A new role for a new market

The Fractional Chief Revenue
& Automation Officer.

Most B2B founders hire a CRO for strategy, then an agency to execute. Then another agency for AI and automation. We do all of it — embedded in your business, with my team, under one standard, with one written guarantee.

Nicholas Verity
"
Karl spots opportunities most leaders overlook, and is a true systems thinker that sees around corners and solves the entire problem. His experience at large companies makes him excellent in everything from cost cutting to revenue driving. He brings a rare mix of strategic thinking and practical execution, and the impact on our results was significant. He raises the standard of the entire team, and only tolerates A players around him.
Nicholas Verity CEO, Cleverly · Managing Partner, Axe Automation
The position

One operator. Three jobs that used to require three firms.

In 2026, B2B founders need three things at once: a revenue strategist who can see around corners, an automation architect who can replace work with systems, and a build team that ships. Hiring three is expensive, slow, and rarely aligned. The Fractional Chief Revenue & Automation Officer is one operator covering all three — with the receipts to back the seat.

— 01

The Strategist

Ten years operating revenue across food, energy, fashion, recruiting, and software. Pattern recognition you can't get from a single industry. Diagnoses where revenue is leaking and where leverage is being left on the table.

— 02

The Architect

Designs the technical scope: which work stays human, which gets automated, which gets replaced by AI, and how the systems integrate. Verifies feasibility before committing to build. No vapor.

— 03

The Build Team

A dedicated team of developers ships what the architect designed — outbound systems, AI agents, custom dashboards, data pipelines, internal tools. Under contract, against an approved scope, with a written guarantee.

Engagements

Two ways to engage.

A short, fixed-scope diagnostic to start. A longer embedded engagement when there's mutual fit. Both governed by The Watson Standard — a scope-locked, work-guaranteed engagement framework.

Engagement 01Entry

The Revenue Architecture Audit.

A two- to four-week diagnostic of your revenue operation. We map where revenue is leaking, what to automate, and what to build — and you leave with a prioritized opportunity map and a production-ready Technical Scope.

  • Duration2–4 weeks
  • FormatFixed scope, fixed fee
  • DeliverableOpportunity map & Technical Scope
  • StandaloneYes — yours to keep
  • Best forFounders evaluating where to invest first
Begin
Track record

The receipts. Across categories, across stages.

— Largest deal sold
$50M / year
A national expansion contract — the largest single deal sold across the practice. Worth $50M annually and required Pod Foods to expand operations across the United States.
Pod Foods · Chief Revenue Officer
2,400%
Revenue growth in two years. Scaled from $100K/month to $2.5M+/month, contributing to a $13M Series A raise.
Pod Foods · Chief Revenue Officer
$0 to $5M
ARR in twelve months. Designed and executed end-to-end sales for the Smart Fridge division, contributing to a $16M Series B.
Everytable · Revenue & Sales Ops Lead
300%
Revenue growth in six months. Built the high-performance sales team and process from scratch.
Axe Automation · Rev & Sales Ops
7+ figures
Scaled from zero to multiple seven figures as CRO over a decade. Architected the entire revenue function.
Watson Style Group · CRO
Acquired
Built the sales process and management blueprint. Company acquired by Aurora Solar in a category-defining deal.
Lyra Solar · Sales Strategy
Selected work

Engagements where strategy and execution were the same job.

01 / 05
Pod Foods
Took ownership of revenue at a Series A grocery-supply-chain startup. Engineered the entire revenue operation — lead generation, sales team, sales strategy — and scaled from $100K/month to $2.5M+/month in under two years. Closed the practice's largest single deal: a $50M / year national expansion contract. Supported a $13M Series A raise.
CRO · Grocery / SaaS
2020 — 2022
02 / 05
Everytable
Designed and executed the end-to-end sales process for the Smart Fridge division from scratch. Lead generation, sales management, and a process built on how customers actually bought — driving $0 to $5M ARR in twelve months and contributing to a $16M Series B.
Mission-driven food
2019 — 2020
03 / 05
Axe Automation
Joined a fast-moving automation agency and rebuilt the revenue engine. Outbound, sales process, team performance — 300% revenue growth in the first six months. The pace at which scope and delivery moved was the catalyst for The Watson Standard.
Automation / AI
2025 — Now
04 / 05
Watson Style Group
Built the revenue engine of a premium personal-styling firm end-to-end — service operations, lead generation, sales team, technology platform. Scaled to multiple seven figures with a sales team operating at 30%+ close rates. Currently architecting the proprietary platform and shopping-automation stack.
Premium services
2013 — Now
05 / 05
Lyra Solar
Designed the sales process and management blueprint that gave Lyra's leadership a repeatable system. Sales conversion improvements helped position the company for its acquisition by Aurora Solar.
Cleantech / Solar
Acquired by Aurora
+ 20
Additional B2B companies
Sales process and go-to-market built or rebuilt across an additional twenty-plus B2B companies. Outbound systems, sales blueprints, team performance, and revenue strategy.
Across categories
2017 — Now
What gets built

Practice areas, not a services menu.

Every engagement is custom-scoped. The work spans whatever the revenue system needs — designed around one operating thesis: use AI, automation, and people in the right proportion to increase profitability and scale revenue.

— 01

Revenue architecture

End-to-end design of how a business makes money. Where strategy meets the system that delivers it.

— 02

Sales process design

Custom blueprints that turn untrained reps into 30%+ closers. Audit, blueprint, train, manage.

— 03

Outbound systems

Cold email, multi-channel sequences, deliverability infrastructure, and the data engines underneath.

— 04

Automation & AI

Workflow automation, custom AI agents, and the integrations that make humans more effective.

— 05

Data & enrichment

Proprietary data layers, waterfall enrichment pipelines, and intelligence systems that drive targeting.

— 06

Lead generation engines

Built to feed the sales process — predictable, measurable, accountable to revenue, not vanity metrics.

The principal

Karl Watson. Operator first.

Karl Watson
Karl Watson CRAO

Karl is a revenue and operations executive with more than a decade of running, building, and architecting B2B revenue engines. He has been Chief Revenue Officer at Watson Style Group since 2013 — service operations, lead generation, sales team, technology — and still runs revenue there.

Between then and now, he built the revenue function for venture-backed companies in food, energy, automation, recruiting, and software — including Pod Foods, Everytable, Lyra Solar, and Axe Automation. At Pod Foods, he closed a $50M / year national expansion contract — the largest single deal across the practice. At one point, he was running outbound sales operations for more than twenty companies in parallel. The pattern recognition that came out of that — what works, what breaks, what compounds — is the practice this firm is built on.

Today, the work has compounded. Strategy still gets designed, but it now gets technically scoped and built — by Karl and a dedicated development team — under The Watson Standard, an engagement framework written specifically to protect the buyer before the work begins.

Engagements by appointment

Begin an engagement.

The practice takes on a small number of engagements at any time. If there's a fit, the next step is a conversation.

Begin →