Operator to CEO

Most operators do not have a growth problem. They have a structure problem.

Below 200 units a property management business runs on effort. Above it, effort stops working and the business has to run on structure. That transition is where more than 80% of operators stall, and it is not a marketing problem, a software problem, or a hiring problem. It is a change in what the founder does all day.

The academy is built for that one transition. Eight modules, self-paced, drawn from operating decisions rather than theory.

Launching at VRWS Lyon, October 2026

Join the founding list

First access when the academy opens, and the thinking behind it as it is built. Nothing else.

No pricing conversations, no sequences you did not ask for. You can leave the list in one click.

You are on the list

I will write when there is something worth reading, and you will hear about the launch before it goes public.

What it covers

The operating model

Getting the business out of your head and into a playbook, with tiered service that owner contracts actually enforce.

Structure and decision rights

A management team with real authority, defined KPIs with named owners, and the end of every decision routing through you.

Tech architecture

One master system the rest of the stack conforms to, rather than a set of tools connected by good intentions.

Margin and finance

Why headcount tracks units and margin compresses, and what a finance function looks like when it informs decisions instead of reporting on them.

Owner economics

Channel mix, pricing discipline, and the portfolio decisions that quietly determine whether the next 100 units help or hurt.

The founder's own role

The hardest module. What you stop doing, what you hand over, and how to stay useful once you are no longer the one holding it together.

Built by Simon Lehmann. Former CEO of Interhome, president of Phocuswright, and a board member at HomeAway through its delisting and sale to Expedia. More than 50 C-suite engagements with operators, platforms and investors across Europe, North America and Australia. The frameworks come from those rooms.

Teams and seat licences

If you are looking at this for a management team rather than for yourself, or you are a platform or association considering it for your operators, that is a different conversation. Start it directly.

Book a conversation
Not sure which level you are operating at? Take the two-minute diagnostic.