Launch Manager / Fractional COO / Founder mentor

An idea is worth nothing without execution.

I help founders and executives move from the idea to operational execution. I have opened restaurants, built e-commerce businesses, run a 1,500 m² venue in Lisbon and created B2B offers that find their customers. And I stay until it runs.

Book 30 minutes See the case studies
Portrait of Armel Jacquet
Profile AJ Conseil
Based in
Paris and Lisbon
Education
ESCP Europe
Experience
15 years
Sectors
Retail, leisure, e-commerce, AI
Markets
France, Portugal
Contact
armel@aj-conseil.com
Phone
+33 6 10 64 02 88

01 / What I do

Three ways to work together.

A direction to set, an organisation to put in place, a business to launch. Every engagement starts on the ground and ends with something that runs. Phygital speciality: retail, leisure and e-commerce.

Strategy

Strategy consulting

Clarify where the company is going and why the market should follow.

  • Strategy audit
  • Positioning diagnosis
  • Business model and margin structure
  • Competitive landscape review
  • Go to market plan
  • Setting priorities
Deliverable A written, costed trajectory, with an order of battle over twelve months.
Who it is for Founders hesitating between three directions, executives who sense the model running out of steam, brands that want to enter the Portuguese market. See the detail

Operations

Management and operations leadership

Put in place the organisation that lets the company sustain its growth.

  • Process mapping
  • Team organisation
  • Dashboards
  • Margin and purchasing control
  • Hiring the key roles
  • Multicultural management
Format Fractional operations leadership (Fractional COO), a few days a month, or a short engagement during a transformation phase.
Who it is for Companies of 5 to 50 people in growth, in transformation or under strain. See the detail

Launch

Business and concept launch

From the written concept to the first euro taken. The move from 0 to 1.

  • Concept validation
  • Business plan
  • Search for premises or a platform
  • Choice of suppliers
  • Opening, hiring and training
  • Commercial launch and first customers
  • Building a B2B offer and its sales channel
Experience I know this moment from the inside: I have lived it several times, for myself and for others.
Who it is for Founders, groups launching a new activity, franchises and concepts to replicate. See the detail

Additional service

Digital visibility: SEO, GEO, AEO

SEO GEO AEO

Being found on Google and cited by answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews).

Technical audit, editorial structuring, structured data, tracking of rankings and of citations in answers generated by AI.

See the AI search visibility page

My philosophy

I am not a consultant. I am an entrepreneur who builds, executes and delivers.

An operator, a strategist, a founder and an acquisition specialist in the same person. You do not have to coordinate three suppliers who pass the responsibility between them.

02 / Recent case studies

Engagements, not intentions.

Seven projects under way or delivered, from the audit of a fourteen site portfolio to the full overhaul of a technical cleaning company, by way of building a B2B offer and its sales channel.

Groupe Monlisbonne

Strategy audit and SEO, GEO, AEO acquisition ONGOING
Scope: 14 tourism and events websites, French and English Targets: B2C French speaking travellers · B2B corporate offsites Portals: monlisbonne.com · visitmylisbon.com · lisbon-event.com Secret family: secret-lisbon.com · secret-porto.com · secret-azores.com Voyage family: voyage-a-lisbonne.com · voyage-a-porto.com · voyage-aux-acores.com

Strategy audit of the portfolio at the start of the engagement: consistency of the positionings, overlap between the sites, decisions on what to keep, merge or launch. Then delivery: technical overhaul, editorial structuring, correction of the structured data, ranking tracking and citability work in answers generated by AI.

B2B corporate offsites and team building offer

Launch and optimisation ONGOING
Consulting engagement: definition of the offer, pricing position, acquisition channels Entry sites: seminaireprolisbonne.com · seminaireauportugal.com · lisbon-event.com

Building and bringing to market an offer of corporate offsites, incentives and team building for the European companies that run their events in Portugal. Work carried end to end: definition of the offer and its formats, pricing position, choice of acquisition channels, creation of the entry sites and continuous optimisation of the conversion of inbound enquiries. Three entry points, three distinct search intents, one single contact funnel.

Result

First source cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews on queries for corporate offsites, incentives and team building in Portugal.

October 2026 tracking, questions asked in French on the four engines

Netscor

Development consulting and website overhaul ONGOING
Technical building cleaning by drone and by rope access · Northern France Targets: consumers and businesses · Client since September 2026

A young company, a rare technical skill, and demand that did not yet know how to find it. The engagement started with the strategy audit, not with the website: positioning of the offer, separation of the two markets that are consumers and businesses, prospecting channels, development trade offs. The overhaul came next, built on those decisions: an architecture by service, cleaning of cladding, roofs and glazing at height, and SEO, GEO and AEO work to capture local demand with strong intent. The consulting continues alongside the digital project.

netscor.fr

lisbon-event.com

Website creation DELIVERED
Corporate events · Lisbon Scope: bilingual site, French and English

Events website created to capture demand for corporate event organisation in Lisbon, in French and in English.

tousterrains.fr

Website creation DELIVERED
Cabinet Tous Terrains · Land advisory and property development Scope: complete site, from strategy to going live

Positioning, information architecture, copywriting, build and go live.

lisbon-wine-tasting.com

Website creation DELIVERED
Wine and Port tastings · Lisbon Scope: four language site and online booking

Booking site for guided tastings in a wine shop in the Graça district. Four languages, three slots a day, and a path that runs from the offer page to payment without a detour.

lisbontilepainting.com

Website creation DELIVERED
Azulejo painting workshop · Lisbon Scope: turning the visitor into a booking

Website for an azulejo painting workshop in Lisbon. From the concept to the page that turns a visitor into a booking.

03 / Recommendations

What the people who worked with me say.

Three recommendations published on LinkedIn between March and September 2026.

We already had a few websites and the will to rethink the strategy. Armel being the guy I trust, I called him. I could not believe he managed to outperform our previous ranking with a brand new strategy, implemented at a much faster pace than I would ever expect. Ranked number one in a month for several queries.

Elliot S. Portuguese experiences curator, POP gourmet store and visitmylisbon.com Client, September 2026

His entrepreneurial path is remarkable for its diversity, and even more for the quality of the perspective he brought to it. He does not settle for analysing situations, he understands the people, the dynamics and the balances that move a project forward. That mix of strategic distance and human intelligence makes him a partner of choice for any founder or team in a launch, transformation or acceleration phase.

Benoît M. Co-founder of a communications company Client, March 2026

Armel is a great professional, and I have had the pleasure of working with him many times. Excellent at challenging ideas and highly effective when it comes to implementation, he has always been a valuable asset when launching new products and services.

Grégoire L. Power Platform, low-code and AI Worked with Armel, April 2026

04 / Background

Fifteen years, six companies, two countries.

Industrial purchasing, IT services, restaurants, leisure, e-commerce, consulting. Each line is an activity genuinely created, run or supported.

2007
Industrial buyer, ELIS

Paris. Sourcing, tenders, negotiation.

2008 to 2018
Partner, DIMSIStill trading

Paris. Took part in the creation and the growth of an IT services company. Client relations, business plan, communication. No longer in the day to day.

2010 to 2016
Founder, GreenPizz

Paris. Organic and eco responsible pizzeria concept. Three restaurants opened across three locations in Paris, one in Canada under a knowhow licence. Creation of the concept, business plan, openings, management, team leadership, marketing.

2017 to 2020
Co-founder, The Wave Factory

Lisbon. Indoor urban surf concept with an artificial wave, a 100 seat bar and restaurant and a 40 desk coworking space. 1,000 m² indoors and 500 m² outdoors. Creation of the concept, launch, running of the company, multicultural and international management.

2020 to 2024
Portuguese market consultant, freelance

Supporting brands and companies in their development in Portugal.

2021 to 2022
Partner, VeryOyster

Lisbon. Home delivery of Portuguese oysters in Portugal and Spain.

2021 to 2024
Co-founder, VeryGourmandStill trading

Lisbon. E-commerce of French regional food products delivered anywhere in Europe.

2025
Founder, Les Renifleurs

Creation and launch of an e-commerce site for unusual and innovative dog products.

Since late 2025
Independent, AJ Conseil

Launch Manager, Fractional COO and founder mentor. Phygital expert: retail, leisure and e-commerce.

05 / Method

How I work.

Four principles, in the order in which they apply on an engagement.

No slide decks. Action and results.

A diagnosis is judged by what it changes in the business, not by the thickness of the document that comes with it. I deliver decisions taken, processes installed and figures that move.

01

I start from the ground, not from the model.

I look at the real figures, I talk to the teams, I spend a day inside the business. The diagnosis comes from there.

02

I decide with you, then I execute.

A strategy that stays in a document changes nothing. I stay through the implementation, and I take tasks in hand when that is the most efficient way.

03

I know what a mistake costs.

I have opened and I have closed. I have hired and I have replaced. That experience saves you from paying twice for the same lesson.

04

I work across two markets.

France and Portugal, directly, with the local networks and habits on both sides.

06 / Questions

What people ask me before we work together.

The five questions that come up on the first call.

What is the difference between a fractional COO and a consultant?

A consultant recommends, a fractional COO leads. I take operational responsibility for what has been decided, a few days a month.

In practice, I do not hand over a report and leave. I install the processes, I hire the key roles, I keep the dashboards and I stay until the organisation runs without me.

What kinds of companies do you work with?

Companies of 5 to 50 people, in growth, in transformation or under strain, and founders before opening.

My speciality is phygital: retail, leisure and e-commerce. I have opened restaurants, run a 1,500 m² venue and built e-commerce businesses, so I know from the inside the trades where the physical and the digital meet.

How does an engagement work?

It always starts with immersion on the ground, never with a theoretical model.

I look at the real figures, I talk to the teams, I spend a day inside the business. The diagnosis comes from there. Then we decide the direction together, and I execute, taking tasks in hand when that is the most efficient way.

Do you work remotely or on site?

Both, with at least one visit on site at the start of the engagement.

I am based between Paris and Lisbon and I work on both markets, directly, with the local networks and habits on each side. The rest of the engagement is run remotely, on a review rhythm agreed in advance.

How do we start?

With a thirty minute conversation, no commitment, to find out whether I am the right person.

You set out the situation, I tell you frankly what I would do in your place and whether my presence is worth anything. If it is, I send you a modular proposal that starts with a short audit, so that you can stop there if the diagnosis is enough for you.

Get in touch

Let us talk about your project.

Thirty minutes, no commitment. You set out the situation, I tell you frankly whether I am the right person and what I would do in your place.

Email Armel LinkedIn
Availability Paris / Lisbon
Format
Engagement or fractional time
Experience
15 years
Markets
France, Portugal
Email
armel@aj-conseil.com
Phone
+33 6 10 64 02 88