Case studies
The work.
What was breaking, what we did, and where it landed. The quotes are the founders' own.
High Tide
Creative agency, New York
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| What was breaking | What we did | Where it landed |
|---|---|---|
Operations leader departing abruptly with no succession plan | Organizational audit identifying operational gaps and leadership priorities | Leadership transition executed without operational disruption |
Service quality declining as workload grew with the team | Established communication protocols and structured meeting rhythms for the leadership team | Service quality restored and team morale improved through the transition |
Delayed financial reporting hampering hiring and growth decisions | Built real-time KPI dashboards and financial systems | Leadership operating with real-time data visibility |
No structured processes; everything running through the founders informally | Defined a new Managing Director role with clear responsibilities and a transition plan | Scalable foundation established; continuing as strategic advisor |
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.
Jill Cole & Danny Miller, Co-founders
Good Code
Software development studio
Read what we didHide the detail for Good Code
| What was breaking | What we did | Where it landed |
|---|---|---|
No consolidated financial view; decisions made on gut feel | Built a real-time financial model connecting revenue, expenses, utilization, and pipeline | First-ever financial visibility, with margins improving |
Chief of Staff handling admin without authority; no development path for junior team | Chief of Staff mentorship with a leadership transition plan, plus a PM development curriculum | Chief of Staff owning operational decisions; junior team members leveling up |
No utilization tracking or resource planning; overstaffed and still hiring contractors | Implemented utilization tracking and capacity planning | Predictable project scheduling replacing reactive scrambling |
No business insurance, no performance management, payroll provider creating admin burden | Led insurance procurement, PEO migration, and designed a performance-based comp structure | Less admin, lower costs, better benefits, and a comp framework that motivates |
Founder as single point of failure; revenue flat two years, margins contracting | Established leadership cadence and accountability frameworks | CEO redirecting time to strategic sales with a clear path out of daily operations |
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 McDaniel, Founder & CEO
Robin
Brand and product agency, New York and Buenos Aires
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| What was breaking | What we did | Where it landed |
|---|---|---|
Organizational bottlenecks nobody could name, across two distributed offices | Assessment sprint across organizational structure, leadership capability, and delivery process | Engineering team reorganized, reducing the CTO bottleneck |
Gaps in product and project management practice creating chaos between teams | Defined project management roles, recruited candidates, led onboarding | Dedicated project managers in place with standard practices |
Design team absorbing product management work | Installed a dedicated product management function | Design team focused on design |
No forward view of capacity or project profitability | Implemented forecasting software for capacity and profitability | Real-time capacity planning and project-level profitability |
Founder absorbed in operations | Documented strategic priorities and established leadership cadence | Founder freed for business development; transitioned to advisory after eight months |
We’d been working around organizational bottlenecks for months without realizing what they were costing us. What impressed me most was that the findings turned into an actionable roadmap, not just a slide deck. The weekly leadership meetings have become essential for keeping our distributed team aligned.
Brendan Bilko, Founder
Infinite Views
Multi-market services business
Read what we didHide the detail for Infinite Views
| What was breaking | What we did | Where it landed |
|---|---|---|
Growing with no real financial visibility | Built a financial model and capacity planning tools connecting revenue, cost, and utilization | First-ever service-line and market-level profitability tracking |
No capacity data to plan against | Established resourcing and forecasting practice | Real-time financial visibility and data-driven decision making |
Everyone wearing too many hats; ownership undefined | Defined role ownership across the leadership team | Role clarity enabling the CEO to delegate operations |
Growth pursued without margin discipline | Installed margin-conscious planning and review cadence | Leadership mindset shifted from revenue-at-all-costs to disciplined growth |
Founder as the operational center | Built the systems and handed them off | Transitioned to advisory after six months |
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. 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 Keller, Founder & CEO
Atomic Health
Healthcare marketing agency
Read what we didHide the detail for Atomic Health
| What was breaking | What we did | Where it landed |
|---|---|---|
Inconsistent resource forecasting; no visibility into capacity or workload | Analyzed operations across project management and financial systems with leadership | Resource visibility enabling accurate forecasting and capacity planning |
Project management tools in place but underused; teams working around them | Tool training and adoption across the team, plus SOPs for project tracking | Operational efficiency improved through consistent tool usage |
Chronic misalignment between project timelines and budgets | Established weekly resourcing meetings with structured decision-making | Staffing decisions made on data rather than instinct |
Limited data for decisions about growth, hiring, or new work | Developed SOPs for resource management and frameworks for capacity-informed decisions | Scalable framework for growth without adding overhead |
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 Molina & Mike Cuesta, Partners
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