Great question. It’s getting heaps of buzz lately, huh?

The difference between a fractional hire vs. a freelancer or contractor is that you get a fraction of their time as opposed to project-based work.

Fractional hires can (and should) be thought of as part of the internal team — ongoing trust, support, and reliance is expected.

1. Save time for what’s important: Founders and CEOs often try to take on operational and administrative tasks themselves, diverting heaps of time away from building toward your north star. We give you your time back.

2. Save your $$$! Let’s face it: you can’t afford a FT COO, and you don’t need one, either. Get expert support at a fraction of the cost.

3. Stay flexible: Dial up or down the level of support depending on your needs.

4. Expertise is a treat 🍦: As a fractional COO, we bring a ton of experience and knowledge to the table, having worked across all sorts of different businesses and industries. This can be especially valuable for an early-stage tech founder who may not have a lot of experience in areas like operations, finance, and HR.

5. Scale: SWIM can help you scale up as you grow, providing the necessary support and guidance to make sure you are ready for future growth.

Fractional COOs wear many hats, but the main areas of focus when we begin our journey are:

1. Developing a top-secret strategic plan for world domination (or at least, industry domination).

2. Optimizing resources and streamlining processes so your business runs like a well-oiled machine.

3. Financial clean-up: get a handle on budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting with direct oversight of the right vendor, partner, or team members.

4. Don't worry about HR and payroll headaches: we help you plan, hire and onboard new team members, manage employee benefits, and make sure you're following labor laws.

5. Legal and compliance issues can be a drag. We can help you navigate them with ease (or as much ease as possible with legal stuff).

Read more about our services HERE.

We focus on technology that helps more of our differences create more joy and less hate.

In other words: we choose our clients as intentionally as they should be building their companies.

Lots of ops leaders can get the job done. We get the job done with an eye on culture. Setting your company’s culture early will decrease attrition, increase innovation, and create an equitable future for your company.

If you choose Swim, you’ll work directly with Lindsay or James (or both!). We occasionally pull in trusted outside partners to collaborate on projects or help build the right systems for your business, but you’ll always sign off before that happens.

More about us HERE.

You can book an intro call with us HERE, or send an email to hello@swimorswim.com. Lindsay is (usually) in NYC, so if you’re around, let’s grab a ☕️!