You built your business by being in everything. Now everything still runs through you.
The revenue is there, but the operation can't scale past your calendar, the team waits on your decisions, and an exit feels impossible when the business is you.
That's the gap I fill: a senior operator who builds the machine, so the company runs without you in every call, and is worth more when you're ready to step back or sell.
Proof
Who we've worked with.
At Wombi, I built the sales and operations SOPs, grew close rates, and launched a B2B2C channel that became the majority of company revenue.
Swell Studio
Indie Law
N8 Beauty
Wombi
What I do
A Head of Operations' job is to make the whole thing work.
So that's where I lead. Operations is the spine. Because it touches everything, I also run the two functions founders most often need built alongside it.
Primary offer
Fractional Head of Operations
I tighten the systems that grew faster than you wrote them, build the processes and team that scale, and get the business running cleanly enough to grow, hand off, or sell.
Operating systems, process design & documentation
Hiring plans, comp bands & leveling that hold up
Vendor stack audits & tooling consolidation
Recurring-revenue & service-line build-out
Exit-readiness: clean operations that raise the multiple
The behind-the-scenes work that frees up founder time
Because operations touches everything, I also run the two functions founders most often need built next:
Go-to-Market
A repeatable sales motion so growth is predictable and not dependent on the founder being in every call.
Recruiting
Sourcing and closing the senior operators and first leaders who set the tone. Built on a decade of recruiting in-house at Netflix and Google.
The exit edge
Most fractional operators can't get you to a buyer. I can.
Building toward a sale in the next few years? The work that makes a business run without you is the same work that makes it worth more to a buyer: documented systems, a team that doesn't depend on the founder, clean and legible operations.
I build that, and I know what buyers look for and where the deal-killers hide. When you're ready, there's a clear path to the next step instead of a cold start.
One focused engagement to pinpoint exactly where you're the bottleneck, ending in a prioritized roadmap you can act on, with me or without me. The low-risk way to see how I work.
For founders who want a clear next step without a long commitment.
One week of listening, reviewing, and pressure-testing what's actually broken.
→
02
Build
Three to six weeks of hands-on work alongside your team, shipping the system, not a slide deck.
→
03
Hand Off
A documented system and a trained owner so your team runs it without us.
About
I'm Sam, nice to meet you.
I build the machine that lets founder-led businesses run, scale, and sell without the founder in everything. Every engagement starts with me, backed by a bench of operators I trust.
Engagements start with me. When scope expands, I bring in the right partner from a vetted bench. One operator, the team behind her.
Sam Golay-Smith
Founder & Fractional Head of Operations
Sam is a fractional Head of Operations and M&A advisor who has spent her career in the engine rooms of growing companies. As Head of Operations at Wombi, she built the sales and operations SOPs and the organic marketing that grew close rates, then launched a B2B2C channel that became the majority of company revenue. Before that, she was an executive recruiter in-house at Netflix and Google.
Samantha Hartman
Exit Advisor & Recruiting Partner
Samantha is an M&A advisor and former tech-sector executive recruiter who guides owners through the sale of their businesses, working with companies from $5M to $250M across B2B services, staffing, construction, consumer packaging, and healthcare. She can recruit the team you need in place for a sale, but her superpower is exit-readiness: financial modeling, market value studies, confidential buyer relationship management, and sell-side advising.
Nikkia Jackson
Operations and AI Systems Partner
Nikkia spent 10+ years building creative and programming operations inside BET, BuzzFeed, and Viacom, rising from executive assistant to operations leadership, and founded and scaled her own skincare brand. She designs the systems and AI-powered workflows that give founder-led businesses clarity and room to scale. Taking the business off the owner's shoulders, with systems that hold, is where she does her best work.
Let's talk
Find a time that works for you.
A 30-minute fit check. We'll talk about where you're stuck and whether we're a fit.
