I embed with business owners to bring operational clarity, execution rigour, and AI-powered systems to businesses that have outgrown how they currently work.
I've sat inside businesses. I know what holds them back.
I'm Paul — a fractional Chief of Staff and operator based in Dubai. I work with founders and business owners who are growing fast but whose internal operations haven't kept pace. Things feel held together with spreadsheets, email threads, and institutional memory that lives in one or two people's heads.
My job is to change that. I embed as an operator — not a consultant who leaves a slide deck. I identify the friction, build the systems, and drive the execution. I stay until things are running properly.
What's changed recently is the toolkit. I now use AI — specifically Claude Code — to build bespoke operational tools in weeks that would previously have required a development agency, months of work, and a significant budget. I've done it for a client. I can do it for you.
Most engagements combine several of these areas. Everything is scoped around what the business actually needs.
Execution & Accountability
I close loops. Tasks get done, not discussed. I track what's moving and what's stalling, and make sure the right things happen in the right order.
Operations & Structure
Processes, SOPs, reporting, and the operational backbone your business needs to scale without everything running through the founder.
AI-Powered Systems
Bespoke operational tools — pipelines, dashboards, compliance trackers, document generators — built in weeks using AI, at a fraction of traditional development cost.
Fixing Bottlenecks
I find what's blocking growth — whether that's a process, a system gap, or how decisions get made — and I fix it rather than document it.
Special Projects
Office moves, fundraising support, regulatory submissions, product launches — large cross-functional projects that fall outside normal operational rhythms.
Founder Leverage
I take the operations off your plate so you can spend your time on what only you can do — customers, product, strategy, and growth.
AI & Systems
The barrier to bespoke software just dropped to near zero.
Working with Claude Code — Anthropic's AI development tool — I can design, build, and deploy custom operational software that would previously have required a development agency, a lengthy requirements phase, and a significant budget.
What I bring that AI alone can't provide: the operational judgement to know what to build. Understanding the workflow deeply enough to scope the right solution. Knowing when something is good enough — and when it needs more.
The technology is not the hard part. The hard part is understanding the business.
Claude Code
Airtable
Cloudflare
HTML / JS
portal / dashboard.js
// mBELLAb Operations Portal // Built with Claude Code · 4 weeks · £0 dev cost
// No dev team. No IT dept. // Operational judgement + AI.
Case Study
What this looks like in practice.
A real engagement — from problem through to production.
AI-Assisted Development
Building an Operations Portal Without a Development Team
How a UAE engineering business replaced spreadsheets and email threads with a custom-built operations hub — using AI as the development engine.
Client
mBELLAb Power Solutions
Sector
Engineering · UAE
Timeline
Weeks, not months
External dev cost
£0
3
Companies unified on one platform
<60s
Quote letter generated from browser
£0
External development cost
The Problem
mBELLAb PS needed proper pipeline visibility — opportunities were tracked inconsistently, quotes were filed loosely in Word documents, and activity notes lived in people's heads. Across three sister companies sharing founders and staff, compliance obligations like trade licences, visas, and insurance renewals were falling through the cracks.
What Was Built
Pipeline tracking with live KPIs, deadline alerts, and activity logging
Quote letter generation — branded Word doc in under 60 seconds
Employee document tracker with passport expiry alerts
Supplier & contractor directories linked to SharePoint
Role-based access — engineers see what they need, admins see everything
ISO quality objectives linked to specific opportunities
Live dashboard with finance tab and recent activity feed
"The technology lowers the barrier to entry dramatically. The strategic lens is what makes it useful. Understanding the business, identifying the friction, scoping the right solution — that judgement is not something AI provides on its own."
The Business
mBELLAb Power Solutions is a specialist engineering and project management firm operating across the UAE, managing high-value tenders and subcontracting work in the power distribution sector. Projects span RTU supply and commissioning, ADMS integration, and infrastructure delivery for clients including TAQA Distribution and Abu Dhabi Municipality.
The business is founder-led, with two principals who also run two sister companies: mBELLAb Business Services & Administration, a management consultancy, and Sentinel Capital Ltd (SENCAP), a DFSA-regulated investment advisory firm based in DIFC, Dubai. Three businesses, two founders, a lean team — and a lot of moving parts.
The Approach
Rather than engaging a development agency or waiting for a budget cycle, the decision was made to build something immediately using AI-assisted development. Working iteratively with Claude (Anthropic), a fully functional web-based operations portal was designed, built, and refined — without writing a single line of code manually.
The approach: describe the problem and what good looks like; iterate rapidly on working prototypes; test in the real environment; report what was broken or needed changing; repeat. The result is a production-ready, browser-based application connected to Airtable as its data backend, secured through a Cloudflare Worker proxy, with role-based login — no installation, no app store, no IT department.
What This Demonstrates
Most growing businesses run on operational infrastructure that was never really designed — it accumulated. Spreadsheets became the system of record. Email became the project management tool. Institutional knowledge lives in one or two people's heads. The cost of fixing this used to be high enough that most businesses just lived with it. That's no longer true.
Claude Code (Anthropic)AirtableCloudflare WorkersHTML / CSS / JSRole-based Auth
Testimonials
What founders say.
★★★★★
"Paul gave the business greater structure, focus, and follow-through, helping me prioritise better and ensure momentum."
U
Ugo Chukwu
CEO · Ohere Technologies Ltd
★★★★★
"Paul helped turn priorities into action and gave me headspace to concentrate on bigger picture strategy."
A
Arvind Krishnan
Founder & CEO · ThinkingWealth
★★★★★
"He brought order and focus to our investor communications during a critical period."
T
Tudor Holotescu
Founder · HeadStarter.org
FAQ
Common questions.
What does "fractional" actually mean?+
You get a senior operator embedded in your business — without the cost of a full-time hire. Engagements are typically 2–4 days per week, structured around what the business needs rather than a fixed job description.
How is this different from a management consultant?+
Consultants diagnose and recommend. I diagnose and do. I don't leave a slide deck — I stay until the systems are built and the team is running them. The output is operational change, not a report.
What kind of businesses do you work with?+
Founder-led and owner-managed businesses, typically between £1M and £20M revenue, that are growing but haven't built the operational infrastructure to support that growth. I've worked across fintech, SaaS, engineering, professional services, and investment management.
Do we need a technical team to use AI-built tools?+
No. Everything I build runs in a browser with no installation required. Your team logs in and uses it. The technical complexity is entirely behind the scenes — your job is to tell me what you need.
How quickly can you start?+
Usually within 2–3 weeks of our initial conversation, subject to availability. The first step is a diagnostic call — no commitment required — to establish fit and what the right engagement looks like.
What does an engagement cost?+
Engagements are structured as a monthly retainer based on days per week committed. Pricing is discussed directly and depends on scope and duration. The right starting point is a conversation.
Contact
Let's talk about your business.
Whether your operational infrastructure is starting to creak, or you're curious about what AI-assisted systems could do for your team — I'd be glad to have that conversation.
