Founders don't need a 'strategy deck'. They need an operator in the room.
Most strategy engagements deliver a 60-slide deck and a $50K invoice. Ours deliver a senior operator embedded with your team, quarterly workshops tied to your P&L, and decisions that can be measured by Q+1.
Marketing strategy and fractional CMO engagements provide senior marketing leadership without the cost of a full-time hire. Common formats include fractional CMO (1–2 days/week embedded with the leadership team, $12–25K/month), quarterly Growth Workshops (2-day strategic reviews tied to OKRs), and one-time engagements for fundraise or M&A marketing diligence. The work focuses on decisions rather than documents — channel-mix shifts modelled against P&L, hiring scorecards for first marketing leaders, board-ready growth narratives, and brand-versus-performance trade-off frameworks. A good fractional CMO engagement leaves the operation in a state where the next full-time CMO inherits a coherent system rather than a black box; knowledge transfer and decision logging are built in.
Why founders end up here
Three CMOs in four years. Each rebuilt the strategy from scratch. The team is exhausted, the channel mix is incoherent, and the founder is back to running marketing in the spare hours of the week.
PE-backed or pre-IPO. CFO wants paid efficiency, CEO wants growth, board wants both. The marketing team optimises one and gets blamed for the other. The trade-off needs to live in someone senior's head.
Series-B or strategic buyer is asking 'can this scale?' The marketing answer needs to be defensible against a sophisticated diligence process. Most internal teams have never been through it.
Paid scaled to its limit. Lifecycle squeezed. SEO years away. The next leg of growth requires a strategic re-allocation — partnerships, owned media, brand campaigns — that the in-house team isn't structured to drive.
Founder running marketing. First hire is a $130K+ commitment. Title is unclear (CMO? VP? Head of growth?). Profile is unclear. Risk is high. We've made this hire on owned brands and helped 20+ founders make theirs.
How we engage
Fractional CMO — Light: 1 day/week, async-first ($12K/mo)
Fractional CMO — Full: 2 days/week, leadership team integration ($25K/mo)
Quarterly Growth Workshops: 2-day strategic review ($15K/quarter)
M&A or fundraise marketing diligence: one-time ($25–75K)
First-marketing-hire scorecards + interview support
Board-ready growth narratives + investor decks
How we operate
Embedded, not slide-decked
We're in your Slack, in your weekly stand-ups, in the operator chairs. Strategy is delivered as decisions, not documents. Documents follow when they're useful.
P&L-tied decisions
Every major decision linked to a P&L line. Channel-mix shifts modelled. Hiring decisions tied to revenue thresholds. Brand investment defended against payback math.
Quarterly cadence
OKRs set per quarter. Reviewed at quarter-end with the leadership team. Resets driven by data, not by calendar habit.
Knowledge transfer built-in
Every engagement designed so it can end. Playbooks documented. Decisions logged. The next CMO inherits a coherent operation, not a black box.
What lands in your inbox.
- Quarterly OKRs + measurement plan
- Channel-mix model tied to P&L
- Hiring scorecards (CMO, VP Growth, Head of Performance, etc.)
- Board-ready quarterly growth narrative
- M&A / fundraise diligence pack (when relevant)
- Decision log + playbook documentation
Where this worked.
12-month fractional CMO → $42M run-rate, 18% paid efficiency lift
- Channel mix re-allocated against MMM read-out
- First Head of Performance hired Q3 (still in seat)
- Series-C raise closed on marketing diligence pack we built
Pre-IPO diligence engagement
- MMM + LTV cohort analysis built for diligence pack
- Board narrative tied to vertical-SaaS specific benchmarks
- PE buyer signed at premium valuation
Questions we actually get asked.
Are you replacing my CMO?
Generally no. Fractional CMO engagements happen when there is no CMO, or when the CMO needs an outside operating partner to think with. We're additive, not substitutive — except in interim CMO scenarios, which we'll scope explicitly.
How long is a typical engagement?
6 months minimum on fractional. Quarterly workshops are quarterly. M&A / fundraise diligence is 4–8 weeks. We do not do month-to-month strategy retainers — strategy needs continuity.
Do you bring full execution capability?
If you want execution layered in (paid, SEO, lifecycle, etc.), yes — we'll spin up the relevant practice. If you only want the senior brain, we engage as fractional only and partner with your existing execution.
What about first marketing hire?
Common engagement. We build the scorecard, source candidates from our network, sit on interview panels, and help structure compensation. Engagement length: 8–14 weeks typically.