Ep 51 - The Role of the Modern COO with Leaders from GitBook, Double Finn, and formerly CB Insights

In this episode, our panel of seasoned leaders from GitBook, Double Finn, and formerly CB Insights, sit down to discuss the role of the modern COO in fast-growing companies. They share their stories and advice on career mapping, team management, to executing organizational change. Whether you're an aspiring COO or simply interested in the inner workings and nuances of a fast-growing organization, you'll find plenty of valuable insights in this episode. 

Here’s What We Discussed

• [01:43] The Panelists Share How Their Specific Roles Differ From Other C-Level Executives
• [10:38] Career Advice: How to map your career path to COO
• [16:53] Frameworks and strategies for effectively managing a large team
• [23:03] Finding your number two: Key traits to look for in a COO or Exec
• [31:29] Strategizing organizational change: How a new COO should approach the first 30-60-90 days
• [37:53] Strategies for balancing short-term and long-term organizational goals 
• [44:04] How has the role of COO evolved over the years? 

About Our Speakers

Ha is an experienced operator at large technology businesses with a passion for helping SMBs scale up. He is currently COO at Doublefin, an HR tech company, where he leads the company's go-to-market efforts. Prior to Doublefin, Ha advised PE-backed B2B and B2C companies. Ha spent a decade leading partnerships and product teams at Walmart e-Commerce, Yahoo, and Google.

Sara has spent the majority of her career in the startup world, after starting out in finance. As the former COO of Framer, she helped the design tool startup scale both ARR growth and the company from Seed to Series B. As the current COO of GitBook, Sara is passionate about building efficient and impactful teams, developer tooling, and sustainable growth engines.

Fabio has held multiple entrepreneurial executive positions in several companies, with a proven track-record in creating impact, delivering results, and building strong teams and organizations. He was previously the COO at CB Insights and held multiple C-Level positions at Gympass. Before that, he was a Senior Management Associate at Bridgewater Associates, CFO at TG Agroindustrial (portfolio company from Angra Partners where he also did private equity investing), and worked in Investment Banking at Itau-Unibanco Fabio currently holds multiple board positions and advises and mentors several startup companies globally. He holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School (Class of 2013) and a Bachelor of Economics degree from Unicamp in Brazil

Quotes

“For COOs and CEOs that are great partners, You don't look at it as just one functional responsibility; You're trying to weave together everybody that's necessary to accomplish a particular objective.” –  Ha Ly 

“As a COO every time there's an element that I am confused about, that confusion is going to multiply down the line.” – Fabio Salim  

“So that is key; Can they actually understand the full scope and know where to spend their time? Being COO is so cross-functional, it's really across the entire business, and there are only so many hours in a day. You can't possibly move everything forward at all times. So a strong ability to prioritize is a big one." – Sara Tandowsky

“I look for a good ability to think and build systems. Someone who can look into a particular reality, synthesize that reality, almost define it, and then refine it in a way that others can execute.” – Fabio Salim  

“If you don't know the answer, find someone who does. Find someone who can share expertise. M