About 9 months ago, we made a big structural change at Onfolio. At the time, we were operating in a fully decentralized model. Each of our businesses had its own CEO, with broad autonomy to run the company as they saw fit.
We had written about that decision publicly. It felt right. It felt scalable. It felt like the “grown-up” way to operate a portfolio of businesses: hire great people, get out of their way, and let them run.
But over time, we started to notice something was off.
The businesses were struggling. Revenue wasn’t growing, and in some cases was declining. Our CEOs were smart, capable, and working hard. But momentum was slower than expected. Some key projects dragged on for months. Strategic initiatives felt reactive, not proactive. There was movement, but not always in the right direction.
We didn’t fully understand the scope of the problem until we made a tough decision: we fired three of those CEOs and stepped back into the seats ourselves.
And suddenly, things became clearer.
The Altitude Problem
None of those CEOs were lazy. None were disengaged. In fact, every single one of them was busy — and that was the problem.
One operator told us sales increased whenever he “sent more emails.” That sounded promising, until we realized there was no email marketing system in place at all. No lead magnets, no follow-up sequences, not even a real ESP.
What “sending emails” meant was digging through his inbox and manually chasing up past customers and leads. Hustle? Sure. Scalable growth engine? Not so much.
Another CEO believed AI was making her course less relevant. She’d accepted that narrative and then built her work around preserving the revenue that was still coming in. But when we stepped back in, we simply asked: if people are still buying, why not scale what’s working? We focused on hitting target ROAS and increasing ad spend — and that alone made a significant difference.
Since that decision, the brand has increased monthly revenue by more than 50% and net income is significantly higher too.
These stories aren’t about operator failure. They’re about something we now see more clearly: most people, even strong performers, default to solving the problems they can see and touch.
We call this local optimization. It’s the tendency to fix what’s visible, repeat what feels familiar, and work on what feels within reach. But this mindset often leads to sideways movement instead of forward growth.
This is where altitude matters.
Strategic altitude gives you clarity.
It helps you step back from the noise and ask:
- What’s actually driving this business?
- Where does value come from?
- Are we measuring the right things?
- And most importantly: what shouldn’t we be working on?
When we step into a business, the first thing we look at is how the operator makes decisions. What metrics are they tracking? How do they know what’s working? Are they chasing surface-level wins or actually compounding value?
We use a framework called the 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) to help guide this process, but any framework will usually suffice. In 4DX, operators choose a “WIG” — a wildly important goal — and we work together to break it down into lead measures and actions. But often, we’ll find that the WIG they’ve picked won’t really move the needle. That’s where we push back and help reset the focus.
Sometimes the business needs weekly guidance. Sometimes we scale it back to monthly or quarterly. But that cadence has to be earned, because when we’re not closely involved, things can drift.
This is what we mean when we say we talk about strategic altitude. It’s not just perspective, but a system for using it.
And if you’re running your own business, you can create this for yourself, too.
Start by zooming out regularly. Block time every week to think only about strategy, not execution. Get outside input. Build a short list of potential moves and be ruthless about what not to do.
Ask yourself, “What would a buyer focus on right now?”
Then focus on that.
Most operators aren’t short on energy. They’re short on altitude.
And that’s the gap we now fill.
Why Strategy Can’t Be Fully Decentralized
We had fallen for the classic trap: believing that delegation alone creates leverage. But delegation without direction doesn’t work.
Strategic clarity isn’t just about picking the right tasks. It’s about choosing the right problems. That requires the ability to zoom out, see the system, recognize patterns, and prioritize based on impact instead of proximity.
Our central team has that altitude. We operate across multiple businesses. We’ve seen what works, what doesn’t, and where things tend to bottleneck. Our operators, on the other hand, have deep domain knowledge. They know the terrain, but they don’t always know which mountain to climb.
So we changed the model.
Centralized Strategy, Decentralized Execution
Today, we help define the punch card, the list of objectives for the business to execute. The central team works closely with each operator to identify the highest-leverage projects. We help set priorities. Then we let the operator run with it, using their on-the-ground knowledge to execute with nuance and speed.
We don’t micromanage, but we stay deeply involved where it matters.
We call this our centralized strategy, decentralized execution model. And it’s working.
We’ve found that when operators are given a clear strategic roadmap, they move faster and more confidently. They still make local decisions. But those decisions now roll up into a coherent direction instead of just isolated optimizations.
This Isn’t Just an Onfolio Thing
Here’s the part we didn’t expect. This isn’t just a problem for holding companies with multiple CEOs.
This is a problem for every founder-operator running an online business.
When you’re in the weeds every day, answering customer emails, tweaking ads, posting on social, managing freelancers, it’s incredibly hard to step back and ask: what would a strategic investor do right now?
Even the most capable founders struggle with altitude. You don’t have time. You don’t have bandwidth. You’re flying the plane and building it at the same time.
You might think you’re working on the business instead of in it, but do you know what things to work on?
And that’s where we’ve come to see our value as acquirers and partners.
We bring strategic altitude.
We help founders zoom out. We see the bigger picture. We help answer the hard questions:
- What’s actually driving this business?
- Where are we wasting time?
- What’s the simplest, most scalable thing we could do next?
Even if a founder is already thinking strategically, we add another layer. One they often don’t realize they’re missing until we show up.
What We’ve Learned
This past year has taught us that decentralization isn’t a silver bullet. Strategy can’t be outsourced. And the clearest signals only show up when you’re close enough to hear the static.
We’re not perfect, and we don’t pretend to be. But we’ve evolved. We’ve learned how to balance structure with speed, and direction with autonomy.
Every business needs altitude.
Most founders and operators are flying too low.
We’re here to help them climb.
If you’re wondering why companies like Onfolio stay under the radar despite doing real work like this, there’s a structural reason for that. I wrote about it here: The Asset Class Wall Street Ignores.