Charlie Bailey
Founder of Watermelon. London-based. Builds the automations he writes about. Takes no platform commissions. Says no when an engagement isn't a good fit.
I help UK businesses turn their operations into a system, not a person.
For 10–200 person UK SMEs, the most common bottleneck isn't a missing tool — it's that the operating system runs on one or two people's memory. The work I do is making the operating system live in software so the business can scale, the team can take holidays, and the founder can stop being the system. Fractional Chief Automation Officer is the formal name for the role. In practice it's part architect, part operator, part change manager.
- Process mapping, not platform selling — I never lead with 'you need HubSpot' or 'you need Salesforce'. I map your processes first, then we decide what (if anything) to buy.
- Flat fee, never hourly — I bill projects flat-fee (£8k–£30k typical) or fractional retainers (£5k–£15k/month). Hourly billing creates the wrong incentive for production work.
- Zero platform commissions — I take no commissions, kickbacks or referral fees from HubSpot, Salesforce, Make, n8n, Zapier, Notion, Airtable, or anyone else. My income is your fee, full stop.
Most automation consultancies have a structural conflict of interest.
Every UK consultancy I researched before founding Watermelon was a partner of at least one platform — HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier, Make, or several. That's not wrong, but it does mean their recommendations are downstream of where the commission lies. There was an honest gap in the market: a senior, UK-based, cross-platform automation consultancy that earns nothing on the software you buy. Watermelon is that gap.
- Independent by design — No partner badges. No tier loyalty. No 'preferred platforms' funded by referral revenue.
- Cross-platform fluency — Make.com, n8n, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier, Airtable, Notion — I build in whichever fits the workflow, never the workflow that fits the platform.
- UK SME-specific — GDPR, IR35, VAT, Companies House, HMRC, UK accounting stacks — these matter for UK buyers in ways that US consultancies don't fluently get.
What I've actually built
Watermelon launched in 2025 but the platform under it has been in build for the last 18 months. The work below is concrete evidence I build the things I write about — not just slides and recommendations.
How I work
If we work together, here's what to expect.
Discovery is the first thing, not the last. Most engagements get this wrong: they pick a tool first and then try to make the process fit. I do it the other way. The first week of every engagement is mapping what actually happens in your business across people, systems, statuses and data fields. Only then do we talk about tools.
I bill flat-fee. A scoped 6–8 week project is £8k–£30k depending on complexity. A fractional Chief Automation Officer retainer is £5k–£15k per month (typically 2–3 days a month). The £1,500 Process Discovery Sprint is a 1-week fixed-fee foot-in-the-door that produces a written, costed roadmap. No hourly billing. No scope creep. You know what you're paying for before you sign.
I build with your team, not around them. Pair-building means your ops or RevOps lead is in the room when the automations get built. By handover they're confident extending them. This is the opposite of 'managed services' where the consultancy keeps the keys.
I'll tell you when not to hire me. About 1 in 5 discovery calls ends with me saying 'this isn't a fit, here's what would be'. That's by design. The right consultant for an automation problem at 6 people is different from the right one at 60. I'll tell you which is which.
What I believe
- Automation is a discipline, not a tool. Make, n8n, HubSpot, Salesforce are the tools. The discipline is process mapping, build-vs-buy decisioning, change management, governance.
- High frequency, high error cost, low judgment is the framework. Processes that fit all three are the highest-ROI automation targets. Processes that miss one are usually a waste of effort.
- The hardest part is not the build. It's getting the operating model right, getting the team to actually use the automation, and keeping it current as the business changes. The build is the easy 30% of the work.
- Commission-funded recommendations are biased. Not maliciously, but structurally. I built Watermelon to be the firm that isn't.
- LLMs change the automation surface area. Agentic workflows expand what's automatable by 30–50%. The right time to invest in this is now, but only after the foundational process work is right. Don't sprinkle AI on chaos.
Background
I'm based in London, EC1R 0NE. Before Watermelon I spent years working across UK SME operations, finance and product — the operator-side of the work I now consult on. The Bloxx platform under Watermelon is the same platform that powers GoLandlord, GoCFO and the rest of the SideQuester venture fleet, which means I see the operational pattern across multiple verticals simultaneously: ecommerce, accountancy, recruitment, professional services, B2B SaaS.
The day-to-day is split roughly: 40% client work, 30% building the Bloxx platform that powers the Watermelon fleet, 30% writing (this site, LinkedIn, the Watermelon guides).
How to reach me
Fastest path: book a 30-minute call below. Bring one specific process that's costing you time and we'll talk through whether automation is worth doing, what we'd build, and whether Watermelon is the right firm to do it.
Alternatively:
- Run the free process audit on your own site — Claude analyses your homepage and gives you 6–8 specific automation opportunities in 30 seconds. Useful as a starting point before any conversation.
- Email: charlie@itswatermelon.com
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/charliebaileyy
- X: @joinsidequester
No gatekeepers, no sales team. You're emailing me directly.
Related Watermelon pages
Book a 30-minute call
Bring one specific process that's costing you time. We'll talk through whether automation is worth doing, what we'd build, and whether Watermelon is the right firm to do it.