# Jeff Gray — Fractional COO for Growing Startups

Startup operating executive in San Francisco. Available for fractional and
interim COO, CFO, CRO, and CMO work with growing technology companies.

- Book a call: https://cal.jeffgray.co/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffgray/
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jeffgraysf.bsky.social

## 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."

## Engagement models

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:

1. **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.
2. **Interim roles.** Start with the end in mind: we'll hand off to the full-time person when what is true?
3. **Advisory roles.** Mentorship and counsel for execs or up-and-coming leaders.

Series A to Series D in a box.

## About

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.

Four years as Chief Operating Officer at [Honeycomb](https://www.honeycomb.io),
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 an AI infrastructure company.

I ran business operations and day-to-day execution at a data science startup
([Domino Data Lab](https://www.dominodatalab.com)) and an infrastructure startup
([CoreOS](https://www.coreos.com)) 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](https://www.thoughtworks.com), 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. 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 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.

## Resources

- [Planning for Startup Founders](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZX0smKD8d5or9WpPT8ZkY2WA_6mH3aarnP-6WKM4N0E/edit) — why and how to try to predict the future for young companies. ([Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz66USAEb8g))
- [FP&A Agent](https://github.com/jeffgraySF/fpa-agent) — a set of Claude Code commands for people who build financial plans.
- [How to OKR](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ka1XzvW9I3baCsw5MyYJRPKaBzjM4UhcSvfthu_4j0w/edit) — the only thing worse than doing OKRs is not doing them.

## Contact

Prefer to talk directly? [Book a call](https://cal.jeffgray.co/), or use the
contact form at https://jeffgray.co/#contact.

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Machine-readable index: https://jeffgray.co/llms.txt