About

Going Fractional was founded by Simon Wakeman, fractional COO, ICF-qualified executive coach, and someone who made the transition himself in January 2023.

Before that, Simon spent 24 years in employed roles across marketing, business transformation, digital and leadership, ending up as COO of a 700-person consulting and technology business. On paper the role was everything he’d worked towards. In practice, he had spent years managing organisational politics rather than the work he actually cared about.

In mid-2022 Simon handed in his notice without another job lined up, the first time he’d done that since graduating in 1998. On 2nd January 2023 he sat at his desk with no work, no pipeline and no plan.

What followed was a genuine learning experience: a soft landing that masked a harder challenge, a crisis moment nine months in, and the gradual realisation that going fractional meant building a business of one, not just doing good work for multiple companies. By the end of 2023 he was at capacity, earning more than he had in his corporate role, and had found the enthusiasm for his work that he’d spent years missing.

In 2024 and 2025, alongside his fractional practice, Simon began coaching other executives through the same transition. Going Fractional and The Fractional Executive Launchpad grew out of that coaching work: a way to share what he’d learned with more people than he could reach one to one.

The frameworks in the course are the ones Simon uses himself. The lessons are the ones that cost him something to learn. None of it is theory.

Simon is based in rural Kent, about an hour from London. Outside work he runs ultramarathons, cycles long distances, skis badly, and DJs under the name Discosyntax: mostly 90s house, disco, and things that have no business being as loud as they are.