When most people think “COO,” they picture a corporate executive at a Fortune 500 company. Someone managing global supply chains and reporting to a board of directors.
That’s not the COO role we’re talking about.
In a 50 to 150 person, owner-operated business, the COO looks completely different. They’re not a figurehead. They’re your operational right hand. The person who takes the weight of daily execution off your plate so you can focus on vision, relationships, and the strategic decisions that only you can make.
If you’re a founder wondering whether you need a COO, this post will demystify the role: what they actually do week to week, how the founder/COO partnership works when it’s healthy, and how to know if you’re ready.
In a smaller company, the COO wears more hats than their Fortune 500 counterpart. But the job boils down to five core areas:
The COO owns the day-to-day engine of the business. They make sure work gets done, deadlines get hit, and the machine runs without the founder having to micromanage every moving piece. This includes production, service delivery, project management, and quality control.
In a founder-led business, the COO often becomes the primary people leader. They run one-on-ones with department heads, manage performance, resolve conflicts, and build the kind of accountability structure that allows people to grow. The founder may set the cultural tone, but the COO enforces it daily.
Growing companies are full of workarounds, tribal knowledge, and undocumented processes. The COO’s job is to bring order to that chaos. Standardizing workflows, implementing systems, and creating the kind of operational infrastructure that actually scales.
The COO builds the scoreboard. They define KPIs, track progress, run leadership meetings, and hold the team to its commitments. Without this function, most founder-led businesses operate on gut feel. Which works until it doesn’t.
The founder sets the direction. The COO makes it happen. They translate big-picture vision into quarterly priorities, resource plans, and cross-functional initiatives that actually get completed.
Here’s what a typical week might look like for a COO in a $25M home services company with 80 employees:
Notice what’s missing from that list? The founder’s direct involvement in daily operations. That’s the entire point.
The founder/COO relationship is the most consequential partnership in any small business. When it works, the business accelerates. When it doesn’t, it creates confusion, power struggles, and culture fractures.
What healthy looks like:
Answer these five questions honestly:
If you answered yes to three or more, you’re likely past the point where a COO would help. You’re at the point where not having one is holding the business back.
Hiring a COO for a small business is not the same as hiring one for a large corporation. Here’s what actually matters:
At Captains Club, we use the Aptive Index, a behavioral and cognitive assessment, as part of our Navigating Talent™ framework to make sure the COO you hire isn’t just qualified but wired for the way your team works.
The Aptive Index helps us benchmark the candidate’s behavioral profile against your existing leadership team, identify complementary dynamics, and flag potential friction points before the hire is made. Not six months after.
Combined with deep values exploration and real-world leadership vetting, it’s how we achieve a 94% twelve-month stick rate on executive placements.
Wondering if a COO is the right next hire for your business? Let’s figure it out together.
