Fractional Leadership, Embedded Ops, & Advisory for Your Next Stage of Growth
When growth gets messy, I help you find & fix the real problems.
I partner with founders and leaders to untangle revenue, operations, and cross-functional breakdowns— turning complexity into clarity, alignment, and results that can scale.
Trusted by Leaders at:
ABOUT
I’m Sadie Shepard.
Growth, complexity, + inflection points don't respond to generic advice, theoretical frameworks, + surface-level "solutions."
I advise. I operate. I coach. I facilitate. I speak. I write. The title doesn't matter. Solving the right problem, in the right way, does.
When your strategy isn't landing, success isn't repeatable, & targets keeps slipping, you're reacting—not scaling. The costs add up fast, and they compound exponentially.
I help leaders figure out what's not working, why it matters, and what to do next before it burns resources you can't get back.
This might look like decisions that don't hold, processes that breaks under pressure, or a team that isn't speaking the same language—especially around outcomes & revenue.
I bring a cross-functional lens grounded in real-world strategy + execution. Having operated across the full customer + revenue lifecycle (marketing → sales → customer success → operations)—in companies that scaled beautifully and others that broke under the pressure. After leading through multiple M&A integrations, I have an eye for spotting where misalignment starts, and I know what it costs when left unchecked or misdiagnosed.
I've been where you are, and I'm here to help fix what you're facing.
“We had demand out the door and big dreams… but no real systems, no structure, and no way to scale without burning out.
Sadie helped us rebuild from the ground up and kept us accountable for how we supported our community.
Her clarity, confidence, and strategic lens gave us what we needed to actually grow without breaking.”
Liz Tenety / Jordan Fink
Co-founders at Founding Women
WHO
I work with growth-stage companies that have real momentum and are starting to feel the strain that comes with it.
Most often, my clients look like:
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$10M–$150M in revenue (or equivalent operational complexity)
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Past early experimentation, but not yet heavily bureaucratic
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Growing faster than your systems, roles, or decision processes were designed for
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Experiencing execution friction due to scale, not a lack of talent or effort
These companies are usually in B2B SaaS, tech-enabled services, or multi-product environments, where coordination across teams matters as much as individual performance.
I work best with leaders who:
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Value clear thinking and direct feedback
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Are accountable for outcomes across multiple teams or functions
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Are willing to change systems, incentives, or ownership (not just add process)
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Care about building something durable rather than simply getting through the next quarter
If that’s you, my role is to help you see where your operating model no longer fits the business, then build what needs to change so execution can keep up with growth.
WHEN
I’m most effective when I can define the problem before solving it.
- Execution feels more complicated than it should given the size of the team
- Teams are working hard, but progress is uneven or difficult to measure
- Decisions stall, get revisited frequently, or lack clear ownership
- Data exists but isn’t reliable enough to support decisions
- Leadership senses strain but doesn’t have a shared diagnosis
These are common signals of a company outgrowing its current operating model.
“We were onboarding too slowly, CS was stuck fixing product issues, and sales was overpromising what we couldn’t deliver.
Internally, no one agreed on the real problem, but we did agree we had too many. Sadie cut through it immediately. She challenged every assumption, asked the questions we hadn’t, and surfaced what was actually connected.
I was blown away by how fluent she is in revenue, risk, and operational health. She made the business legible again.
We left with a focused game plan to stop the bleed and without wasting another week arguing about which fire to put out first.
Heads of Ops
SaaS Company ($15M ARR)