Apply for the free sprint Free sprint

Operations for marketing agencies

Build an agency that grows without you holding it together.

One place for every client, clear handoffs, a team that knows what's next. Then automation and AI on top, so the same team takes on more clients.

Apply for the free sprint

A free 4-week AI-readiness sprint, run by Dan, founder. Open to 3 agencies.

Where it breaks

AI can't help with work it can't see

Before AI can take load off your team, the work has to live somewhere it can reach. In a growing agency, it often doesn't.

  • The project tool doesn't hold the work

    ClickUp or Asana is set up, but the real status lives in Slack threads and in people's heads.

  • Client data is scattered

    Briefs sit in Drive, numbers in the ad platforms, decisions in Slack. Nobody sees a whole client in one place.

  • Reports and status updates by hand

    Every month someone builds client decks by hand. Every week someone chases updates. None of it gets billed.

  • Everything routes through the owner

    Approvals and questions land on you, because nobody else is sure where things stand.

  • AI as copy-paste

    The team uses ChatGPT, but every answer gets pasted, checked and reformatted by hand. The week looks the same.

  • Put AI on top of this, and it speeds up the mess.

    Fix the ground first, and the same AI starts saving real hours.

How it works

AI is the goal. Operations come first.

AI works with what you give it. If client data is scattered and statuses are guesswork, AI guesses too. So we build from the bottom up.

  1. 1 Get the operation in order: where work lives, one source of client data, clear statuses.
  2. 2 Automate the repeat work on top of it.
  3. 3 Add AI where it saves hours, working from your own data.

That way AI starts from clean data and clear steps, and the hours it saves are real.

  1. 3 AI Drafts, summaries and answers built from your agency's own data, in the steps where they save hours.
  2. 2 Automation Client reports, status updates and client setup that run on their own.
  3. 1 Operations Where work lives. One source of client data. Clear statuses every task moves through.

When the team is stretched, the usual answer is to hire.

But a new hire walks into the same scattered process. Part of their week goes to the same status chasing and the same hand-built reports.

Before the next hire, take back the hours your team already has.

Free AI-readiness sprint

A free 4-week sprint, for 3 agencies

I'm taking on 3 agencies for a free 4-week AI-readiness sprint, in exchange for honest feedback and a video testimonial. Here is what you get.

  • 1

    A map of how your agency runs

    Who owns what, where client data lives and gets copied, and your main processes step by step, from client launch to report.

  • 2

    A ranked list of where AI and automation would save hours

    Each item with a rough count of hours per week, and what has to be fixed before AI can help.

  • 3

    One automation, built and working

    In your own tools. For example, a client report that assembles itself, a weekly status summary, or a client launch checklist.

  • 4

    A 90-day roadmap

    What to fix in which order, what to automate, and where AI belongs once the ground is ready.

  • 4 working weeks
  • One call a week, 30 to 45 minutes
  • No prep on your side
  • No access to your clients' data for the audit

Apply for the free sprint Free, 4 working weeks, 3 agencies only. In exchange for honest feedback and a video testimonial.

Who's behind it

An engineer who has built systems for agencies

I'm Dan. For 8 years I've been a software engineer building software and infrastructure for agencies, including marketing agencies.

Inside a marketing agency

A conversion-rate optimization agency

For 3 years I built systems inside a conversion-rate optimization agency: experiments across 99 client projects, their homepage lead funnel, and the ClickUp setup the team runs on.

Software for marketing agencies

Analytics software for marketing agencies

A software company that gives marketing agencies one dashboard for all their ad platforms. I pulled the data from every platform into one warehouse and brought it into one consistent shape.

Then I built an internal AI support agent. When a user asked a question, it searched the company's Jira and Confluence (their task tracker and internal wiki) and answered from what it found.

Data first, AI second. It's the same order we use with agencies.

More about OpsChiefs

Good fit?

Is the sprint right for your agency?

Better to say this up front. It saves both of us time.

Good fit

  • A marketing agency of about 10 to 50 people
  • You want AI in the agency, and the team already feels stretched
  • Client reports or status updates still done by hand
  • Ready to change a process, and to keep the change once it works

Probably not a fit

  • Freelancers and very small teams. There isn't enough repeat work yet to automate.
  • You want someone to run your client work for you
  • You want an AI demo with no change to how the team works

Questions

Before you apply

What does "AI-ready" mean for an agency?

Client data, statuses and handoffs are in order, so automation and AI can do the first pass on routine work, like report drafts, status summaries and answers to internal questions, while people check and decide. Most agencies need the operations fixed first, which is why we start there.

Why is the sprint free?

We're building our first case studies with it. In exchange, we ask for honest feedback and a short video testimonial.

What do you need from us?

One call a week of 30 to 45 minutes over four working weeks, with you and whoever runs delivery. No prep. The audit needs no access to your clients' data.

Do we need to switch tools?

Usually not. We start with the tools you already pay for. If one of them is the problem, we explain why before anything changes.

What happens after the sprint?

You keep the map, the ranked list, the roadmap and the automation. If you want help with the roadmap, we talk about it then. There is no obligation.

Free AI-readiness sprint

Apply for one of 3 free sprints

Four working weeks. You get a map of how your agency runs, a ranked list of where automation and AI would save hours, one automation built and working, and a 90-day roadmap.

  • One call a week, 30 to 45 minutes. No prep on your side.
  • The audit needs no access to your clients' data.
  • In exchange: honest feedback and a video testimonial.
  • We reply within one business day.

Prefer email? dan@opschiefs.com