Too many decisions still depend on the CEO.
Priorities, exceptions, and follow-through keep returning to one person because ownership below the founder is not yet strong enough.
Fractional COO for founder-led SaaS, technology, and service businesses
I rebuild the operating systembehind growing companies.
When to bring me in
The point where I step in.
Sales has moved faster than delivery.
Promises, scope, capacity, and margin have drifted apart. Revenue is growing, but the work behind it is becoming harder to control.
The numbers arrive after the decision.
Leadership is piecing together status from meetings and spreadsheets instead of seeing capacity, margin, commitments, and risk in one place.
AI has produced demos, not operating leverage.
Tools have been tested, but no one owns the workflow, the controls, or adoption. The manual work remains.
What I put in place
A company the leadership team can see and run.
One operating view
Pipeline, customer commitments, delivery capacity, margin, risk, and decisions brought into the same line of sight.
A weekly decision rhythm
A focused cadence that surfaces exceptions early, assigns decisions, and follows them through without adding meeting theatre.
Clear owners and handoffs
Defined accountabilities, decision rights, workflows, and measures so work moves without returning to the founder.
AI workflows in use
Practical tools built into reporting, research, content operations, triage, or delivery, with controls and a team that can run them.
Track record
Board-level ownership. Hands-on delivery.
£600k to £12m turnover. 300 to 7,000 customers.
Led the commercial and operating change over two years while carrying a personal £600k quarterly sales target.
The company rebuilt in 90 days.
Audited and rebuilt technology, product, sales, customer success, and team, while helping sell enterprise services before the platform was built.
Clients across three continents. Content costs cut by up to 80%.
Built the CASi multi-agent engine, dashboard, and production pipelines as well as leading the business.
Operating across a 215-person company.
Worked between the C-suite and organisation to overhaul structure, product development, and global technology management.
Ways to work
Start with the problem.
I will recommend the smallest engagement that can produce a useful result.
Flagship engagement
90-day operating reset
For a company where growth has exposed a cross-functional operating constraint that will not be solved by another isolated project.
Diagnostic, priorities, revenue-to-delivery view, ownership, operating cadence, and implementation within one quarter.
View serviceOngoing leadership
Fractional COO
For a CEO who needs senior operating ownership now without rushing a permanent executive appointment.
Ongoing leadership across delivery, commercial operations, margin, team design, reporting, and execution.
View serviceFocused build
AI workflow build
For one operational process where repeated manual work, delay, or inconsistency should be removed.
Process design, working tool, controls, deployment, review, and adoption by the people who will use it.
View serviceNotes
Notes from the work.
Operating Notes
When one person is holding too much
A short note on the point where useful instinct has to become visible ownership, rules, and review.Build Notes
AI automation starts with process, not prompts
Why AI workflow projects fail when the underlying decision path is vague.Contact
Tell me what is breaking.
Describe what is happening and what it is getting in the way of. I will reply personally and tell you whether I can help.
Or email directly: mark@ridgeon.me
Phone: +44 (0)7787 749006
London, UK · Remote across UK, Europe, and US time zones.