I find where your business is bleeding time, money, and margin. Then I build the fix.

Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business. 16 years inside Fortune 500. $1B+ in P&L. 3x retail growth in 24 months. IPO. Davos. Now I choose to work with 2‑3 operators at a time. PE‑backed teams, search fund CEOs, and founders who've outgrown their current setup.

Record a message · Written assessment in 24 hours · Call only if there's a fit

Kevin Burke, Founder of Awarded LLC
Amazon
Walmart
Home Depot
Lowe's
Ace Hardware
True Value
Newell Brands
Grainger
Costco
Target
Menards
Uline
Cintas
Tractor Supply
9dcc
Mastercard
Prada
Ledger
OpenSea
ABALLE
AZEK Building Products
Amazon
Walmart
Home Depot
Lowe's
Ace Hardware
True Value
Newell Brands
Grainger
Costco
Target
Menards
Uline
Cintas
Tractor Supply
9dcc
Mastercard
Prada
Ledger
OpenSea
ABALLE
AZEK Building Products

Executives and operators who need
execution, not advice.

PE-Backed Portfolio Companies

The value creation plan says one thing. The portco can't execute it. I build the operating infrastructure that turns a thesis into EBITDA growth: reporting, KPIs, pricing, channel strategy, team structure. You get a 100-day roadmap, clear decision rights, and a written charter so everyone knows what I own and what I don't.

CPG, Building Products & Retail Channel

You're preparing for a line review, launching, or expanding an existing program at big box retail or a national account. I've personally led 90+ line reviews, managed a retail team executing 60+ annually, won multiple category captainships, and generated hundreds of millions in incremental sales. JBP architecture, category strategy, pricing, planograms, retail expansion readiness, training modules, in-store execution, and market testing.

Founder-Led Businesses ($5M–$50M+)

You've outgrown your current setup. Every decision runs through you. The team is stretched. I diagnose the bottleneck, build the fix, and hand you back a business that runs without you in the room.

Search Fund Operators

You're drinking from a firehose. The seller had everything in his head, there's little to no documentation, and you're working in the business instead of on it. I get up to speed fast. Tight onboarding, rapid baseline, and a 30/60/90 plan within the first week. I've built these systems inside $1B companies. I'll build yours in weeks.

You don't need another advisor.
You need someone who builds.

Post-Acquisition Chaos

You closed the deal. The 100-day plan is behind schedule and the back office needs to be professionalized before you can bolt on acquisitions. The data is a black box.

Founder Bottleneck

Every decision runs through you. You can't hire fast enough and you can't keep running ops, sales, and finance yourself.

Retail Expansion

You're entering or expanding at a national retailer and the team has never been through a line review. You need someone who's actually sat across from the buyer and knows what they're looking for.

Systems Held Together by Spreadsheets

Your team runs on email, text threads, and 15 SaaS tools that don't talk to each other. You're bleeding hours every week.

Missed Forecast, Again

Revenue was supposed to hit X. It didn't. Nobody can tell you exactly where it broke down.

KPI Fog

You have dashboards but no clarity. The numbers don't connect to the decisions you need to make this week.

Results, not recommendations.

I don't write reports and leave. I stay until the problem is solved and the system is running without me.

AZEK Building Products
Retail Channel Marketing Director
$31M → $100M+
  • In under 2 years as Retail Channel Marketing Director
  • Led Home Depot and Lowe's line reviews end-to-end
  • 560M+ brand impressions. 8-figure marketing campaign.
  • Built channel team from 1 to 8. IPO participant.
Newton - Luxury Jewelry Startup
Custom Operating Platform with Autonomous & Agentic AI
$300/mo → $400K+ replaced
  • 52 modules. 19 background tasks. 13 integrations.
  • Accounting, ops, vendor portal, customer comms, daily briefing
  • No off-the-shelf stack comes close at any price
Newell Brands / Grainger
National Account Manager
$43M → $60M+
  • 3-year JBP. Fastest-growing top-5 supplier.
  • 2 category captainships won
  • $6.5M+ incremental annual sales generated
9dcc
Chief Operating Officer
Davos '24 Brand of the Year
  • Built and managed a 16-person team
  • Bradley Cooper, Mastercard, PGA Tour, NFT Paris
  • 5,200+ products sold. Six-figure Mastercard partnership.
  • Managed finance, legal, IP, and vendor governance
Newell Brands / RCP
Brand Manager → Director
$600M+ P&L
  • $300M+ global business unit. 22% net sales growth YR1.
  • Oversaw 60+ line reviews, JBPs, and captainships annually across retail team
  • 10-person team across ecommerce and retail
Residential Development
Custom Project Management Platform
6 Concurrent Builds. One System.
  • Evaluated Procore, Buildertrend, Monday, Asana — none fit
  • Built construction-native platform: daily logs, real-time tracking
  • Automated sub/vendor comms and follow-ups
  • The 40% that off-the-shelf tools never cover

Every month of operational delay at a 10x exit multiple is millions in lost enterprise value.

The cost of waiting is almost always higher than the cost of starting.

Get My Written Assessment

Written assessment within 24 hours. No call required.

Four phases. No fluff.
No 90-slide decks.

Every step of this process, it's me. Not a junior associate. Not an outsourced team. Not a senior partner who sells the engagement and disappears. I personally do the work.

01

Listen

Send me a quick message about what's happening in your business. What's broken, what's at risk, or what opportunity you need help capturing. Within 24 hours, I email you a written assessment: what I heard, what I think is going on, and what an engagement could look like. No call required to get that.

02

Align

If the assessment resonates, we get on a focused 20-30 minute call. I've already done my homework, so we skip the basics and go straight under the hood. Fill the gaps, pressure-test assumptions, and finalize the right scope together. Once we're aligned, I send a written scope of work and get started.

03

Build

I embed into the business and build. Operating systems, dashboards, workflows, playbooks, JBPs, channel strategies, automation. Delivered in days or weeks, not quarters.

04

Deliver

You get working systems, not slide decks. I walk your team through everything, document what was built, and make sure it runs without me. Retainer clients keep a direct line for ongoing access.

Three ways to work together.

Every engagement starts with your recorded message. I listen, research your business, and email you a written assessment within 24 hours. If I'm not the right fit, I'll tell you that directly. No wasted calls for either of us.

Typical investment
$5K/mo
Sounding Board

Light-touch strategic guidance. Weekly or biweekly calls. You run execution. I pressure-test decisions, review plans, and flag what you're missing. Best for experienced operators who want someone with real operating context in their corner.

Ranges from $3K–$7K/mo based on cadence and complexity.

Typical investment
$25K
Sprint / Project

Defined scope, defined timeline. Line review prep, operating system build, channel strategy, operational audit. Typical duration: 2–8 weeks. You keep everything I build whether or not we continue working together. A self-funding asset, not a consulting fee.

Ranges from $15K–$40K based on scope and duration.

Written scope before we start
30-day out clause after initial commitment
3x return standard within 12 months

PE portfolio partnerships start at $15K–$25K+/month depending on scope and SLA.

"I manage six concurrent construction projects from development to listing. Kevin listened to my pain points and within one week delivered a system that streamlined communication across my team, subs, and vendors. I no longer look in half a dozen places for answers. It's saving my team 20% in project management time weekly, over $150,000 annually."

Connor M.

Residential Developer, Charlotte, NC

What to expect.

What if I'm not sure what I need? +

That's the most common starting point. Most people who reach out know something isn't working but can't pinpoint exactly why. Revenue is flat, the team is stretched, things that used to work don't anymore. If you could diagnose it yourself, you'd fix it yourself. That's where I come in. I've spent 16 years inside complex businesses finding the root cause underneath the symptoms. Record a message, tell me what you're seeing, and I'll tell you what I think is actually going on.

How does this work? +

You record a quick message about your business: what you're facing, what you've tried, what a win looks like. Video or voice, whatever's easiest. I listen, research your business, and email you a written assessment within 24 hours. Not a generic proposal. A specific breakdown of what I heard, what I think is actually going on, what an engagement would look like, and what I'd still need to know. Everything you share is held in strict confidence. You read it on your own time. If it resonates, we schedule a call and we're both already up to speed. If it doesn't, no wasted time for either of us.

Why not just hire someone full-time? +

A full-time hire at this level costs $20K–$30K/month fully loaded: salary, benefits, equity, bonus. Then there's the search (3–6 months to fill), the ramp (another 3–6 months to full productivity), and the risk if it doesn't work out ($500K+ in lost time and severance). I start in days, not months. There's no severance, no termination risk, and no overhead. Hiring full-time makes sense when the role is proven and the load is permanent. Until then, you're paying a premium to test a hypothesis.

I've been burned by consultants before. +

So have I. I spent 16 years on the corporate side watching expensive consultants sit in the fishbowl, interview everyone, and produce document after document. The meetings always felt great. Then 60 days later you'd look around and ask, "What actually changed?" That experience is exactly why I built this practice the way I did. No junior team. No outsourced bench. I personally do the work, and my deliverables are working systems, not slide decks. Every engagement has a written scope, weekly milestones, and a 30-day out clause after the initial commitment. If I'm not delivering, you'll know within the first month.

How do I measure ROI? +

We set a baseline before I start and define 3–5 specific metrics we're moving. Could be margin improvement, revenue growth, cost reduction, cycle time, or operational capacity. I build checkpoints into every engagement so we can measure progress, not just activity. The standard I hold myself to: 3x return on my fee within 12 months. If the math doesn't work, I'll tell you before we start.

Are you a fractional COO? +

I operate like one, but I don't use the title. Most "fractional" consultants advise part-time from the outside. I embed inside the business with a defined scope, weekly milestones, and clear ownership of outcomes. I attend the meetings, make the decisions within my charter, and build the systems myself. If you need someone who does the work and not just the thinking, that's the difference.

What industries do you specialize in? +

Three lanes. CPG and building materials companies selling through big box retail: Home Depot, Lowe's, Amazon, Walmart, Costco, Ace, True Value, Target. Commercial and industrial distribution: Grainger, Bunzl, Cintas, HD Supply, Uline. Startups and entrepreneurial businesses where I've built the operating infrastructure from scratch. The thread across all three is the same: diagnosing what's actually broken versus what looks broken, building systems that scale without adding headcount, and closing the gap between strategy and execution that most consultants leave wide open.

How fast can you start? +

Usually within 1–2 weeks of signing. Sprint projects can start faster. I keep my client count at 2–3 specifically so I have capacity when someone needs to move quickly.

What does a typical engagement look like? +

It depends on the situation. An operational audit takes 1–2 weeks. A line review prep sprint runs 4–6 weeks. An embedded operator engagement is 3+ months. Every engagement starts with your recorded message so I can understand the situation before proposing anything.

Do you work with companies outside of Charlotte? +

Yes. Most of my work is remote or hybrid. I'm based in Charlotte, NC but work with clients nationally. If the engagement requires on-site time, we build that into the scope.

Tell me what you're up against.

Hit record and talk for a few minutes. Video or voice, whatever's easiest. No script. No prep. Just tell me what's going on. Within 24 hours, I'll send you a written assessment: what I heard, what I'd do, and whether there's a fit.

I spent 16 years as the operator on the other side of this conversation. Sharing sensitive data with outside advisors, opening books during diligence, presenting to boards. I know what it costs to be this candid. Everything you share here stays between us. Your information belongs to you.

Get My Written Assessment
Held in strict confidence  ·  Mutual NDA available  ·  Response within 24 hours
  • What your company does and what you're facing right now
  • What winning looks like in the first 90 days and how you'd measure it
  • What's at stake if nothing changes
Select one
PE-Backed Portfolio Company
Corporate / Enterprise Division
Search Fund / Independent Sponsor
Founder-Led, $5M–$25M revenue
Founder-Led, $25M–$50M+ revenue
Founder-Led, under $5M (approaching scale)
Other

Everything you share is held in strict confidence. Mutual NDA available upon request.

If I'm not the right fit, I'll tell you directly so we don't waste each other's time. If I am, your assessment will outline exactly how we start.