01 / DAYS 1–14
See the real bottleneck
We interview the people closest to the work and map the KPIs, meetings, decision rights, and financial signals that shape the business today.
→A clear diagnostic and a prioritized 90-day roadmap.
Operating advisory for founder CEOs
Stop being the ceiling on your own business.
We install the operating systems that let founder-led companies scale past the founder.
Book a diagnostic ↗No pitch. Just a useful conversation.
90 days
From founder bottleneck to a cadence your leadership team can run without you.
The founder bottleneck
You built the company. Now it has built itself around you.
Most founders do not have a strategy problem. They have an operating-system problem. The business cannot move at the speed of its owner because the decisions, context, and accountability have never been made visible to anyone else.
01Every decision routes through you.
02Your team waits for answers instead of owning outcomes.
03Growth has stalled while your workload keeps expanding.
04You cannot step away long enough to fix the system keeping you stuck.
Built for the honest moment
For owner-operators humble enough to admit they are stuck.
Bootstrapped. Operationally complex. $5M–$20M in revenue and still actively run by the founder.
01Transportation & logistics
02Trades & custom builders
03Light manufacturing
04Professional services
Track record
Operating discipline, applied at your scale.
Fifteen years across logistics, financial services, automotive, and supply chain—from 8-person teams to Fortune 50 enterprises.
$186M
revenue unlocked through commercial redesign
$87M
cost savings identified and tracked
2×
EBITDA performance through execution discipline
40+
KPI and governance systems deployed
The path out
A system your team can actually run.
Three focused phases. One clear outcome: you get your time and decision-making room back.
See the full approach ↗02 / DAYS 15–60
Install the cadence
We put owners behind the right metrics, build an executive dashboard, establish the weekly leadership rhythm, and turn priorities into visible commitments.
→An operating system your team can use every week.
03 / DAYS 61–90
Hand back the reins
Your leaders learn to run the cadence without us. We ship quick operational wins, tighten financial reporting, and make the next decisions easier.
→A self-running system and a CEO off the critical path.
A partner in the room
The operating partner behind the system.
Max Hourigan works as an embedded fractional COO and Chief of Staff to founder-led organizations that are ready to grow up without losing what made them special.
An Army veteran and former operating executive, Max brings the calm, rigor, and pattern recognition that complex businesses need when the founder is still carrying too much.
Meet Max ↗