The chief operating officer (COO) tends to be the second-in-command to the CEO —but at the early stages of a company, their responsibilities can overlap heavily.
Origen: How to hire a chief operating officer | Sifted
🤔 How to hire a chief operating officer. Jens Joseph Mannanal, COO at Berlin-based creator economy startup Passionfroot, shares his tips for hiring a COO as an early-stage startup, including:
- Hire someone who can take on complexity — “A COO should be hired when a startup’s operational complexity increases beyond the current team’s capacity…This is also usually when the founding team’s time and attention are too divided and you need a dedicated leader to oversee operations and wider strategy execution.”
- Find someone who wants autonomy — “They can’t be waiting around to be told what to do — this is a senior C-suite role, not just a glorified assistant to the CEO.”
- Don’t hire a micromanager — “They need to focus on making it easier for the team to carry out their tasks, not try to do the tasks for them.”
- Look for solid operational experience — “You can also look at candidates with strategy consulting backgrounds, although the ideal is a candidate who has held a leadership role in a scaleup, as they’ll come with the skills and growth mentality inbuilt.”