The scar tissue of scaling, plugged into your team on demand
Operators who’ve already made the mistakes, so your team doesn’t have to. They join seamlessly with your people and do the work, from GTM execution and revenue to partnerships and market entry.
The expertise and trust of a senior hire, without the time, cost or long-term commitment of making one.
Experienced hands brought in when something’s changing, not only when it’s broken.
Growth and scaling support tends to arrive as advice that’s too distant to change how the business runs, or as intervention that lands too late and with more pressure. There’s a wide gap in between that Embedded Operators fill.
Companies engage Think & Grow for Embedded Operators because…
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What is the Embedded Operators service?
More and more, GTM success is pinned on the quality of decisions, structure and execution. Your success hinges on the leaders in your business and the ground they’re able to cover. Fewer teams have what they need than you’d expect.
We embed people who've already scaled into the markets you're targeting, so you get exactly the expertise you need, for as long as you need it, without the cost, risk and lead time of a permanent executive hire.
What you get with Embedded Operators
Access to our global bench of operators across six continents. People who’ve built and scaled inside companies like Google, AWS, PayPal, Microsoft and Qantas. We match the right operator, or a fractional team of them, to your needs. Common ways operators plug in:
The operator advantage
The people in the room with you won’t be consultants. These are highly experienced operators, who’ve scaled some of the world’s most successful companies. They don't just advise growth. They've lived it. We currently have 50+ operators across the world, including:
Multi-exit, award-winning founder (theright.fit, Wink Models, #Gifted). Has raised VC in Australia and internationally and helped 50+ founders scale, raise and exit. AICD graduate and Harvard alum; board roles at Fishburners and Next25.
Veteran tech executive and start-up CEO of 30+ years. Former senior Microsoft exec, led tech start-ups to two significant investor exits, and was Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Cloudstaff. She also built UNSW's Founders 10x accelerator and angel-investor program.
Co-Founder and Partner of Flying Fox Ventures (60+ portfolio companies). Former Head of Startups ANZ at AWS and Managing Director of Eventbrite ANZ.
Has led e-commerce and marketing through hypergrowth phases in TJX, Quantas, and Bunnings. Core expertise in world-class brand creation and brand building, with strengths in digital transformation, go-to-market strategy, and building high-performing teams.
SF Bay Area GTM advisor, post-sales operator and CRO/CCO coach. 20+ years leading GTM teams at PwC, Cisco, Oracle and Pure Storage, plus high-growth SaaS; specialises in expansion and retention.
Santiago-based operator with 15 years scaling technology companies across Latin America. Has led market launches and built teams at Booking.com, WeWork, Buuteeq and Cheaf.
LATAM growth executive, 28 years across tech, marketing and consumer at S.C. Johnson, Google and Publicis Groupe. Now works with startups on growth strategy and market expansion. MBA, University of Maryland.
Global growth strategist and C-level mentor, engineer by training. Managed strategic partnerships at Google (Silicon Valley) and was a sales evangelist at IBM; now helps SMEs and executives adopt AI and lead turnarounds.
AI, transformation and GTM advisor across Asia/ASEAN with 20+ years in tech, finance and retail. Ex-Great Eagle Group (Digital Transformation + VC arm); helped build a Hong Kong unicorn in 19 months, raising US$125M from Foxconn and SoftBank.
Our global footprint
Case studies
Operators embedded to launch a market
Stripe was launching into Australia without a local network or brand. Our operators embedded with the international expansion team to build the launch plan, run six founder events across Sydney and Melbourne, and activate local hiring.
ANZ new market launch
Compete arrived in ANZ with no local base. Our operators ran founder-led roadshows across three cities and built the team behind the demand: 1,000+ ecosystem connections and 86+ customers in six months.
Our team hasn’t just studied growth, they’ve done it.
The people we embed aren’t consultants or juniors. They’ve held leadership positions in companies like Google, PayPal, Microsoft, and AWS, and scaled markets, so they add value from week one. And they don’t come alone: one embedded operator brings our collective expertise behind them.
Because Embedded Operators sits inside our full Growth Stack, you can pull in market intelligence, GTM playbook or even an AI Audit Workshop, so execution against your growth objectives never stalls waiting on another vendor.
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Multi-exit, award-winning founder (theright.fit, Wink Models, #Gifted). Has raised VC in Australia and internationally and helped 50+ founders scale, raise and exit. AICD graduate and Harvard alum; board roles at Fishburners and Next25.
Got the plan, but need a helping hand?
Let's put an operator in your corner.
Your Growth Centre of Gravity
Embedded Operators is one of the services inside the Growth pathway. Customers often go onto:
GTM Playbook to build the plan our operators execute.
Agentic Transformation to build AI underneath, to scale without adding headcount.
Executive Search for when you’re ready to make the role a permanent one.
Programs
A defined entry point
Facilitated workshops for a structured, high-value engagement about your business
Growth Services
Support for expansion and scaling
GTM and market intelligence for ambitious companies scaling into new markets and phases.
People Services
Design your org for its next phase
Executive Search, Capability Review, and Organisational Design for scaling companies.
AI Services
Level up operational infrastructure
AI and digital transformation that’s grounded in commercial context, not just technical delivery.
Frequently asked questions
An experienced operator from Think & Grow’s global bench who embeds directly into your team to execute a GTM initiative, like pipeline, partnerships or product, doing the work alongside your people, not just advising from the outside.
Consultants usually do one of two things: advise from afar or hand you a strategy to play out on your own. An embedded operator has built and scaled companies themselves and does the work with you — owning the outcome, then handing it over when it’s running. It’s the difference between advice about how a business should run and someone who helps run it.
You’re not recruiting anyone. You’re borrowing a proven operator, or a fractional team, for as long as you need — no search, no lead time, no long-term commitment — with the whole Growth Stack behind them. When you do want to build the permanent team, our People Services can place the hire.
We currently have 50+ operators across five continents, spanning GTM, operations, partnerships, sales and marketing, market entry and more. People who’ve operated inside companies like Google, AWS, PayPal, Microsoft and Qantas. We match the right one to your needs and market.
As long as the work needs, from a focused few-month push to an interim leadership stint, scoped up front and flexible as things change.
Book a call. We’ll talk through the gap you’re filling and match the right operator to it.
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