Stop running your company.
Start growing it.

Helping founder-led companies grow on healthy foundations

Your company is growing, but what worked before no longer works. Too many things run through you, and while the people on your team are amazing, there's more that could be achieved together.

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See how I work

Senior operational leadership for founder-led startups & scale-ups

I build the scaling operational backbone your company needs so you can stop running the business and start growing it — focusing your time on what only you can do: vision, customers, and investors.

Susanna Laanikari, Founder of the Grounded Company

More about me

Ambiguity eats productivity and innovation. Small problems grow into big ones over time.

I help create clarity, identify the most critical bottlenecks, and unlock your full growth potential by finding ways to address them—through people, systems, and structures.

Book a 30-minute intro call

Service models

  • Strategic Sparring

    Strategic Sparring & Design

    Focused strategic support and challenging for specific moments and needs, providing clarity and perspective exactly when it matters.

    → On-demand support for key challenges and decisions

    → Strategic thinking partner who challenges assumptions and helps you make better decisions, faster

    → Fresh perspective on growth bottlenecks

    → Build organisational readiness before problems become urgent

    Engagement model:
    Tailored to your needs: from a single hour of sparring to clearly scoped projects — fixing a specific process, planning or facilitating a workshop, or ongoing strategic support.

  • Fractional COO/CPO

    Fractional COO/CPO

    Embedded senior leadership building the internal capabilities and operating system that enables growth — without the overhead of a full-time hire.

    → Tackling your biggest operational challenges, driving growth, and installing systems that keep your business moving

    → Creating clarity, alignment and building trust

    → Reducing founder dependency on tactical decisions and releasing their time & energy to strategic work

    Engagement model:
    Flexible and cost-efficient: ~ 2-10 days/month embedded in your team (remote + in-person),
    3-12 month engagements that scale based on your needs

  • Fractional Chief of Staff

    Fractional Chief of Staff

    Reducing the overhead of coordination and turning the C-level team into a single unit by building strategic execution architecture and organisational capability.

    → Senior strategic role working directly with CEO and leadership team (remote + in-person)

    → Building the operating rhythms and coordination structures that keep the team aligned

    → Creating strategic execution architecture from priorities to decisions to follow through

    → Behind-the-scenes enabler: no extra layer of hierarchy, just fewer gaps between intent and action

    Engagement model:
    ~ 2–10 days/month, 6–12+ month engagements with flexible intensity

See case examples
  • Meri-Tuuli Helin Gubbe

    “As interim COO at Gubbe, Susanna managed to identify where the real need was. She helped us direct our focus to the right things, namely interpersonal trust, leadership structures, and creating clarity.”

    — Meri-Tuuli Helin, Co-Founder & CEO of Gubbe

  • Antero Vartia

    "Susanna helped clarify my thinking, and allow me to focus on my own strengths as a founder. She's able to empower both leadership and the wider team, while ensuring that necessary changes are carried through with purpose and respect for people."

    — Antero Vartia, Founder of Compensate

  • Ciarán Duffy

    "Susanna translates complex challenges into actionable next steps, ensuring everyone understands the 'what', 'why' and ‘how’ behind organisational changes."

    — Ciarán Duffy, Sonder Collective

  • Katri Kallio-Koski

    "Susanna brings clarity and operational flow, allowing the team to focus and shine on their work. She has a wide range of tools and approaches, and she engages the team in a way that makes everyone feel heard and want to commit."

    — Katri Kallio-Koski, Gaia Consulting

  • Melanie Wendland

    "Engagement with Susanna brought us clarity and focus. Her human centred approach helped to surface unspoken tensions and move us towards solutions that fit both people's and the organisation's needs.

    — Melanie Wendland, Co-Founder of Sonder

Get in touch

If you want to hear more, please reach out to me.

Book a 30-minute intro call

You can also send a message or call me:
susanna@groundedcompany.fi
+358 50 4386 489

Koskelantie 25 F 51
00610 Helsinki
Finland