Jeff Gray: Fractional COO for growing startups

Services

I've been running GTM and ops at startups for ten years, and working in every corner of tech businesses for twenty-five as a leader or practitioner. A few of the ways I can help growing companies:

Scaling go-to-market

"We've got two sellers but think we're ready for five or thirty"

Building an operating plan

"Where should we spend our money and how long will it last?"

Interim and fractional CxO

"Omigod this key exec in GTM, finance, or people left or went on parental leave"

Helping leaders handle new problems

"What got us here won't get us there"

I work with growing technology companies of any size. You can engage me in three primary ways, but I strive to be flexible and easy to do business with:

Project work, on retainer. Monthly engagements that renew every four weeks if I'm adding value. I'll help you find the right projects and scope goals we can deliver.
Interim roles. Start with the end in mind: we'll hand off to the full-time person when what is true?
Advisory roles. Mentorship and counsel for execs or up-and-coming leaders.

About Me

I’m a startup exec with deep and broad experience in early- and mid-stage companies in each of GTM, finance, and business ops. I speak the language of buyers, CFOs, marketers, salespeople, and software engineers. Series A to Series D in a box.

My experience includes:

Four years as Chief Operating Officer at Honeycomb, running day-to-day operations as we grew from $5m to $60m ARR and fundraised twice.

Owned finance, business ops, people ops, and customer success.
Interim CEO as parental leave cover
Discrete, lengthy, stints as interim CRO and CMO during leadership searches.

Previously, I did fractional work for a dozen or so startups and scaleups:

Fractional CFO for a year (budget, KPIs, and fundraising model for a successful Series A).
Fractional CRO for another year (standing up a sales process, defining ICP, mentoring initial sales team).
Various projects, including building an AWS partner motion, developing an account management strategy, and growth marketing launch for AI infrastructure company.

I ran business operations and day-to-day execution at a data science startup and an infrastructure startup for two years each. Each time, I partnered with the CEO on managing the board and raising growth VC rounds, leading one to the doorstep of its successful acquisition.

I spent the first 16 years of my career at ThoughtWorks, the global software consultancy. I started as a novice developer, ran software development teams all over the world, and led a 600-employee, $200m P&L, the company's largest, by the time I left. ThoughtWorks was where I grew up as a professional. While it feels so long ago, it's where I learned how fast feedback loops are the most important thing in technology projects, where I learned how to treat people and build inclusive teams, and where I learned from the best managers and mentors I'll ever have. I try to live up to their examples every day.

I live in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. I enjoy cycling around the city to work with people in person and collaborating remotely with folks anywhere in the world.

Jeff Gray