Raise well, hire well, and keep the runway.
Early-stage companies rarely fail for lack of ideas. They fail because finance, go-to-market or architecture was built by whoever had time, and the bill comes later.
Why founders ask for senior help early
The pattern repeats among Amsterdam founders:
The cap table gets messy
Angels, a seed fund and a convertible arrive in the wrong order, and each round is harder to price than the last.
Investor reporting does not exist
The first institutional investor expects a monthly pack, and the founder has never produced one.
The first technical hires are guesses
An early engineering team is assembled with nobody senior to say who is good.
Credits and grants go unclaimed
Dutch R&D and innovation schemes, WBSO among them, reward structured work. Few early teams organise to claim them.
For an early-stage company the benefit is an operator who has already built what you are building, present a portion of the week that fits the budget. You skip the expensive lessons by hiring someone who already paid for them.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- Founders wearing every hat with no senior cover where it matters most
- Pre-seed to pre-Series A companies that need structure before they can fund it
- Teams that need investor-grade finance, reporting or operations at speed
- Startups scaling headcount faster than their processes can hold
- Founders who want to protect the cap table while adding senior leadership
Not for
- An idea with no product or traction to build structure around yet
- A role a capable full-time hire is already ready to own
- Founders looking to outsource a function rather than lead it
- A single deliverable an agency or contractor could hand back
What comes with the engagement
A first senior hire matters more in a small company. We stay involved after the match and keep the brief honest as you grow.
Check-ins sized to a startup
A short review with you and the executive every few weeks, and a plain word if the work wanders from the brief.
Answers beyond one person
Cap table, architecture or first-sales questions can go to colleagues in our collective of 800+ who have faced them.
Continuity as you grow
The seat is your company's, not one person's. If your executive leaves, the next search begins from everything we have learned about you.
Fit for an early team
We match for a founder's pace and a team of generalists. A leader who needs a department around them will stall here.
From first call to embedded operator
We move at startup speed.
Tell us your stage
Where are you in the journey? What are the gaps? What does the next 90 days need to deliver?
We match the right operator
From our vetted collective, we introduce the fractional executive matched to your stage, sector, and culture.
Embedded within weeks
Your fractional embeds with your team, begins the scoped work, and operates with real accountability.
Scale the stack
As you grow, add further specialists from the collective. We coordinate them so they work as a coherent team.
Which leader for your stage
The gap that slows a startup changes as it grows. Here is where most founders feel it first, and who owns it.
The right fractional executive depends on your stage
Start with the widest gap today, then add roles as you scale.
Our operators have built and scaled at
