GROWTH ENGINEERS · EMBEDDED · TWO CLIENTS AT A TIME
Growth Engineers that Embed in Your Business
We find what is holding the business back. Then we fix it.
You are probably here because
- Revenue should be higher
- Your digital presence is not converting
- Marketing activity is not producing movement
- Multiple vendors are working, but nobody owns the outcome
What is Embedding?
Embedding means joining your team, attending your meetings, learning your customers, and building alongside your people.
$1.7M
A failing model rebuilt into a category leader
5B+
Ad impressions from a company built in a basement
#1
Target search rankings engineered from scratch
THE ROLE
What is a Growth Engineer?
A growth engineer is not a consultant, not an agency, and not a freelancer. It is an operator who embeds in a business, finds the constraint that is preventing growth, and builds the fix across whatever it touches: sales, marketing, web, positioning, or the operating model itself. The people who diagnose the problem are the people who build the solution.
You have tried agencies. You have tried consultants. The problem is still there.
The thorn is still in your side because no one has gone deep enough to find it. Agencies optimize their own deliverable. Consultants deliver a deck and leave. Neither takes ownership of whether the business actually moves.
If this sounds familiar, you do not need to read the entire page first. Start the conversation →
Intervention, not advice.
Growth engineering starts with understanding why the business is not growing. We do not arrive with a predetermined package. The requested service is not always the required solution.
Enter the business
Learn the economics, customers, sales process, people, and history.
Find the constraint
Follow the evidence across departments until we identify what is actually preventing growth.
Make the hard decision
Change what must change. More activity cannot fix a broken process.
Build the solution
Sales, positioning, advertising, web, technology, referrals, retention, or the operating model itself.
Make it work together
Connect the work, measure the result, and remain accountable.
What an engagement can become
The diagnosis determines the scope.
We enter the business, find the constraint, and build whatever is required to remove it.
HOW IT BEGINS
Access. Diagnosis. Action.
Three to six months of embedded, hands-on operational work. We get close quickly, identify what is preventing movement, and begin correcting the highest-impact problem.
Days 1–10
Access and immersion
Join the meetings, review the numbers, and trace the customer from first contact through retention.
Days 11–20
Diagnosis
Separate symptoms from causes and identify the constraint that must be removed first.
Days 21–30
First intervention
Set priorities, begin the highest-impact correction, and define what Hunley will own.
WHAT AN ENGAGEMENT CAN BECOME
01
A common central build
Website rebuilds
We rebuild the website from the ground up over several months. Research, positioning, architecture, copy, design, development, conversion, search, schema, AI visibility, analytics, and launch become one connected build.
Customer and search research
Positioning and conversion copy
Design and engineering
Launch and optimization
Explore website rebuilds →
02
Marketing processes
We find why the marketing is not producing movement. Then we repair the message, creative, campaigns, landing pages, media, measurement, and handoffs responsible for the result.
Explore marketing processes →
03
Outbound sales processes
We build or repair the commercial engine. Market definition, prospecting, messaging, automation, pipeline structure, hiring, and training are connected to turn outreach into revenue.
Explore outbound sales →
04
Product and market positioning
We determine what to sell, who should buy it, why the market should care, and whether the economics support growth. Sometimes the right marketing decision is changing what is being marketed.
Explore positioning →
What actually happened
Three problems. Three different interventions.
These are not portfolio pieces. They are businesses that changed because the constraint was found and addressed.
El Toro
4 FOUNDERS IN A BASEMENT → NATIONAL SCALE
Four founders had patented technology nobody understood.
The job was to build the company around it.
Started
Four founders
Patented technology without a commercial engine.
Built
The revenue engine
Created sales, outbound, advertising, PR, web, and content.
LED
Eight years in sales
Ran the team, trained hires, and built for every stage.
Scaled
National scale
From a basement to one of North America’s fastest-growing companies.
100+
Employees
25
Patents
5B+
Ad impressions
#13
North America growth rank
Inc. 5000 · Kentucky Emerging Company of the Year
Ranked the 13th fastest-growing technology company in North America (Deloitte Technology Fast 500) · $7.5M Kentucky Business Investment incentive tied to 400 new jobs
TRIM NuLu
Bleeding cash → $1.7M
COVID eliminated TRIM’s onsite haircutting market. We pivoted to a destination salon built around expanded services, retention, and referrals.
Before: a business being rebuilt
The model changed first. The physical experience and operating processes followed.
After: a working destination salon
3,250 square feet, 19 employees, and an experience designed to bring customers back.
WHAT WAS BLEEDING CASH
A model that was killed by COVID
- Onsite haircutting dependent on offices being open
- No repeatable customer process
- No durable retention engine
PIVOT
AND
REBUILD
WHAT REPLACED IT
A repeatable operating process
- Premium destination salon
- Expanded services and customer experience
- Prepaid booking and 90%+ rebooking
- Referral, radio, email, and paid media
- 19 employees and 3,250 square feet
$1.7M
Annual revenue
$70K
Black Friday weekend
90%+
Rebooking
5×
Best Hair Salon
[TRIM TESTIMONIAL]
[Name, Title].
Square case study · Salon Today 200 · Louisville Courier-Journal Best Hair Salon, five consecutive years
Louisville Historic Tours
Invisible → #1
A remarkable tour company was hidden by a digital presence that leaked bookings and disappeared from search.
#1
Target search rankings
2x+
Sales more than doubled
AI cited
Google AI Overviews
Six-month search performance across commercial tour queries
Before: a business being rebuilt
The model changed first. The physical experience and operating processes followed.
“Our traffic skyrocketed and our sales have more than doubled after bringing in Hunley Media. These weren’t quick spikes but sustained growth. We’ve doubled our team and continue to grow. Hunley was the reason.”
David Dominé, Owner, Louisville Historic Tours
Three different constraints. Three businesses moved forward. Talk about what is holding yours back →
THE COMMON THREAD
Different industries. Different constraints. The same operating instinct.
El Toro
Build the company around the invention.
TRIM NuLu
Replace the model that was bleeding cash.
Louisville Historic Tours
Engineer visibility and conversion from scratch.
Enter unfamiliar territory. Understand the mechanics. Build what is missing. Make the business move. Fix the hull before the fight.
Business model and positioning · Sales and outbound · Customer journey and conversion · Web, search, schema, and AI visibility · Advertising and demand generation · Operations, retention, and referral.
Who does the work
The senior operators are the team.
Sean Stafford
Growth strategy · turnaround operations · sales · digital systems
Built El Toro’s sales organization from zero and led it for eight years, helping grow four founders in a basement into the #13 company on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 in North America. Pivoted TRIM NuLu from a failing onsite model into a $1.7 million category leader, a five-time Louisville Courier-Journal Best Hair Salon winner, and a 2024 Salon Today 200 honoree. Authored Domain Graduate, later acquired by Epik. Named a FounderX² Top 25 Founder of 2025.
Robert Fabros
Design · front-end engineering · performance
Built eltoro.com, boogerkit.com, and hunleymedia.com. Translates strategy, positioning, and conversion requirements into interfaces people understand and use. The person in the design review is the person writing the front end.
Agencies give you a project manager. We give you the people who diagnose the problem and build the solution.
FOUNDERX² TOP 25 FOUNDERS 2025 · DELOITTE FAST 500 · INC. 5000 · SALON TODAY 200 · SQUARE CASE STUDY · DOMAIN GRADUATE, ACQUIRED BY EPIK.
Fit
People call us when the business should be doing better, but all the obvious answers have failed.
This is for
Companies with revenue and a process that is underperforming
Founders who need an operator, not a vendor
Businesses willing to expose the real numbers
Leaders prepared to change the model
This is not for
Companies looking for the lowest bid
Businesses shopping for a package
Teams wanting recommendations without execution
Leaders unwilling to change what is broken
What does an engagement look like?
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How long does an engagement last?
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How much does this cost?
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If you recognized your situation in the left column, that is the signal. Get in touch →
START HERE
Tell us what is not working.
If the business should be doing better and nobody can explain why, tell us what is happening.
We reply within 48 hours with an honest read on whether this is a fit.
You do not need to arrive with the diagnosis. Bring the symptoms, history, and what you have tried. Finding the problem is part of the work.