Build the company as carefully as the technology.
Zurich founders often start with strong science or engineering and a thin commercial side. The company then has to catch up with the product, usually under a funding deadline.
Where early-stage companies stall
The pattern repeats among founders out of the labs and universities:
The science outruns the business model
A technology that works, and no clear answer to who pays for it.
Grants carry the company until they do not
Innovation grants and early funding stretch the runway, then a commercial investor expects different numbers.
Nobody has run a company before
Founders are expert at the work and new to hiring, pricing and reporting.
The first investors are foreign
Funds from elsewhere expect their own reporting standards and pace.
An early-stage company gets someone who has been through this before, for as many days a week as it can pay for. Hire the experience once and keep the cost of the lessons off the cap table.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- Founders wearing every hat with no senior cover where it matters most
- Pre-seed to pre-Series A companies that need structure before they can fund it
- Teams that need investor-grade finance, reporting or operations at speed
- Startups scaling headcount faster than their processes can hold
- Founders who want to protect the cap table while adding senior leadership
Not for
- An idea with no product or traction to build structure around yet
- A role a capable full-time hire is already ready to own
- Founders looking to outsource a function rather than lead it
- A single deliverable an agency or contractor could hand back
What comes with the operator
Founders from the labs rarely know yet what good commercial leadership looks like. We stay involved so you are not judging it alone.
Progress checked with you
Together we measure the work against the brief at fixed points, and we speak up early if the commercial side drifts.
People who built companies
A first priced round, a regulatory pathway or a first sales hire can go to colleagues in our collective of 800+ who have done it.
The brief belongs to you
The role is your company's, not one person's. If your executive moves on, we search again with your company's story already in hand.
Matched to scientists
We match for leaders who respect the research and still push for a paying customer. A pure salesperson will lose an ETH team quickly.
From first call to embedded operator
We move at startup speed.
Tell us your stage
Where are you in the journey? What are the gaps? What does the next 90 days need to deliver?
We match the right operator
From our vetted collective, we introduce the fractional executive matched to your stage, sector, and culture.
Embedded within weeks
Your fractional embeds with your team, begins the scoped work, and operates with real accountability.
Scale the stack
As you grow, add further specialists from the collective. We coordinate them so they work as a coherent team.
Which leader for your stage
The gap that slows a startup changes as it grows. Here is where most founders feel it first, and who owns it.
The right fractional executive depends on your stage
Start with the widest gap today, then add roles as you scale.
Our operators have built and scaled at
