Montclair, NJ, USA

Brian K.

Fractional COO for founder-led agencies and consultancies

I work with founders of agencies and consultancies who have outgrown running operations themselves.

My experience spans founding from nothing to 100+. I joined Fueled as Managing Director at 40 people and scaled it past 100, growing revenue from $6M to $15M. I then cofounded Studio and built it to 40 people. Since 2023, I've done the same work fractionally for creative studios, digital agencies, and consultancies.

I take on the operating work directly, build up someone on your team alongside it, and step back to advisory once they can carry it. Most engagements start with a four-week assessment, then run six to nine months on a monthly retainer.

That usually covers delivery workflows and SOPs, financial visibility and KPI cadence, resource and capacity planning, and developing the people who'll own it after me.

When the work calls for hands-on builds like automation, data pipelines, or AI tooling, I bring in a technical partner I work with regularly, along with other carefully selected partners when an engagement needs them. You hire me, and I stay accountable for the outcome.

Hire Brian

Chief Operating Officer Fractional Leadership Operations Leadership Scaling Operations Professional Services Mentoring Leadership Development Financial Reporting

Fractional COO rates

Testimonials

Brian didn’t just give us advice. He partnered with us to refine how we resource projects, held us accountable to actually using our tools, and helped us see problems before they hit. We now have real visibility into project capacity and can make staffing decisions based on data instead of gut feel. For a growing agency, that changes everything.

Juan MolinaPartner, Atomic Health

Brian immediately understood our challenges with a higher degree of fidelity than we could articulate ourselves. His work not only stabilized our operations during a critical transition but also significantly boosted our confidence as leaders. Even post-engagement, knowing we can reach out gives us a sense of security that’s invaluable for growing agencies like ours.

Danny MillerFounder, Chief Creative Officer, High Tide

Brian came in and immediately cut through the noise. We were growing but flying blind — no real financial visibility, no capacity data, everyone wearing too many hats. He built the financial tools we were missing, helped me and Brock get clear on who owns what, and gave us a way to actually track whether our markets are profitable. I'm not someone who wants to hear what I'm doing well — I want someone to tell me what's broken and help me fix it. That's exactly what Brian did.

Johnathon KellerCEO, Infinite Views

Before Brian, I was involved in everything. Every hire decision, every escalation, every operational question ran through me. We had two flat years and our margins were heading the wrong direction, but we didn’t even have the tools to see it clearly. Brian gave us real financial visibility so we could make better decisions instead of guessing.

Austin McDanielCEO & Founder, Good Code

We'd been working around organizational bottlenecks for months without realizing what they were costing us. Brian's assessment surfaced critical gaps in our product and project management practices that were creating chaos across our Buenos Aires and NYC teams. What impressed me most was that the findings turned into an actionable roadmap, not just a slide deck. The weekly leadership meetings he helped us establish have become essential for keeping our distributed team aligned.

Brendan BilkoFounder, Robin

Brian is an incredible and efficient operations master whom I have had the pleasure of working with for ten years. He is expert at creating process and organization inside of growing companies that lead to fast scaling and increasing margins.

Aaron CohenDirector, Studio

Work

Good Code

goodcode.us

I served as Fractional COO for Good Code, building a real-time financial model that connected revenue, expenses, utilization, and pipeline to deliver the company's first consolidated financial visibility. I mentored the Chief of Staff with a leadership transition plan and PM development curriculum, implemented utilization tracking and capacity planning, and redesigned comp while leading insurance procurement and a PEO/payroll migration. Those changes brought predictable project scheduling, reduced admin and costs with improved benefits, put the Chief of Staff owning ops, and put the company on track for 20% revenue growth with improved margins.

Infinite Views

infiniteviewsllc.com

As fractional COO I built the missing financial model and capacity-planning tools connecting revenue, costs, and headcount, developed a department-level KPI dashboard, and established a weekly management cadence and issue-resolution process. I restructured roles and responsibilities (including retitling the Director of Biz Dev to Director of Ops), ran an organizational audit with stakeholder interviews, and supported team restructuring and performance reviews. These changes delivered the company’s first service-line and market-level profitability tracking, real-time financial visibility, and role clarity that enabled the CEO to delegate operations; I transitioned to a strategic advisory role after six months.

Robin

androbin.co

I led an assessment sprint across organizational structure, leadership capabilities, and delivery processes, turning findings into an actionable roadmap that addressed critical gaps in product and project management. I restructured engineering to reduce the CTO bottleneck, defined PM and product manager roles, recruited and onboarded candidates, implemented forecasting software for real-time capacity planning and project profitability, and established weekly leadership meetings linking Buenos Aires and NYC. After eight months of fractional COO work the founder was freed to focus on business development and transitioned to a strategic advisory role.

Atomic Health

atomic.health

As fractional COO for Atomic Health, I analyzed operations across their project management and financial systems, then put the tools they already had to work. That meant training and adoption across the team, SOPs for project tracking and resource management, and a weekly resourcing meeting with structured decision-making.

Atomic Health is a boutique digital agency. Resource forecasting was inconsistent, with no visibility into capacity or workload. The project management tools were in place, but teams worked around them, and project timelines and budgets were chronically out of sync. Leadership had little data to guide decisions about growth, hiring, or new projects.

The team now forecasts projects and plans capacity with real visibility, and uses its tools consistently. Leadership evaluates new work with data, on a framework built to scale without adding overhead.

High Tide

hightidenyc.com

I served as fractional COO for High Tide for six months, stepping in when their operations leader left abruptly. I defined a new Managing Director role with clear responsibilities and a transition plan, built real-time KPI dashboards and financial reporting, and set up communication protocols and a structured meeting rhythm for the leadership team.

High Tide is a full-service creative studio. Service quality was slipping as the workload grew with the team, delayed financial reporting was holding up hiring and growth decisions, and with no structured processes, everything ran informally through the founders.

The leadership transition happened without operational disruption. Service quality and team morale recovered, and leadership now makes decisions with real-time data. I've continued with them as a strategic advisor.

Experience

Sep 2023 — Present

Kapital Nine

Founder, Fractional COO

Operational leadership for founder-led agencies and consultancies at growth inflection points (15 to 50 people). I take on the operating work, build up someone on your team to own it, and step back once they can. Engagements start with a four-week assessment, run six to nine months on a monthly retainer, then taper to light advisory. Operating work and automation are both part of the engagement from the assessment forward. Core focus: founder freedom, financial visibility, role clarity and accountability, and scalable infrastructure.

Six months as fractional COO at High Tide, a creative studio: defined a Managing Director role and stabilized operations before moving to advisory.
Eight months at Robin: redesigned the org, created the project manager role, and implemented forecasting software. Moved to advisory after.
Built a service-line and market profitability model and capacity planning for Infinite Views, and restructured a business development role into operations.
At Good Code, built a real-time financial model, redesigned the compensation structure, and am developing the Chief of Staff to run operations day to day.

May 2019 — Sep 2023

Studio

Cofounder

Studio is a product studio offering strategy, design, and engineering to startups and enterprise clients.

Cofounded the company and built the team from 2 to 40 people across multiple regions, using global hiring to keep the cost structure lean.
Led business development, winning work from venture-backed startups like Mustard and Fortune 500 companies like QVC.

May 2014 — Sep 2018

Fueled

Managing Director

Fueled is a technology consultancy that transforms businesses by generating ideas, building products, & accelerating growth.

Revenue & Profit Growth: Oversaw agency operations, growing annual revenues and profits during my tenure from $6m to $15m and $1.2m to $5m, respectively. Clients included venture-backed startups and Fortune 500s alike.
Strategic Talent Acquisition: Established an in-house talent acquisition team, reducing hiring time by 40% and saving over $100K in recruiting expenses.
Decision-Making Enhancement: Transformed decision-making processes by establishing a structured organizational rhythm, streamlining leadership team ceremonies, and implementing real-time KPI reporting.
Operational Efficiency & OKR Implementation: Implemented OKRs, aligning individual and organizational goals for enhanced performance.
Employee Retention & Experience: Enhanced employee retention from 41% in 2014 to 85% in 2018 through strategic HR initiatives and employee experience programs.
Team Growth: Scaled the company from 40 to over 100 people, alongside the revenue growth above.

Jan 2013 — Jan 2014

Summit Series

Chief of Staff

Summit designs experiences that connect, educate and inspire today's brightest leaders.

Strategic Vision Execution: Collaborated with the founders to turn their vision into executable strategies.
Organizational Structure Optimization: Managed all department heads, streamlined communication, and implemented a new organizational structure.
Real Estate Project Success: Enabled the sale of $40 million worth of real estate for the acquisition of Powder Mountain.
Financial Transparency Improvement: Developed financial reporting tools and budgets, leading to profitability in key events and increased financial transparency.

Apr 2011 — Jan 2013

Liquidity Services

Senior Client Services Manager

Liquidity Services (NASDAQ: LQDT) is a leading global surplus goods marketplace with completed sales of over $10 billion of surplus assets in over 600 product categories.

Client Relationship Expansion: Initiated and managed relationships with key Fortune 500 clients, including Costco and Sam’s Club, leading to significant account expansion.
Process Optimization for Client Value: Revamped the receiving process for returned items by integrating new data streams, which provided valuable information to buyers, making lots more attractive and increasing sales.
Business Intelligence Enhancement: Developed comprehensive dashboards and reports, enhancing internal and client-facing data presentation, and improving decision-making.
Strategic Client Onboarding: Led multiple client onboarding projects, including new technology integration and UAT planning.
3PL Partnership & Integration: Spearheaded integration with a 3PL partner, aligning their processes with ours and creating a real-time inventory visibility system.
Client Revenue Impact: Increased a key client's bottom line by over $1 million through refined sales strategies.
Note: Served as Sr. Channel Optimization Manager January 2010 - March 2011, Global Accounts Manager April 2007 - December 2009, and Global Accounts Specialist July 2006 - April 2007.

Brian K.

Fractional COO for founder-led agencies and consultancies

Testimonials