JAMES HARRINGTON III
Chief Operating Officer
Operational leader who has scaled three SaaS companies through hypergrowth, two
acquisitions, and one IPO. I build the machine that builds the product.
james@jamesharrington.com · +1 (415) 555 0198 · Palo Alto, CA · LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jamesharrington

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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Eighteen years leading operations at enterprise SaaS companies, with direct P&L
responsibility for organizations ranging from 40 to 1,200 people. I specialize
in the messy middle: the period after product-market fit when everything has to
professionalize simultaneously — hiring, revenue ops, customer success, and the
finance function — without breaking the culture that got you there. My teams
have collectively managed $680M in ARR, and the playbooks we built have survived
two acquisitions intact.

EXPERIENCE
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Chief Operating Officer — Ridgeline Systems  ·  San Francisco, CA
2021 – Present
  Full operational leadership across a 420-person company ($185M ARR, Series D).
  Direct reports: VP Engineering, VP Revenue, VP People, CFO.
  • Grew ARR from $62M to $185M while improving net revenue retention from 108%
  to 127%.
  • Designed and executed the restructuring from functional silos to business
  units; reduced cross-team dependencies by 40%.
  • Built the revenue operations function from scratch; quota attainment
  increased from 64% to 89% within three quarters.
  • Led the acquisition of DataMesh ($28M); integrated 65 employees and
  consolidated product lines in under 90 days.
  • Reduced operating expenses by $14M annually through vendor consolidation and
  headcount efficiency without layoffs.

VP of Operations — Helios Analytics  ·  Austin, TX
2017 – 2021
  Operational leadership through the company's growth from 85 to 340 people and
  from $18M to $95M ARR. Reported to CEO.
  • Orchestrated the Series C ($45M) and Series D ($120M) fundraises; led due
  diligence and financial modeling.
  • Stood up the customer success organization (42 CSMs); reduced gross churn
  from 14% to 4.2% annually.
  • Implemented OKR framework company-wide; executive alignment score improved
  from 3.1 to 4.6 (internal pulse survey).
  • Managed the Austin-to-distributed transition during COVID with zero
  attrition in the first six months.

Director of Business Operations — Aperture Software  ·  Boston, MA
2013 – 2017
  First operations hire. Built the ops infrastructure that supported the company
  through IPO (2016, $1.2B market cap at listing).
  • Created the financial planning and analysis function; built the models used
  in the S-1 filing.
  • Designed the partner channel program that grew to represent 22% of bookings
  within two years.
  • Hired and managed a 15-person operations team spanning rev ops, deal desk,
  and business intelligence.

Associate → Engagement Manager — McKinsey & Company  ·  New York, NY
2008 – 2013
  Enterprise technology and operations practice. Led engagements for Fortune 500
  clients in financial services and healthcare.
  • Led a $200M cost transformation program for a top-10 US bank; delivered $47M
  in year-one savings.
  • Managed a 14-person team on a 9-month post-merger integration for two
  regional health systems.
  • Named to the firm's top-20 engagement managers list (2012).

EDUCATION
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MBA — Harvard Business School  (2008)
  Baker Scholar (top 5%). Leadership Fellow.

AB, Economics — Princeton University  (2004)
  Magna cum laude. Captain, varsity lacrosse.

BOARD SERVICE & RECOGNITION
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Board of Directors — Beacon Health Technologies (Series A)  (2023–)
  Independent board member advising on go-to-market and operational scaling.
Board Observer — Ridgeline Foundation (nonprofit)  (2022–)
SaaS Operations Leader of the Year — SaaStr Annual  (2023)
40 Under 40 in Enterprise Tech — Business Insider  (2019)

SPEAKING & WRITING
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"The operator's guide to surviving hypergrowth". SaaStr Annual 2024 (keynote) (2024)
"Why your rev ops team should report to the COO". First Round Review (2023)
"Post-acquisition integration: a 90-day playbook". Harvard Business Review (online) (2022)

COMMUNITY
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Executive Mentor — Year Up
  2019 – Present
  Quarterly mentoring sessions with young adults pursuing careers in tech
  operations.
Mentor — Techstars Boston
  2015 – 2017