Fractional CMO.
12+ years experience. 12-month plans, channel mix, forecasts, team builds, vendor oversight, board reporting. 1, 2, or 3 days/wk. Same caliber as a $250k+ in-house CMO, fractionalised.
Embed a Fractional CMO with 12+ years experience for 1, 2, or 3 days/week. 12-month plans, channel mix, forecasts, hiring + team build, vendor oversight, board reporting, M&A diligence. From $7,999/mo (1 day/wk) to $13,999/mo (3 days/wk). 14-day fit guarantee. Same strategic caliber as a $250k+ in-house CMO at 20–30% of the loaded cost.
A Fractional CMO, embedded part-time, owns marketing strategy.
The role.
A Fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) is a senior marketing executive who serves your company on a part-time, embedded basis — typically 1, 2, or 3 days per week — providing the same strategic caliber as a full-time CMO at 20–30% of the loaded cost. The role covers function leadership: channel-mix strategy, attribution architecture, hiring + team building, vendor + agency oversight, multi-quarter forecasting, board reporting, M&A diligence, and the unglamorous decisions about what NOT to do. Distinct from a marketing consultant (advises but does not own outcomes) and from a marketing agency (delivers execution but rarely owns strategy). I show up, I own the function, I report to your board.
When you hire one.
$1–50M ARR is the sweet spot. A full-time CMO at $5M ARR is usually overkill — total cost (salary $200–250k + 20% benefits + 0.5–2% equity + recruiter fee 25–35% of base + 90-day ramp + multi-year commitment) exceeds the strategic marketing budget the company can deploy effectively. Fractional gives you the same 12+ years of experience at $7,999–$13,999/month with no recruiter fee, no equity dilution, no severance risk, and a 14-day fit window. Most $5–25M ARR brands stay fractional through Series B before bringing a full-time CMO on. Above $50M ARR you typically need a full-time CMO + 4–8 in-house marketers + 1–2 specialist agencies — fractional breaks at that scale, and I will tell you when.
How the engagement runs.
Weeks 1–2: marketing audit, vendor / agency review, team-skill assessment, stakeholder alignment. Weeks 3–4: 12-month plan with channel mix + forecast + OKRs + hiring plan + board-level deck. Ongoing: weekly Slack daily contact + on-site or recorded session per day-of-week (1 day, 2 days, or 3 days), monthly forecast review, quarterly board presentation at 2-day and 3-day tiers. Most engagements run 6–18 months, then transition to a hired full-time CMO with a 30–60 day handover (recruiter brief, candidate panel design, interview rubric, first-90-day onboarding plan). Honest exit is part of the contract — I never optimise for retention past usefulness.
Eight productised Fractional CMO responsibilities.
Channel-mix strategy
Multi-quarter channel-mix decisions: where to spend, where to cut, where to scale, where to hold. Backed by attribution data (MMM at $5M+ ad spend, MTA hybrid below). Quarterly re-mix as data shifts; never optimise for last-quarter's answer.
Hiring + team building
Hiring plan by stage, recruiter brief design, candidate-panel rubric, interview question banks, first-90-day onboarding plan for marketing hires. Most fractional engagements transition into a full-time CMO + marketing team by month 12–18 — building that team is the goal, not avoiding it.
Vendor + agency oversight
Most $5–25M ARR brands have 2–6 agencies + 3–8 freelancers across paid media, SEO, content, PR, design. Fractional CMO oversees the mixed stack — what is working, what to consolidate, what to replace, what to bring in-house. Honest vendor evaluation; no agency loyalty above outcome.
Attribution + measurement architecture
Decisions on MMM vs MTA vs hybrid attribution, GA4 + GTM Server-Side + CAPI deployment priority, dashboarding standards, executive-reporting cadence. Pairs with our Analytics & Attribution team for execution; fractional CMO sets the strategic frame and sign-off discipline.
Board + investor reporting
Monthly board prep + quarterly board presentation at 2-day and 3-day tiers. Board-friendly attribution narrative, marketing-function performance dashboard, hiring + spend forecasts, top-3 risks + mitigations. Investor-pitch support during fundraising and M&A diligence on the acquirer or target side.
Marketing audits
Existing programme audit (channel performance, attribution validation, vendor effectiveness, team capacity, tooling utilisation). Documented in shared Notion. Output: prioritised fix list with revenue-impact estimates and 30 / 60 / 90-day execution plan.
M&A + investor diligence
Marketing diligence on acquirer or target side. Spend efficiency audit, channel-attribution validation, marketing-stack assessment, pipeline-quality review, hiring-plan honesty check. PE/VC clients regularly. Confidential by default; counter-NDA standard.
Strategic crisis management
Marketing-function turnarounds (post-CMO-exit, post-acquisition, post-major-channel-loss). Stabilise team + vendors + reporting in 30 days; rebuild strategy in 60 days; deliver compounding by 90 days. The unglamorous work that justifies senior caliber over generalist consultants.
The numbers that prove fractional economics work pre-CMO-hire.
Fractional CMO vs full-time CMO, marketing consultant, or VP of Marketing.
BOTTOM LINE: FRACTIONAL CMO IS THE BRIDGE BETWEEN "WE CANNOT JUSTIFY A FULL-TIME CMO YET" AND "WE NEED ONE NOW." THE GOAL IS TO BUILD THE TEAM THAT REPLACES ME — NOT TO STAY FOREVER.
Founders ready to stop guessing on marketing strategy.
Early stage ($1–5M ARR)
1 day/wk. Channel decisions, agency selection, hiring plan, board reporting.
Growth stage ($5–25M)
2 days/wk. Multi-channel + attribution + team build + expansion.
Scale stage ($25–100M)
3 days/wk. Function leadership + multi-region + M&A diligence.
PE/VC portfolio
Quarterly diligence + marketing turnaround + exit prep.
Embed → audit → plan → execute. Real ownership.
Embed + audit
Marketing audit. Vendor / agency review. Team-skill assessment. Stakeholder alignment.
12-month plan
Channel mix. Forecast. Hiring plan. Vendor decisions. Board-level deck.
Execute + adjust
Weekly Slack + on-site/recorded session per day-of-week. Monthly forecast. Quarterly board.
What I do when I show up.
12-month marketing plan
Channel mix, forecast, OKRs, revenue targets. Quarterly recalibration.
Vendor / agency oversight
Hire / fire / negotiate. Score current vendors.
Marketing team build
Hiring plan, JDs, interviewing, onboarding first 3–5 hires.
Board reporting
Monthly + quarterly board decks. CFO + CEO calibrated.
Investor diligence
Marketing diligence support for fundraising.
M&A diligence
Acquirer or target side. PE/VC clients regularly.
One, two, or three days a week.
Early stage. Channel + vendor + hiring + board.
- 1 day/wk embedded
- Slack daily
- Monthly forecast
- Board-level reporting
Growth stage. Multi-channel + attribution + team.
- 2 days/wk embedded
- Hiring + vendor mgmt
- Quarterly board prep
- OKR review
Scale stage. Function leadership + M&A.
- 3 days/wk embedded
- Function leadership
- Multi-region
- M&A support
CMO questions founders ask.
Why hire a fractional CMO instead of a full-time CMO? +
Pre-$5M ARR, full-time CMOs are usually overkill — total cost ($250k+ all-in: salary + equity + benefits + recruiter fee + 90-day ramp + multi-year commitment) exceeds the marketing budget the company can deploy strategically. Fractional gives you the same 12+ years of strategic caliber at 20–30% of the loaded cost ($3,499/mo for 1 day/wk through $11,999/mo for 3 days/wk), with no recruiter fee, no equity dilution, no severance risk, and a 14-day fit window. Most $5–25M ARR brands stay fractional through Series B before bringing a full-time CMO on.
Will you stay as fractional CMO forever? +
No — and we will tell you that on the first call. The goal of every fractional CMO engagement is to build the marketing function and team that eventually replaces me. Most engagements run 6–18 months, then transition to a hired full-time CMO with my support during a 30–60 day handover (recruiter brief, candidate panel design, interview rubric, first-90-day onboarding plan). We never optimise for retention — engagements that drag past their useful life damage both sides. Honest exit is part of the contract.
Do fractional CMOs really attend board-level meetings and prepare board materials? +
Yes — at the 2 days/week ($7,999/mo) and 3 days/week ($11,999/mo) tiers, monthly board prep + quarterly board presentation are included. Standard deliverables: marketing-function performance dashboard, channel-mix forecast, OKR tracking, hiring plan, vendor-spend breakdown, top-3 risks + mitigations, board-friendly attribution narrative. We have presented to investor boards (Series A through Series D), audit committees, and acquirer diligence panels regularly. 1 day/week tier covers monthly summary deck only, no live board attendance.
What about conflicts with our existing agencies and vendors? +
I work alongside your existing agencies, freelancers, and in-house team — or work entirely with your current vendors if you prefer to keep them. Most fractional CMO engagements oversee a mixed stack: 2–4 agencies (paid media, SEO, content, PR), 3–6 freelancers (creative, copywriting, design), in-house team (1–4 marketers), and platform vendors (HubSpot, Salesforce, Klaviyo, etc.). If you want execution capacity beyond strategic oversight, our productised pod ($14,999/mo Full Pod) is available — but only when it fits your stage, never as default.
Can fractional CMOs handle LinkedIn ghostwriting and personal-brand content? +
No — that is a different service (Founder-Led Premium social, $4,499/mo) and a different specialist track. As fractional CMO I focus on strategy, attribution, hiring, board work, vendor oversight, channel-mix decisions, and multi-quarter forecasting. I do not write your LinkedIn posts; that work belongs to a dedicated ghostwriter who can interview weekly and ship 5×/week consistently. Often we run both services in parallel — me on strategy, a ghostwriter on personal brand — but they are scoped and billed separately for clean accountability.
What if the fractional CMO engagement is not working? +
14-day fit guarantee on every fractional CMO engagement. Either side can exit inside the first 14 working days, no further obligation, pro-rata refund for unused days. After day 14, monthly contracts only — 30-day notice on either side, no long-term lock-in, no early-termination penalty. Most engagements that exit early do so because of stage misalignment (too early or too late for fractional vs in-house) caught in the first month, not because of execution issues. Honest fit assessment in week 1 prevents most exits.
Book a 30-min strategy call.
Tell me your stage, your channels, your blockers. I'll come back with an honest read on whether fractional fits, what scope makes sense, and the next 90-day plan.