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From Firefighting to Flywheels: The Tactical Playbook for Fractional Operators
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Are you stuck in firefighter mode instead of scaling like a CEO?
In this episode of Operator Revolution, Jason Carvalho (Founder, HUMANUS.VC) and Clint Overton (Founder, Boardroom Bullpen) unpack the tactical frameworks fractional operators use to turn chaos into clarity.
Whether you're a founder overwhelmed by recurring bottlenecks or a fractional leader trying to design repeatable systems, this episode gives you a battle-tested playbook to build flywheels that scale.
🎯 In This Episode:
- The difference between visible leadership and invisible ops horsepower
- How to move from reactive firefighting to proactive operating cadence
- What “operational debt” really is — and why it silently kills momentum
- The 30-60-90 day playbook for any incoming fractional or interim executive
- The truth about decision trees, triage frameworks, and removing emotional bias from execution
- How to build a trust-based feedback loop that unlocks performance without micromanagement
- The case for hiring complementary operators — not clones of the founder
🧠 Key Takeaways:
- Founders don’t fail from a lack of ideas—they fail from a lack of stability.
- “Trust and verify” only works when paired with data-driven accountability.
- Great companies win because of unseen operational structure, not heroic firefighting.
🔗 Resources & Mentions:
- 🎯 Episode on Right People, Right Seats [linked in show notes]
- 💻 Tools mentioned: 90.io, Notion dashboards, Google Sheets for KPI tracking
- 🧠 Books and Models: Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold, Decision Tree Analysis for Ops
👥 Who This Episode Is For:
- Founders scaling from $0–$10M
- Fractional COOs and interim executives
- Private equity operating partners
- HR, RevOps, and product leaders building internal infrastructure
🔍 SEO Tags:
fractional COO, operator playbook, startup scaling, firefighting vs flywheel, operational cadence, vivid vision, decision trees, KPI dashboards, operational debt, startup team design, founder delegation, interim leadership, startup chaos, execution strategy, Jason Carvalho, Clint Overton
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