Fractional C-suite
An operator who has done it before, for the days you need one.
A COO when the operating load has outgrown your systems. A CFO before a raise. A CMO when the marketing needs a plan rather than more activity. Scoped as an engagement, not sold as a seat.
What is a fractional C-suite?
A fractional executive is an experienced operator who works with your company part-time, for a defined piece of work, instead of joining full-time. Prolify scopes the engagement with you and matches it to a vetted partner who delivers it; Prolify coordinates, the specialist does the work. It is priced per engagement, not bundled into a plan.
The roles
What each one is actually for
Most of the searching around this subject is people working out what these titles mean. Here is the honest version of each.
Fractional COO
Brought in when the operating load has outgrown the systems: too much depends on the founder, handoffs keep failing, and nobody owns the process. The work is usually installing the operating rhythm, not running it forever.
Fractional CFO
Brought in for a specific financial event — a raise, a model, a board pack, a pricing change. Not a substitute for a bookkeeper; if the books are not current, that comes first and costs less.
Fractional CMO
Brought in when marketing needs a strategy rather than more output. Positioning, channel choice, and what to stop doing. Most useful once there is something to market to a known buyer.
Fractional Chief of Staff
Brought in when the founder is the bottleneck on everything and the calendar is the constraint. The work is deciding what actually matters this quarter, and protecting it.
When not to
Most founders ask for this too early.
An experienced operator is expensive, and they are least useful when the basics are missing. If the books are behind, the deadlines are not tracked and nobody has written down how anything works, an operator's first month is spent building what a system should have been holding.
- →Get the books current and the calendar tracked first. That is cheaper and it is what an operator will ask for anyway.
- →Bring in a CFO for an event, not as insurance. A raise, a model, a board pack.
- →A COO installs an operating rhythm. If there is nothing yet to run, there is nothing to install.
- →If you are not sure which of these you need, that is usually a sign that the answer is none of them yet.
Scoped with you, delivered by a specialist.
Tell us the situation and what you need to be true at the end of it. We scope the engagement, match it to a vetted partner, and coordinate it. The specialist does the work and you deal with them directly. Talk to our team.
Fractional C-suite
Tell us the situation, not the job title.
The right answer is often a smaller engagement than the one people ask for, and sometimes it is none yet.