Operating models and scaling advisory

Grow past the point where everything runs through you.

I work with founder-led companies to remove what's constraining their growth. That usually means the operating model, the org structure, or how work moves through the business. We agree the changes together, I help implement them, and I coach your leadership team so the company keeps scaling after I've left.

Justin Faber, founder of Novatra
Justin Faber, Founder
Founder bottleneck

Every decision still comes back to you

You've hired good people, but the leadership team can't move without you in the room. Hiring more hasn't helped, because the bottleneck is in how decisions get made. The fix is structural, and it's the work I do most often.

How I'd approach it →
Operations breaking

What worked at 20 people is breaking at 60

Processes are held together by the people who invented them. Nothing is written down, quality depends on who's on shift, and each new hire takes longer than the last to become productive. Left alone, this is what caps growth.

How I'd approach it →
10
Years in consulting and executive leadership
4
Countries I've worked in: the Netherlands, Malaysia, the UAE and the UK
4
Sectors: e-commerce, edtech, foodtech and aviation
100+
People led as COO
Mostly B2B SaaS. Operating and consulting experience at Sana Commerce, Easygenerator, SmartBite and Accenture
Engagements

Start with the diagnostic. What follows depends on what it finds.

Operating Diagnostic

I spend time inside the business, talking to your leadership team and the layer below it, and walking through how work actually moves through the company. You get a written view of what's holding growth back, and what I'd do about it.

Book an intro call
If the diagnostic points to a bigger piece of work, it's usually one of these.
01

Operating Model and Org Design

Roles, decision rights, structure and meeting cadence sized for where the company is heading. I design it with the leadership team who'll be running it. The outcome is a business where decisions get made a level down from you.

02

Scaling Operations

Turning manual, person-dependent processes into repeatable systems: standardisation, automation, and enough reporting to tell whether they're working. This covers how product gets built and shipped.

03

Digital and AI Execution

Modernising the tech stack and putting AI to work in day-to-day operations, including an honest read on where it won't help. I currently run an engineering organisation, so this comes from doing the work.

04

Coaching the Leadership Team

The leaders who take on a new way of working need to think differently for it to hold. I coach them through that while the changes are being made, so the company keeps scaling once I've left.

05

Embedded Leadership

Sometimes the work needs someone inside the business. I take a seat on the leadership team and run it directly, with an end date and a named successor agreed at the start.

Fit

Worth being direct about who this works for.

We should talk if
  • You're roughly 20 to 200 people and still growing.
  • You're a SaaS or software business, which is where most of my work has been.
  • The company is founder-led, and decisions still bottleneck at the top or turn out not to scale.
  • Hiring more people has stopped buying you more output.
  • You want your leadership team owning the way of working after I've gone.
Probably not a fit if
  • You're pre-product-market-fit. Your constraint is the product itself, and no operating model will fix that.
  • You're looking for go-to-market or commercial strategy. That isn't what I do.
How I work

How an engagement runs.

01

Diagnose the constraint

I start inside the business, talking to your leadership team and the layer below it, to establish where growth is actually constrained.

02

Design and build the change

We agree what needs to change, and I stay through implementation.

03

Coach the team that inherits it

The leaders taking this on need to think differently for it to hold. That coaching happens while I'm still in place.

About Justin Faber

I've spent ten years turning manual operations into systems that scale. Five of those were at Accenture as a management consultant, running digital transformation programmes for airlines and coordinating delivery across eight teams. The other five have been as an operating executive: Chief Product Officer at SmartBite in Kuala Lumpur, Chief Operating Officer at Easygenerator, a 250-person B2B SaaS company in Dubai, and currently VP of Engineering (AI) at Sana Commerce in London.

The aim in every engagement is the same: a company that keeps scaling after I've left.

Current engagement: VP of Engineering (AI), Sana Commerce
London-based, working across Europe and beyond
Ex-Accenture management consultant
MSc Supply Chain Management, Rotterdam School of Management

Let's talk.

Tell me where your company is and what's slowing it down. If you can't describe it precisely yet, that's usually a sign there's something worth looking at. I read every message myself and reply within two business days.