Penelope and the undersung scale-up COO
Penelope and her Suitors (1912) by John William Waterhouse
This article was originally published on LinkedIn on 5 May 2026.
What if we've singularly focused on the wrong person?
The Odyssey gave Western culture its blueprint for the hero's journey: the lone protagonist who suffers, endures and returns transformed. Ten years of war, then ten years of wandering, fighting monsters and gods and the long journey home.
Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, Penelope is running a kingdom.
For twenty years, she manages a household full of people who want her throne, her hand and everything their family built. She raises their son alone, holds finances and alliances intact, outmanoeuvres a hundred suitors with nothing but intelligence, patience and nerve. And when she finally acts, she does so with devastating precision: setting a challenge only Odysseus can win, eliminating every suitor in a single move, restoring the kingdom. When he returns, he gets the Hero’s homecoming.
Every scale-up has a Penelope. The COO who built the operational backbone while the founder was fundraising. The Chief of Staff who held the leadership team together through quiet restructuring. The Head of People who caught the cultural unravelling early enough to stop it. The second-in-command who knew where everything was and made sure decisions made were actually executed on. Their track records are extraordinary, though their names rarely make it to the cover.
At FABRIC, we're lucky to work with both: the Odysseus and the Penelopes. What strikes us, every time, is not that one carries more than the other. It's that one form of excellence makes it into the story the company tells about itself, while the other tends not to: The intelligence that holds things together when the strategy is still being figured out. The patience that keeps the team engaged while the vision is still taking shape. The operational grip that catches what's slipping before anyone else has noticed. The loyalty that keeps showing up, long after the glamour of the early days has faded.
We have come to know Penelope as the dutiful wife, but look at what she actually did: strategist, diplomat, crisis manager AND the architect of its ending. What Penelopes do is one of the most active, strategic, exhausting feats of leadership in any company. They do not wait. They work. Invisibly, diligently and consistently. We just haven't been paying attention.
Who is the Penelopes in your company—the person whose work enabled collective success, but whose name isn't typically the cover story?
Laurie writes weekly reflections on leadership and business building—drawn from art, myth, and literature. Follow her or FABRIC for more.
💌 Title: Penelope and the undersung scale-up COO
🎭 Inspiration: The Odyssey by Homer
🎨 Photo: John William Waterhouse, Penelope and the Suitors (1912), public domain