DAB Hands

For Growth-Stage Businesses · Fractional COO

Most growing businesses have never had to write down how they run.

I help you build the operating system, then keep it honest and working for you.

Start a conversationSee what I learned

The growth is real. So is the strain.

Revenue is up. The team is bigger. Customers keep arriving. The opportunities keep coming.

The challenge is not finding the next one. It is building a business that can keep pace with the one you have already created.

Success did not make it simpler. It made it heavier.

The question is no longer what you could do;
it’s what you should do.

Early on, saying yes to everything is the strategy. It works; that’s why you’re here. But as the business grows, saying yes to everything starts holding it back, and no one decides what to stop.

Ask five people what the year is for, and you’ll get five reasonable answers. There’s no single thrust, and no scorecard anyone uses to run the week.

It won’t break. It will just stop being able to take on anything new, and that’s much harder to spot.

Darren Brett

I create the operating system and keep it true.

Growing my own business showed me how quickly success breeds complexity and outdates plans.

Start with the essentials: business goals, key objectives, upcoming initiatives, and a clear performance scorecard.

Over time, systems decline, new people join, old data lingers, decisions centralise, and no one questions whether the system still works. Someone must keep challenging its relevance.

This approach keeps the business true to itself as it grows; never bogged down in process.

Typical engagements

The situations where growth-stage businesses usually bring me in.

The founder can’t be the operating system anymore.

This works until everything routes through one or two people, because nothing is written down clearly enough to be passed along. I get what’s in their heads into systems the business can run without them in the room.

Enquire

No one can say what this quarter is for.

Plenty is happening, and all of it is defensible, but nothing decides what to stop. I establish the goal, the thrust behind it, and the initiatives that move it, then create a scorecard short enough to review weekly.

Enquire

Investment has arrived, and the business must be ready for it.

A funding round, new investor, acquisition, or a step change in ambition. The money is committed and the clock has started. I put foundations in place before growth becomes expensive to buy.

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Operating Patterns

Building and growing a business taught me that the same patterns emerge at every stage.

These aren’t just startup stories.They’re lessons earned from building a business.

Growth only scales when the operating system scales.

Why it matters

Early growth can hide weak foundations. More clients, more people, and more opportunity don’t automatically make a stronger business; they create more complexity. Sustainable growth comes from building the operating system alongside the business itself.

Where I learned it

As co-founder of Anchor Leg, I helped build the agency from the ground up. Working with my business partner and with guidance from former BBH Global CEO Neil Munn, we clarified our proposition and strategic direction. I then translated that thinking into the operating model, leadership rhythms, ways of working, and delivery discipline that shaped the business day to day. The result wasn’t just growth; it was a business capable of partnering with, and keeping pace with, one of the world’s biggest brands.

In Their Words

“Darren is very good at turning strategy into practical action. He is able to understand at once the purpose of an idea and then creates the practical methods by which an organisation can achieve it.”

Neil MunnFormer Global CEO, BBH

What you can buy

The Business Read

Three weeks: what the business is for, and what to do about it.

The offer

When to buy this

Ambition is real and growth is happening, but the line between them is missing. There’s no agreed thrust, no scorecard to run the week by, and no clear link between what the business says it wants and what it is actually doing this quarter.

What it is

A few weeks establishing that line: what the business is genuinely aiming for, what must be true to get there, what that means for the next few quarters, and what would indicate progress. Then, how to run things week to week, so the plan survives past the offsite.

What you get

A goal you and your team agree on. The thrust behind it. Prioritised initiatives for the next two quarters. And a scorecard short enough that you’ll actually use it.

The honest bits

What I’ll need from you. Conversations with eight to ten people across the business, a look at how the numbers are really run, and half a day with your leadership team to agree the goal.

Who does it? Me. All of it, start to finish. You’ll never be sold by one person and delivered by another.

What happens afterwards? Sometimes I stay a day or two a month to keep things honest. Sometimes you hire the person the read points to. Sometimes your own team runs with it from here. All three are good outcomes.

Book a Business Read

One conversation to scope it. Fixed price and a fixed end date, agreed before we start.

Foundations first.

Then somebody to keep them honest.