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StartOps charter

Mission & principles

StartOps exists to create a private, trusted space for senior operations leaders at ecommerce brands to meet and help each other.

StartOps was founded in 2017 and has always adhered to a core set of principles:

  • •Free. No cost to join.
  • •Operators only. No admission for vendors; no shilling or selling.
  • •Senior. Primarily for director/VP/COO-level leaders.
  • •A community, not a business. We aim to be sustainable for the long term, and nothing more.

We believe these principles are the reason 70%+ of our members check in every week, year after year.

Who can join

Admissions is run by a small team of members. There is no strict criteria for joining. However, the more of these criteria you meet, the stronger your candidacy will be:

Employment — Actively holding a full-time seat at your company, OR spending >20 hours/week jobseeking for full-time roles.

Location — US-focused. You don't have to be US-based, but most of the chat is about US operations.

Company type — Digital-native omnichannel consumer brand.

Company size — $10M – $1B in revenue.

Title — Director, VP, SVP, COO, or (in limited cases) CEO.

Responsibility — Overseeing production, supply chain, customer experience, finance, or some combination thereof.

Referral — 70% of our membership comes through referral from existing members.

A few common exceptions:

  • •You're a senior manager at a smaller company without much ops leadership above you
  • •You're at a smaller (<$10M revenue) or bigger (>$1B revenue) company, but have experience at a midmarket brand within the last 5 years
  • •You're in an operational role at a B2B company with a consumer-like supply chain (think: corporate gifting)

Ultimately, we are looking for members who can confidently contribute as much knowledge and experience to the group as they take.

If you're unsure, please feel free to apply anyway.

Your information

We don't share specific member details unless you've chosen to share them yourself.

We may indicate to partners the brands and levels (Director, VP, etc.) represented in the group, but not individual names or contact information.

Continued membership

Inactivity

If you're inactive for a long period of time, you may be removed from the group with or without notice.

Transitioning to become a vendor

Sometimes, members will start or join companies that sell to consumer brands. If you move into a vendor, agency, or consulting role, you must:

  1. Proactively notify us of the change.
  2. Refrain from ANY discussion of your products or services in the group. (Other members may speak on your behalf.)
  3. Sign a partnership agreement with us, ensuring that any community member becoming your customer results in benefit to the community at large.

If you don't wish to abide by these rules, your alternative is to withdraw from the community.

Fractional consulting

Many StartOps members do ad hoc consulting, take fractional roles outside of their primary employment, or do temporary consulting between roles. This is totally fine and expected. Only contact StartOps to identify yourself as a vendor if your consulting or fractional work exceeds >30 hours/week for more than 12 weeks.

Partnerships

StartOps works with a limited number of community-approved partners.

If you're interested in learning more, please contact admin@startops.network.