Most operations don't break.
They quietly cap your growth.
The Ops Engine is the operating partner behind founder-led businesses doing £2m–£30m. We build the systems, processes and team that take you from "doing everything ourselves" to a business that actually runs.
Operators Behind
The Moment You're In
You're probably here because one of these sounds familiar.
Revenue's growing. Margins are slipping.
You've cracked product-market fit. But cash, COGS and overheads have crept up faster than the top line. You can feel the leak — you can't pinpoint where it is.
You're the bottleneck for half the business.
Hiring, supplier issues, finance approvals, ops fires — they all land on you. You can't lift your head to grow because the day-to-day won't run without you.
You need a COO. You can't justify the cost yet.
A senior ops hire is £180k+ before equity, and you'd still spend six months teaching them your business. You need the output now, not next year.
How We're Different
We don't write decks. We don't sit in your meetings. We build the operating engine your business runs on.
Most options leave you doing the work yourself. Consultants diagnose and disappear. Fractional COOs are stretched across five clients. We're a different shape.
Senior oversight
A 15-year operator leads every engagement — not an account manager, not a junior. You get the same brain across strategy and execution.
Specialist execution
The right operator on the right problem — supply chain, systems, finance, automation — drawn from a vetted European network. No fixed team you outgrow.
One point of contact
You don't manage a team of suppliers. You manage one relationship. We manage everything underneath it, end to end.
| Consultancy | Fractional COO | The Ops Engine | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diagnoses problems | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Builds the systems | ✗ | partial | ✓ |
| Runs them with you | ✗ | limited | ✓ |
| Specialist depth across ops | one PoV | ✗ | ✓ |
| Hands back when done | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| No long-term lock-in | ✗ | 3-6 mo min | ✓ |
The Work
What an operating engine looks like in practice.
Three engagements from the last 18 months. Different sectors, same shape — find the leak, build the system, hand it back.
Global personal-growth brand stuck on shrinking margins.
Sustainable oral care brand at the edge of production capacity.
Fragmented tooling stack blocking finance and reporting.
"We were stretched by our own success. The Ops Engine helped us quickly unlock capacity, put people in place, and strengthen our sustainability practices."
Mark Rushmore · Co-Founder, SURI"We were scaling fast but our ops couldn't keep up. The Ops Engine rebuilt our operational backbone in one quarter — six-figure savings."
Alex Ikonn · Founder & CEO, Intelligent ChangeBuilt By An Operator
Farah Cohen
Founder & Operating Partner
Not a consultancy. An operator who got tired of watching founders pick between bad options.
I'm Farah Cohen. Fifteen years as COO and CSO inside scaling consumer and tech businesses — Soho House, Ocean Bottle, and others I can't name in marketing copy.
Every founder I met had the same problem and the same three options: a £180k COO they couldn't afford, a consultancy that left a deck, or a fractional who showed up to one meeting a week. None of them actually built anything.
The Ops Engine is what I wished existed when I was the operator inside those companies.
15+
years as COO/CSO
£500m+
operations under management
40+
scaling brands advised
Fit
This works best when you are...
We work with a small number of clients at any one time. Honest about who we're not for.
A good fit
Probably not a fit
The Process
Three steps. No surprises.
Free Ops Diagnostic
45 minutes. We walk through your current operations, surface where the leaks are, and tell you whether we're the right partner. Useful even if we never work together.
Engagement scope
Fixed monthly retainer from £2.5k. Clear scope, clear outcomes, monthly steering call, always-on async. No long lock-in. Cancel any time.
Build, run, hand back
Most engagements run 6–18 months. The goal is to leave you with an operating engine that runs without us — not to embed forever.
Pricing
Transparent. No setup fees. No lock-in.
- Senior operator leading your engagement
- Specialist network on tap (supply chain, systems, finance, automation)
- Monthly steering call + always-on async
- Quarterly operating review with the leadership team
- No setup fees. No long lock-in. Cancel any time.
Larger engagements scoped on intensity. Most clients land between £2.5k–£12k/month.
Honest Answers
Questions founders actually ask.
The Engine Room
Field notes from inside scaling businesses.
When Ops Breaks
· 6 MIN READ
Operations break three times. Here's when.
The three predictable inflection points where founder-led ops stop working — and what to put in place before each one hits.
Read the article →Case Study
· 9 MIN READ
Inside Gousto: how strong operations saved the business.
A breakdown of what Gousto's ops team did during their hardest year, and what early-stage founders can lift from it.
Read the article →Market Signal
· 4 MIN READ
Cash is tight again. What 2026 funding signals mean for ops.
What the fundraising slowdown means for operating discipline — and the three things every founder should be doing this quarter.
Read the article →If your ops aren't keeping up with your ambition, let's talk.
45 minutes. Free. You'll leave with a clear view of what's blocking growth — even if we never work together.
Book your diagnostic Or email farah@the-ops-engine.com