Who's Number One argues that the most important seat in a growing company is the one with no agreed-upon title — and that founders who never fill it end up trapped by the businesses they built.
FAIRHOPE, Ala., Sept. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A new book released this week argues that the vagueness is the problem.
Who's Number One, by fractional COO and Integrator Forrest Derr a.k.a. The Fractionator, makes the case that nearly every company that scales past its founder does so because one person quietly takes the second seat, and that most organizations have no language for the role, no way to hire for it, and no idea what it's worth until the person in that seat leaves.
Forrest has spent three decades in that seat across 15-plus industries, including grocery, warehousing, distribution, telecom, technology, construction, and landscaping. He now serves as a fractional Integrator to founder-led companies between $2 million and $50 million in revenue.
"Founders don't build a prison on purpose," Forrest said. "They build a company, and one day they look up and every decision routes through them. They can't take a vacation. They can't sit through a four-hour meeting without the phone ringing. That's not a business. That's a high-paying job with no exit."
The book is written to two readers at once.
The first is the founder who has become the ceiling of their own company. The second is the person Forrest calls the "closet Integrator": someone who has been doing second-in-command work for years without knowing there's a name for it, a market for it, or a reason to charge accordingly.
"I meet these people constantly, and they undersell themselves every time," Forrest said. "They think they're the person who handles loose ends. They're actually the reason the company still functions. Nobody ever told them that, so they never learned to say it out loud."
Forrest's central image is a thoroughbred. "Put a racehorse in an open field and it runs, zigzags, bucks, and runs over whoever's in the way. Not on purpose but that's just what it does. Put that same horse on a track with a jockey and you get something worth watching. The founder is the horse. The second in command is the jockey. Neither one wins alone."
Who's Number One runs 14 chapters and draws on Derr's operational career alongside his work with founder-led companies. It covers defining the second seat, installing accountability and meeting discipline, and the working relationship between a visionary founder and the operator who translates vision into execution.
The book is dedicated to Daniel Galbraith, a fellow Integrator and board member of ENRG, the entrepreneurial peer learning community Forrest founded.
Who's Number One is available August 31, 2026, in hardcover, paperback, and ebook at https://fractionatorhq.com/playbooks/whos-number-one.
About Forrest Derr
Forrest Derr is a fractional COO and Integrator based in Fairhope, Alabama, and the founder of Derr Consulting and The Fractionator. He has more than 30 years of operational leadership across 15-plus industries and works as a second-in-command to founder-led companies scaling between $2 million and $50 million. He is co-host of the Fixers & Founders podcast and co-founder of ENRG, an entrepreneurial peer learning community with more than 100 chapters nationwide. Learn more at fractionatorhq.com.
Media Contact
Forrest Derr, Derr Consulting, 1 251-210-2411, [email protected], Derr Consulting
SOURCE Derr Consulting
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