Essential
For the owner or MD ready to move alone.
- One primary owner or managing director. 90 days.
- Reality check, outcomes session, priority implementation.
- Weekly rhythm setup and final handover.
The Thirty Co. / Built to Run
We help business owners get out of the way of their own growth.
13 years fixing what wasn't working in the UK's biggest organisations. Now we do it for the businesses that actually employ your town.
Built for
Owner-led UK businesses, 20 to 200 people, where the founder has become the operating bottleneck.
Does this sound familiar?
01
Firefighting Fatigue
Every problem lands on your desk because there is no system, no process and no capable person to handle it without you. You start every day with a plan and abandon it by 9:30am. 60-hour weeks. No time for strategic thinking. You are the ceiling.
02
Growth Paralysis
Revenue has plateaued because you cannot scale yourself. You are the sales team, the operations manager and the quality controller. Hiring has not helped because new people do not have your standards or context.
03
Change Fatigue
You have tried consultants, courses, new hires and new software. Nothing creates permanent change. Tens of thousands spent on advice that gathered dust. The team is cynical about anything new.
I built this thing from nothing and it might break me. What if I am the problem?
You are not the problem. The structure around you is. That is what we fix.
The shift
Strategy is not execution.
Most businesses do not fail for lack of strategy. They fail because they try to do everything. We are the operators who close the gap.
The method
The Operator System
Five steps. 90 days. One outcome. A business that runs without the founder holding it together.
01
Reality Check
Honest, data-driven assessment of where the business actually is versus where the owner thinks it is. No politics. No sugar-coating.
02
Priority Lock
Identify the three non-negotiable outcomes for the next 90 days. Cut everything else. Ruthless prioritisation that creates focus.
03
System Build
Install the operating rhythms, processes, dashboards and AI tools that let the business run without the founder in every meeting.
04
Team Grip
Get the right people in the right seats, doing the right work. Clarify accountability so problems get solved at the level they belong.
05
Execution Rhythm
Weekly and monthly cadences that create visibility, accountability and momentum. The drumbeat that makes everything stick.
The principle that runs through every step
Systems beat talent. Rhythm beats motivation. Execution beats strategy.
Free 15 minute diagnostic
Where is your business right now?
Most owners think they know where the friction is. The Operator Score is a 20 question diagnostic across the five pillars of the Operator System. It benchmarks your business against high-performing SMEs and tells you exactly where to fix first.
Take the Operator Score, Free- 01Reality Check
- 02Priority Lock
- 03System Build
- 04Team Grip
- 05Execution Rhythm
How we work together
One front door. Four ways forward.
The right starting point depends on where you are. Most businesses begin with the Score.
Not sure which is right for you? Book a 15 minute call and we will tell you
The product
The 90-Day Operator Reset
The 90-Day Operator Reset is not a consultancy engagement in the traditional sense. There is no discovery phase that produces a report. There is no strategy document that sits in a folder. We come in, agree the two or three things that have to move, and implement them, alongside you, in your business, until they stick.
Most clients see a change in their operating rhythm within the first two weeks. By week twelve, the business is running to a structure that holds without them holding it.
Two engagements open per quarter.
Complete
For a leadership team that needs to move together.
- Up to three leadership team members.
- Everything in Essential plus team alignment and accountability framework.
- Monthly check in for three months post-reset.
Accelerated
For a full leadership team that needs to move fast.
- Full leadership team engagement.
- Everything in Complete plus weekly embedded sessions.
- Faster implementation cadence and 6 month rhythm check.
Fixed project cost. All tiers begin with an Intro Workshop. All prices include VAT.
What people say
Trusted where delivery matters.
Trusted, motivated and commercially aware. Practical, well thought through business solutions. A talented and quality driven partner.
An effective and composed leader. Translates requirements into business outcomes and uses that to align stakeholders. Strategic thinking, delivery confidence, calm under pressure. Trusted when things get complex, political or stuck.
One of the most driven and positive operators I have worked with across many change programmes. Builds trust, understands the business, and challenges others to ensure delivery.
They gave us a language and structure we did not have before. The first time we had something we could actually act on, instead of another report.
Rare to find a partner who understands both the strategy and the reality of execution. The thinking moves the room forward, not just the slide deck.
Senior stakeholders across UK SMEs and FTSE 100 organisations. Further client references available on request.
By the numbers
13
Years inside the UK's biggest organisations
£7bn
Programme value recovered and unblocked
66%
Time-to-market reduction on a FTSE 100 product launch
1
Founder-led. No handoffs.
Track record
Where we have done the work.
£7bn programme recovered
A delayed FTSE 100 financial services programme, blocking new business at scale, brought back on track.
RBS Group rebranded to NatWest
Major institutional brand transition, delivered across customer-facing and operational systems.
Time-to-market cut by two thirds
New product introduction inside a UK financial institution, restructured to ship in a third of the time.
We bring the same operating discipline that ran these programmes to the businesses we work with today.
About
Built to apply the methods that run major programmes to the businesses that need them most.
The Thirty Co. is a UK consultancy. We were built on a single insight from 13 years inside organisations like Phoenix Group, RBS Group, NatWest, and Standard Life. The methods that recover billion-pound programmes, land institutional rebrands, and run complex change at FTSE 100 scale are completely out of reach for the businesses that build your town.
That gap is what we close. We do not produce strategy decks. We do not run discovery phases that end in reports. We come into the business, agree what has to move, and implement until it sticks.
We work with owner-led UK businesses, 20 to 200 people, where the founder has become the operating bottleneck. Our job is to put the operating system in place that lets them lead instead of firefight.
Founder
The Thirty Co. is founded and led by Ryan Raeburn. Ryan spent 13 years in delivery leadership inside the UK's largest financial institutions, recovering programmes blocking £7bn in new business, leading the RBS Group rebrand to NatWest, managing COVID responses, and cutting time to market for new products by two thirds.
Your business has outgrown you.
That is fixable. The first step is understanding exactly where the friction is.