COO - DTC Performance Marketing Agency - Fully Remote - Tried and True Media
New York, NY
About the Job
Tried and True Media (TNT) is a fully remote DTC performance marketing agency that specializes in video performance marketing in the health/wellness/beauty space and has generated $1.2B+ in sales for our clients over the last 5 years and manages over $120M in annual ad spend. Now that we've achieved success with our founding CEO, we're hunting for a Chief Operating Officer to become the new operational leader of the company to drive 5x growth from here, culminating in becoming a platform company to a large PE fund or strategic within 3 years, and then pushing the ball forward to continue to grow after TNT becomes a platform company.
You will start as COO, splitting senior direct reports with the CEO, then gradually over the next 6-9 months as you prove your ability to deliver, you will transition to COO & President, owning 100% of all operations with everyone reporting to you. At that point, you will collaborate with the CEO on strategy and have full autonomy to execute and deliver against the aligned strategic objectives. You'll be accountable for delivering EBITDA and unit economic targets as well as other growth objectives. And you'll have full P&L and balance sheet ownership and have financial accountability to the board.
So, if you've scaled (not just managed) a digital agency to $20M - $100M+ in revenue and people to 100-300+, your eyes light up at the prospect of grinding out another big win, and...
- You love the nitty-gritty of figuring out how to scale all aspects of operations from A-Z...
- You can effortlessly move between strategic thinking/planning and executional rigor...
- You know how to build a magnetic culture that attracts and cultivates talent that sticks...
- You've got the financial chops to ensure scale maintains or even expands margins...
- You're an energetic dynamo who can power through the inevitable obstacles to deliver...
...then please keep reading as you may be the perfect fit as the new operational leader for TNT.
Core Compensation: $250,000 - $500,000 (base + bonus + incentive equity in the form of profit incentive units (PIUs) that crystalize on a liquidation event)
Location: 100% Remote (global team of 90+ with no corporate office)
Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET (standardize our rhythms)
Culture: Good Humans Obsessed with Winning for our Clients
#1 Objective: Deliver Growth Targets in a Sustainable, Scalable Way
Why are We Hiring this Now?
Hello, my name is Robbie Rankin, CEO of TNT. For the past 5 years, my founding team and I have poured our blood, sweat and tears into making TNT a sustainable success. We organically found our niche specializing in video performance marketing, augmented by proprietary, in-house video analytics software that gives us a competitive advantage in scaling video ad campaigns lightning fast, which is what put us on the map.
The journey was never easy though, with lots of ambiguity and countless obstacles that came up, but we got it done. However, I'm hyper-aware that scaling a business 5x from here requires a completely different skillset vs. what delivered our original success. I'm also hyper-aware that skillset is not one that I'm best at. And that's where you come in.
I'm extremely excited to hand the ball off to a new operational leader who can take it and run with it because they've been there and done that in the agency world. We have many strategic options available to us now that simply weren't before, but to make any of those happen, we need a proven operational leader who can execute and deliver consistently.
Scaling structure, people, processes, and systems is incredibly important at this stage and it's not something I've personally done before. I've already removed myself from the day-to-day operations to create space for you. Now what's left is to find the perfect fit for TNT - someone excited to scale, who knows what's coming because they've been there and done that, and who is authentically energized by the enormous responsibility of being accountable for all results.
What's the Ideal Candidate's Background?
You must live and breathe performance marketing and have already been the #1 or #2 person in charge of scaling a digital agency to $50-$100M+ in revenue and people to 200-300+. Importantly, however, you've done that in a way that's sustainable and creates long-term strategic value - no gimmicks or short-term tactics and without relying on superhuman individuals whose efforts can't be replicated. In other words, you've architected a systematic, repeatable machine.
You know how to expand an agency's portfolio of services organically and via acquisition, in order to maximize total potential client value delivered. You've got a proven track record of leading an agency through an exit to a strategic or a large PE fund. You're comfortable owning the P&L and balance sheet and ultimate level of financial accountability to the board. You have a robust network of former clients you can bring to the table. You've mastered the skills in strategy, planning, execution, operations, culture, talent, finance, sales, risk management and more.
And while you've been there and done that, the fire still burns inside and you remain incredibly motivated to do it again, taking on the challenge of doing it in a different context.
What Will You Be Responsible for?
- Strategy - While we'll collaborate on setting strategy, you'll be the primary driver, considering our long-term vision and goals and translating them into strategic goals.
- Execution - You'll lead our operational team to deliver against those strategic objectives, doing the proper brainstorming, planning, collaboration, coordination as necessary.
- Culture - You'll cultivate our robust, performance-based culture, protecting it and improving it as we scale, attracting, hiring, and cultivating the talent with the right fit.
- Financials - You'll take the lead on ensuring we deliver against our financial targets, whether revenue, EBITDA, margins or other KPIs, optimizing operations as needed.
- Scalability - you'll implement the proper structures, processes, systems, rhythms and other building blocks that ensure we can keep scaling through successive growth stages
What Are We Looking For?
- Proven Digital Agency Scaler – You’ve successfully scaled an agency to $50-$100M in revenue and 200-300+ in people, organically, via M&A, or both and who is energized to do it again.
- Driven to Excellence – You’re naturally have an ownership mentality with a relentless inner drive to excellence that other people find energizing, inspiring and motivating.
- Systems Thinker – You’re driven to set up systems and processes that are hyper efficient, with the ability to break down complexity into its simple foundational elements that can scale.
- Data-Driven - You love numbers, can easily build, manipulate and slice and dice spreadsheets, detecting patterns that lead to the insights that inform next steps.
- True Collaborator – You authentically appreciate the power of a team and foster a robust, collaborative environment that prioritizes autonomy, empowerment and accountability.
- Acquisitions - You have profitably acquired companies before in a digital agency roll-up strategy and then successfully integrated and cross-sold services between the platform agency and the add-on acquisitions.