What the top 1% actually means
A fractional executive is a senior leader who runs a function for you two or three days a week, as a peer in the leadership room rather than a consultant outside it. The seat is real, the accountability is real, and the person is yours for the days you book.
The top 1% are the ones who have held the seat before, at a company that got through the stage you are at. A CFO who has taken a company from seed to Series B and closed the raise. A CMO who has built the team and the pipeline, not advised on it. A CTO who has shipped, scaled and hired. A COO who has taken a founder off the operations and kept the company running.
That is the whole bar on this bench. Every operator is verified by hand against their LinkedIn and their CV before they go live, every profile publishes the day rate, and nobody appears because they paid to.
The four seats companies hire first
| Seat | When companies come for it | Published band |
|---|---|---|
| Fractional CFO | A raise is coming, the board wants a model, or cash is the question nobody can answer | £800 to £1,500 a day |
| Fractional CMO | Growth has stalled, the agency is spending without a plan, or there is no marketing leadership at all | £700 to £1,300 a day |
| Fractional CTO | The product is outrunning the team, a technical hire keeps failing, or investors want a technical leader in the room | £800 to £1,400 a day |
| Fractional COO | The founder is the bottleneck, delivery is slipping, or the company has grown past its own processes | £700 to £1,300 a day |
Write a brief that gets a yes
Senior operators choose engagements on the quality of the brief. One paragraph, four things: the stage of the company, the outcome you need in the first ninety days, the number of days a week you can fund, and who the person reports to. Anything longer reads as a company that has not decided what it wants.
The outcome matters most. A brief that says close the Series A, build a twelve month model the board trusts, or get us to one release a week is one a strong operator can say yes to in a day. A brief that says help with finance is one they leave for somebody else.
How to have one in the room this month
- Browse the bench by seat, sector and country. Every profile is open, every day rate is published, no account needed.
- Shortlist two or three whose last two roles look like your next two years.
- Send the brief directly from the profile. The operator sees it, accepts or declines, and you are talking within days.
- Agree days per week, the ninety day outcome and the notice period in writing. The engagement is between you and the operator.
- If you would rather somebody ran the search, Operator Search puts three verified operators in front of you against your brief.
UK, US and UAE: what changes and what does not
The seat is the same in London, New York and Dubai. What changes is the contracting and the rate. UK engagements run through the operator's own company and fall under the IR35 rules, US engagements are almost always 1099 contractor arrangements, and UAE engagements are usually with an operator who holds a freelance permit or a free zone licence.
Rates are published in the currency of the market. The bench shows operators in all three, and a company in one can book an operator in another when the work is remote. A London fintech with a US expansion often wants exactly that.
Three mistakes that cost companies the best people
- Treating it like a job ad. The best operators do not apply to things. They are approached, by companies that have read their profile and know why.
- Negotiating the day rate before the brief. A published rate is the rate. The conversation worth having is about days and outcomes.
- Waiting for the perfect time. The companies that get the strongest operators are the ones that book the seat the month they first need it, not the quarter after.
Common questions
How long does it take to hire a fractional executive from the bench?
Days to three weeks, depending on the operator's current commitments. Every profile shows whether the person is taking calls now. The companies that move fastest send a one paragraph brief to two or three operators on the same day and take the first strong yes.
What makes a fractional executive top 1%?
They have held the seat, at a company that got through the stage you are at, and they can show it. On this bench that is checked by a person against the LinkedIn profile and the CV before anybody goes live. The rest is fit: the right sector, the right stage, and a brief they want to say yes to.
Can a UK company hire a fractional executive based in the US or the UAE?
Yes, and it is common for remote work. The engagement is contracted directly between the company and the operator, so the paperwork follows the operator's market. The bench lets you filter by country when the work needs somebody in the room.
More of them, on hiring, contracts and what a fractional engagement costs, on the fractional executive FAQ.