Who Operating fits

Technology-enabled, services, and operationally complex companies at stages where the founder has outgrown the stitched-together setup — a bookkeeper, a fractional finance person, an HR consultant, outside counsel — but isn't ready for a full-time VP Finance or COO. One accountable operator replaces the coordination tax on the leadership team.

Industry reach includes software, technology-enabled services, e-commerce, professional services, healthcare, and light industrial. The operative filter is not industry — it's whether the business has enough operating complexity to benefit from a senior operator and enough scale to support the retainer.

How Operating Delivers

Senior operator at the front. Standardized, tech-enabled practice behind.

Every Operating engagement is led by a senior operator who owns the function — the judgment, the accountability, the client relationship. What makes the model work economically is what sits beneath the operator: a standardized practice designed for automation and AI-enabled workflow, direct Slack-channel communication with the client team, and practitioner capacity that handles execution at appropriate cost.

The operator isn't doing bookkeeping. The practice is doing bookkeeping. The operator is running the function — cash decisions, hiring calls, contract reviews, investor-facing numbers — with practitioner support underneath and a standardized operating cadence on top. Technology leverage is designed into the practice and phased into each engagement as the working rhythm takes hold.

The result resolves the core tension in fractional leadership — senior judgment at senior rates, or affordable hours from someone more junior than the work requires. Monashee Operating is structured so clients get both.

What the consolidated model gives the client

One accountable owner across close, cash, contracts, systems, people — no coordination tax on the founder. Cross-functional judgment — the same operator sees finance implications of a contract, systems implications of a hire, commercial implications of a pricing change. Institutional memory — one operator who knows the history rather than four vendors who know their slice. Strategic overlay — senior judgment on operational decisions as they happen, not retroactively. Technology leverage — standardized stack, automation, AI-assisted workflow that a stitched setup cannot replicate by construction.

Three Tiers

Structured by company stage and executive overlay.

Foundation

Early-stage · Pre-revenue to ~$2M · Under ~15 employees

Core finance operations plus basic HR and contract ops. Clean books, reliable close, payroll and expense management, onboarding, and foundational people ops. Weekly sync, monthly reporting.

Retainers begin at $5,000 per month

Lead

Growth-stage · $2M–$10M revenue · 15–40 employees

Full finance, operations, and HR leadership. Everything in Foundation plus systems architecture across back-office functions, budget-to-actual and rolling forecast, light board preparation, expanded people ops, vendor and contract management. Biweekly sync, quarterly strategic review.

Partner

Scale and PE-backed · $10M+ or transaction-ready · 40+ employees

Senior operator plus strategic advisor delivered as a package. Everything in Lead plus investor-facing board communications, fundraise and transaction preparation, automation roadmap across finance and operations. Weekly sync with operating lead, monthly review with both principals.

Functional Scope

What the operator owns.

Finance

Close, reporting, cash management, forecasting, treasury, investor-facing numbers, transaction readiness.

Operations

Systems architecture, vendor management, operational cadence, automation roadmap.

HR & People Ops

Payroll, benefits, onboarding, recruiting support, HR infrastructure as the company scales.

Contracts & Adjacent

Contract operations, vendor and procurement management, light legal coordination with outside counsel.

Technology and digital product leadership are available as Advisory engagements today and will expand into embedded Operating scope as the practice grows.

How We Protect Delivery Quality

Four structural mechanisms built into every engagement.

High-maintenance client relationships are the single largest risk in a fractional operating practice. These aren't policies — they're part of the engagement structure.

Defined meeting cadence

Each tier has a set rhythm of meetings and reporting. Off-cadence requests queue rather than fire-drill. Weekly sync means weekly.

Explicit written scope

Scope is written into every engagement agreement. Work outside scope bills as a fixed-fee project or at a published rate — never absorbed silently.

Single primary contact

One person at the client owns the relationship. Multiple decision-makers with competing requests is the most common driver of scope creep.

Standardized stack prerequisite

No retainer begins until the client is on the standardized practice stack — through implementation or grandfathering of a compliant setup.

Every new Operating retainer begins with a discrete implementation engagement to bring the client onto the standardized practice stack. Implementation is billable and precedes the retainer — protecting delivery quality, setting the operating rhythm, and establishing scope boundaries before ongoing work begins. Implementation typically runs four to twelve weeks depending on starting state. Retainers are month-to-month with no maximum term.

Start a conversation about Operating.

A 30-minute working call to understand where you are today, what you're trying to build, and whether Foundation, Lead, or Partner is the right fit.

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