Katie Barnes / The Founder Bottleneck Audit
Operational assessment | Two weeks | $2,500
Find out what it's actually costing you to be the bottleneck.
A two-week operational assessment for founders who feel like every decision, handoff, and "quick question" ends up back on their plate. You leave with clarity, a plan, and one visible improvement already in place.
- Length2 weeks
- Investment$2,500
- Commitment afterNone
Or read what's included below. It's all on this page.
When this is the right move
You're running a real business. It just wasn't built for this size.
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01
Everything runs through you.
Every decision, every fire, every question your team can't answer without checking in first. You're the single point of failure, and you know it.
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02
The revenue is real. The systems aren't.
You've grown past the duct-tape phase but the structure hasn't caught up. Things fall through the cracks. The business grew. The backend did not.
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03
You're great at the work. This is a different job.
Operations, process, org design. None of that is why you started this company. And yet here you are, spending half your week on it.
"You didn't break it. You just outgrew the way you built it."
What you get
Eight deliverables. One of them is already done when I leave.
The problem usually isn't that your team needs another SOP. It's that decisions, ownership, expectations, and information have become tangled together as the company has grown.
I listen to how the business actually works, not how the org chart says it works, identify the patterns keeping work stuck, and help you build the few operating changes that will make the biggest difference.
- 01Founder intake and operating review
- 02Three to five stakeholder interviews
- 03Review of meetings, decisions, ownership, and cross-functional handoffs
- 04Identification of the three highest-cost bottlenecks
- 05A visual Bottleneck Map
- 06A prioritized 90-day action plan
- 07A leadership-team readout
- 08One small, high-impact operational fix implemented during the audit
How the two weeks run
Week one I listen. Week two you decide.
Week one
I find the actual bottleneck, not just the loudest problem.
- Founder intake and operating review
- Three to five stakeholder interviews
- Review of how meetings, decisions, ownership, and handoffs actually work
Week two
We turn what I found into a sequence you can act on.
- The three highest-cost bottlenecks, named and ranked
- Your visual Bottleneck Map and prioritized 90-day action plan
- A leadership-team readout, so the plan isn't only in your head
- One small, high-impact fix built with your team before I go
Operating results
What this work has produced.
A few outcomes from my fractional COO and operating advisory engagements. Specifics, not adjectives.
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18 → 6 days
Reduced client onboarding time from 18 days to 6 days while maintaining 100% net revenue retention.
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$30,480
Identified $30,480 in annual recurring revenue that was not being collected because of invoicing and handoff breakdowns.
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90%
Reduced outstanding client balances by 90% after moving more than 140 accounts to Stripe.
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Investor-ready
Built investor-ready data rooms that gave leadership a complete source of truth.
Investment
What it costs, and what happens after.
$2,500 Two-week engagementNo retainer required, and no obligation to continue. You keep the findings, the action plan, and the completed fix either way.
$1,000 credited forward. If you move into Founder Operating Advisory or an Embedded Fractional COO engagement within 30 days, $1,000 of the audit fee comes off it.
Where founders go next
Most founders start with the audit. Some stop there, and that's a fine place to stop.
If you want an experienced operator in the room for the hard decisions, that's Founder Operating Advisory, from $3,500 a month. If a growth or operating inflection point needs someone taking hands-on ownership with clear authority and an end state, that's an Embedded Fractional COO engagement, from $6,000 a month.
We've made HUGE progress, and I now have a much clearer path forward, even with all that's still left to do. Thank you for all that you have done.
Meredith ManakFounder, Unit 387 There isn't a challenge you'll share with Katie that she won't dedicate her energy and thoughtfulness to. She has been a loyal, hard-working partner who first sought to understand my business by listening closely, then customizing solutions to my unique needs. Katie is someone you want in your corner.
Julie LaytonFounder, Generous Helping
Questions
What founders ask before booking the audit.
- What is a founder bottleneck audit?
- It's a two-week operational assessment of how your company actually runs. I review meetings, decisions, ownership, and cross-functional handoffs, interview three to five stakeholders, and identify the three bottlenecks costing you the most. You get a visual Bottleneck Map, a prioritized 90-day action plan, a leadership-team readout, and one small high-impact fix implemented during the audit.
- How much of my time does the audit take?
- A founder intake and operating review at the start, and the leadership-team readout at the end. Between those, the work sits with me and with the three to five stakeholder interviews I schedule directly with your team.
- Do I have to sign a retainer after the audit?
- No. There's no retainer required and no obligation to continue. You keep the findings, the action plan, and the completed fix either way. If you do continue into Founder Operating Advisory or an Embedded Fractional COO engagement within 30 days, $1,000 of the audit fee is credited toward it.
- We already know what's broken. Is the audit still worth it?
- Usually the loudest problem isn't the most expensive one. The audit separates the symptom from the pattern creating it, then puts a cost and a sequence against the three bottlenecks that matter most, so the next 90 days go to the right one.
- Is the audit only for B2B SaaS companies?
- B2B SaaS is my focus, but founder bottlenecks aren't SaaS-specific. I've done this work with professional services and consumer businesses as well. More questions answered here.
Let's talk
Ready to find out why everything keeps coming back to you?
Tell me what keeps getting stuck, repeated, or escalated. We'll figure out whether the Founder Bottleneck Audit is the right place to start.
Not ready to schedule? Send me the short version.
Katie is the prototype for a superb chief of operations. She is a great leader and knows the value of teamwork, innovation and utilization of techniques that will better prepare a program for success.
Two weeks from now, you could know.
Why work keeps coming back to you, what it's costing, and the first thing to change. That's the whole point of the audit.