Your agency runs on you. We build the systems so it doesn't.
For founder-led paid media and marketing agencies. A senior operator maps where your hours go, then builds the onboarding, reporting and automations your team runs without you. First systems live in 30 days.
“He's absolutely revolutionised the back end of the business and everything runs so much smoother now.”
A founder's week · example
Agencies Penguin Ops has worked with
- Kraken Digital
- Ad Imperium
- Aether Ads
- Bellvines
- Oak Media
Founders who handed over the ops
- £50k to £200k
- Monthly recurring revenue during one embedded engagement.
- 40% to under 10%
- Annual client churn at the same agency, over eight months.
- 30 days
- To daily standups, weekly reporting and a documented onboarding flow.
“We've been working with Kam for the last couple of months and it has been an absolutely fantastic experience. He has optimised the back end of the business so much in my agency, made sure that I'm not spending every single day stuck in operations, stuck chatting with clients, team members.”
“He found the bottlenecks, he prioritised them, and then he executed on them without me having to do anything. He's absolutely revolutionised the back end of the business and everything runs so much smoother now. I highly, highly recommend Kam for anyone who's looking to get their time back.”
“Before you came in things were a mess, the team was weak, operations weren't optimal and as a founder I was feeling overwhelmed 24/7. Fast forward to now: team is 100% dialled in, clients are super happy, agency is growing without things breaking.”
“We recently hired Kam as our COO and my only regret is not having it done sooner. Just in a month, we saw ROI because one of our most at-risk clients renewed, from how much smoother everything was.”
What is the leak costing you?
Five sliders, no email needed to see the number. The maths is on the page so you can argue with it.
Leaking every month
£23,411
Show the maths
- Your time = delivery hours × 4.33 weeks × £150 an hour.
- Team time = team size × admin hours × 4.33 weeks × £38 an hour.
- Churn at risk = MRR × annual churn ÷ 12.
- Recoverable = 50% of your time + 60% of team time + 40% of churn risk. The diagnostic replaces these with your real figures.
Five places your agency leaks
The same five show up in almost every founder-led agency. Pick one and see the system we build for it, with you in the middle and without.
Out of delivery in 90 days
One engagement in three stages. Every one starts with a diagnostic, not a pitch.
Two weeks
Diagnostic
MapGapWe trace every workflow from lead to invoice and rank the leaks by hours and margin.
You keep the leak map and the build plan, with or without us.
90 days
Founder Removal Programme
LoopWe build the systems and run them with your team: onboarding, cadence, reporting and the automations behind them.
You keep every SOP, workflow and automation.
Month to month
Operating Partner
FreeA senior operator stays on for hiring, upkeep and the AI layer. Most agencies keep us on. None of them have to.
You keep an agency that runs when you're not in the room.
30 minutes to confirm fit. If we're not the right operator for your agency, we'll say so on the call.
Why a pharmacist's son runs agency ops
Kam learned operations in his father's multi-site pharmacy, where a missed step isn't a late deliverable, it's a patient. Then e-commerce in the UK and US, machine learning team ops in private healthcare, and Head of Ops at a paid media agency.
- Took a paid media agency from £50k to £200k MRR as Head of Ops
- Systems running in Google Ads, Meta and influencer agencies
- Builds in n8n, Make, Zapier, ClickUp, Notion and Slack
Kam Syed, founder, Milton Keynes
Is this for your agency?
A good fit
- Founder-led paid media or marketing agency
- Established recurring revenue, UK or US
- You're still in delivery, client comms or approvals most days
- A team of three to thirty that needs structure more than headcount
Not yet
- Only a handful of clients: you need clients before systems
- Looking for a tool rather than a process
- Want AI agents before the workflow exists
- Won't give an outsider access to the tools and the team
| What you need | Penguin Ops | Full-time ops director | Consultant | Automation freelancer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commitment | 90-day programme, then optional | Salary plus hiring | Day rate | Per project |
| First result | Systems live in 30 days | Three to six months | Depends on scope | Weeks, one workflow |
| Runs the team | Yes, then hands it over | Yes | No, advises | No |
| Builds the automations | Yes, inside the process | Rarely | No | Yes |
| Lock-in | None, cancel any month | Notice period | Per contract | None |
Questions founders ask first
Want the long version? Read the founder's guide to hiring a fractional COO: what the job is, what it costs against a full-time hire, and when it is the wrong call.
What does a fractional COO do for a marketing agency?
Runs the operational side of the agency part-time: delivery cadence, team management, onboarding, reporting and the systems and automations behind them. Penguin Ops embeds inside the agency, builds the infrastructure, and hands it over documented so the agency runs without the founder in every decision.
How much does a fractional COO cost compared with hiring an operations director?
A full-time UK operations director typically costs £70k to £110k a year plus months of hiring and the risk of a wrong hire, and most have not built an agency before. Penguin Ops is a senior operator who has, embedded for a defined programme and scoped to the size of the leak on the diagnostic call.
What size of agency does Penguin Ops work with?
Founder-led paid media, performance and marketing agencies with established recurring revenue, mostly in the UK and US. Usually they are either scaling fast or stuck at a ceiling because the founder is still in delivery.
What is the Ops Diagnostic?
Two weeks inside your agency mapping every workflow end to end: founder hours in delivery, manual admin, onboarding gaps and churn risk. You get a written leak map and a prioritised build plan you can act on with or without us. It is the first stage of every engagement.
How long is an engagement?
The Founder Removal Programme runs 90 days. After that, agencies either run the systems themselves or keep us on as an operating partner month to month. We work with a small number of agencies at a time, so every engagement starts with a diagnostic call to confirm fit.
How is this different from hiring an ops manager?
An ops manager executes. A fractional COO designs, builds and executes, and has already seen what works across several agencies, so you do not pay for the learning curve. When the systems are stable, an ops manager is often the right hire, and we help you make it.
Which tools does Penguin Ops build with?
n8n, Make and Zapier for automation. ClickUp, Notion and Slack for delivery and team cadence. Looker Studio and the ad platforms for reporting. Practical AI workflows such as research agents and reporting assistants once the process underneath is clean.
Do you work with the whole team or just the founder?
Both. You stay in the loop on decisions that need you. Your team gets the structure, accountability and clarity to move without you.
Stop being the bottleneck in your own agency
Your leak audit says about £23,411 a month. On the call we'll show you where it goes, and tell you if we're not the right fit.
- 30 minutes with Kam, not a sales rep.
- He goes through your numbers and where your week goes.
- If we're not the right fit, you hear it on the call.