operational leadershipsecond chair
Chief of Staff  ·  CoS-to-COO Operator  ·  Austin, TX · Remote
The question every growing company faces

Are you ready for a traditional COO?Or do you need something else first?

A traditional COO defines what needs to be built — but won't have the team to execute it. Second Chair does both: strategic partner at the leadership level, hands-on operator building what your company needs right now.

Together we decide what scaling looks like — whether that's stepping into the COO seat or ensuring a clean handoff to whoever comes next.

Let's talkSee the framework
"In an orchestra, the second chair isn't junior — they know the full score, hold the ensemble together, and are ready to step forward when the moment comes."
The operational gap
Two tracks. Every company has to run both.
Your Focus
Product & innovation
Customers & revenue
Market position & IP
Fundraising & investor relations
Our Build
Rhythm of business & operating cadence
Goals, OKRs & performance tracking
People ops & org design
Process, tooling & coordination
Eight domains — your operating foundation
Assessed on day one. Built in the order that matters most.
01
Org Architecture
Design & Rights: Roles, reporting lines, and clean decision ownership.
02
Rhythm of Business
Meeting Cadence: Executive alignment and efficient operational loops.
03
Goals & Performance
Strategy to Execution: Building and tracking OKRs and KPIs.
04
Business Operations
Cross-Functional Flow: Eliminating silos and automating friction points.
05
Financial Operations
Guardrails: Managing budget tracking, burn rate, and baseline forecasting.
06
People Operations
Culture & Hiring: Onboarding frameworks and team-building foundations.
07
Tooling & Systems
The Tech Stack: Software consolidation, tool alignment, and early AI integration.
08
Strategic Projects
Founder Leverage: Board meeting prep, special initiatives, and fundraising readiness.
How Second Chair works
We adapt to your company
Framework is a starting point — we diagnose what's needed at your stage. No two engagements look the same.
We move at startup speed
15+ years as CoS at Fannie Mae, First Citizens, and Hitachi. Enterprise rigor without the bureaucracy.
We build what lasts
Everything documented as we go — so the COO you bring in inherits a foundation, not a blank slate.
The first 24 months
Days 1–90
Diagnostic & Foundation
360° operational audit across all 8 domains, delivery of a prioritized roadmap. Implementation of core Rhythm of Business (ROB), initial OKR cycles, and organizational guardrails.
Months 3–18
Operate & Iterate
Actively manage the operating layer. Optimize tech stacks, fully document SOPs.
Months 18–24
Scale & Transition
Evaluate scaling metrics. Transition to a permanent COO seat, or execute a seamless handoff.
Background
I've spent 15+ years translating vision into operational infrastructure — from standing up Rhythm of Business frameworks to building AI governance from scratch. Now I bring that enterprise rigor to growing companies as a CoS-to-COO operator, arriving with a proven eight-domain framework ready to deploy from day one.
About me →
If any of this resonates — let's talk.
oy.saibuaro@secondchair.consultinglinkedin.com/in/oysaibuaro703-258-2961Austin, TX · Remote