About James
The work matters.
So does the life around it.
I’m James Coccaro.
I’m a husband, a dad, a builder and an operator.
OPS4FOUNDERS is part of what I do. It isn’t the whole of who I am.
What matters
Home is the point.
I’m a husband and a dad to two girls.
A lot of how I think about success changed when life stopped being only about what I could build, fix or accomplish.
Being present matters.
Being dependable matters.
Building a life I actually want to be in matters.
I still care about winning. I still like hard problems. I still like building things other people think are too complicated.
But the work is supposed to support the life — not become the life.
How I’m wired
I’ve always needed to make things real.
I’m not wired to sit around a table talking about what somebody else should do.
I like taking something messy, incomplete or half-working and turning it into something real.
Sometimes that has meant building a product from nothing.
Sometimes it has meant fixing an operation that grew faster than the systems underneath it.
Sometimes it has meant walking into a situation where everybody knows something is wrong but nobody owns the whole problem.
That instinct existed long before OPS4FOUNDERS had a name.
I like problems that need an owner.
Perspective
Success got bigger than work.
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The person you’ll actually work with
I’m not particularly buttoned up.
I’m direct. I ask a lot of questions. If something doesn’t make sense, I’ll say it.
If I’m wrong, I’d rather figure that out quickly than spend three meetings defending myself.
I use humor. I swear sometimes. I care a lot about the work.
And when I agree to own something, I take that seriously.
That tends to work well with founders because most of them don’t need another person managing appearances.
They need somebody willing to get into it with them.
I’ve spent years building products, operating consumer brands, fixing systems, dealing with inventory, vendors, ecommerce, Amazon, retail, fulfillment and all the things that start breaking when a company grows.
Eventually I realized the part of the work I liked most wasn’t maintaining something that already worked.
It was walking into the mess.
Finding the real problem.
Building what was missing.
And leaving the business stronger than I found it.
That’s OPS4FOUNDERS.
Off the clock
There’s a whole life outside the work.
When I’m not working, I’m usually with my family, doing something around the house, building something, fixing something, cooking, or finding another project I probably didn’t need.
I like being involved. I like making things better.
And I’ve learned that some of the best parts of life have absolutely nothing to do with a business plan.
Now you know who you’re dealing with.
If that sounds like the kind of person you want in the room, bring me the mess.