01 / DAYS 1–30
Find the constraint.
Talk with you and your leaders. Review the reporting, meetings, and decisions that keep pulling you back in.
What you leave withA clear diagnostic and a prioritized plan.
Operating advisory for founder CEOs
Give your business
room to grow
beyond you.
You built the business. I help your leadership team take on more of the work, with clear ownership, useful numbers, and a weekly rhythm that sticks.
30 minutes with Max. Start with what's getting stuck.
Built for founder-led businessesTransportation & logisticsTrades & buildersManufacturingProfessional services
When the business keeps coming back to you
You've got a team.
You're still the backstop.
Hiring good people only gets you so far. They need to know what they own, which numbers matter, and how to move a decision forward. That's the work we do together.
01
Decisions wait for you, even when someone else could make them.
02
Meetings end with a good conversation. The same issues come back next week.
03
You spend too much time piecing together the numbers to see what's happening.
“We had no formal KPIs, meeting cadences, or strategic plan. Within 90 days, LightPath built all of it from scratch.”
Founder & CEO
Scaling freight brokerage
The 90-day engagement
Build it together.
Make it part of the week.
I work inside the business with you and your leaders. We diagnose where work gets stuck, put the operating cadence in place, and coach your team to run it.
02 / DAYS 31–60
Put the system to work.
Set the priorities. Give the critical metrics owners. Build the leadership scorecard, meeting rhythm, and decision rights.
What you leave withA working cadence your team uses each week.
03 / DAYS 61–90
Help the team take over.
Coach your leaders through the cadence. Tighten financial reporting and follow through on the first operational improvements.
What you leave withA team practiced in running the system.
Start here / 14-day diagnostic
Get clear on what needs to change.
Founder and leadership interviews, an operational diagnostic, and a written roadmap. A defined first step before a larger engagement.
Talk through the diagnostic ↗Ongoing / Embedded operator
Keep an operating partner at the table.
Fractional COO or Chief of Staff support for founders who want continued help running the cadence and carrying the work forward.
Discuss ongoing support ↗Who it's for
For founders still
close to the work.
You built an operationally complex business. You're still involved day to day, and you want your leaders to carry more responsibility as the company grows.
Transportation & logisticsTrades & custom buildersLight manufacturingProfessional services
We'll work well together if...
- You have a leadership team to build with.
- You're willing to give people real ownership and decision authority.
- You can make time to establish the cadence.
- You want someone working alongside your team to put it in place.
Your operating partner
I'm Max Hourigan.
I get into the work.
I work as a fractional COO and Chief of Staff with founder-led organizations. My job is to help your team build the habits and systems that make the business easier to run.
Before LightPath, I spent 15 years in operating and strategy roles across logistics, financial services, automotive, and supply chain. I also served 13 years in the Army National Guard, including command of an infantry company.
Today, I bring that experience into leadership meetings, financial reviews, and the decisions your team needs to make every week.
Operating leadership at Nolan Transportation Group · Enterprise strategy at Wells Fargo · Army National Guard
The Next Rung
Writing on operating discipline and the work of building a business beyond yourself.
Read the newsletter ↗The Founder's Ladder
A free guide to the five rungs of founder execution. Find where you are and what to build next.
Get the free guide ↓Start with a conversation
What's still landing
on your desk?
Let's talk about where the business needs you too much, and what it would take for that to change.
What we'll cover
- Where decisions and work are getting stuck.
- What your team already has in place.
- Whether a diagnostic or ongoing support makes sense.