Archive - Systems & Side-eyes

In Health Tech, the Handoff Is Part of the Product

Your software can work exactly as designed and still leave people unsure what to do next.

Oct 27 • Katie Barnes

Keeping the human in the business

are we headed for that wall-e life?

Oct 22 • Katie Barnes

The Operator’s Backroom #004: The Handoff Is the System

How to stop work from getting dropped between teams

Oct 20 • Katie Barnes

When the CEO is still calling ice cream trucks

A live founder/operator chat with Carly Kremer, founder of Beekeeper’s Naturals

Oct 16 • Katie Barnes and Carly Kremer

26:06

What Nobody Tells You About Scaling a Lean Team

A candid founder and operator conversation about hiring, structure, and scaling a lean team.

Oct 13 • Katie Barnes and Carly Kremer

I work inside companies that I don’t work for.

A look at fractional COO life, the strange things I get paid to fix, and why this job is both more and less glamorous than people think.

Oct 8 • Katie Barnes

Congratulations, your chaos engine is now run by AI agents!

Why adding an agent on top of that disorganized workflow is going to get you in the end.

Oct 6 • Katie Barnes

September 2026

The founder brain that can start just about anything

turns out I have this one, too

Sep 30 • Katie Barnes

Before you automate it, buy a tool, or make a panic hire, can we talk??

A super simple way to figure out if your startup problem needs a fix, a project, a hire, or maybe 60-minutes of an outsider’s perspective

Sep 22 • Katie Barnes

Your Team Cannot Live Inside Your Head

A recording from Katie Barnes and Cory Blumenfeld's live video

Sep 15 • Katie Barnes and Cory Blumenfeld

50:02

The Operator's Backroom #003 - Who owns the ball?

How to create real ownership without turning your startup into a bureaucracy.

Sep 9 • Katie Barnes

August 2026

I accidentally talked about how I get clients

Plus fractional work, Substack, shiny objects, AI systems and why I’m still chasing my first viral Note high.

Aug 31 • Katie Barnes and Philip Hofmacher

25:09

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