The senior layer a growing London company is missing.
You have built something real. The distance between the business you run and the one the next stage needs is rarely effort. It is senior judgement you cannot yet put on the payroll.
Why a full executive team does not fit this stage
Hiring a permanent CFO, COO or CMO looks like the sensible step. For most London businesses it is not:
The cost runs ahead of the business
A full executive team is a payroll for a company twice your size, in the city where competing offers are richest.
The search takes longer than the problem waits
Finding a permanent executive takes months, and the business still has to run in the meantime.
A permanent hire is hard to reverse
UK rules on senior hires are tightening, and an executive appointed a stage too early is slow and costly to unwind.
You need judgement, not a full week
A business at this stage usually needs only a day or two a week of genuine senior input. A full salary is a heavy price for a part-time need.
A fractional executive has already done the job elsewhere and gives your business a regular slice of their week. Not an adviser who hands over a report and moves on. Someone senior who works in your team, decides within their remit and answers for how it turns out. In a city where banks, funds and large technology firms absorb senior talent, this is how a company your size reaches it.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- Founders carrying a C-suite function themselves with no time left to lead
- Businesses that need senior capability two or three days a week, not five
- A specific gap in finance, operations, marketing, technology or people that is holding growth back
- Teams that cannot yet justify, or afford, a full-time executive salary
- Owners who want an operator accountable for outcomes, not a consultant with a deck
Not for
- A junior or purely execution role a full-time manager should own
- A one-off project an agency could deliver and hand back
- Businesses wanting a figurehead rather than someone who does the work
- A pre-revenue idea with no function yet to lead
What the model gives an owner-led company
Part-time senior leadership is well established among London businesses. For an owner-led company it means senior judgement in the team without a permanent executive salary.
We stay involved
Our check-ins run for the whole engagement. If something drifts, we say so and adjust the brief with you.
The collective behind your executive
Your executive can lean on 800+ operators, so a finance question that turns out to be a hiring question still gets a good answer.
A brief kept current
Nobody sits on standby for you. What we keep is an up-to-date brief, so a replacement search would start well informed.
Chosen for fit with the owner
An executive who is right on paper and wrong for the way you work costs more than the hire you never made.
What an engagement looks like
From first call to an embedded operator in weeks, not months.
Discovery
We spend time understanding your business: challenges, goals, team dynamics, and what 'success' looks like in 90 days.
Match
We introduce the right fractional executive from our vetted collective. You meet them, ask hard questions, and confirm the fit.
Scoped engagement begins
The engagement launches with a defined scope, clear deliverables, and a structured cadence. Your fractional is embedded, not advisory.
Adapt and evolve
As your business changes, the engagement changes with it. Add hours, shift focus, introduce a second specialist, all without restructuring.
Which executive do you need first?
You do not need to know the answer before you call. Match the problem you feel most to the operator who owns it.
Each fractional role maps to a different SME challenge
Start with the gap that is costing you most, and the roles below show which leader owns it.
Backed by executives who have led at
