Solving Complex Problems, One Operation at a Time

Hi, I'm Kate.

I've always been drawn to those thorny, complicated business problems that make most people's heads spin. You know the ones—where you're not even sure where to begin? I've tackled these at places like Google (helping scale various business units) and Apple (negotiating huge vendor deals or running a global operation), plus helped companies stay profitable while growing fast. What I've learned is that I'm really good at untangling operational messes while juggling what seem like impossible trade-offs between cost, quality, speed, and growth.

Here's what gets me excited: I don't just want to fix what's broken—I want to find those beautiful solutions that make everything run smoother. There's nothing quite like implementing one change that cuts costs, boosts quality, AND gives your team more time to focus on what they're actually great at. It's like solving a really complex puzzle where moving one piece affects everything else, but when you nail it, the whole thing just clicks.

After spending over a decade building and scaling operations at fast-growing companies, I decided to try something different. Now I work as a fractional COO through Build the Framework, which basically means I dive into operational challenges for small to mid-sized businesses who need serious help but aren't ready to hire a full-time executive yet.

This setup is pretty perfect for me—I get to tackle interesting problems across all kinds of industries and business models, while actually having a life outside of work. Companies get strategic operational leadership exactly when they need it, without the full-time commitment they might not be ready for.

So, what's keeping you up at night? Maybe you're launching something new, expanding into different markets, dealing with supplier headaches, or just feeling totally overwhelmed by day-to-day operations. I'm here to help you find the systems and efficiencies that'll change how your business runs. Every company deserves operations that work as hard as they do—they just don't all need someone full-time to make it happen.

Ready to get your operations sorted? Let's figure this out together.

-Kate Sapsford

Reintroducing ourselves

Build the Framework: Operational Excellence Where Others Fall Short

At Build the Framework, we recognized a critical gap in the market that large consulting firms consistently fail to address: the need for hands-on, practical operational and financial leadership that doesn't come with enterprise-level price tags or cookie-cutter solutions.

While big firms excel at high-level strategy and theoretical frameworks, they fundamentally misunderstand what small and medium businesses need to succeed. They're built to serve enterprise clients, so they default to recommending large, expensive, systematic solutions that may be technically correct but are completely impractical for SMBs and startups. Instead of cost-effective, short and medium-term fixes that can deliver immediate impact, they push comprehensive overhauls that consume resources these businesses simply don't have. They arrive with armies of junior consultants, present beautiful slide decks filled with enterprise-grade solutions, and leave behind recommendations that sound impressive but ignore the resource constraints and growth realities of smaller businesses.

We saw an opportunity to do things differently.

Build the Framework bridges the gap between expensive enterprise consulting and basic business advice. We bring seasoned operational and financial expertise directly to small and mid-sized businesses—not through lengthy engagements that drain budgets, but through focused, fractional leadership that gets results fast.

Our approach is simple: we dive deep into your specific operational and financial challenges, identify the bottlenecks that are actually holding you back, and implement systems that work for your business, your team, and your growth stage. No generic playbooks. No junior staff learning on your dime. Just experienced operational and financial leadership that understands how to scale efficiently without breaking what's already working.

We're not here to reinvent your business—we're here to make it run better and more profitably. Because every growing company deserves operational and financial excellence, but not every company needs full time support.

Ready to experience operational consulting that actually delivers? Let's build the framework for your success.

- Kate Sapsford & Lea Jensen