COO vs CEO: Roles, Decision Rights, and Pay Compared

Most founders don't set out to be their own COO. It just happens, one more title stacked onto the one they started with, because there wasn't anyone else to hand it to. This guide breaks down the COO vs CEO comparison in plain terms: what each role actually owns, who reports to whom, what the pay gap looks like, and when a founder-CEO is ready to hand off the operator half of the job.

What's the difference between a CEO and a COO?

A CEO (Chief Executive Officer) sets the company's direction: strategy, capital, culture, and the final call on where the business goes next. A COO (Chief Operating Officer) runs the machine that executes that direction: the systems, people, and day-to-day decisions that turn the plan into shipped product and on-time revenue.

The short version: the CEO decides what the company is building toward. The COO decides how the company gets there this quarter. The table below lays out the COO vs CEO split across the areas that matter most.

What decision rights does each role actually hold?

The CEO holds final authority, the COO's operational decisions can be overridden if they conflict with where the CEO is steering the company. But in a healthy structure, that override is rare, because the CEO has already defined the boundaries the COO operates inside.

A COO's decision rights typically cover vendor and 3PL selection, staffing within their org, process and systems changes, and the freight, fulfillment, and production calls that keep the business running on time. A CEO's decision rights cover fundraising, M&A, board relationships, and any move that changes the company's direction rather than its execution. When those lines aren't drawn explicitly, the two roles start colliding on the same decisions, which is usually the first sign a founder-CEO needs a real operating partner, not just more hours in the day.

Who does the COO report to, and who does the CEO answer to?

The COO reports to the CEO, it's one of the clearest lines in the org chart. The CEO, in turn, reports to the board of directors or, in a founder-owned company, to the other owners and investors who hold a stake in the outcome.

That single reporting line is part of why the COO role works: it gives the CEO one person accountable for execution, instead of five department heads competing for the CEO's attention on operational questions that were never strategic in the first place.

What do CEOs and COOs get paid?

Pay for both roles scales with revenue, but the CEO premium widens as the company grows, largely because equity and bonus structures skew toward the top. At smaller, founder-led companies, PayScale reports average CEO base pay in the $80,000–$250,000 range, with mid-market private companies averaging closer to $630,000–$890,000 in total compensation (BusinessInitiative.org (opens in new tab)).

COO pay is steadier across the same range: KORE1's 2026 guide puts total compensation for a COO at a $5M–$75M revenue company between $220,000 and $425,000, rising to $375,000–$700,000 once the company crosses into the $75M–$500M range with a full operations org and P&L accountability (KORE1 (opens in new tab)). Ownership structure (private equity, founder-led, or public) moves these numbers as much as revenue does.

When should a founder-CEO hire a COO?

This is the pattern we see most often in our own work: a founder holding the CEO title while functionally doing the COO's job too (approving POs, chasing freight quotes, covering for a leadership gap) because the company grew faster than its org chart did. It's not a failure of planning. It's just what happens when a $10M brand becomes a $50M brand before anyone had time to hire for the seams.

In one recent engagement, a fast-growing women's apparel brand hit exactly this wall: rapid growth, lean resourcing, and a leadership transition all landed at once, putting production timelines and freight costs at risk. Rather than hiring a full-time COO before the business was ready to support one, the brand brought in interim operational leadership (vendor management, fulfillment oversight, and freight tracking) as a bridge through the transition. As one takeaway from that engagement put it, the support became "an extension of their leadership, scaling support up or down as the business evolved" (Izba success story). Across the 100+ consumer brands we've worked with, this is one of the most common shapes the story takes, and the trigger is rarely revenue alone. It's the moment operational decisions start pulling the CEO out of the strategic work only they can do.

Common questions about CEO and COO roles

Can one person be both CEO and COO? Yes, and most founder-led companies start this way by default, one person holds both the vision and the execution until the business outgrows what one person can carry.

Does a COO always get hired full-time? No. Many growing brands bring in fractional or interim operational leadership first, adding a full-time COO only once the operational workload is proven to be permanent rather than a temporary spike.

Is a COO the same as a President? Not exactly. "President" is often used interchangeably with COO, but some companies use it as a distinct title for a role with broader P&L or external responsibilities, the specific duties vary by company rather than following a fixed standard.

COO vs CEO: the bottom line

The COO vs CEO comparison isn't really about which title is more important. It's about which decisions belong to strategy and which belong to execution. A founder-CEO who's still making both calls alone isn't necessarily behind; they're just at the point where drawing that line, on paper or with real operational support, becomes the next unlock.