A fractional COO whose site finally matches her operating standard

Self-initiated. Maren Cole is a fictional client created to demonstrate our Brand + Website engagement. The scope and $4,000 price are the ones we sell. The client, company, and backstory are fictional. We would rather show an honest concept than dress it up as client work.

The outcome

A four-page site and typographic identity for a fractional COO, built to demonstrate the scope and $4,000 price of the flagship engagement. See the finished demo site.

The brief

The fictional scenario begins with Maren Cole, a fractional COO for founder-led companies. Fourteen years as an operator before going independent. Her internal deliverables, the operating cadences and board memos her clients pay for, are immaculate. Her public presence was a DIY site from 2021 with a stock hero photo.

The trigger was losing an operating-partner pitch to a less capable operator with a better presence. That is the situation our flagship exists for: the work is better than the website, and the gap has a number attached to it.

The naming decision

We recommended branding her name, not an invented firm. An independent expert is the product; a made-up firm name adds a layer of fiction between the buyer and the person they are hiring. The wordmark is her name set in a serif with the descriptor “Fractional COO · Founder-led companies” underneath. Nothing to explain, nothing to outgrow.

The identity

Board-memo editorial. Warm document white, ledger ink, one blue accent used the way a memo uses a rule line. Source Serif 4 for headings, IBM Plex Sans for text, tabular figures, numbered sections. No photography. Her competence is dense and quiet, so the identity is too.

The site

Four pages: what she does, how she works, engagements with visible pricing, contact. Prices are on the page because her buyers are professional buyers. The same transparency we practice on our own services page, applied to a client.

What we would test with a real client

A concept cannot show business results, so we will not invent any. With a real engagement we would measure what this system is built for: whether inbound inquiries change in size and seriousness, and whether she would send her site to the most discerning person she knows without wincing.