I fill the gap between decision and done.

You decide where the business is going. I build what gets it there: the structure, the systems, the people and the plan, so the business runs on an operation instead of running through you.

Ex-COO with over 20 years inside founder-led businesses, and founder of Marmalade.

The COO Day Start a conversation

Marms Hope, seated, looking away from camera

6 regions

South Africa, Singapore, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia

ex-COO

and never a corporate one. Every business I've run looked like yours.

20 years

running operations for founders, through to COO level

28+ founders

whose businesses Marmalade has carried from decision to done

Who I am

Every founder has decisions, but very few have someone who turns them into done.

I'm Marms Hope. I've spent 20 years in operations, starting in a support role and working my way up to COO, across advertising, finance, venture capital and recruitment, in South Africa, Singapore, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. 8 moves across 5 countries, and every business founder-led, tight on resources and growing faster than the structure underneath it.

I've never worked in a big corporate. I've only ever built structure inside businesses that had none, where one person was doing three jobs and there was no budget for a fourth. That's where I learned the thing I'm known for: a decision is worth nothing until someone has built the operation that delivers it. I became that someone, for every founder I've worked beside, and then for my own.

I founded Marmalade, a Dubai execution agency that has carried the work for 28+ founders. The COO Day is my own work, under my own name: one founder, one business, one day, and by the end of it the whole year exists on paper for the first time. Between the two, there's no part of the gap between decision and done that I don't cover.

The queen of execution

“

Strategy is the easy part. Businesses stall in the gap between the decision and the thing being done, and that gap is my entire job.

Marms Hope

What I do

You bring the decision, and I build everything between it and done.

Three ways to work with me, and all three end the same way: a plan with names and dates on every line, systems that run without you, and a business that needs you in fewer rooms.

The COO Day

You bring your financial goal and your freedom goal. We spend a day building the structure, the strategy, the systems and the execution plan to reach both, across your whole business, and four quarterly sessions keep it on track all year. In person in Dubai, or online.

Read about the day

Marmalade

My execution agency in Dubai. When the plan exists and you need it run, my team takes the admin, the content, the operations and the launches, and carries them the way I would.

Visit marmaladedubai.com

Private engagements

Embedded, bespoke and limited. For founders who want me inside the business for a defined piece of work. Scoped in a conversation, never a proposal.

Start a conversation

Who leans on me

Founders whose businesses have outgrown the way they run.

1You've become the operational bottleneck, and you know it. Every decision, every follow-up and every launch still comes back to you.
2Your projects wait on your inbox. Nothing moves until you've looked at it.
3You've tried the VA, the ops hire or the template, and you're still the one holding it all together.
4You want to work less next year, and the business has no idea how to let you.

If that's you, the most expensive person in your business is chasing everyone else's to-do list. That's the gap, and it's what I fill.

Questions

Questions you're probably asking

Is this a VA, or an ops hire?

No. This is NOT a VA service, and it is not an ops hire. I don't wait for a task list or need you to manage the work. I bring 20 years of operational experience to prioritise, build the structure and systems, and carry your decisions through to done. You brief me once.

Which option is right for me?

If the plan for the year doesn't exist yet, The COO Day. If it exists and needs running, Marmalade. If you want me inside the business for a defined piece of work, a private engagement. If you're not sure, email me and I'll tell you which, and I'll tell you if it's none of them.

How do we start?

One email. We talk, I scope it, and we start. There's no proposal process, because the proposal is the conversation.

Where are you?

Dubai, and I work across time zones. The COO Day runs in person here or online anywhere.

Start a conversation

Decide once. I'll carry it to done.

Brief me once, and I build the operation that makes it happen.

Apply for your COO Day Contact Marms