – one that sets out comprehensive goals for performance and growth – can easily be the difference between your startup growing erratically, and purposeful scaling that is sustainable and profitable.  

Or you might bring a COO in to support a specific strategic initiative, such as a change in strategy, a new product launch or expansion into a new market.  

Sometimes it’s necessary to bring in a COO to support the founder or CEO. As founder, there can be pressure to be an all-rounder; to be someone who can roll up their sleeves, to cover all aspects of the business. But rather, spreading yourself too thinly runs the risk of slowing (or even halting) business growth, and finding a COO that complements your skills and abilities can be a game changer – especially when there’s a need for you to be the outward-facing visionary representative of the business (leaving the COO as the practical second-in-command to handle the internal business affairs).  

Am I ready to hire a COO for my startup?  

So, are you? Be honest. As founder, are you really really ready to hand over that level of responsibility to someone else?  

It’s true that the dynamic between a CEO and COO can be a difficult one. In fact, it’s one of the primary reasons for people leaving senior management roles.   

But ultimately your COO needs the support of the founder and/or the CEO to deliver and succeed, and you need to feel comfortable trusting in their expertise and handing over responsibilities. Don’t let your ego, over-industriousness, fear of the unknown or – dare we say – general control-freakiness – sabotage your senior management relationships.   

More so than any other C-suite role, you need to complement each other. You need to trust the other to deliver in your respective areas. And until you are ready to recognise, empower and trust your COO to make decisions on behalf of your tech startup, you’ll only limit their ability to operationalise and scale your business.   

I’m not ready to hire a COO for my tech startup. What are my alternatives?  

So, having looked inward and established that you’re not quite at the COO hiring stage, what are your options? You perhaps recognise that operationally you require some expertise – someone to run the station and keep the trains leaving on time, as such – but you’ve not reached the point that you need to make such a senior appointment.  

Fractional hiring enables you to bring in a senior executive-level hire on a part-time, contracted basis – a little like a freelancer, but someone with C-suite expertise and knowledge of working with multiple startups. The major benefit to you is that you can tap into and leverage their expertise, but because you’re only using them for certain tasks, you can do this without committing to a senior-level salary and benefits package.  

Alternatively, you could look at hiring a Head of Ops or Operations Manager – someone with the ambition and appetite to grow and develop with your startup, and the potential to move into the COO role as and when the business requires it.   

Need help hiring a COO for your tech startup?

Recruiting the right COO for a startup isn’t always easy. It takes time, finance and resource – things many startup founders find are in short supply. That’s why we recommend using a specialist startup talent recruiter to support your hiring needs.   

A cornerstone of success in a tech startup is a strong management team. In fact, some would argue that it’s the operational leaders who are the true unsung heroes behind a successful startup. And whilst people will look to you for leadership and decision-making, it’s ultimately the strength of the management team around you that will determine the longer-term success (or indeed, failure) of your tech startup.  

A lot of the founders we talk to don’t fully appreciate the cost, availability of skills and expertise, hiring lead times, and variety of options to recruit tech talent at a senior level. If you’d like to talk more about your challenges in this area, get in touch with our co-founder and CEO, Alan Furley at alan@isltalent.com or connect on LinkedIn.