---
title: How to hire a COO or head of operations at a startup
description: Hiring a COO? Audit your own week, pick one of four COO archetypes and write a 90-day plan before you interview. A practical guide for startup founders.
---
[Startup Hiring Insights & Guides | funded.club](https://funded.club/blog)
# [How to hire a COO or head of operations at a startup](https://funded.club/blog/hire-coo-head-of-operations-startup)
Written by [Ray Gibson](https://funded.club/blog/author/ray-gibson) | Sep 29, 2026, 5:55:32 PM
*Updated September 2026*
To hire a COO or head of operations at a startup, first audit where the founder's week goes and which work you want off your plate, because "COO" covers at least four different jobs. Match the role to one archetype, write a 90-day plan for it, and interview against that plan. Hiring a generic "operator" without that step is the most common reason these hires stall.
Ask five founders what their COO does and you will hear five different answers. One runs finance and legal, one runs customer delivery, one owns revenue operations, and one is a trusted second pair of hands for the CEO. All of them are reasonable, but they need different people. A candidate who excels at building a finance function from nothing may have little interest in running a support team, and the reverse is just as true.
## Start with an audit of your own week
Before you write a job description, track your hours for two normal weeks. Group them into a handful of areas and mark the work you are worst at, the work you enjoy least and the work that only you can do. The COO role is usually hiding in the first two groups.
Here is an illustrative example. A founder at a growing B2B startup spends about 12 hours a week on operational fires and 9 hours on finance and admin, while product and customers get 10 hours each. The goal of the hire is to bring those first two numbers close to zero, so the founder can spend the time where only they can add value.
This founder does not need a commercial operator. They need someone who builds internal systems, from finance and legal to people operations and tooling, so the fires stop starting. That points to a specific archetype.
## Pick one of four COO archetypes
Two questions place most operations roles. Does the work face inward, at the company itself, or outward, at customers and revenue? And do the systems need to be built from scratch, or do they exist and need to scale?
The founder in our example sits in the top left: a systems builder. A marketplace with a messy supply side would sit top right. A company that has grown quickly and needs planning and budgets across several teams sits bottom left, and one whose biggest gap is revenue operations and customer success sits bottom right. Choose one quadrant as the core of the role. Candidates can stretch into a second, but rarely into all four.
## Decide on the title last
COO, head of operations, VP operations and chief of staff overlap a lot at startups. A useful rule is to give the COO title only when the person will run several functions and sit on the leadership team with real authority. If the role is mainly internal systems for a team still under fifty people, "head of operations" often attracts a better-matched pool and leaves room to grow into the bigger title.
## A 90-day plan to hire against
Write the first 90 days before you interview, and share it with finalists. Here is an illustrative plan for the systems builder in our example.
| Period | Focus | What done looks like |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Days 1 to 30 | Listen and map | Meets every team lead, lists recurring fires and their causes, agrees the top three priorities with the CEO |
| Days 31 to 60 | Fix the foundations | Monthly finance close runs without the founder, contracts and approvals have clear owners, onboarding has a checklist |
| Days 61 to 90 | Hand back time | Founder's finance and admin hours are down to a couple a week, a simple operating rhythm is in place, the next hires for the function are scoped |
Use the plan in interviews. Ask each finalist what they would change about it, what they would do first and what they would need from you. Their edits tell you more about how they work than any case study.
## What a recruiter costs for a COO hire
At an illustrative base salary of $170,000 (swap in your own), a contingency recruiter charging 20 to 25% would bill $34,000 to $42,500. On Funded.club's fixed-fee bands, a role above $150,000 costs $15,900 to $21,900, agreed before the search starts. The bands are on our [pricing page](https://funded.club/pricing).
## Where Funded.club fits
We are a fixed-fee recruiting partner for funded startups and fast-growing teams across North America, Europe and APAC, and operations and leadership are among the areas we hire for. We've helped 500+ startups from Seed to Series D.
One dedicated recruiter runs your search end to end: sourcing, headhunting, screening and support through the offer. We agree the archetype and 90-day plan with you at kick-off, and you see first screened candidates within 7 days. Our average is 33 days from kick-off to hire. Fees average 6 to 9% of salary, with part paid as an advance and the balance when your candidate accepts. If we don't deliver a shortlist of at least 3 qualified candidates within 30 days, you can claim the advance back in full. For where this hire sits in a wider plan, see our guide to the [first 10 hires after funding](https://funded.club/blog/first-10-hires-after-funding).
## Frequently asked questions
### When should a startup hire a COO?
When the founder is spending a large share of their week on operational work they are not best placed to do, and that work is holding back product or customers. An audit of two normal weeks usually makes the answer clear.
### What is the difference between a COO and a head of operations?
A COO usually runs several functions and sits on the leadership team. A head of operations typically owns internal systems and processes, and is often the better first hire for a smaller team.
### What should a COO achieve in the first 90 days?
They should map the recurring problems, fix the foundations behind the worst of them and hand measurable time back to the founder. Writing that plan before hiring makes it much easier to judge candidates.
### How much does it cost to hire a COO through a recruiter?
Contingency recruiters usually charge 20 to 25% of first-year salary. Funded.club charges a fixed fee by salary band, from $15,900 to $21,900 for roles above $150,000.
Worth a brief chat about your next hire? [Book a free call](https://funded.club/contact-us).
[View full post](https://funded.club/blog/hire-coo-head-of-operations-startup)
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