Vetted Chief Executive Officers

“Operations executive (Plant/Operations Manager → COO/CEO) with hands-on experience launching a greenfield manufacturing plant for Deluxe and driving Lean/cellular transformations. As COO/CEO at Midland Radio, grew the business from ~$40M to ~$63M in 4 years, scaling marketing headcount (3→15) and building 9 sales channels while optimizing manufacturing layouts and cross-training teams.”

“Startup builder (MagicSeven) who designed and implemented a browser-based, agentic video editor end-to-end, including an AWS event-driven multimodal LLM “indexing” pipeline and an orchestration LLM agent for searching and manipulating footage. Demonstrates deep video file/codec knowledge plus practical production hardening of LLM workflows (format validation, plan/execute, S3-based state for debuggability).”

“Former CEO of Foreman Technologies, a multidisciplinary tech company commercializing an autonomous painting robot, where they led early-scale operations and helped drive the business to #533 on the Inc. 5000. Brings rare operator-side startup experience spanning bridge financing, pricing and margin turnaround, operating infrastructure, and product-market alignment, and is specifically seeking an early-stage studio-style partnership to do it again from a stronger starting point.”

“Operations leader with repeated startup/entrepreneurial experience building internal operating systems from the ground up—creating department-by-department SOP/policy manuals and implementing KPI-driven management. Strong in diagnosing issues via operational/financial data and rolling out scalable people systems (structured interviews, training/certifications, onboarding) with retention measured across 14/30/60/90-day cohorts.”

Chris Solly

Screened ReferencesStrong rec.

Executive CPG/Food Commercial Leader specializing in omnichannel growth and PE-backed value creation

19y exp

“Operations/finance leader who repeatedly stood up full business infrastructure for early-stage expansions, including being employee #1 after a cross-country relocation and launching US operations for an Australian company. Also helped professionalize a ~$40M Patriot Supply Store by moving the business to GAAP/accrual accounting and building policies/processes to support a private-equity-ready exit.”

Dean Graves

Screened ReferencesStrong rec.

Executive Business Leader in corporate strategy, M&A, and global outsourcing/SaaS transformation

Las Vegas, NV25y exp

“US leader for Freeman Clark (fractional IT leadership services) who drove a >$1.5M capital raise tied to repositioning the US business as a standalone entity. Previously led a turnaround at Environmental Data Resources by unifying fragmented data/SaaS platforms and landing Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase on significant 5-year subscriptions through co-designed solutions; also has GTM leadership experience in a PE-backed startup (LogicSource) spanning sales through delivery alignment.”

“Cross-functional product/engineering leader with startup and enterprise experience (Whimstay, Wells Fargo, Leap AI Technologies). Has owned end-to-end delivery including UI and payment architecture—built a multi-customer reservation payment flow using pre-auth plus event/timer-driven reminders and handled tricky edge cases like date changeover. Also introduced lightweight process (Jira, sprints, team/module structuring) to increase delivery speed in an early-stage AI document-matching startup.”

Golden Johansson

Screened

Executive Operations & Consulting Leader specializing in law firms and tribal enterprises

Parkland, FL18y exp

“Operations leader (including COO experience) who has built and optimized internal operating systems for growing organizations, notably formalizing SOPs, org structure, KPIs/incentives, and business continuity for a scaling law firm. Also experienced translating board-level direction into executable, measurable plans at Seminole Tribe of Florida, using clear visuals and dashboards to mentor leaders without formal operations backgrounds.”

Jaideep Jain

Screened

Executive Business, Product & Engineering Leader in SaaS, Data Platforms, and IoT

33y exp

“Serial entrepreneur (13 years) currently building a consumer-focused startup with an MVP completed and initial customers acquired. Has interacted with multiple VCs and is very familiar with the VC/accelerator ecosystem, with a near-term focus on scaling customer acquisition while iterating the product.”

“Cloud-focused platform/infrastructure engineer centered on AWS and Kubernetes, with hands-on experience building EKS environments via Terraform/Terragrunt, bootstrapping clusters with Cilium and ArgoCD, and integrating persistent storage and backup tooling like EFS/EBS CSI and Velero. While no longer focused on on-prem or hybrid operations, they also bring prior VMware/Hyper-V and migration-to-AWS experience, making them strongest in modern cloud platform engineering roles.”

“Former CEO with direct venture fundraising experience and years inside VC-backed companies. Focused on an AppSec/software supply chain security opportunity built around acquiring an existing SCA/SSCS platform and accelerating growth through AI-driven remediation capabilities, additional acquisitions, and enterprise sales.”

Shane Howard

Screened

Executive technology and operations leader specializing in consulting, SaaS, and digital transformation

Salt Lake City, UT32y exp

“Serial operator and founder with four exits, including a recent business sale after raising $750K, and experience leading 17 acquisitions. Has held CEO, CIO, and global delivery/operations leadership roles across VC-backed, PE-backed, and high-growth companies, with a strong track record in GTM, operational scaling, and building repeatable cross-functional systems for growth and exit.”

“Operations leader who built holding-company infrastructure from the ground up for Fairwood Brands, a national collection of design-build landscaping companies—spanning finance/accounting, HR, safety, fleet, and corporate admin. Emphasizes data-driven visibility into financial/operational performance and pricing discipline to materially improve profitability and enable scalable growth, while mentoring founders and leadership teams through change.”

“Former President/CEO who led MyGov through a successful acquisition, now on sabbatical building ncognait LLC—an AI-enabled app studio with one product launched (Taistful) and another in private beta (AIDONIS). Focused on startup CTO/founding roles and highly opinionated about using agentic coding to dramatically compress product development cycles and compete with larger incumbents.”

“Early-stage/first sales hire profile with strong outbound motion and process-building experience. Self-sourced and closed a $2.8M Yahoo deal (8-month cycle) using a shared mutual plan to manage stakeholders and timelines, and has recent mid-market ACV wins selling Mapistry to environmental compliance managers by enabling champions to secure internal budget. Has also implemented MEDDICC and built foundational GTM assets (e.g., Quantcast’s first sales deck used in $2B+ of closed business).”

“Houston-based football advisor, current high school coach, and former college athlete/coach with 30+ years in sports management. He has negotiated six-figure NIL collective deals and brand sponsorships, sources athletes through direct outreach and deep football relationships, and supports families across recruiting, transfer portal, scouting, and long-term athlete development.”

“Runs two lean real estate companies remotely by building local on-the-ground contact networks and leveraging free-tier technology to keep total annual business costs under $100. Brings a cost-elimination and MVP/validation-first mindset, preferring to join an established company unless a clearly viable business idea emerges.”

Marty Schneider

Screened

Executive Operations & GTM Leader specializing in startups across logistics, esports, and civic tech

Redwood City, CA15y exp

“Founder/CEO who built Hometown Heart from the ground up—creating SOPs and standing up hiring, GTM, finance, and investor/government relations—scaling from 6 employees and $100K debt to 350 employees and $40M in annual revenue in 3 years. Led expansion into San Francisco County, proactively managing compliance/licensing and municipal stakeholders to secure early approvals and drive major revenue growth.”