Simon Haugk
Architect for Owner-Independence · Founder CEOPRENEUR
Systems that work without the CEO.
CEOPRENEUR grew out of a recurring problem: companies expand while decisions, knowledge and responsibility remain tied to the founder.
Simon Haugk turned that experience into an architecture for operational independence. It makes implicit logic visible, transferable and executable in daily work.
This page documents the experience and principles behind CEOPRENEUR. The system itself remains the point of reference.
Practice became a system
Not a personal brand, but a transferable path from founder bottleneck to an owner-independent company.
01
Observation
Growth does not resolve founder dependency by itself. Without explicit decision and process logic, the founder remains the permanent safety net.
02
Architecture
CEOPRENEUR externalises knowledge, responsibility and edge decisions into roles, rules and verifiable operating routines.
03
Target state
The company becomes easier to lead, transfer and stress-test without every operating loop ending with one person.
What the system was built on
01
Principle-based pragmatism
Focus on the 20% levers. No ideological concepts, no dogmatic approaches.
02
Holistic view & big picture
Company as asset for life goals. Owner independence is not an end in itself but a means to freedom.
03
Cosmopolitan openness
Think globally, place optimally. Structures follow goals, not conventions.
04
Minimalist focus
Radical simplification and elimination. Anything that does not contribute to the system is removed.
05
Personal development & high performance
Recognise and solve the entrepreneur as bottleneck. No mindset fluff, but operational consequence.
06
The company as a tool
Build a system that replaces the founder. Exit-ready as the default, not the exception.
Career
1999
First own business
Even before military service.
2002/03
Company founded during training
Management Assistant for Insurance and Finance (IHK).
from 2003
Strategic consulting for SMEs
Direct market logic, sales, communication. 80% personal closing rate as external closer.
2009
International company foundations
Settlement consulting Europe / USA. CH-AG, US-LLC, NL.
2012–14
E-commerce scaling
0.5m CHF to 2.5m CHF revenue in 2.5 years. 13-person sales team.
since 2020
CEOPRENEUR
Systematisation, exit readiness (M&A), framework development.
Frameworks, methods and access points
Frameworks
- Build to Leave™
- ExitReady™
- Founder Dependency Transformation
- Business Logic Architecture
Methods
- Bottleneck Mapping
- Decision system design
- Owner dependency audits
- Template-first operating models
Access points
- CEOPRENEUR
- CEOPRENEUR Show
- Frameworks
- Score / Diagnostics
Articles & perspectives
Essays and perspectives from the former Haugk context are consolidated here under CEOPRENEUR.
Articles on CEOPRENEUR
You are the limiting factor in your company
The core problem behind operational dependency and why founders often become their own biggest bottleneck.
Personal development without mindset fluff
On character, identity, values and why entrepreneurial maturity goes deeper than motivational language.
Strategic planning step by step
How planning becomes practical once it is treated as leadership logic instead of slideware.
Cosmopolitan structures and foreign entities
Mistakes around foreign entities, tax logic and why international setups require substance instead of illusion.
CEOPRENEUR Show
The CEOPRENEUR Show is the clearest public access point to Simon's thinking: conversations with founders, operators and system builders about exit readiness, architecture and entrepreneurship.
Open show →