ForwardShare

ForwardShare

Network

Where expert operators take the seat.

The ForwardShare Network is a tightly curated group of Expert Operators (XOs) who have designed, built and shipped solutions. Our XOs are here to collaborate on your venture.

Explore our XOs Apply to Join the XO Network
ForwardShare Expert Operators working with a venture team
An Expert Operator working alongside a venture team

Senior Leadership Without the Seat on the Payroll

Not chief anything. Expert operators who take a seat, own an outcome, and leave when it’s done.

Hiring a full C-suite too early is one of the most expensive mistakes an early venture can make. High caliber, experienced leaders are expensive and become huge commitments and risks.

ForwardShare XOs bring the expertise those senior roles need, at a fraction of the commitment. Plus, you can access the XOs in short and mid-term windows that align to your needs for the stage of the venture.

ForwardShare XOs have been there before and are ready to step in immediately. They also are laser focused on mutually-defined outcomes that measure impact and success.

Leadership Across the Board

Elite. Accomplished. Entrepreneurial.

ForwardShare XOs have been vetted and proven to deliver results. Every XO has delivered transformative value in their own venture or industry.

In most cases, our XO talent would be unattainable for an early-stage venture. We focus on individuals with verified outcomes, not just well-known logos they have accumulated. With the ForwardShare Network, you have access to the people who’ve actually done it without the overhead.

Product
Leadership

Technology
Leadership

Go-To-Market
Leadership

Sales
Leadership

Growth
Leadership

Design
Leadership

The Goldilocks Role

Expert Operators fill roles that are the right size for early-stage ventures. Their role and impact are not too little. Not too much. Just right.

How an Expert Operator compares with a full-time hire and a consultant
Too Big Just Right Too Small
Full-time Hire Expert Operator Consultant
Time to start 3 months + 1-2 weeks 1-2 weeks
Commitment Full time, open-ended 1-2 days / week Project length
Cost shape Salary, equity, benefits Monthly fee, equity Project fee
Owns the outcome Yes Yes Advises on it
Best when The role is permanent You need the judgment,
not the headcount		 The question is bounded

Meet our Expert Operators

Meet our Experts

Questions we get:

A fractional executive is a senior leader who works part time inside a company, usually one or two days a week, in a defined role with ownership attached. It’s how a company gets a CMO’s judgment without a CMO’s salary line. Engagements typically run three to twelve months. We call these people Expert Operators because what matters is the seat they take and the outcome attached to it rather than the fraction of the week they are there.

Answer a different question first: what does this person have to do in the next ninety days? Making decisions and managing a team are different jobs. Decisions need presence, context and authority, which doesn’t require forty hours a week. Managing a team needs continuity and trust built over months, which part-time usually can’t give you. Companies that pick the structure before the objective end up blaming the model for a mismatch they created.

Applications are scored on what somebody has owned rather than advised on, weighted toward depth in a domain and outcomes with numbers against them. The team reviews the scores, and the bar moves with what the network already covers. We’ve had more than a thousand conversations with expert operators. Just over two hundred are in.

It depends on the function and who’s available. We’ll give you a realistic window on the first call rather than a number that fits nobody.

A marketplace optimizes for the number of listings. We optimize for the quality of one introduction. The network is curated, every person in it has been scored against what they’ve owned, and we stay on the hook if a match isn’t working.

If a match isn’t working, that’s ours to fix – tell us early and we’ll work it out with you. We stay involved after the introduction rather than treating placement as the finish line, and a match that isn’t working is our problem to fix. Most engagements start with a short initial period so both sides can back out cleanly.

Yes, and it happens. People in the Network get matched into venture partner seats in Studio companies, and some go on to cofound. Expert operators and venture partners aren’t two populations here. They’re the same people at two stages.

ForwardShare Expert Operators

Find your XO.

You can book a call with a ForwardShare Studio partner to learn more about how we work. We’d love to hear what you know about your industry and what you’d build to fix it. You don’t need a deck. We just want to hear from you.

Get in touch

The MindShare Letter

MindShare is our hub for sharing the learnings and insights we uncover as we explore new ventures. The MindShare Letter collects the latest findings and delivers them exclusively to your inbox.