Built for the next stage of the business.
Opsist combines technology, operating infrastructure and capital to help founder-led companies scale beyond founder-dependent operations.
Origin
Why Opsist exists.
There is a well-documented gap in the market. Below a certain size, a business cannot justify a controller, an operations lead, a people function and a systems team. Above a certain size, it cannot survive without them. Between those points, the founder is the operating system.
The conventional options each leave the founder holding the work. Advisory engagements end with recommendations. Staffing arrangements supply people without ownership of the outcome. Fractional executives cover one function at a time.
Opsist was built on a single premise: the operating infrastructure a company receives after institutional investment is the same infrastructure it needed several years earlier, and it can be installed and run by one accountable team before a transaction.
The objective is a business that can operate without its founder: an operating platform, higher earnings quality, reduced founder dependency, and the position to choose its own outcome, whether continued ownership, a recapitalization, a sale, or becoming the platform for a larger group.
Capital is deployed where it accelerates a plan that is already working, for transformation and growth.
Principles
Operating principles.
Ownership of outcomes
Reporting as a control
Founder dependency as enterprise risk
Process before automation
Sequence in capital deployment
Substantiated claims
Accountability
Every function has one named owner.
How responsibility for finance, payroll, customer operations and systems is assigned, reviewed and escalated.
Written scope before transition
Nothing moves to Opsist informally. Each function is documented, with inputs, outputs and the date responsibility changes hands.
One owner per function
Every owned function has a single accountable person on the Opsist side and a single counterpart on yours. Shared responsibility produces no responsibility.
A cadence you can hold us to
A weekly operating review and a monthly close calendar, published in advance and run every period.
Shared visibility, including misses
You see the same dashboard we do. Exceptions, overdue items and missed service levels appear on it rather than being reported selectively.
Dual control over money
Payment release, vendor changes and bank detail changes require a second person. No single individual, at Opsist or in your company, moves money alone.
Process outlives people
Runbooks, access registers and documentation mean the work continues when any individual changes, on either side.
Function ownership
Engagement roles.
How an Opsist engagement team is organised. Scope varies by company, and the individuals assigned to an engagement are named in the partnership documents before any function transitions.
Escalation
If something is missed, it goes on the operating review the same week with an owner and a date. If it is not resolved by that date, it escalates to the engagement lead. If it is still unresolved, it escalates to firm leadership and is recorded in the quarterly review. Founders can escalate directly at any point.
Scope, service levels and escalation paths are specific to each engagement and are set out in the engagement agreement, which governs in the event of any difference with this page.
Operating principles
How we work.
- Written scope, alwaysEvery function Opsist owns is documented before transition. Nothing moves on a handshake.
- One accountable owner per functionEach function has a single named owner with defined deliverables.
- Cadence over intensityA weekly operating review and a monthly close, on a published calendar.
- Controls proportionate to riskDual control where money moves; lighter process where the exposure is small.
- Transparency with the founderYou see the same dashboard we do, including what is behind.
- SelectivityWe decline engagements we do not believe we can run well.
Further reading
Selected transformations and perspectives.
Two named transformations and an operating perspective on founder dependency.
LACQ: from beauty supply operations to an intelligent commerce platform
What an operating layer looks like beneath a manufacturing, distribution and software business.
Case studyAndy: from a property-tax service to a homeowner distribution platform
Cross-channel operations, finance discipline and distribution infrastructure in one business.
Operating PerspectiveFounder dependency as enterprise risk
Why concentration of knowledge is priced by every buyer, lender and investor.
Start Your Free Ops Audit
A structured review of finance, cash, people, customer and systems operations, with a written view of what Opsist would own, what would change first, and whether a partnership fits.