Dustin Fusillo
Operator · Builder · Strategist
Built to perform.
Here to serve.
Photo: Dustin Fusillo · Autobahn, Germany
$90M+
Portfolio revenue operated within
20+
Years of delivering results
$29M+
Capital secured for portfolio companies
24.4%
Margin expansion against industry headwinds
The operator behind the
results
I have spent over 20 years doing the work most executives delegate: sitting inside the P&L, rebuilding the operating system, and holding teams accountable to a standard that compounds. My path is unconventional by design: from sales, to government service, to startup operations, to leading revenue organizations across the trades economy and financial services. Circuit and Signal Systems is not a business I am leaving. It is the R&D lab where I build and test the decision intelligence frameworks I deploy inside every organization I lead.
That range is not a detour. It is the source of my edge. I understand how institutions work, how markets move, and how to earn the trust of a new team before asking anything of them. My conviction is simple: the product is people. I invest in their development, help them exceed their perceived capacity, and measure success by how far they go. The results follow because the people do. Outside the boardroom, I am a husband, soon-to-be father, and world traveler who believes the same principles that make a great operator make a great mentor. The next mandate is a larger platform. The playbook is ready.
Operational rigor as a growth lever
Underperformance in a mid-market business has many causes. Dustin has seen most of them. What he installs is not a single fix but a complete operating system: AI-driven analytics, integrated CRM and ERP, and a performance cadence that creates a single source of truth for the P&L and shortens the distance between a problem and a decision. That is decision intelligence in practice.
Culture as a performance asset
High-performing teams are built on one thing: trust earned, not assumed. Dustin leads without becoming the bottleneck, delegating with clarity, coaching with candor, and investing in bench depth so the organization grows leaders, not dependencies. He finds genuine joy when people win. That energy is contagious.
Capital discipline and transparency
As a member of the executive team through a $29M+ debt restructuring, Dustin has sat across the table from equity, debt, and mezzanine providers. He understands what it means to operate under real financial scrutiny. He runs with full transparency, manages risk with discipline, and aligns incentives so that what is good for the business is good for every stakeholder.
Track Record
Seven roles. Every one of them inside the P&L. The $90M platform is a complexity benchmark, not a ceiling.
2025 – Present
Operating Partner
Circuit & Signal Systems
Founded and operates a Decision Intelligence consultancy that helps mid-market businesses operationalize AI into measurable, repeatable systems. Clients span home services, financial services, and B2B operations.
- Designs and deploys LLM and agentic AI workflows that transform unstructured inputs into clear decisions, ranked actions, and execution support with human approval gates
- Builds KPI dashboards and ROI measurement loops proving AI impact in business terms across conversion, cycle time, margin, cash flow, and customer outcomes
- Drives end-to-end adoption from C-suite training through entry-level enablement, reframing AI as a productivity collaborator to overcome resistance that stalls most implementations
- Authored the AI in Action framework and AI Productivity Toolkit, providing operators and executives with practical playbooks for deploying AI and measuring ROI
- Serves clients across home services, financial services, and B2B operations with repeatable operationalization frameworks built on real operating data
- Tools deployed in production: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, NotebookLM, Perplexity, Zapier, and n8n
2024 – 2025
Executive Vice President
NextATM / Grant Victor
Operated within a $90M, 70-person multi-company platform as EVP of NextATM, the portfolio's largest revenue unit at $35M across Utah and Connecticut.
- Expanded service margins by 24.4% and equipment margins by 25.7% through renegotiated OEM volume and rebate terms
- Added 67 net-new accounts generating $1M in new revenue and $174K in ARR while the ATM industry contracted sharply
- Achieved the number 1 and number 2 equipment dealer ranking nationwide with Hyosung and Genmega simultaneously
- Supported CFO in securing a $29M debt restructuring through management presentations to equity, debt, and mezzanine providers
- Negotiated semi-exclusive distribution and 3PL agreements with Fortune 500 companies NCR Atleos and CraneNXT
- Served as AI Champion across the full Grant Victor portfolio, deploying LLM and agentic tools across data analysis, workflows, and strategic planning
- Executed full operational integration of a strategic tuck-in acquisition covering inventory migration, vendor alignment, and customer continuity
2023 – 2024
Chief Executive Officer
Bell ATM Services
Acquired, turned around, and successfully exited a $5M legacy ATM business in under 14 months. Asset sale to industry leader NextATM (Grant Victor) with full operational transition and continued senior executive role post-close.
- Reduced annual customer churn from 18% to 6% through a proactive maintenance program targeting root causes in specific customer segments
- Led 20-person team through significant organizational change and ownership transition without losing key personnel
- Conducted detailed monthly financial reviews and SKU-level cost analysis, eliminating unprofitable services and focusing resources on high-margin, high-volume offerings
- Replaced outdated desktop tools with an integrated tech stack: QuickBooks Online, modern website, and clean inventory integration establishing a single source of truth
- Recategorized hundreds of QuickBooks accounts and improved inventory costing accuracy, creating clean financials for the exit process
- Managed full wind-up, asset sale, and customer transition to NextATM including cross-state warehouse relocation and integration of legacy operations
2021 – 2023
Regional Account Manager
Trane Technologies
Recruited by a Fortune 500 HVAC leader to grow a $15M territory into Florida's second-largest market. Managed 22 high-value dealer accounts across residential and light commercial segments.
- Analyzed and optimized dealer P&Ls ranging from $500K to $42M, improving operational workflows and profitability through KPI alignment with industry benchmarks
- Exceeded sales quotas by 7%+ while navigating COVID-related supply chain disruptions and raw material shortages
- Developed targeted training programs for dealer sales and service teams, contributing to an 18% increase in overall team performance for the southeast region
- Enhanced Salesforce CRM systems to improve pipeline visibility, customer relationship management, and territory-wide sales productivity
- Achieved top 3 standing among 45 high-potential professionals in an intensive 16-week leadership advancement program
2016 – 2021
Business Development Manager
Air & Energy
Top performer in residential and light commercial HVAC, electrical, generators, plumbing, and water filtration sales. Five years of compounding growth with deep exposure to service operations and conversion rate optimization.
- Achieved 22.66% CAGR in sales revenue from 2017 to 2020, maintaining a 59% personal close rate vs. 45% industry average
- Set a new company annual sales record, exceeding $1M in the first partial year and nearly doubling it the following year
- Secured $525,000 in combined project and recurring maintenance revenue from a single high-end waterfront condo association
- Influenced the adoption of ServiceTitan CRM company-wide, significantly enhancing management effectiveness, pipeline visibility, and lead conversion
- Increased Trane XV premium product sales by 30% through Sandler Sales, No Pressure Selling, and ACT Groups training programs
2013 – 2016
Operations Manager
Private Angel Investor Portfolio
Recruited by an ultra-high-net-worth angel investor to operate multiple portfolio businesses at the C-Suite level. Built two organizations from zero simultaneously.
Inspiration Academy
- Launched a fully operational private school from zero: 0 to 14 students year one, 14 to 121 students year two, an 864% enrollment increase across two years
- Managed P&L across six divisions ($2.4M) covering boarding, transportation, food and beverage, admissions, IT, athletics, and student life
- Supervised an $800K capital improvement project on time and under budget covering a cafe, locker rooms, fitness center, and fellowship hall
- Reduced monthly operating burn by 29%, boarding costs by 40% ($207K), and food and beverage costs by 43% in year two
- Grew average tuition revenue by 56% while building and launching the school website in-house
Sports Ed TV
- Joined the founding team of what became SportsEdTV, now the number one ranked online sports instruction platform globally covering 30+ sports
- Managed the full content creation pipeline from storyboarding through production and post-production
- Led a multi-city roadshow campaign to build early subscriber base and investor awareness, driving 450% subscriber growth post-launch
- The platform went on to raise $3M in Series A funding and is now viewed in every country in the world
The AI Lab
Operators who advocate for AI should use it. These are tools I built to solve real problems, test ideas, and stay sharp. More are in progress.
Navigating the Human Edge in the Age of AI Symposium, Salt Lake Valley
“Dustin demonstrated how he used multiple AI models for personal discovery and growth, offering a practical, step-by-step toolkit for us to do the same. This toolkit is seriously incredible.”
Jennifer Sorensen, Organizational Development & Learning Experience Architect
Executive Intelligence System
A role-aware decision operating layer for the C-suite
Most executive teams do not suffer from a lack of dashboards. They suffer from the gap between information and action. This system closes that gap by surfacing the highest-priority decision, the causal model behind it, and the routing materials for human approval.
Role-specific lenses for CEO, CFO, and CMO built into a single system
Past, present, and future time-state views with macro pulse integration
Human circuit breaker: executives approve, defer, or escalate every action
Institutional memory that traces decisions to measured outcomes over time
CEO / CFO / CMO
Role-specific lenses
Past / Present / Future
Time-state views
7 Modules
Decision to compliance
Human Approval
Required before any action
Division Operating Dashboard
Built for a $200M West Region leadership opportunity
Built as part of a competitive executive interview process for Carrier Commercial HVAC Service. Before a single line was written, a full pre-entry analysis was conducted across Carrier Global 10-K filings, annual reports, regional market share data, and competitor benchmarks spanning Trane Technologies, Johnson Controls, and Daikin Applied. The output is an executive-grade operating tool, not a slide deck.
Institutional-grade research methodology applied to a live business situation
Competitive intelligence across the three largest players in commercial HVAC service
P&L and territory-level operational thinking translated into a decision surface
Production-quality AI-built tooling deployed under real competitive pressure
180-Day Operating Plan
Territory execution roadmap
Territory KPI Scorecard
Revenue, margin, pipeline by region
EBITDA Trajectory
Segment-level financial view
First 30 Days Questions
Pre-entry intelligence framework
Built for Business
Interactive intelligence tools
Decision Intelligence
AI Reskilling Gap
An interactive analysis of AI workforce displacement and the competency-based reskilling opportunity. Built to quantify a problem most executives acknowledge but few have mapped with data.
Workforce data · Displacement modeling · Reskilling ROI
View ProjectOperational Analytics
Auto Dealer Sentiment
A live sentiment analysis tool built for a regional auto dealership group. Aggregates customer feedback across channels and surfaces actionable signals for the GM and service director.
Sentiment analysis · Multi-channel · Operational reporting
View ProjectMarket Intelligence
AI Landscape Intelligence
A real-time map of the AI vendor landscape, tracking capability trajectories, funding momentum, and enterprise adoption signals. Built to give executives a defensible view of where AI is heading before they commit capital.
Vendor tracking · Capability mapping · Enterprise signals
View ProjectEnvironmental Intelligence
Great Salt Lake Crisis
An interactive intelligence tool tracking the ecological and economic crisis at the Great Salt Lake. Water levels, salinity trends, dust storm risk, and economic impact mapped with data.
Environmental data · Crisis tracking · Interactive charts
View ProjectPresentation · PPTX
AI in Action
The full presentation from the Navigating the Human Edge in the Age of AI Symposium. A practical, step-by-step framework for using AI models for personal discovery, growth, and productivity.
Built for Fun
Personal Project
Dustin's Cookbook
An interactive recipe collection built for the family. Cooking mode, ingredient scaling, and search. Operators who build things at work build things at home.
Interactive · Cooking mode · Ingredient scaling
View ProjectGear & Outdoors
Snowboard Quiver Optimizer
A tool for matching snowboard setups to riding style, terrain preference, and conditions. Built because the gear decisions are more complex than most people admit, and a spreadsheet was not cutting it.
Gear matching · Terrain analysis · Condition variables
View ProjectFood & Lifestyle
Nutrition Planner
A structured approach to meal planning and food ranking. Built to bring some operational discipline to the one area of life where most people just wing it.
Tier ranking · Meal planning · Preference mapping
View ProjectComing Soon
Surfboard Quiver Optimizer
Coming Soon
Movie & TV Series Recommender
Coming Soon
Mountain Bike Trail Selector
Core Competencies
These are the capabilities Dustin has built in the field, refined across industries, and deploys at scale. Each represents a proven system, not a service offering.
PE Operator
Equity-aligned
Platform Company Leadership
For private equity firms seeking an operator to run a home services or trades platform. This vertical is attractive for a specific reason: fragmented ownership, aging founder-operators, a persistent technology adoption lag, and strong recurring revenue dynamics create a repeatable value creation thesis. Dustin brings a proven playbook for organic growth, strategic tuck-ins, and building exit-ready organizations.
- CEO / GM of PE-backed platform
- EBITDA expansion and margin optimization
- M&A integration and tuck-in execution
- Team restructuring and KPI frameworks
- Board-level reporting and investor relations
- AI adoption across the portfolio
AI Consulting
Engagement-based
Revenue Systems Transformation
Dustin helps growth-stage companies install AI-powered revenue infrastructure that makes forecasting, retention, and pipeline predictable. Not generic AI consulting. Measurable transformation of how the business operates.
- AI-driven CRM and ERP integration
- Sales workflow automation
- Forecasting and pipeline discipline
- Churn reduction frameworks
- GTM efficiency and analytics
- Hands-on implementation support
Fractional COO
Retainer or project
Operational Excellence on Demand
For founders and CEOs who need a senior operator in the room without a full-time commitment. Dustin embeds as a Fractional COO, bringing AI strategy, systems thinking, and execution discipline to companies at a critical inflection point.
- Operating cadence and rhythm design
- AI-powered workflow and process automation
- Cross-functional team alignment
- KPI architecture and P&L accountability
- Turnaround strategy and execution
- Technology modernization roadmap
What Others Say
Voices from the field
Dustin Fusillo is a seasoned COO-level executive with a rare combination of vision, strategic thinking, and hands-on execution. He embodies strong ethical values and fosters leadership at every level of the organization.
Jonathan Fleece
President & CEO, Empath Health
Mentor
Dustin exemplifies servant leadership and a growth mindset. He leads by example, showing the same confidence, accountability, and respect that he teaches. His caliber in team development is equal to his business acumen.
Sahra Sauers
Project Manager, E-Global
Direct Report
Dustin showed how to lead people and build a profitable business at the same time. He does not see employees for what they represent today, but for what they can become. The talent and preparation he brings are worthy of any senior leadership position.
Cooper Frandsen
Executive Vice President, Tetralink
Former Colleague
Leadership & recognition
Community Leadership
Manatee Young Professionals
Keynote speaker and program leader for the Manatee Chamber of Commerce young professionals network, connecting and developing the next generation of business leaders.
Recognized Leadership
LEAP Graduate - Leadership Excellence Award
Completed the LEAP Leadership, Alignment, and Performance program - a rigorous curriculum for advanced managers and business leaders focused on strategic thinking, team alignment, and organizational growth.
Media & Speaking
Sharing the operator's perspective on business acquisition, AI transformation, and building companies that last.
Leadership Philosophy
How I lead
Five interlocking principles drawn from $40M+ in P&L responsibility and 150+ conversations with world-class founders and operators.
Clarity of Purpose
Every decision flows from a single written answer to two questions: what is our purpose, and what is our focus. Leaders who skip this step build on sand.
Talent Density
One exceptional person outperforms three average ones. Talent density is not about headcount. It is about raising the floor on who you let in. High performers have a low tolerance for mediocrity, they will leave before they lower their standards. Every hire either lifts the standard or lowers it. There is no neutral.
Culture as an Asset
Culture is not slogans on a wall. It is the quality of relationships among people, measured by specific behaviors and reinforced daily. The most important metric: do your people believe the best years are ahead or behind?
Execution Discipline
Complexity is the enemy of execution. Simplify, then amplify. Debate hard in the room, then move forward with zero grudges outside it.
Servant Leadership
Great leaders create more leaders, not followers. Share success. Own failure. Take genuine delight in watching people grow past you.
The Replacement Principle
If you are irreplaceable, you are a bottleneck. Every leader should be actively working to make themselves unnecessary in their current role. The goal is not to protect your seat. It is to grow the organization past the point where it needs you to hold it together.
"My job is not to see the future. It is to see the present as clearly as possible."
Structured People Development
The Green / Yellow / Red Framework
Adapted from Tom Barnes, Accel-KKR
Green
Love it. Keep doing it. Build on it.
These are the tasks that energize the employee and align with their strengths. Protect them. Build the role around them where possible.
Yellow
Neutral. Can it improve or be reassigned?
Yellow tasks are friction waiting to become attrition. Explore whether they can be restructured, redistributed, or eliminated before they turn red.
Red
Hate it. Reassign, restructure, or eliminate.
If someone spends the majority of their week on red tasks, attrition is a matter of time. The goal is to find it before they decide to leave.
Once per year, the leader sits with every employee in the organization, not just direct reports. Each person categorizes every responsibility. Then two questions follow: "If you were running this company, what would you change?" and "What is one thing we can do to make your job easier?"
The fastest way to destroy trust in this process is to ask and then do nothing. Track themes across the organization. If multiple employees flag the same red task or the same broken process, that is a leadership priority.
Developing People
Building the bench
Train the bench two levels deep
Everyone should be training their replacement and their replacement's replacement. When someone asks for a promotion, ask them to identify and mentor the person who will fill their current role.
Put junior people in front of clients
If they are smart enough to work for you, they are smart enough to represent you. This builds confidence and prevents the leader from becoming a bottleneck.
Hire for recovery, not credentials
Look for people who have experienced real failure and came back. A bad grade is not failure. Dropping the ball when it mattered, then returning, is.
"A-players hire A-players. B-players hire C-players. The first B-player you bring in will bring the company down."
Business Ethos
Deliver results with integrity and precision
"Complexity is the enemy of execution. Build the system. Trust the people. Empower everyone to win."
Operational Rigor
Systems outlast people. The organizations that compound over time are not the ones with the best strategy deck. They are the ones with the most reliable operating infrastructure. I build for durability.
Culture as Performance
Culture is not a values poster. It is the aggregate of every decision a leader makes when no one is watching. My highest standard of leadership is making myself unnecessary: building teams so capable and aligned that the organization accelerates without me.
Capital Discipline
Capital is trust made tangible. Every dollar deployed is a vote of confidence in the operator. I treat investor capital with the same discipline I apply to my own: full transparency, no surprises, and incentives that make every stakeholder want the same outcome.
Lifelong Learning
The best operators are always students. I read broadly, apply relentlessly, and bring what I learn into the work immediately, from decision intelligence frameworks to organizational design to the latest in AI deployment. The moment a leader stops learning is the moment the organization stops growing.
"What a privilege to be tired from the work you once begged the universe for."
How he's wired
On the surface: a high-energy, results-driven executive with deep experience in operations, home services, and financial services. Dustin has networked extensively with PE organizations like ACG to understand what matters to investors at the highest level, learning the language and priorities of private equity so he can become a world-class entrepreneur, operator, and eventual investor.
Every personality assessment confirms what anyone who spends ten minutes with him already knows: fast, decisive, strategic, and relentless.
DISC Profile
High D + High I
Decisive, fast, relentless, and magnetic
MBTI
ENTJ
The Commander: strategic, direct, and built to lead
Leadership Style
Operator-Builder
Architect of systems, executor of results
The principles he lives by
These are not aspirational wall art. They are the phrases Dustin returns to when he needs to recalibrate.
“People do not decide their futures. They decide their habits, and their habits decide their futures.”
F.M. Alexander
“It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Aristotle
“Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome.”
Charlie Munger
Beyond business, a life of purpose
Grant Victor Cares · Kenya, Africa
Classrooms, water, and 900 students
Dustin recently returned from a humanitarian trip to Kenya, Africa. His group, Grant Victor Cares, and local partner Koins for Kenya, spent 10 days dedicating classrooms and water cisterns, with construction funded by generous friends and partners.
One of the most moving moments: watching a 2nd grade class learning under a tree, knowing they would soon have a real classroom. The group distributed pencils, bread, milk, candy, and crucial medical supplies to the remote villages of Shaka and Kavunzoni. Combined, over 900 students now have water and shelter for their education.
#liveingratitude
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
A small nudge, a changed trajectory
Beyond his professional pursuits, Dustin is deeply committed to mentoring young adults through Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. He believes a small nudge in the right direction can profoundly impact someone's life trajectory.
Giving back has reinforced his belief in the importance of compassion and perspective. The same principles that make a great operator make a great mentor: show up consistently, listen more than you speak, and invest in the person in front of you.
Life outside the boardroom
Husband, soon-to-be father, and proud dog dad
At the center of Dustin's life is his family: his wife, who is pregnant with their first child, and two dogs who always claim the best spots on the sofa. Family is the foundation that makes the work meaningful.
When he is not with family, Dustin is likely outdoors. These pursuits fuel his drive, keep him balanced, and inform his approach to showing up fully in both life and work.
Based in Salt Lake City, Dustin takes full advantage of the world-class terrain in his backyard. The mountains are where he resets, reflects, and returns to the work with clarity.
Ready to deploy.
If you are evaluating a mandate, building a platform, or looking for an operator who can run the full play, Dustin would like to hear from you.
Education
MPA
Florida State University
BA Political Science
University of Florida
Location
Salt Lake City, Utah (MST)
Certifications
Sandler Sales Leadership Certificate LEAP Graduate Real Estate License
Memberships
Association for Corporate Growth, Utah Chapter Manatee Chamber of Commerce, Member (2011–2022), Board Member (2022)