Operational diagnostic for startups, calibrated to your stage (2–50+ people). Know where you stand, what to fix next, and what "good" looks like.
We're building an open knowledge base next — then an agent skill so AI can use the same playbook. The goal: an open-source, AI-ready fractional COO. Operational excellence as a public good.
Works best with a COO or operational advisor. Self-assessment has limits.
"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. Use the wiki for stage-calibrated guidance on what good looks like. Read the blog for how the framework was built and where it's headed.
Assessment across 28+ processes — reliability, ownership, documentation, tooling, and headroom to scale. 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: what good looks like at each stage, what to do, warning signs, and how processes evolve as you grow. Growing page by page from real sources.
Best for: Ops hires, founders fixing one process at a time, AI-assisted ops work.
Explore wiki →Essays on founder ops pain, how the diagnostic came about, and building operational clarity in the open.
Featured
A Starting Point
Two patterns that send founders looking for a COO — and what's worth fixing first.
Best for: Context before you run the diagnostic.
Read featured post →Prefer a stage-by-stage browse? Stage roadmap →