Corporate calibre, at a mid-sized company's scale.
The Twin Cities have a deep supply of corporate-trained operators, and most are inside the largest companies. A growing firm here often needs exactly their judgement and cannot hire it full time.
Why a full executive team is the wrong fit now
A permanent Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer or Chief Marketing Officer is the first idea. For most firms in the metro it is not the right one:
The big employers set the bar
Executives with real experience have offers from the large corporate employers on better packages than a mid-sized company can match.
The problem will not wait a season
A permanent hire takes months, and the problem that prompted it keeps moving.
A wrong hire is slow to correct
Recruiter fees, relocation and a year of missed momentum are the real cost of a senior hire who does not fit.
You do not need them five days
Most firms of this size need two or three days a week of real senior input. A full salary buys the rest for nothing.
A fractional executive is an operator who has already done the job elsewhere and gives your company part of each week. Not a consultant who files findings and departs. A senior operator who works alongside your team, takes the decisions in their area and answers for them, with the calibre the large employers usually keep for themselves.
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
How the model suits a long-held firm
Each executive has a collective behind them, and our involvement lasts as long as the engagement.
With you to the end
We sit down with the family and the executive on a fixed rhythm and raise concerns early.
Many views behind one engagement
Your executive has the collective behind them. A finance question that proves to be an operations one still goes to the right person.
Handover, not restart
The brief and the history stay with us, so a change of executive becomes a planned handover for the family.
Fit with a long-serving team
Stage and sector count, but a long-tenured team will judge temperament first, and so do we.
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
