Past the first customers, short of the second layer.
The product works and the orders arrive. The company still runs on the people who started it, and it shows in the way decisions stall.
What changes at this size
Zurich scale-ups hit the same limits:
The management team is the founding team
The people who built the product now lead functions they have never run.
Growth abroad, control at home
A new office in Germany or the US, and head office still deciding everything.
Reporting investors outgrow
A monthly pack that satisfied the first backers does not satisfy the next.
Costs in francs, revenue elsewhere
Growth that raises currency exposure without anyone owning it.
A fractional executive has taken companies through this stage. They put structure in while the business keeps trading, and step back once a permanent hire is justified. The mandate runs company to company, so there is nothing to unwind.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- Companies that have outgrown founder-led informality but cannot yet fund a full C-suite
- Finance functions that need to become board and investor grade
- Revenue still riding on founder relationships rather than a repeatable engine
- Teams and culture straining as headcount climbs past what informal management holds
- Leadership gaps that would stall growth if left open for a full hiring cycle
Not for
- Early startups still searching for product-market fit
- A single function a ready full-time executive should already own
- Businesses wanting advice on a deck rather than an operator in the work
- A one-off project better suited to a specialist contractor
Keeping pace with a scale-up
A scale-up's priorities shift every quarter. We stay in the engagement so the brief shifts with them.
The brief, revisited
Each quarter we revisit the engagement with you and the executive, and update the brief as the company changes.
Help with the next market
Opening Germany or the US raises questions outside one function, and your executive can take them to colleagues across our collective of 800+.
From part time to permanent
Once the seat justifies a full-time hire, or your executive departs, we organise the transition and any new search, working from the original brief.
Chosen for the stage
We match on stage and pace. A manager from a large Zurich corporate can find a young company too loose to work in.
From diagnostic to infrastructure that scales with you
Our process runs at the pace of a scaling company, not a hiring cycle.
Scale diagnostic (weeks 1–2)
Map the current state: operational stress points, financial infrastructure gaps, commercial engine gaps, people risks.
Engagement design (weeks 3–4)
Design the right fractional leadership configuration, which roles, what scope, what priority sequencing.
Infrastructure build (month 1–3)
Fractionals embed: operational systems, financial infrastructure, commercial engine design, people frameworks.
Adapt to the growth (ongoing)
As you grow, we adjust the configuration. The goal is always the right leadership for the current phase.
What changes in the first 90 days
A scale-up engagement is judged on what moves early. These are the shifts a fractional operator is there to make.
The scale-up leadership stack
Each role below owns a different part of the scale-up: finance, operations, commercial, people or technology.
Leaders who have scaled
