Katie Barnes | Operating advisor + fractional COO for growing B2B SaaS companies
Your company grew. Somehow, you became its operating system.
Katie Barnes is a fractional COO and operating advisor helping growing B2B SaaS companies fix cross-functional execution, clarify ownership, and operate without the founder in every decision.
Who this is for
You're running a real business. It just wasn't built for this size.
Everything runs through you.
Every decision, every fire, every question your team can't answer without checking in first. You're the single point of failure, and you know it.
The revenue is real. The systems aren't.
You've grown past the duct-tape phase but the structure hasn't caught up. Things fall through the cracks. The business grew. The backend did not.
You're great at the work. This is a different job.
Operations, process, org design. None of that is why you started this company. And yet here you are, spending half your week on it.
"You didn't break it. You just outgrew the way you built it."
We've made HUGE progress, and I now have a much clearer path forward, even with all that's still left to do. Thank you for all that you have done.
I find out why your company still needs you for everything.
The problem usually isn't that your team needs another SOP. It's that decisions, ownership, expectations, and information have become tangled together as the company has grown.
I listen to how the business actually works, not how the org chart says it works, identify the patterns keeping work stuck, and help you build the few operating changes that will make the biggest difference.
Sometimes that requires an operating advisor. Sometimes it requires an embedded fractional COO. We start by diagnosing the problem before prescribing the engagement—see fractional COO or operating advisor if you already know you need one of the two.
↓ Three ways to work with me, depending on where you are.
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Most founders start here
The Founder Bottleneck Audit
$2,500· 2 weeks
A two-week operational assessment for founders who feel like every decision, handoff, and "quick question" ends up back on their plate. You leave with clarity, a plan, and one visible improvement already in place.
- Founder intake and operating review
- Three to five stakeholder interviews
- Review of meetings, decisions, ownership, and cross-functional handoffs
- Identification of the three highest-cost bottlenecks
- A visual Bottleneck Map
- A prioritized 90-day action plan
- A leadership-team readout
- One small, high-impact operational fix implemented during the audit
No retainer required, and no obligation to continue. You keep the findings, the action plan, and the completed fix either way.
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Founder Operating Advisory
Starting at $3,500/month
For founders who need an experienced operator helping them make the hard decisions, strengthen their leadership team, and keep important operating changes moving—without hiring a full-time COO.
- Two monthly founder operating sessions
- One monthly leadership-team session
- Defined async decision support
- Review of priority decisions and plans
- One active operating priority at a time
- A monthly progress and accountability summary
Three-month initial commitment. The emphasis is decision support and operating design—not day-to-day project management.
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Embedded Fractional COO
Starting at $6,000/month
For companies that need someone taking hands-on ownership through a defined growth or operating inflection point, not only advising on it.
I step in around a specific outcome, such as a GTM transition, leadership gap, organizational redesign, or broken customer journey, with clear authority, scope, and an end state—then hand it to your team.
Available for a limited number of companies. Three-month minimum.
How this usually goesFounder Bottleneck Audit → Founder Operating Advisory or Embedded Fractional COO. Most founders start with the audit. Some stop there, and that's a fine place to stop.
Not sure which one you need? Start with a fit conversation. We'll figure it out together.
Talk through your bottleneckHow it works.
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Step 01
We talk first.
A real conversation. Not a sales ambush in a cardigan.
You tell me what's happening. I ask questions. We figure out if this is the right kind of problem for me to help solve. -
Step 02
I find the actual bottleneck.
Not just the loudest problem.
I look at how decisions get made, where work slows down, what your team keeps waiting on, and what you're still holding that someone else should own. -
Step 03
We design the right intervention.
Once we know what is creating the problem, we decide what needs to change first.
That might be clearer ownership, a better decision process, a redesigned handoff, or a new operating rhythm. I help build the first version with your team so it works in reality, not just on paper. -
Step 04
Your team learns to own it.
The goal is not dependency.
We create the clarity, capability, and accountability your team needs to keep moving without you, or me, in every room.
That's how I know it worked.
Which one you need
Fractional COO or operating advisor?
Same operator, different level of ownership. The question is whether your team needs better decisions or someone actually holding the work.
Operating advisor
Founder Operating Advisory · from $3,500/mo
- Who owns execution
- Your team does. I help you make the hard calls and keep the changes moving.
- Best when
- Your leadership team can execute, but decisions, priorities, and ownership keep stalling.
- What it looks like
- Two founder operating sessions and one leadership-team session a month, plus defined async decision support.
- Commitment
- Three-month initial commitment.
Fractional COO
Embedded Fractional COO · from $6,000/mo
- Who owns execution
- I do, for a defined outcome, with clear authority and an end state.
- Best when
- A growth or operating inflection point needs hands-on ownership and nobody internally can take it.
- What it looks like
- Embedded work on a specific outcome—a GTM transition, leadership gap, org redesign, or broken customer journey—then a handoff to your team.
- Commitment
- Three-month minimum. Limited number of companies.
Still not obvious? That's normal, and it's the point of starting with the Founder Bottleneck Audit, a two-week startup operations audit. The diagnosis tells us which one the company actually needs.
Operating results
What this work has produced.
A few outcomes from my fractional COO and operating advisory engagements. Specifics, not adjectives.
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18 → 6 days
Reduced client onboarding time from 18 days to 6 days while maintaining 100% net revenue retention.
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$30,480
Identified $30,480 in annual recurring revenue that was not being collected because of invoicing and handoff breakdowns.
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90%
Reduced outstanding client balances by 90% after moving more than 140 accounts to Stripe.
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Investor-ready
Built investor-ready data rooms that gave leadership a complete source of truth.
Proof
In their words.
We've made HUGE progress, and I now have a much clearer path forward, even with all that's still left to do. Thank you for all that you have done.
Meredith ManakFounder, Unit 387 Katie is the prototype for a superb chief of operations. She is a great leader and knows the value of teamwork, innovation and utilization of techniques that will better prepare a program for success.
Tom AhrensFounder, Viven Health & NovEx There isn't a challenge you'll share with Katie that she won't dedicate her energy and thoughtfulness to. She has been a loyal, hard-working partner who first sought to understand my business by listening closely, then customizing solutions to my unique needs. Katie is someone you want in your corner.
Julie LaytonFounder, Generous Helping I found her to not only be responsive to requests from our ownership team, but also proactive in her quests to make us more productive. She is self-motivated and always hunting for ways to help. And on top of all that, she is a delight to be around.
Dan JuliusPartner, Stock Legal
About Katie
I see the pattern before I prescribe the process.
I have spent 15 years inside growing companies as a Head of Operations, Director of Operations, Chief of Staff, and fractional COO. My work spans B2B SaaS, cross-functional execution, Customer Success, revenue operations, team structure, ownership, client onboarding, financial operations, and the systems required to scale beyond the founder.
That range lets me see connections that are easy to miss when everyone is focused on their own function.
I'm often brought in because onboarding is breaking, decisions are slow, or the founder cannot get out of the weeds. My first job is to determine why.
I listen to the team, trace how work and information actually move, and identify the human and operating patterns creating the problem. Then we build the simplest intervention the company can actually sustain.
I'm not interested in installing impressive-looking processes for their own sake. I want your team to think more clearly, own more confidently, and stop needing you, or me, in every room.
Rise & Optimize is my operating advisory and fractional COO practice, based in St. Louis and working with B2B SaaS companies across the US. I also write Systems & Side Eyes, a Substack about startup operations and founder psychology.
When I'm not embedded in someone's chaos, you'll find me at a live show, trying a new restaurant, or wrangling a toddler and a dog with my husband in St. Louis. (The dog is easier.)
Questions
What founders ask before hiring a fractional COO.
- What does a fractional COO actually do?
- A fractional COO carries operating responsibility part-time instead of as a full-time executive. In my work that means looking at how decisions get made, where work slows down, who owns what, and how cross-functional handoffs break—then taking ownership of the operating changes that fix it alongside your team.
- How much does a fractional COO cost?
- My engagements start at $2,500 for the two-week Founder Bottleneck Audit, $3,500 per month for Founder Operating Advisory with a three-month initial commitment, and $6,000 per month for an Embedded Fractional COO engagement with a three-month minimum. Full detail on the Founder Bottleneck Audit, or all three engagements.
- Do I need a fractional COO or an operating advisor?
- If your leadership team can execute but decisions, priorities, and ownership keep stalling, you need an operating advisor. If a growth or operating inflection point needs someone with clear authority taking hands-on ownership, you need a fractional COO. There's a side-by-side in fractional COO or operating advisor, though most founders start with the audit and decide from there.
- Do you work with companies outside B2B SaaS?
- My focus is B2B SaaS, but founder bottlenecks are not SaaS-specific. I've done this work with professional services and consumer businesses as well.
- What size company do you work with?
- Companies past the duct-tape phase with real revenue and a small leadership team, where the founder is still functioning as the operating system. That's usually where an operational assessment pays for itself fastest.
Let's talk
Ready to find out why everything keeps coming back to you?
Tell me what keeps getting stuck, repeated, or escalated. We'll figure out whether the Founder Bottleneck Audit is the right place to start.
Not ready to schedule? Send me the short version.
She has been a loyal, hard-working partner who first sought to understand my business by listening closely, then customizing solutions to my unique needs. Katie is someone you want in your corner.