As startups grow, tasks such as product development, customer support, hiring, fundraising, and strategic planning all converge and compete for the CEO's attention. It’s during this period that you’re confused about who should own what, and this can slow everything down.

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That’s why it’s important to think about your “ops leadership stack.” Instead of a flat hierarchy where every task ends up on the CEO’s desk, you create a structured leadership team where you figure out who handles vision and who runs operations.

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A well-structured ops leadership stack brings clarity and accountability so that meetings have purpose, decisions get made quickly, and teams move forward without waiting on a single leader.

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This structure encompasses three key roles commonly found in growing startups: the CEO, the COO, and the Chief of Staff. These roles can overlap (especially in startups), but the lack of clear boundaries causes inefficiencies and burnout.

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In this article, you’ll understand who owns what (and when their work overlaps) and learn when it makes sense to hire a Chief of Staff versus a COO.

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Why Operational Leadership Matters During Growth

When leadership roles overlap, the consequences are felt throughout the organization. Missed goals usually become the order of the day as priorities conflict and accountability is ignored.

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Team members often become confused about who owns what, resulting in inefficiency.

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Founders become pressured, struggle with important tasks, and burn out in the process. With the founder at the receiving end, execution stalls, decisions slow, and momentum is reduced.

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At this point, most founders realize they cannot continue owning everything. As Jason Lemkin at SaaStr puts it, once you hit ~$1M in ARR, you must stop doing low-ROI work yourself (especially operations, routine sales, or customer success tasks) and delegate them to a leadership team.

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Similarly, when important hires like a COO could relieve operational load and free your time for vision-setting, you're likely beyond the DIY stage.

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A well-defined ops structure transforms organizational growth. When each executive role (from CEO to COO to Chief of Staff) is clear, then the CEO can focus on vision, capital, and culture, while the COO takes charge of execution, systems, and day-to-day performance.

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In this case, execution improves, and teams become empowered instead of being dependent. The result is a company operating with clarity, stronger alignment, and the scalability to sustain growth without the founder burning out.

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Role Breakdown: Who Does What?

CEO (Chief Executive Officer)

The CEO is the visionary and strategic leader of the startup. They set the long-term direction, shape the company's mission, and establish competitive positioning. The CEO is responsible for external relationships, including investor relations, board governance, media presence, and strategic partnerships.

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The responsibilities of a CEO include:

• Defining the company’s path, mission, and long-term goals.
• Leading capital-raising efforts, developing the narrative for investors, and maintaining investor confidence.
• Modeling company values, setting the tone at the top, and aligning the executive team.
• Making strategic decisions while delegating daily operations to trusted leadership.

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COO (Chief Operating Officer)

The COO translates the CEO’s vision into operational reality. They serve as the second-in-command, overseeing execution across functional areas such as operations, processes, and team performance.

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The responsibilities of a COO include:

• Turning strategic goals into actionable plans and ensuring efficient day-to-day functioning.
• Establishing KPIs and dashboards, managing workflows, resource allocation, and tracking quality and productivity.
• Coordinating across departments, managing senior staff, and aligning teams with organizational priorities.

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Chief of Staff

The Chief of Staff (CoS) is a versatile strategic generalist who amplifies the CEO’s impact. In the early stages of startup growth, the CoS acts as an executive integrator, thus streamlining cross-team coordination, internal communication, and project execution.

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The main responsibilities include:

• Serving as the bridge between departments, managing briefing decks, follow-ups, and decisions across the organization.
• Preparing agendas, facilitating leadership cadence, tracking deliverables, and ensuring closure on strategic projects.
• Leading special projects such as fundraising deck preparation, investor updates, and organizational planning.

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Here’s a quick glimpse at the roles:

How to Choose the Right Stack for Your Stage

To build the right operational leadership structure for your startup, you must understand how your company's operational needs change at each growth stage. Here's how to handle operational leadership decisions as your startup grows:

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Early Stage (0 to 50 employees)

Why Most Early-Stage Companies Don't Need Dedicated Ops Leadership

In the early stages of company growth, most startups operate effectively without dedicated operational leadership roles like a COO or Chief of Staff.

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During this phase, founders usually handle different tasks and can manage operational complexity directly. The lean team structure makes it easy to make decisions quickly and optimize resources.

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The operational demands at this stage usually focus on product development, initial customer acquisition, and establishing basic business processes. Founders can maintain direct oversight of these activities while building core team capabilities.

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Adding specialized operational leadership too early can create unnecessary overhead and slow down the agile decision-making that early-stage companies need to succeed.

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However, certain business models require operational leadership earlier than others. Companies in manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, or regulated industries often face operational complexity that exceeds what a founder can handle from day one. These businesses may need operational expertise as early as 10-20 employees.

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For example, a medical device startup must manage FDA regulations, clinical trials, and complex supply chains simultaneously. A logistics company needs sophisticated operational processes to manage deliveries, inventory, and customer service from launch.

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In these cases, bringing in operational leadership early (often in the form of a COO with industry expertise) can ensure survival and growth.

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Building Operational Foundations

Even without dedicated operational leadership, early-stage companies must establish foundational operational systems that will support future growth.

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This includes implementing basic project management tools, establishing communication protocols, creating standard operating procedures for core business functions, and setting up financial tracking and reporting systems.

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Smart founders use this stage to identify their operational strengths and weaknesses. If you're adept at product development but struggle with operational details, document these gaps for future hiring decisions.

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Consider whether you'll want to maintain operational control as you scale or delegate these responsibilities if you’re good at operational thinking.

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The operational foundations you build now will determine how smoothly you can scale. Focus on creating scalable processes rather than ad-hoc solutions, even when the ad-hoc approach seems faster in the short term.

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Scale-Up Stage (50 to 200 employees)

The Operational Complexity Tipping Point

At this stage, the informal communication and decision-making processes that worked in the early stages begin to break down. Founders can no longer maintain direct oversight of all operational activities, and the company needs more structured approaches to coordination and execution.

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This is when operational complexity starts getting serious. You're likely managing multiple departments, more sophisticated customer relationships, complex hiring processes, and increasingly detailed financial operations.

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The founder's time becomes insufficient for operational decisions, thereby slowing down the entire organization.

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Companies that fail to adapt their operational structure at this stage often experience a period where revenue growth plateaus despite increased effort and resources. This happens because operational inefficiencies begin to outweigh the benefits of team expansion.

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Chief of Staff as the First Hire

For most companies reaching the scale-up stage, a Chief of Staff is usually the first operational leadership they hire. Unlike a COO, a Chief of Staff can be hired at a lower salary and equity level while still providing significant operational benefits.

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A skilled Chief of Staff at this stage handles project coordination across departments, manages communication between leadership and teams, oversees strategic initiatives, and creates the operational infrastructure needed for continued growth.

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The Chief of Staff model works well for technology companies, professional services firms, and other businesses where operational complexity is high but doesn't require deep industry-specific operational expertise.

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This role allows founders to maintain strategic control while delegating execution and coordination tasks.

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When to Consider an Early COO

Some scale-up companies benefit from hiring a COO instead of or in addition to a Chief of Staff. This decision makes sense when operational execution is a competitive advantage, when the founder does not have operational experience or interest, or when the business model requires specialized operational expertise.

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Manufacturing companies, logistics businesses, and companies with complex service delivery models often benefit from COO-level operational leadership at the scale-up stage.

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The COO can own entire operational domains like supply chain management, customer service, or business development, thus freeing the founder to focus on product, fundraising, and strategic direction.

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Consider an early COO hire if your operational challenges require someone with deep functional expertise, if operational execution directly impacts customer satisfaction and retention, or if you're planning rapid geographic expansion that requires operational coordination across multiple markets.

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Growth Stage (200 to 500 Employees)

Moving from Chief of Staff to COO

Companies that hired a Chief of Staff during the scale-up phase often face a decision point between 200 and 500 employees: promote the Chief of Staff to COO, hire an external COO, or maintain the Chief of Staff model with additional operational hires.

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The promotion path works well when your Chief of Staff has demonstrated strong operational judgment, built effective cross-functional relationships, and expressed interest in taking on broader operational responsibility.

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However, some companies need COO-level expertise that their current Chief of Staff doesn't possess.

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This is common when entering new markets, launching new product lines, or facing operational challenges that require specialized experience. In these cases, hiring an external COO while transitioning the Chief of Staff to another strategic role often works best.

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The most important thing to consider is whether your operational challenges have gone beyond coordination and execution to require strategic operational leadership.

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If you're dealing with complex operational issues, managing multiple business units, or preparing for significant operational changes, then you need COO-level leadership.

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Managing Multiple Operational Streams

At the growth stage, companies operate multiple concurrent operational streams, such as customer acquisition and retention, product development and delivery, financial management and reporting, human resources and talent development, and business development and partnerships.

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This responsibility often exceeds the capacity of a single operational leader and requires a more distributed operational leadership model. Some companies create specialized operational roles like VP of Operations, VP of Business Development, or VP of Customer Success, each reporting to the COO or CEO.

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The challenge is maintaining operational coherence across these specialized functions. Strong operational leaders at this stage focus heavily on cross-functional communication, shared metrics and objectives, and integrated planning processes.

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Without this coordination, specialized operational teams can optimize for their objectives at the expense of the company's performance.

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Geographic Expansion Considerations

Managing operations across multiple locations requires standardized processes, distributed decision-making authority, and sophisticated communication systems.

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Companies expanding geographically need operational leaders who can balance local market adaptation with global operational consistency. This often requires regional operational managers reporting to a central COO or geographic COOs with specialized local market expertise.

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The operational leadership structure should reflect your expansion strategy. If you're planning rapid expansion into multiple markets, invest in operational leadership early.

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If you're expanding into one new market at a time, you may be able to manage geographic operations with your existing operational leadership team plus local operational hires.

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Mature Growth Stage (500+ Employees)

Full Operational Leadership Hierarchy

Companies reaching 500+ employees usually require a full operational leadership hierarchy with specialized roles, clear reporting structures, and sophisticated operational processes.

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At this stage, operational leadership often includes a COO overseeing multiple operational VPs, regional operational leaders managing geographic markets, functional operational leaders managing specialized areas like supply chain or customer success, and operational program managers coordinating cross-functional initiatives.

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This hierarchical approach ensures specialization and coordination. Each level of operational leadership can focus on its specific domain while maintaining alignment with company objectives. The most important thing is to create clear accountability and decision-making authority at each level.

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Mature growth stage companies often implement formal operational planning processes, regular operational performance reviews, and sophisticated operational metrics and reporting systems.

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These systems enable data-driven operational decision-making and continuous operational improvement.

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Specialized Operational Roles

At scale, companies need specialized operational expertise in areas like supply chain management, business intelligence and analytics, process improvement and operational excellence, regulatory and compliance operations, and strategic partnerships and business development.

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These specialized roles require deep functional expertise and often report to the COO or directly to the CEO, depending on their strategic importance. These specialized operational leaders must maintain strong communication and coordination with other operational functions.

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Planning for IPO or Acquisition Operational Requirements

Mature growth stage companies often begin preparing for IPO or acquisition, which creates additional operational requirements.

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Public companies need sophisticated financial reporting and compliance operations, investor relations and communication operations, and enhanced risk management and internal controls.

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Acquisition preparation requires similar operational capabilities and the ability to integrate acquired companies effectively. This often requires dedicated integration, operational expertise, and sophisticated project management capabilities.

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Start building these operational capabilities at least 12 to 18 months before your target IPO or acquisition timeline. The operational infrastructure required for public company or acquisition readiness takes time to implement and optimize.

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Optimize Your Startup’s Ops with Chore’s Fractional COO and Chief of Staff Solution

When you're scaling your ops leadership stack (balancing CEO, COO, and Chief of Staff roles), Chore offers fractional ops leadership that fills important gaps without upfront overhead. Chore provides a seasoned fractional Chief of Staff suited for early-stage startups to drive strategic initiatives, streamline operations, and keep execution on track.

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Rather than rushing into an expensive full-time COO hire, Chore offers flexible fractional support across HR, compliance, finance, and equity so your structure scales with your needs.

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With Chore handling the back-office (payroll, filings, and board decks), you free up your CEO to focus on high-leverage leadership and your eventual COO to build scalable systems.

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Curious how Chore can fit your current stage and amplify your leadership team without the overhead? Book a free Ops Strategy Call with our team today.

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FAQs

What’s the difference between a COO and a Chief of Staff?

The COO manages daily operations and leads teams to execute the company’s strategy, focusing on scaling and efficiency. The Chief of Staff supports the CEO by coordinating across departments, aligning leadership, and driving strategic priorities without direct team ownership.

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When should a startup consider hiring a Chief of Staff vs. a COO?

Startups should hire a Chief of Staff in the early to mid-stage (10 to 50 employees) when the CEO needs help with strategic coordination, internal alignment, and scaling their time. It’s ideal for fast-growing teams that need structure but aren’t ready for a full-time COO.

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A COO is better suited for later stages (50 to 100+ employees) when the business needs full operational oversight, process optimization, and leadership across multiple departments. The COO turns strategy into scalable execution.

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What skills should I look for in a COO candidate?

The top skills to look for in a COO candidate include:

• Operational excellence: Streamlines workflows and manages daily execution.
• Strategic thinking: Aligns operations with long-term goals.
• Leadership: Builds and leads high-performing teams.
• Cross-functional communication: Bridges gaps across departments.
• Process and scaling expertise: Creates systems that support growth.
• Financial acumen: Connects operations to financial impact.
• Change management: Guides teams through growth and transformation.
• Tech fluency: Comfortable with digital tools and automation.
• Founder alignment: Complements the CEO’s strengths and vision.

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