Solo practice of Michael Dupuis

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Fractional COO

Any design & technology agency can, if it hangs around long enough, win work that sets the stage for it to take the next step: more interesting projects, a larger and more talented team, and stronger profits that compound.

So what separates category-leading agencies who sustain growth from those that burn bright and then burn out?

Leading agencies grow with balance

Resilient agencies maintain balance across three dimensions:

  • Delivering quality work

  • Developing business (revenue)

  • Operating efficiently (profit)

All three areas must grow in balance with one another:

  • If work quality suffers due to growth, your agency is going to burn through clients and tarnish a hard-won reputation along the way.

  • If business development can’t secure enough projects to feed the hungry mouths of a larger team, people lose their jobs.

  • If the agency’s operating system isn’t prepared for growth, the agency finds itself with strong revenue but weak profits and cash flow.

How I help

As a fractional Chief Operating Officer, I partner with founders, CEOs, and General Managers of digital agencies to ensure their agency grows with balance.

I own operations, which frees up the agency’s other leaders to focus on the challenges they’re uniquely suited for: winning clients and delivering world-class work.

What does this look like in practice?

  • Operationalizing leadership’s strategic vision, creating goals & OKRs that hit their mark

  • Managing the execution of internal projects that achieve company goals

  • Finding efficiencies in how the agency operates to reduce costs and create more space for craft

  • Designing and implementing processes that generate and capture data for decision-making

The outcome of our work together is an operations practice that supports revenue growth, improves profitability, and helps good, honest digital agencies win the day.

When I work with your team, I’m often working with folks in roles that I’ve previously held and know intimately.


General Manager (2022–2025)*
Chief Operating Officer (2020–2021)**
Business Developer & Director (2017–2020)***
Project Manager (2016–2017)
Software Developer (2013–2016)

*GM for a 25-person design & dev agency.
**COO for a 70-person design & dev agency.