Alex Gardner

The key to operations management is understanding causation and correlation in business ROI. You must look at business with short term and long term lense and seek both instant and gradual improvements. The growth minded head of operations will function with financial/HR / delivery and sales hat on at all times thinking of what is the best ROI on time / people and invested money to gain market share. Certifications like PMI / PMP/ Sig sigma will help you implement these efficiencies and scale at large. Good operations manager understand PL levers of growth and capacity of its team in pair with customer base and market conditions. You must work closely with a C suite and directors to connect these dots and gain best ROI in shortest time.

The key to operations management is understanding causation and correlation in business ROI. You must look at business with short term and long term lense and seek both instant and gradual improvements. The growth minded head of operations will function with financial/HR / delivery and sales hat on at all times thinking of what is the best ROI on time / people and invested money to gain market share. Certifications like PMI / PMP/ Sig sigma will help you implement these efficiencies and scale at large. Good operations manager understand PL levers of growth and capacity of its team in pair with customer base and market conditions. You must work closely with a C suite and directors to connect these dots and gain best ROI in shortest time.

Something that’s crucial to first time founders is PE advisory board. Bankers who will follow company from early stage can add a lot of value. CEOs who retired in similar vertical can add introductions and wisdom in raise process. Not all PEs behave the same. Some are focused on top metrics and min growth rates, some focus on long term capital gain. The key is to understand your options and that will come from retained advisors. With equity in reward lots of great advice can be secured.

During the process explain how you score the prospects. Example : our focus is on profitable growth. We score companies with 2 year break even higher than 3 year ones. We pay Multiples of 8-10. Higher net retention higher the multiple etc. Give examples of recent transaction trading without disclosing names. Example the recent transaction in HRIS vertical at $20M in ARR and 20% EBIDTA had this level of multiple and preference. Be specific. Don’t just throw McKinsey or SaaStr benchmarks. Founders already know the market quite well. They want to know your benchmarks.

Three key items to consider Dealbreakers. Know what they are for the founder and focus on them from the start. Example would be ( understanding of road map priorities and ability to design for adoption Vs quick ARR or vertical focus or investors pushing for enterprise sooner then product is ready) Equity - Pari Passu for their team from the get go. Treat them like ongoing equal contributors. Education. Educate the founder and the team on your journey to success. Let them speak as reference to other founders who are successful with you or had a great exit. Trust is built when wealth is shared and partnership is equal in rights.

One of a great AI platforms is super data science podcast and oreilly platform. The innovations will be discussed in many podcasts or classes by famous guests who will be a good talent to explore. You can also use inexpensive tools that source specific talent nebula io being one of them and hire freelancers.