I'm David Cochran. Handoff Solutions is the practice I built after learning, more than once, that the most valuable part of my work is the build, and that a defined mission does not always justify a permanent role.
The build is where I add the most value.
More than once, I was brought in as a full-time executive to build something with a natural finish line: the operating and sales engine behind a new domain registry, the turnaround of an ecommerce business that was losing money, new markets and product lines inside a large company.
Once the system was running, the business often needed a smaller role than the one I held. I had become the expensive employee: the original mission was complete, but the full-time executive commitment remained.
A business can need executive-level help without needing another permanent executive.
Often what it needs is a capability built, proven and handed to the people who will run it. Hiring a full-time executive for that is slow, expensive and hard to unwind. Traditional consulting often stops at recommendations. The gap in between is where many owner-led businesses get stuck.
So I structure the work the right way from day one.
Every engagement starts with a defined mission: the opportunity to build or the problem to fix. I find the capability the business is missing, build it, put it to work and measure the result. Then I hand it back. Some engagements end there. In others, my role shifts to monitoring performance and making adjustments while the team runs the system day to day.
The client gets senior operating judgment and working tools, without committing to a full-time executive role the mission may not require.
At Thomson Reuters I rose from the front line to leading sales units and business lines, built new markets and products from scratch, and learned to trace problems to their root cause.
Since then, I built the sales engine behind .inc as Managing Director on the founding team of Intercap Registry, led the turnaround of Hitchsource as General Manager, and co-founded Echelon Gran Fondo, which I built and ran through to its acquisition. As an independent operator, I have worked across luxury hospitality, healthcare ventures and startup recruiting.
David CochranFounder, Handoff Solutions
It's worth twenty minutes. No pitch, just a straight read on whether I can help and how.
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