Fractional COO and CMO leadership for founders and leadership teams. One leader who can bridge the gap between commercial and operational functions, with board-level experience as both COO and CMO. Embedded as fractional senior capability, flexing to the specific needs of the business and working alongside the existing team.
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Hine & Partners builds commercial and operational foundations that scale. The practice is led by Lauren Hine, a fractional COO and CMO who embeds inside founder-led businesses to:
Founders, CEOs and leadership teams of startups, scale-ups and SMEs — typically post-product and approaching or past Series A — who need senior operational and commercial capability without the cost or commitment of two full-time C-suite hires.
Engagements work best when the founder is ready to delegate real authority and wants a partner who will challenge as much as deliver.
Embedded inside the business two to three days per week as a fractional COO and CMO. Lauren operates as a member of the leadership team: owning outcomes, running cadences, hiring, restructuring, and shipping the work — not just advising on it. Typical engagements run for six to twelve months.
Fixed-scope diagnostics and ongoing coaching for founders and leadership teams. Used when a business needs senior judgement on a specific question — a go-to-market reset, a pricing change, an org redesign, fundraising readiness — without a full embedded engagement.
Bespoke workshops and programmes on scaling, go-to-market, investment readiness and practical AI adoption. Delivered to founder cohorts and in-house leadership teams. Recent clients include the Royal Academy of Management of Oman.
Most fractional leaders are specialists: a COO who improves operations, or a CMO who improves marketing. The handover between the two is where value typically leaks — pipeline that operations can't fulfil, cost structures that don't match the commercial model, reporting that doesn't tie spend to revenue.
Hine & Partners removes that gap. One leader holds both remits, so operational design and commercial strategy are built together. The best commercial outcomes come from getting the operational foundations right first; when those two functions are tightly connected, everything works better.
"Lauren is one of the most versatile people I've had the pleasure of working with. She stepped seamlessly between CMO and COO responsibilities, bringing genuine expertise to both. You have someone who makes the whole team better. I'd recommend her without hesitation." — Rick Curtis, Founder at DiO
Lauren Hine is a three-time founder who started building businesses at 23, raised investment and grew her own SaaS company. She then spent four years at Techstars, scaling its global startup community across 125 countries and restructuring entities in emerging markets. From there she moved into board-level leadership as COO and CMO, running operations and go-to-market for a 1,500-person, £150m consultancy across the UK, Netherlands and US. Alongside Hine & Partners she teaches scaling, GTM and investment readiness to founders.
The first step is always a conversation about where the business is and what would make the biggest difference.