​Your company is growing, and somewhere along the way things got harder than they should be. Decisions pile up on one desk, and the founder has quietly become the bottleneck.

​Most founders eventually ask the same question - do I need operations? - and the honest answer is sometimes no. Sometimes what you actually need is sales, product, finance, better systems, or just more discipline. Knowing the difference is the whole game, and it's what this event is about.

​You'll be in a room with people facing the same call you are:

• ​founders weighing the decision right now

• ​founders who've already made it (some well, some not)

• ​operations leaders who've watched it play out across plenty of early-stage companies.

​Together we'll unpack one of the most misunderstood decisions in company building.

​By the end of the session, you'll:

​🔍 Read the bottleneck signals that tell you whether it's an ops gap or something else

​🧱 Work out whether ops is genuinely the right next hire - or whether you're being hired to paper over a different problem

​⚖️ Understand fractional vs first full-timer, and which fits where the company actually is

​🛠️ Get sharper on what great operations leaders actually do (and what they don't)

​✅ Leave with a clearer read on timing: hire now, wait, or solve it another way

​What to expect:

​A panel conversation and live Q&A, then small-group discussions on the question you walked in with. Not a lecture, not a pitch.

​The room is roughly half early-stage founders, half operations leaders - the people weighing the hire and the people who'd fill it, in the same conversation for once.

​Join us if you're…

​✅ An early-stage founder feeling the strain of scaling and weighing whether ops is the answer
✅ Close to your next key hire and want to pressure-test it before you commit
✅ An operations leader or fractional who wants a sharper read on when you're genuinely the right call - and when you're walking into someone else's unsolved problem

​You're unlikely to benefit if you're…

​❌ At a later stage with an established ops function already running well
❌ Not close to a hiring decision and not in the business of advising people who are

​Agenda

​6:00-6:45 PM - arrivals & guided connection
6:45-7:40 PM - panel discussion & audience Q&A
7:40-8:20 PM - small-group discussions
8:20-9:00 PM - guided connection & drinks

​Meet the panel 👋

​Milly Barker - Co-Founder of Pay As You Go COO

​Co-Founder of Pay As You Go COO, a strategy and operations consultancy that helps early-stage companies build the foundations to scale.

​Over the past two years, Milly and her team have supported 450+ startups and scaleups and helped raise over £100m in venture funding.

​An experienced fractional COO with an MBA from Imperial College London and two decades across strategy and operations, she works hands-on with founders to set priorities, build systems, and grow sustainably - and is a vocal advocate for startups led by minority founders. Milly is also an Expert-in-Residence at the Imperial College Enterprise Lab.

​Kelsey Traher - Partner at Ventures Together

​Operating Partner at Ventures Together and a multi-time COO of VC-backed tech businesses, including Marvel App, Ballpark, and Lantum.

​Across more than a decade in operations leadership, Kelsey has been the senior ops hire founders agonise over - which makes her well-placed to moderate exactly this conversation.

​She's also Co-Founder of COO Stories (part of Operations Nation) and now founder of Kelsey Traher Coaching, where she helps senior tech leaders land their next role.

​Kabir Bali - Co-Founder at Jumpstart

​Kabir Bali is the co-founder of Jumpstart, a UK-based graduate and career program designed to place top-tier talent into fast-growing startups. He co-founded the company in 2020 alongside Matthew Sarre with the goal of providing a "Teach First" equivalent for the startup sector.

​Milly, Kelsey and Kabir alone make this a conversation worth showing up for! But we'll be announcing one more speaker soon.

​Thanks to our event sponsors!

​Pay As You Go COO supports early-stage companies with strategic and operational challenges. It offers consulting and accessible content to develop core business skills. Services include single sessions for immediate needs and packages for sustained growth.

​Jumpstart connects ambitious junior to senior level talent with high growth startups. They have placed 1,000+ candidates into startups, work closely with London’s leading VCs across their portfolios, and build the startup community through initiatives like the world’s largest startup 5k run.

​Work.Life is flexible workspace that takes the hard work out of working happy. B Corp certified workspaces designed for startups, SMEs and growing teams who need a place to come together. Choose from private offices for teams of 1-40 with flexible terms from 3 months, or coworking memberships available from just 1 month.