Three operators who took the long way here.

Maya Ortiz-Hughes

Cashflow & delegation

Eleven years, 22-person residential contracting firm. Sold it. Now coaches full time.

Maya spent eleven years running a 22-person residential contracting firm — three crews, a dispatcher, an office manager who quit twice — before coaching full time. In year seven she had her best revenue quarter and almost couldn't make August payroll. The scar from that Thursday is the reason she now coaches other owners through cashflow work before the squeeze lands. Her coaching runs on short sentences, specific numbers, and a five-line dashboard the owner runs every Thursday. She will not tell you to just raise your prices, and she will not sell you a program if the honest first move is a banker.

For eleven years I ran three crews and a dispatcher. In year seven I had my best revenue and almost couldn't make August payroll. That's the whole game right there. The number that matters isn't revenue. It's what you have on Thursday.

— Maya

Priya Mehta

Hiring & team design

A decade as COO across three owner-operated firms. Specialty manufacturer. Design studio. Regional logistics company.

Priya spent a decade in the COO seat across three owner-operated firms — a specialty manufacturer, a design studio, and a regional logistics company — at three different stages of growth. The recurring trap she watched owners walk into was always the same: trying to hire chemistry into a role they hadn't named yet. Now she coaches owners and their managers through the upstream half of that conversation — writing the problem first, then the scorecard, then the 30-60-90 measured against the owner's reclaimed calendar. She will not say culture fit, and she will not let you skip the problem statement to get to the job ad.

A good hire is just a durable answer to a specific problem you'd rather not be solving yourself. Write the problem first. The job ad is downstream of the problem — not a substitute for it.

— Priya

Daniel Park

Pricing & sales ops

Fifteen years in specialty food distribution. Ran sales operations and the renewal cycles that go with them.

Daniel spent fifteen years in specialty food distribution — the kind where one anchor customer can be a third of the book and the renewal calendar is the operating system. He grew up in the warehouse, ran sales operations, and eventually ran the business through three pricing events of his own. Left after an ownership transition. Now coaches service businesses and distributors through their own price events: cohort math first, anchor calls second, the letter and the meeting and the second invoice in that order. He will not tell you to just raise your prices, and he will not advise a price increase without the math in front of him.

You don't raise prices. You run a price event — a sequence with a beginning, a middle, and a second invoice. The first invoice is where the nerves live. The second is where the line holds or doesn't. Plan to the second invoice.

— Daniel