VP People · Chief of Staff · GM
Trusted partner to CEOs, Founders and Investors
What I Do
DIAGNOSIS | DESIGN | EXECUTION
Most companies are still running on an internal operating system built for conditions that no longer exist.
The way organizations need to work has changed, and the ones that will move fastest are those designed to be dynamic in every aspect. I work at the intersection of strategy, people, and operations, designing systems that keep teams aligned and decisions moving faster. Ensuring your operating model and people systems are designed to work together.
I work with Founders and CEOs of scaling companies to diagnose, design, and build the internal operating system for where you need to go, not for where you've been. One that can run on signal, not the calendar, and is built to support your fast-moving business.
What People Say About Me
"I brought Lou onto our executive team at GetLabs right after our Series B. We were scaling a frontline healthcare workforce nationally with almost nothing in place from a people infrastructure standpoint. She came in, assessed our needs, and built it from scratch in three months across 20+ states to support 500+ frontline workers. She understands the business, not HR in isolation, and how the operating model needs to work as a whole. In a moment of real complexity and speed, she made both things easier."
David Mayer
Co-Founder at Gateway Health
"I worked closely with Lou at Headspace, where she moved across nearly every executive function. Lou sees how each part of the business affects the others, which is why founders navigating scale tend to trust her quickly. She has a rare ability to identify the real constraint within a scaling organization, clarify it, and implement changes that materially improve execution without introducing bureaucracy. She brings independent thinking and judgment, and she sees the problems you haven't named yet."
Amanda Margott
Sam Rogoway
Google Workspace | Ex-Linktree CPO | Ex-Headspace CPO | 2x Exited Founder
"Lou joined our executive team as VP People and ended up running People, Customer Support, Sales Ops, Marketing, and four acquisitions. That's not how I planned it. It happened because every time I gave her something hard, she figured it out and made it look straightforward. Lou is the person who can see what is actually happening and tell you what needs to change. I would hire Lou onto any team I was building."
Tony Lui
Co-Founder and CEO at JobGet | Forbes 30u30 | Henry Crown Fellow
Why Hire Me
My depth is in People, my breadth is in Operations.
I am an operator by background. I have been VP People, VP Operations, Chief of Staff, and General Manager inside high-growth start-ups. I have stepped into interim executive leadership across Marketing, Content Production, Engineering, Customer Support, and Sales Operations. That breadth is what allows me to design systems that work for the whole organization.
I do not come with a playbook; I am genuinely suspicious of playbooks applied to systems as context-dependent as organizations. I bring deep experience and first-principles thinking. What I do differently is start with the system, not the symptom. What typically looks like a people problem is often the internal operating system, not supporting how you need to work.
How direction gets set, how decisions get made and owned, how performance is measured, how roles and compensation really work. In most companies, none of this was designed as a system. It accumulated, built at different moments for different problems, by different people, and was never redesigned as a whole. Most of the current structures were not adopted because they drive performance; they were adopted because they confer legitimacy.
The companies being built today do not have the coordination overhead you do. They do not have your approval layers, your calendar-driven reviews, or your quarterly planning cycles. If you are still running those systems, you are not competing on the same terms. The way you work has to change.
Before you hire someone else into a system that cannot support even your best people, fix the system. That is what I do.
The Internal Operating System
Signal is your speed advantage.
Most companies have an operating system they never intentionally designed. The Internal Operating System is the deliberate version. It gives you a clear foundation for how direction gets set, a flexible architecture for how work gets done, and an intelligence layer that tells you in real time what is having an impact and what is not. Built together, it enables a scaling company to become dynamic, make faster decisions, and move at the speed of the competition.
How To Work With Me
I work at the intersection of strategy, people, and operations, designing how the company actually runs so teams stay aligned and decisions move faster.
INTERIM LEADER
Full-time leadership, right when you need it.
What it looks like:
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Step into an Executive role (People/Ops/GM/Chief of Staff) full-time for a defined period.
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Own a function or cross-functional problem end-to-end.
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Drive execution while building the underlying system
Best for:
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Leadership gaps or transitions
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Post acquisition or org reset
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Growth is creating drag
FRACTIONAL
Ongoing senior partnership without full-time overhead.
What it looks like:
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Embed with your leadership team in a defined, part-time capacity.
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Diagnose & design internal operating and performance systems
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Coach leaders while building the system so it runs without me
Best for:
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Scaling companies that want to avoid over-hiring too early
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Growth is increasing complexity, but not clarity
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System upgrade without the full-time headcount cost
ADVISORY
The right intervention, at the right moment.
What it looks like:
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Diagnose where things are breaking
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Design the solution
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Partner with your team to implement the critical parts of the system
Best for:
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A specific challenge needs outside expertise
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An organizational problem with a defined scope
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An existing executive needs a thinking partner through a critical moment