The Founder-to-Operator Handoff: What Olipop’s New CEO Teaches Every Growing Brand

Every founder-led brand reaches a point where the vision that built the company is no longer enough to run it. The brands that keep growing are the ones that add operating leadership before the business breaks, not after. Here is how to tell when you have reached that point, and what to do about it.

In August 2026, Olipop named Christian Patiño Webb its first CEO who is not a founder. Co-founder Ben Goodwin moved into a research and strategy role and became chairman of the board (Food Business News, August 12, 2026). In an interview published this week, Patiño Webb described his job plainly: “On the operational side, the not-so-fun part of the business, that’s where I come in” (Food Dive, October 8, 2026).

Olipop is not a struggling brand looking for a rescue. It was valued at $1.85 billion last year, media reports put its 2024 sales near $500 million, and it now has a public goal of $1 billion. That is what makes the move worth studying. The founder stepped aside from the operating seat while the business was winning, because the next stage needed a different kind of leadership.

As a fractional CEO and COO, I see the same moment in brands a fraction of Olipop’s size. The difference is that most founders recognize it too late.

What is the founder-to-operator handoff?

The founder-to-operator handoff is the point at which a founder-led company adds an experienced operator to own the day-to-day running of the business, so the founder can focus on the work only the founder can do. The operator might be a COO, a President or a new CEO. The founder might stay CEO, become chairman or move into a product or brand role.

It is not a demotion and it is not a verdict on the founder. It is a recognition that building a brand and running a brand at scale are two different jobs. Founders are usually exceptional at the first: seeing the opportunity, creating the product, telling the story and recruiting early believers. The second job is about systems, cadence, cash, supply chain, retailer execution and a management team that can deliver without the founder in every meeting.

Research has shown for years that this transition is common. Harvard’s Noam Wasserman found that by the time startups were three years old, half of founders were no longer CEO, and fewer than one in four led their company to an IPO (Harvard Business Review, 2008). Most of those changes were not planned by the founder. The goal is to make the handoff a choice you make on purpose, on your timeline.

Why the handoff matters more in 2026

The pressure on emerging consumer brands has rarely been higher. Patiño Webb estimates that roughly one new better-for-you soda competitor enters the market every week (Food Dive, October 8, 2026). PepsiCo bought Poppi for nearly $2 billion, and Coca-Cola is now adding prebiotic fiber to Coke Zero Sugar, Sprite Zero and Fresca (Food Dive, October 7, 2026). When the giants enter your category, the contest shifts from who has the best idea to who executes best: distribution, velocity, cost, service levels and speed.

That shift is exactly where founder-only leadership tends to struggle. The skills that won the first 1,000 stores are not the skills that win the next 20,000. Investors know this, retail buyers feel it and, in my experience, most founders sense it before they are ready to say it out loud.

Seven signs you have outgrown founder-only leadership

You do not need to wait for a crisis. These seven signals tell you the business has outgrown the way it is being run. If three or more apply, it is time to plan the handoff.

1. Every decision still routes through the founder. Pricing, hiring, trade spend, packaging changes and retailer escalations all wait for one person. The founder has become the bottleneck, and the team has learned to wait instead of act.

2. Growth is outrunning your systems. Forecasts live in spreadsheets, out-of-stocks are rising, deductions are piling up and the month-end close takes weeks. Revenue is growing, but the business is getting harder to run.

3. Margin is slipping while sales rise. Trade spend, freight and co-manufacturing costs are growing faster than revenue. Nobody owns contribution margin by SKU and by customer, so nobody can fix it.

4. The founder is spending most of the week on operations. When the founder spends more time on supply chain fires and vendor calls than on product, brand, investors and key retailers, the company is getting the least valuable use of its most valuable person.

5. Retail partners are feeling it. Late shipments, missed promotions, fill rates below target and slow answers to buyers are warning signs. Retailers rarely complain twice. They just give your shelf space to someone else at the next reset.

6. Your board or investors are asking about the team. When investors start asking who runs operations or what the leadership plan is for the next round, they are telling you how they see the risk.

7. The founder is tired of the parts that matter most for scale. This one requires honesty. If the founder dreads the operating cadence, the weekly numbers review and the process work, those things will not get done well. That is not a flaw. It is information.

Prefer a quick visual breakdown? Download the flip-book version of the seven signs and the four ways to make the handoff below.

Download The Founder-to-Operator Handoff flip-book (PDF)Download

How to split the roles between founder and operator

The handoff works best when the roles are written down, not assumed. Olipop’s structure offers a useful model: the founder keeps research, strategy and the board, and the operator owns execution. For most growing brands, a clear split looks like this.

The founder keeps: the brand vision and story, product and innovation direction, the culture, key investor relationships and a handful of strategic retail and partner relationships where the founder’s voice still opens doors.

The operator owns: the P&L and the operating plan, supply chain and co-manufacturing, sales execution and customer service levels, finance cadence and cash, and building and managing the leadership team.

The line between them should be explicit. Agree on which decisions the operator makes alone, which need the founder’s input and which the founder still decides. Write it down in a one-page decision rights document, review it after 90 days and adjust. Most handoffs that fail do so because the founder keeps reaching back into the operating seat, or because the operator never gets real authority.

Four ways to make the handoff, from lightest to heaviest

The handoff does not have to start with a new CEO. There is a ladder of options, and the right step depends on stage, cash and how much the founder wants to stay in the operating role.

1. Fractional COO. An experienced operator works part time, typically one to three days a week, to install the systems, cadence and team the business needs. This is often the right first step for brands between roughly $5 million and $50 million in revenue. It brings senior operating judgment without a full-time executive salary and equity grant.

2. Fractional President or CEO. When the founder wants to step back from day-to-day leadership entirely, a fractional President or CEO can run the business for a defined period, steady the operation and help recruit the long-term leader. It is especially useful when the transition is sudden or the board needs time to make the right hire.

3. Full-time COO or President. Once the business can support the cost and the role is clearly defined, a full-time operator makes sense. A fractional executive who has already built the operating system can write the job description, run the search and hand over a business that is ready for the hire.

4. New CEO with the founder in a new role. This is the Olipop model. It works best when the founder chooses it, when the founder’s new role is real and well defined and when the board and the new CEO agree on how the founder stays involved.

Fractional leadership is growing fast for this reason. Revelio Labs found that 24 of every 1,000 new executive roles advertised in 2026 were fractional, up from 9 five years earlier, with operations and marketing among the largest categories after finance (Revelio Labs, 2026).

What the first 90 days should deliver

Whatever form the handoff takes, the first 90 days should produce visible results, not just a new org chart. Here is what I expect a new operator, fractional or full time, to deliver.

Days 1 to 30: Learn and stabilize. Meet every key retailer, distributor, co-manufacturer and team leader. Build a single view of the numbers: contribution margin by SKU and customer, cash runway, fill rates and trade spend. Fix the one or two fires that are hurting customers today.

Days 31 to 60: Install the operating cadence. Set a weekly operating review, a monthly business review and a clear set of metrics everyone watches. Agree on decision rights with the founder. Name owners for forecasting, supply, sales execution and finance.

Days 61 to 90: Commit to the plan. Deliver an operating plan for the next 12 months with targets for revenue, margin, service levels and cash. Identify the people gaps and start filling them. Report to the founder and the board against what was promised on day one.

By day 90, the founder should feel lighter, the team should be moving faster without waiting for approvals and retail partners should notice that answers come back quicker.

Where a fractional executive fits

For many growing food, beverage and consumer products brands, a fractional COO, President or CEO is the most practical way to make the founder-to-operator handoff. The business gets someone who has scaled brands before, who can start in weeks rather than after a six-month search, and who costs a fraction of a full-time executive.

A fractional operator also brings something a new full-time hire often cannot: an outside view with no internal politics. Founders tend to accept hard truths more easily from someone whose job is to make the business work, not to protect a role. And because the engagement has a defined scope, both sides can test the fit before making a permanent commitment.

In smaller brands, the same person often bridges operations and marketing, because portfolio, pricing, channel and supply decisions all affect the brand. Patiño Webb’s own plan for Olipop mixes both: taste and limited-time flavors to drive trial, wider distribution at home and abroad and continued research to support health claims (Food Dive, October 8, 2026). Growth at scale is an operations plan and a marketing plan at the same time.

Frequently asked questions

When should a founder hire a COO?

A founder should hire a COO when the business has outgrown the founder’s ability to run operations and still lead the brand. Common signs are decisions bottlenecked on the founder, rising out-of-stocks or deductions, slipping margins while sales grow and investors asking about the leadership team. Many brands start with a fractional COO before making a full-time hire.

Does a founder have to give up the CEO role?

No. Many founders stay CEO and add a COO or President to run day-to-day operations. Others, like Olipop’s Ben Goodwin, move to chairman or a strategy role and bring in a new CEO. The right structure depends on what the founder does best and what the business needs next.

What is the difference between a fractional COO and an interim COO?

A fractional COO works part time on an ongoing basis, usually one to three days a week, to build systems and lead operations alongside the founder. An interim COO typically works full time for a set period to fill a gap until a permanent leader is hired. Both bring senior experience without a permanent executive hire.

How much does a fractional COO cost compared with a full-time COO?

A fractional COO usually costs a fraction of a full-time executive because the business pays only for the time it needs and avoids full-time salary, benefits and large equity grants. The exact cost depends on time commitment, scope and stage.

How do you make a founder-to-operator transition succeed?

Write down decision rights, give the operator real authority over the P&L and operations, keep the founder focused on vision, product and key relationships and review the arrangement after 90 days. Most failed transitions come from unclear roles or a founder who keeps reaching back into daily operations.

The handoff is a sign of strength

Olipop’s founder did not step out of the operating seat because the brand was failing. He did it because the brand was succeeding and the next stage needed a different kind of leadership. That is the lesson for every founder-led brand: the best time to add an operator is before you need one badly.

If you recognize three or more of the seven signs in your business, I would be glad to talk through what the right handoff looks like for you, whether that is a fractional COO, a fractional President or a plan to recruit your long-term leader. Start the conversation here.

Related reading: Subtraction Is a Growth Strategy, on deciding what your brand should cut, and The National Launch Is the Starting Line, on the first 90 days after landing a national retailer.

Marc Drucker is a fractional CEO, COO and CMO who helps food, beverage and consumer products companies turn growth into a business that lasts. He is the author of “How Leaders Fuck Up Innovation.” Learn more at marc-drucker.com.

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