Structure

The Series B org chart

By Series B the company typically runs 120–250 people and the CEO can no longer own a function directly. The leadership team below is the shape most growth-stage boards expect to see: seven functional owners, each with a defined span of control, a committed metric, and a bench one layer deep.

Reporting lines

Board of Directors

2 founders · 2 investors · 1 independent

Chief Executive Officer

CEO

Reports to the board. Owns strategy, capital, and the executive team.

  • Chief Technology Officer

    CTO

    Org size · 35–60 engineers

    • VP Engineering
    • Head of Platform / Infrastructure
    • Head of Security
    • Engineering Managers (4–8)
    Read the CTO profile
  • Chief Product Officer

    CPO

    Org size · 12–20

    • Director of Product (2–3 pods)
    • Head of Design
    • Head of Product Analytics
    • Product Operations
    Read the CPO profile
  • Chief Revenue Officer

    CRO

    Org size · 40–70

    • VP Sales (AE teams by segment)
    • VP Customer Success
    • Head of Sales Development
    • Head of Revenue Operations
    • Head of Partnerships
  • Chief Marketing Officer

    CMO

    Org size · 12–20

    • Head of Demand Generation
    • Head of Product Marketing
    • Head of Brand & Content
    • Marketing Operations
    Read the CMO profile
  • Chief Financial Officer

    CFO

    Org size · 8–14

    • VP Finance / FP&A
    • Controller (accounting, close, audit)
    • Head of Business Operations
    • Head of Legal & Compliance (or GC)
    Read the CFO profile
  • Chief Operating Officer

    COO

    Org size · 10–25

    • Head of Support / Service Delivery
    • Head of Program & Planning
    • Head of Vendor & Facilities
    • Head of International Expansion
    Read the COO profile
  • Chief People Officer

    CHRO

    Org size · 6–12

    • Head of Talent Acquisition
    • HR Business Partners
    • Head of Total Rewards
    • Head of Learning & Development
    Read the CHRO profile
  • Seven direct reports is the practical ceiling for a Series B CEO; more than that and the weekly staff meeting stops being a decision forum.
  • A CRO is usually the newest addition at Series B — sales and customer success stop reporting separately once the revenue number is board-committed.
  • Legal typically sits under the CFO until roughly $50M ARR, then becomes a General Counsel reporting to the CEO.
  • Chief of Staff is a common eighth seat, but it is a lever for the CEO, not a function owner.

The operating model

An org chart only says who is accountable. The operating model says how the work actually runs. For each core area of the business: the people who do it, the process that governs it, and the technology that carries it.

Go-to-market

Predictable, repeatable new revenue at a known cost of acquisition.

People

  • CRO + VP Sales Owns quota coverage and segment strategy.
  • Pods of AE + SDR + SE Ratio roughly 1 : 1 : 0.3 by segment.
  • RevOps Owns forecast hygiene and territory design.

Process

  • Weekly pipeline review Stage-gated, MEDDICC or equivalent qualification.
  • Monthly forecast call Commit / best case / pipeline, one number to the board.
  • Quarterly territory and quota planning Capacity model tied to the FP&A plan.

Technology

  • CRM Salesforce or HubSpot as the single system of record.
  • Sales engagement + CI Outreach, Gong, or equivalent.
  • CPQ + e-signature Approved pricing, no rogue discounts.

Measured by
Net new ARR, CAC payback, win rate, pipeline coverage (3–4x)

Product & engineering

A roadmap that ships on cadence and moves committed business metrics.

People

  • CPO + CTO pairing One owns what and why, one owns how and when.
  • Cross-functional pods PM + design + 5–7 engineers per pod.
  • Platform team Carved out once pods start blocking each other.

Process

  • Quarterly roadmap and OKR setting Committed vs. exploratory work is labeled.
  • Two-week delivery cadence Demo, retro, and a published changelog.
  • Incident and on-call rotation Sev definitions, blameless postmortems.

Technology

  • Source, CI/CD, IaC GitHub, Actions, Terraform.
  • Observability Datadog, Sentry, PagerDuty.
  • Product analytics Amplitude or Mixpanel wired to the warehouse.

Measured by
Roadmap hit rate, cycle time, uptime, feature adoption

Customer & retention

Customers onboard fast, stay, and expand.

People

  • VP Customer Success Owns gross and net retention.
  • CSM tiers Named coverage for enterprise, pooled for SMB.
  • Support team Tiered with an escalation path into engineering.

Process

  • Structured onboarding Time-to-first-value target under 30 days.
  • Quarterly business reviews For every account above the enterprise threshold.
  • Renewal and churn-risk review 120 days before every renewal date.

Technology

  • CS platform Vitally, ChurnZero, or Gainsight with health scores.
  • Help desk Zendesk or Intercom with SLA tracking.
  • Usage telemetry Product signals feeding the health score.

Measured by
GRR, NRR (120%+ target), CSAT, time-to-value

Finance & planning

One trusted set of numbers, and a plan the board can underwrite.

People

  • CFO + VP Finance Strategic capital plus operating model ownership.
  • Controller and accountants Close, revenue recognition, audit readiness.
  • Business operations analysts Embedded with GTM and product.

Process

  • Five-day monthly close Board flash within ten business days.
  • Rolling 18-month forecast Re-forecast quarterly against the plan.
  • Annual budget and headcount plan Approved by the board, tracked monthly.

Technology

  • ERP / accounting NetSuite or QuickBooks with a defined chart of accounts.
  • Billing and rev rec Stripe Billing, Chargebee, or Maxio.
  • FP&A and BI Planning tool plus Looker or Metabase on the warehouse.

Measured by
ARR bridge, burn multiple, runway, gross margin

People & talent

Hire ahead of the plan without diluting the bar or the culture.

People

  • CHRO + HRBPs One partner per two executive functions.
  • In-house recruiters Roughly one per 20 open roles per year.
  • Manager cohort Trained, not just promoted.

Process

  • Headcount approval gate Every req tied to the funded plan.
  • Structured interview loops Scorecards, debriefs, calibrated bar-raisers.
  • Semi-annual performance and comp cycle Calibrated across functions.

Technology

  • ATS Greenhouse or Ashby with funnel reporting.
  • HRIS and payroll Rippling, Gusto, or HiBob.
  • Performance and comp Lattice plus Pave or Carta for equity bands.

Measured by
Time-to-fill, offer acceptance, regretted attrition, engagement

Governance, security & risk

Enterprise buyers and the board both get a clean answer.

People

  • General Counsel or Head of Legal Contracts, corporate, employment.
  • Head of Security Reports into the CTO, presents to the board.
  • Compliance owner Often a shared CFO and CTO responsibility.

Process

  • Quarterly board meeting cycle Pre-read five days ahead, minutes filed after.
  • SOC 2 Type II control evidence Continuously monitored, annually audited.
  • Access review and incident drill Quarterly, documented.

Technology

  • Compliance automation Vanta, Drata, or Secureframe.
  • Identity and secrets Okta or JumpCloud plus a vault.
  • CLM and data room Ironclad or DocuSign CLM, Carta for the cap table.

Measured by
Audit findings, mean time to detect, contract cycle time