“Our mission is to help our clients achieve large-scale goals with confidence without watering down their purpose. We do that by stepping in to remove roadblocks, amplify the effectiveness of teams, and build for sustainable growth.”
– John Bull, CEO
Who We Are
xCanary is a bespoke business consulting and talent firm built on decades of hands-on leadership and high-impact achievements. We combine practical C-suite experience with meticulous operational execution across sectors—from retail and healthcare to the dynamic cannabis and gaming industries.
Retail Turnarounds: Our founders have partnered with Bain Capital to overhaul warehousing, logistics, merchandising, workflows, payroll/scheduling, and rebranding—driving an IPO at $14/share, a peak stock price above $330, and doubling both store count and revenue.
H.I.G. Capital Engagement: Led a three-year revival of the nation’s 13th largest retail footprint (a major Walmart partner), restoring profitability post-bankruptcy and positioning for a successful exit.
What We Do
We embed as fractional executives and program leads to tackle your most urgent challenges and accelerate growth, organized around our core service lines:
Strategic AI
AI Readiness Assessments: Roadmaps showing exactly where to start.
Efficiency & Cost-Saving AI: Automating repetitive tasks to unlock savings.
Decision-Support AI: Forecasting, risk analysis, and predictive insights.
Customer Engagement AI: Chatbots, personalization, and sentiment analysis.
Compliance & Risk AI: Monitoring regulatory changes and detecting anomalies.
Human-in-the-Loop Systems: Blending automation with oversight to prevent black-box failures.
AI Governance & Ethics: Building trust and mitigating bias from day one.
Change Management & Training: Ensuring adoption sticks across the workforce.
Planning & M&A Support
- Post-merger integration planning covering teams, capital, strategy and more.
- Acquisitions of any scale; experienced with up to 6,000 unit integrations.
Fractional Leadership & Advisory
- Plug-and-play executives in Operations, HR, Compliance, Finance, IT, Sales, and more—scaling up teams or filling leadership gaps instantly to keep your business moving.
Operational Excellence & Transformation
- Healthcare Manufacturing: Developed a go-to-market and operations model for a surgical suite bone-grinder that culminated in its sale to a leading U.S. Human Tissue Bank.
- Cannabis Operations: Designed a multi-state framework for one of the nation’s largest operators—balancing debt conservatively, maintaining a positive P&L, and securing licenses in eight states.
- Retail Operations: Designed, rolled out, and supported a world-class logistics process and tracking system that improved merchandise processing efficiency, enhanced team productivity, reduced labor costs by over $1M annually, increased sales by $90M through faster merchandise turnover.
Rapid Rescue & Scale-Up
- Executed rapid asset liquidations and expedited license activations for another major cannabis operator, then built and scaled a robust manufacturing & retail model.
Talent Acquisition & People Operations
- Data-driven recruiting and retention strategies to ensure you have the right people in place—across executive, technical, and frontline roles.
- Employee engagement, performance management, and leadership development programs to drive productivity and culture.
Compliance, Risk Management & Loss Prevention
- Rigorous compliance frameworks and in-house loss prevention (co-founded by a former PI) keep shrinkage below national averages and counter organized retail crime.
- Enterprise risk assessments, policy development, and audit support to safeguard assets and reputation.
Why We Succeed
Our clients trust us because we don’t just talk, we deliver:
Operator-First Approach
We roll up our sleeves—and our backgrounds in operations, managed services, and employee retention mean we know what “works” in real time.
Financial Discipline
Deep expertise in budgeting, forecasting, M&A due diligence, and capital raising ensures every recommendation is data-driven and ROI-focused.
Facts-Based Execution
We reject empty rhetoric. Every project—from healthcare and cannabis to retail and gaming—follows a disciplined methodology, delivering measurable results and lasting impact.
