What Executive Should a Founder Hire First When Scaling a Consumer Brand?
For founders of growing consumer brands, there comes a point when the business can no longer run entirely through the founder’s brain. The question is: who should you hire first?
There’s no universal answer, and “it depends” isn’t particularly useful when you’re trying to make a leadership decision. Instead, founders should look at where the business has developed the most complexity, where the founder is becoming the bottleneck, and what the next stage of growth requires. The right first executive is not necessarily the person who owns the biggest department. It’s the leader who can take ownership of the business problem that is currently limiting growth.
The Short Answer: Hire for the Complexity You Have Now
For a scaling consumer brand, your first executive hire will typically fall into one of these categories:
Operational complexity → COO
Capital or financial complexity → CFO
Brand and consumer growth → CMO
Retail or revenue expansion → CRO/CSO
Supply chain complexity → Operations Leader
The key is to avoid hiring based on title alone. A $20 million brand entering national retail may need a very different executive team than a $20 million digitally native brand investing heavily in consumer acquisition.
The question isn't “Which executive should every founder hire first?” It’s “Which leadership gap is creating the greatest constraint on our next stage of growth?”
When Should a Founder Hire a COO?
A COO is often the right first executive when growth has made the business operationally complicated. Early-stage founders tend to manage a surprising number of operational decisions themselves: hiring, inventory, fulfillment, vendors, agencies, systems, customer experience and internal processes. That can work when the organization is small. As the brand scales, it becomes a bottleneck.
A COO can create the infrastructure needed to turn a founder-led business into an organization that can operate effectively without the founder touching every decision.
A COO may be the right hire if:
Your team has grown quickly and responsibilities are unclear.
You are constantly solving internal problems instead of focusing on growth.
Multiple departments need better coordination.
Processes that worked at $5 million in revenue are breaking at $20 million.
The founder is still the primary decision-maker for day-to-day operations.
You are preparing for a major expansion, acquisition or organizational shift.
Founder question:
If I stepped away from the business for two weeks, what would break?
If the answer is “a lot,” an operational leader may be your most important next hire.
Should I Hire a COO or CFO First?
This is one of the most common leadership decisions for a scaling company. The answer comes down to what kind of complexity is increasing fastest.
Hire a COO first when:
The business is struggling with execution. You have teams, vendors, inventory, processes and customers moving in multiple directions, and someone needs to bring those pieces together.
Hire a CFO first when:
The business is struggling with financial complexity. You may be managing significant working capital requirements, fundraising, debt, acquisitions, margin pressure, forecasting or increasingly complicated financial reporting. A CFO becomes especially valuable when financial decisions are becoming strategic—not simply administrative.
A simple way to think about it:
COO = How do we operate this business better?
CFO = How do we fund, forecast and financially manage this business better?
If the founder is spending more time fixing operations than making strategic decisions, look toward operations. If the founder is spending more time managing cash, forecasting, raising capital or understanding profitability than building the business, finance may be the more urgent gap.
When Should a Founder Hire a CMO?
A CMO can be the right first executive when consumer growth and brand strategy have become too complex for a founder or small marketing team to manage effectively. But hiring a CMO simply because the company “needs marketing” is usually not enough.
The better question is: Has marketing become a strategic growth function that requires executive-level leadership?
A CMO may make sense when:
The brand has multiple customer acquisition channels.
Marketing spend has become significant.
The company is expanding into new markets or categories.
Brand positioning needs to evolve for the next stage of growth.
Customer acquisition and retention require a coordinated strategy.
The founder is still acting as the company's de facto head of marketing.
The organization needs to connect brand, performance marketing, product and consumer insights.
For many early-stage consumer companies, a strong VP or Head of Marketing may be the more appropriate hire before a CMO. Don't hire a CMO because you need someone to execute marketing. Hire one when you need an executive to build the marketing function as a growth engine.
What Executive Does a CPG Company Need First?
CPG companies often have a different leadership challenge because physical products introduce complexity across manufacturing, inventory, supply chain, retail, distribution and working capital. That means the right executive depends heavily on where the company is in its growth journey.
If you're struggling to get product to customers: An operations or supply chain leader may be the priority.
If you're entering major retail: A CRO, Chief Sales Officer or experienced retail executive may be more valuable.
If you're expanding distribution: You may need a commercial leader who understands retailers, distributors, pricing and channel strategy.
If you're scaling the consumer business: A CMO may become the critical hire.
For CPG companies, channel strategy matters just as much as company size. A brand preparing to enter Target has different leadership needs than one primarily selling through its own website.
When Should a Founder Delegate Leadership?
The first executive hire isn't simply about adding expertise. It's about giving ownership of a critical function to someone other than the founder.
Founders often wait too long to delegate because they are exceptionally good at doing everything themselves, but there is a difference between being capable of owning a function and being the best person to own it at the company's next stage. A useful signal is when the founder has become the bottleneck.
Ask:
What decisions still require me?
Which function consumes the most of my time?
Where am I making decisions I shouldn't need to make anymore?
What area of the business has outgrown my expertise?
What would I rather be spending my time on?
Your first executive should ideally create leverage for the founder, not simply add another layer of management.
A Framework for Determining Which Executive to Hire
Instead of starting with titles, start with the business.
Step 1: Identify your biggest constraint
What is currently preventing the company from reaching its next milestone? Is it:
Operations?
The business is too complicated to manage efficiently.
Finance?
Capital, forecasting, margins or financial planning are becoming increasingly complex.
Marketing?
The company needs a more sophisticated engine for consumer growth.
Revenue?
Retail, wholesale or other channels represent a major growth opportunity.
Supply chain?
Manufacturing, inventory or fulfillment is becoming a constraint.
Step 2: Determine whether the problem requires an executive
Not every leadership gap requires a C-suite hire. Sometimes the right answer is a VP, Head of Function, consultant or fractional executive. Ask:
Do we need someone to solve a specific problem, or build and lead an entire function?
If the need is temporary or highly specialized, a fractional or interim leader may make more sense. If the function will be permanently critical to the company's strategy, an executive hire may be warranted.
Step 3: Look at the next 12–24 months
Don't hire solely for the business you have today. Consider what the company is preparing to become. For example, a brand preparing for:
National retail expansion
A major fundraising round
International growth
An acquisition
Rapid team expansion
A major product launch
A shift in distribution strategy
may need a different executive profile than its current organizational chart suggests. Hire for the next stage—but don't hire five years ahead of the business.
Step 4: Define the outcome before the title
Before writing a job description, define what success looks like.
Instead of: “We need a COO.” Start with: “We need someone who can build the operating infrastructure required to scale from $20M to $50M without adding unnecessary complexity.”
That distinction changes the entire search. It helps you identify the leadership profile—not simply someone who has held the right title at another company.
The Executive Hiring Decision Tree
When you're unsure where to start, use this simple framework:
Is the business struggling to execute?
→ Consider a COO or operations leader.
Is financial complexity becoming a strategic issue?
→ Consider a CFO.
Is consumer growth the biggest opportunity or challenge?
→ Consider a CMO.
Is retail, wholesale or revenue expansion driving the next stage?
→ Consider a CRO / Chief Sales Officer.
Is inventory, manufacturing or fulfillment limiting growth?
→ Consider an operations or supply chain leader.
And if more than one applies? Prioritize the executive who can remove the largest constraint on the company's next stage of growth.
The Best First Executive Is the One Who Creates the Most Leverage
There is no universal executive hiring sequence for a scaling consumer brand. But there is a better way to make the decision. Don't ask, “Who should we hire next?” Ask:
“Where is the business most constrained, and what kind of leader can remove that constraint?”
The right executive should bring more than functional expertise. They should bring the experience, judgment and leadership capability to build something that can scale beyond the founder. That is ultimately what the first executive hire is about:
Creating the leadership infrastructure that allows the founder—and the company—to grow.
Building Your Leadership Team?
At Fairfield Partners, we help consumer, CPG and growth-stage companies identify the executives who can lead their next stage of growth—from functional leadership searches to building out the broader leadership team.
