Notes from the operator chair
Writing on running a fractional practice, building Torchrunner on Torchrunner, and the tooling choices that move the needle. From the seat where the work actually gets done.
The operators behind the operators
Fractional CFOs and COOs juggle a stack of tools built for someone else. The role gets easier the moment that stack collapses into one place.
Automating the first thirty days of a client engagement
Discovery, CRM setup, SOP drafting, comms routing. Four things every new client needs, and four places AI earns its keep.
Building Torchrunner on Torchrunner
Tenant zero isn't a marketing line. Every decision gets stress-tested against my own fractional practice before a client touches it.
Applied AI vs AI theater
Most AI features in B2B software are ornamental. The ones worth shipping remove a human step or compress a judgment call.
The six-tool operator
Every fractional operator I know runs a version of the same stack. Here's what's on it, and what consolidating feels like.
What fractional really means
Not part-time. Not freelance. Not consultant. Fractional is a commitment shape the software industry hasn't caught up with.
Why I bill for outcomes, not hours
Hourly billing punishes me for getting faster. Outcome pricing only works if I can actually deliver the outcome, and that is a tooling question.
The handoff problem nobody talks about
Most things break at the seams between tools, not inside them. The handoff is where context goes to die.
What I automate first for every new client
Not the flashy stuff. The boring, repeated, every-single-time work that quietly eats the first month.
AI that remembers vs AI that impresses
A model that wows you in a demo and forgets your business by next week is not useful. Memory is the feature.
Running five clients without dropping one
Capacity is not about hours. It is about how much of each hour goes to the work versus to remembering where I left off.
The cost of context switching, measured
Half my week used to be reconstruction: where was I, what changed, what is the state here. That tax does not show up on any invoice.
Why I stopped using Zapier for client work
It worked until it did not, and when it broke I could not see where. Automation you cannot audit is a liability dressed as leverage.
Implementation is the product
Software does not change anything sitting in a tab. The value is in the setup, the migration, the getting-it-actually-running.
Giving an AI the keys, carefully
I want AI that can act, not just advise. But acting on client systems means permissions, scope, and a log, or it is reckless.
The client portal changed how clients see me
One branded place for status, files, and messages. It moved me from fielding questions to looking like a system.
How I price a fractional engagement
Retainer for the ongoing relationship, scoped fees for bounded projects. The thing that lets me charge well is the system behind me.
The first call: what I actually listen for
Not the stated problem. The seams, the workarounds, and the thing they have stopped noticing because they live with it.
Why one workspace beats fifteen tabs
The point of consolidation is not fewer logins. It is fewer places for the truth to live, so context stops being something I move.
What most AI users get wrong
Adoption is not the gap. Almost everyone already uses AI. The gap is location: beside the work instead of inside it.