How to get the most value out of a COO

Executive overview

Most CEOs underestimate the ROI of a COO and struggle to define the role before hiring. The real question is not whether you can afford one — it is whether you can afford to keep doing the parts of the job that drain you.

Break the salary into weekly cost. Ask what that person could generate in gross margin each week to cover their own expense. Then ask what you could do with the freed time.

The COO's job is to be the brakes to the entrepreneur's gas — slowing momentum just enough to build in the right order.

When a CEO is ready to hire a COO

• You are trapped doing work that drains you and crowds out your unique ability areas
• You cannot grow your leadership team because you are stuck executing day-to-day
• You have real growth opportunities but lack the time or skill to pursue them
• The business is running but the free time you expected never materialised

Reframing the cost

• $240k/year is $20k/month is $5k/week — the framing changes the decision
• Ask: can this person generate $15–20k in gross margin weekly to cover their cost?
• A focused COO can free up CEO time that compounds returns further
• Entrepreneurs freeze on the dollar figure; break it into weekly ROI instead

Getting the hiring right

• Define what parts of your role drain you — those become the COO's core remit
• Build a scorecard: success outcomes for the first 12–18 months
• Run proper behavioural interviews; do not substitute test projects for rigour
• Strong reference checks eliminate the need for trial consulting engagements
• A-players with options will not tolerate drawn-out audition processes

What COOs need from CEOs

• CEOs delegate ideas in 20 seconds after weeks of internal thinking — COOs need time to catch up
• Ask questions to explore the idea fully before greenlighting, yellow-lighting, or killing it
• COOs and CEOs speak differently; invest time in understanding each other's communication style
• Schedule regular sync time — treat it like a standing appointment, not an optional catch-up
• COOs are overwhelmed when given raw data dumps; they need context, not just volume

Managing the idea flow

• Use a traffic-light system: green (start now), yellow (queue it), red (kill it)
• When the CEO brings a new idea, say "I love that — let me ask a few questions to catch up"
• Work through who, what, when, where, why, how — plus inputs of people, time, and money
• This process respects the CEO's ideas while preventing constant context-switching
• Building a home analogy: you can talk about the wolf stove, but only after the foundation is poured

Building trust early

• Trust starts in the interview process — depth of vetting creates implied trust from day one
• Conflict between CEO and COO is usually misunderstanding, not genuine misalignment
• Both parties usually want what is best for the company; assume good intent
• Energy alignment matters most in early-stage companies (sub-30 employees)
• As a company scales, complementary profiles often outperform similar ones

Matching COO profile to growth stage

• Early-stage hyper-growth: similar energy and pace can work — two quick-starters executing together
• Scale stage (100M+): the CEO needs someone more deliberate, strategic, and people-aware
• The same COO who built the company to $100M may not be right to take it to $600M
• Match behavioural traits and profile to the current season of growth, not the last one

What a great COO frees you to do

• Takes conflict, difficult conversations, and underperformer decisions off the CEO's plate
• Lets the CEO operate as the iconic, forward-facing leader rather than the internal fixer
• Enables focus on unique ability areas that generate the most energy and leverage
• Shifts the business from peacetime optimisation to wartime execution when needed