StartOps charter
Mission & principles
StartOps exists to create a private, trusted space for senior operations leaders at consumer 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, procurement, inventory planning, supply chain, reverse logistics, 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)
- •You're a fractional consultant — but out of necessity to make ends meet while you pursue full-time work at a brand.
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.
Ongoing membership
Most members join StartOps and naturally stay active for years. However, there are a few things that could trigger your removal from the group.
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 midmarket consumer brands. This includes members who leave their full-time roles to become a consultant or fractional operator full-time (>30 hours per week and/or not actively searching for a full-time role).
If you transition into one of these roles, you must:
- Proactively notify us of the change.
- Refrain from ANY discussion of your products or services in the group. (Other members may speak on your behalf.)
- 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.
Your information
When you join StartOps, your presence in the group will be announced to all other members internally.
We will NOT share your affiliation with StartOps publicly unless you have chosen to do so yourself (e.g. by adding it on your LinkedIn).
We will NOT share any of your specific details or anything you share in StartOps with 3rd parties unless either a) you've given us your express permission to do so or b) it is shared in an aggregated or anonymized way.
We may indicate to partners the brands, levels (Director, VP, etc.) and/or locations of members in the group, but never individual names or contact information.
Partnerships
StartOps works with a limited number of community-approved partners.
If you're interested in learning more, please contact admin@startops.network.