I’m Luisa Salcedo. Fractional COO.
For over a decade, I’ve worked behind the scenes of fast-growing businesses, from Fortune 500 giants like PepsiCo to impact-driven startups, creative brands, and powerhouse founders.
But my path wasn’t linear.
I started in the classroom as an English teacher in Bogotá, Colombia. Today, I help visionary CEOs translate ambition into execution and run their businesses like well-oiled machines.
What I Believe
Operations is not the unsexy side of building a business. It is the discipline that determines whether what you built survives contact with scale.
Most founders I work with are not failing. They are structurally capped. Every new hire, every expansion, every attempt to step back multiplies the dependency instead of compounding the value, because the business was never built to carry it without them.
A wrong forecast in June costs you in October. You can't pivot fast enough once the damage is in motion. That's the kind of thinking I bring to every business I touch. I learned it distributing $3B in inventory across PepsiCo, Costco, and Kroger, where the margin for error was zero and the consequences of a bad decision were not felt for months. Not just what is broken right now. But what the current structure will cost you in six months if you leave it in place.
What I Do Best
I bring clarity, structure, and momentum to CEOs who are drowning in the day-to-day.
From auditing and reorganizing a 97-person team in just two weeks, to building SOPs that became acquisition-level assets, to cutting a client’s billing process by 98% so she could triple her revenue. I specialize in creating operational frameworks that free you to focus on the vision.
I’m not here to hand you a binder that collects dust. I build living systems your team actually uses: checklists that get laminated at the front desk, onboarding plans that give your new hires confidence, and KPIs that show you exactly where growth is happening. My clients recover 15% in time or revenue in the first quarter.
When your business feels overwhelming, I create the roadmap that makes it flow.
CEOs come to me when:
- You've built past $5M and the business still can't run a full week without you.
- You've told your team what to do. It doesn't stick. You end up in the middle anyway.
- You promoted someone into ops and the problems kept coming back to you.
- Your SOPs live in a folder nobody opens.
- You want to scale, step back, or eventually exit and right now the structure won't hold it.
- You know something is compounding quietly in your margins. You just haven't had time to stop and fix it.
What I’ve Done
Team Reset
Client Win: A $5M+ immigration firm. A founder buried in a 97-person operation where every decision routed back to the top.
What I Did: I met with all 97 employees individually in two weeks. Documented every friction point. Delivered a 90-day operational reset plan.
Impact:Immediate clarity and reengagement across the board.
Supply Chain Queen
Client Win: Managed $3B in CPG inventory across Gatorade, Tropicana, and Quaker for Kroger, Costco, and other retailers.
What I Did: Oversaw forecasting, vendor negotiations, and logistics. Every move had ripple effects months later meaning prioritization and risk mitigation were non-negotiable.
Impact: 10% productivity boost within 3 months.
Launch Support
Client Win: Tech startup was drowning in returns, eating into margins and client trust.
What I Did: Audited post-sale systems, redesigned the customer experience, and rebuilt processes.
Impact: Reduced returns by 30% and cut shipping costs by 50%.
Ops for Visionaries
Client Wins Across Wellness & Community:
- Acupuncturist client: She was spending 5 hours/month (60 hours/year) manually billing a $100-task that drained her energy. I streamlined it to 20 minutes/month (a 98% time reduction), freeing her to triple her business in 6 months.
- We All Grow Latina: Two of the SOPs I created became critical operational assets in their acquisition by HACE. My systems didn’t just make the business run smoother they increased company valuation under investor scrutiny.
- Onboarding strategy: Designed a 90-day onboarding plan with checklists and KPIs, giving the CEO clarity and her hires confidence.
Impact: CEOs stop spinning their wheels and start scaling with confidence.
Why I Do It
I started as an English teacher in Bogotá, Colombia. Every day I watched what happened when someone finally felt seen and understood. Some of those students became doctors, engineers, and business leaders. Teaching is still embedded in how I work. I listen before I build.
My dyscalculic brain forced me to build checks and balances before I understood what they were. The systems I created just to keep up with myself turned out to be the seeds of my operational precision. I don't design for founders who can hold it all. I design for businesses that hold without anyone having to.
I built Luisa Salcedo Consulting because I watched brilliant founders bleed money, time, and health while their businesses ran on their nervous systems. I know what it costs when too much lives in one person's head. My vocation is removing that condition before it removes the founder's freedom.
Operations is my vocation. Not my identity. When I'm not in the work, I am at the beach, reading something that has nothing to do with business, or laughing louder than is strictly necessary.
More About Me
- 🇨🇴 Proud Colombian immigrant. Bilingual in English and Spanish.
- 👩🏻🏫 Former English teacher in Bogotá. Teaching will always be part of my legacy.
- 🌊 Happiest at the beach with turquoise water in view.
- 😄 I have a gut laugh that carries across a room. I don't take myself too seriously.
Ready to find out where the structural cracks are in your business?
You don’t need another year of burnout. You need systems that free you to be the CEO not the Chief Everything Officer.
Let’s talk over coffee (virtual or real). Bring your overwhelm, I’ll bring the structure. Together, we’ll build the roadmap that protects your culture, scales your impact, and gives you back your time.