AI advisor to founders & executives
I help early-stage founders use AI to scale growth and operations together, and executives get up to speed on AI, fast.
For early-stage founders
Early-stage startups put most of their people and money into product and R&D, and growth and operations get whatever's left. I help founders use AI to build both functions together, so a small team can do the work of a much larger one.
For executives and senior leaders
AI is changing what's expected of senior leaders, and you can't delegate it. I work one-on-one with executives to get up to speed fast: using AI in your own work, knowing where it helps and where it doesn't, and leading your team through the change.
AI leadership
AI is changing how companies operate faster than most leaders are adapting. For 4+ years, I've helped lead an AI company working on some of the hardest problems in the field. These are the changes I see leaders needing to make.
01
Answers that used to take an analyst and a week now take a good question. Leaders who can get answers from their own data directly make better decisions, sooner.
02
Small teams working with AI now produce what once took departments and agencies. That changes what leaders hire for, what they outsource and how they organize.
03
Executives can now produce work directly instead of only directing it. The leaders getting the most from AI use it themselves every day, rather than handing it to a pilot project.
04
When AI can produce almost anything, the hard part is knowing what's worth producing and whether the result is right. Experience and judgment become what sets leaders apart.
I work one-on-one with founders and executives to make these shifts in their own work first, then bring their teams along. It's how I work every day.
Early-stage founders usually bring me in at one of these four moments. Each is a chance to build growth and operations around AI from the start.
01
You've raised money and expectations are high, but you don't yet have the plan or the people to deliver.
02
You're ready to go to market, but you don't yet have a plan to get there.
03
The product is live, but growth is flat and no one can say why.
04
Finance, fundraising and day-to-day operations keep landing on your desk, and they're pulling you away from the vision only you can drive.
01
I've helped lead an AI company since 2022, and AI runs through my own work, from analysis and planning to marketing and operations. What I advise comes from daily practice, not theory.
02
I've worked at seven startups, three of which went on to be acquired. At Protus, I ran digital marketing and ecommerce growth through its $213 million acquisition by J2 Global. Fast change, pivots and thin resources are normal working conditions for me.
03
In most companies, growth and operations are run by different people, and the two pull against each other. I've led both. At trophi.ai, I built the go-to-market and the operations behind it, taking an idea to a 100,000-person waitlist and then to $1 million in ARR in eight months.
04
Analytics became central to my work early in my career, and measurement has shaped every role since. I've led analytics for clients with $2 billion in combined annual ecommerce sales, and advised billion-dollar enterprise brands on growth. I make decisions from the numbers and know how to report results to executives.
About
I've spent 27 years in marketing, analytics and operations, most of it in startups and most of it reporting directly to founders and CEOs. I started in Ottawa's tech sector, built my career on measurement and growth, and moved into leading marketing and operations together.
Today I lead marketing and operations at trophi.ai, an AI company based in St. John's, Newfoundland, where I've worked since 2022. I work best close to the founder or CEO, turning plans into priorities and keeping the company moving when things change quickly.
jmb & co. is me and the AI agents I've built to run my work. They handle the research, analysis and first drafts; the judgment and advice are mine. Alongside my role at trophi.ai, I work with a small number of founders and executives.
Contact
I take on a small number of advisory engagements. If you'd like to talk about working together, email me.