From the lab to a company, without hiring a whole team.
Many San Diego startups begin as research: a university lab, an institute, a technology developed on a defence contract. The founders know the science. The company around it, finance, operations and sales, is the part nobody trained them for.
Where research-led founders feel the gap
The gaps tend to be the same ones:
Funding arrives in tranches
Grants, milestones and staged rounds make cash planning an exercise in timing, and a slipped result moves everything.
The company is the founders
Scientists and engineers run finance, hiring and regulatory work between experiments.
The route to a customer is unclear
Who buys, who pays and who decides are open questions long after the technology works.
Senior hires strain the runway
A permanent executive adds salary and an equity grant when every month of runway matters.
San Diego already knows how to build lean: many biotechs keep a small core team and bring in specialists by the task. A fractional executive extends that logic to leadership, with an operator who has done it before for the days the company needs. They set things up properly, then hand over when a permanent seat is justified.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- Founders wearing every hat with no senior cover where it matters most
- Pre-seed to pre-Series A companies that need structure before they can fund it
- Teams that need investor-grade finance, reporting or operations at speed
- Startups scaling headcount faster than their processes can hold
- Founders who want to protect the cap table while adding senior leadership
Not for
- An idea with no product or traction to build structure around yet
- A role a capable full-time hire is already ready to own
- Founders looking to outsource a function rather than lead it
- A single deliverable an agency or contractor could hand back
From lab to company
An operator for the days you need, with our oversight around the engagement while it runs.
Early flags
Regular check-ins show early if the work drifts from the milestone plan.
Operators from research companies
The collective includes people who have taken research companies from grant funding to first customers.
Continuity through the search
If your executive has to step away, we search again from what we know about the science and the business, and run the handover.
Patient with research
We match for people who can translate between scientists and the business without losing either.
From first call to embedded operator
We move at startup speed.
Tell us your stage
Where are you in the journey? What are the gaps? What does the next 90 days need to deliver?
We match the right operator
From our vetted collective, we introduce the fractional executive matched to your stage, sector, and culture.
Embedded within weeks
Your fractional embeds with your team, begins the scoped work, and operates with real accountability.
Scale the stack
As you grow, add further specialists from the collective. We coordinate them so they work as a coherent team.
Which leader for your stage
The gap that slows a startup changes as it grows. Here is where most founders feel it first, and who owns it.
The right fractional executive depends on your stage
Start with the widest gap today, then add roles as you scale.
Our operators have built and scaled at
