Plenty of activity.
No one steering, and nothing compounding.
Most growth-stage companies don't have a marketing problem — they have a marketing leadership problem. Channels run in silos, agencies optimize for their own scorecards, and the CEO becomes the de-facto CMO because nobody else can read the funnel.
A Fractional CMO fills that seat — at the level of seniority you need, and the fraction of cost you can defend.
A complete marketing department head.
Strategy, demand, team, and the number.
Strategy & roadmap
The annual plan tied to revenue — not a tactics calendar.
- Annual + quarterly plan
- Monthly KPI scorecard
- Budget approved by CFO
- OKRs your team can run
Demand & pipeline
Full-funnel accountability from click through closed-won.
- Channel mix + budget
- Full-funnel attribution
- Sales–marketing SLAs
- Weekly pipeline review
Brand & positioning
The story your sales team wishes you'd already written.
- Positioning + ICP
- Messaging framework
- Competitive narrative
- Voice + visual system
Team leadership
1:1s, weekly stand-ups, hires, and the hard vendor calls.
- Manage your marketers
- Write JDs + interview
- Agency + vendor oversight
- Mentor the team you have
Budget & vendor mix
Right-size spend, consolidate vendors, and negotiate the contracts.
- Zero-based budget review
- Vendor consolidation / re-bid
- Contract + SOW negotiation
- Media buying oversight
Performance & reporting
One scorecard, monthly — built for the board, not vanity.
- Board-ready dashboard
- Pipeline + CAC + LTV
- Leading + lagging indicators
- Monthly executive readout
Executive leadership, right-sized.
The senior brain without the senior salary.
Illustrative annual cost. Full-time CMO figure includes base, bonus, equity, and benefits load; fractional figure reflects our Growth-tier retainer over 12 months. Actuals vary by market and scope.
What it looks like
when we own the marketing.
Northmark Platforms
Inherited three agencies and a marketing team with no lead. Rebuilt the plan, consolidated vendors, and installed a pipeline scorecard in 60 days.
Ridgeline Group
Owned marketing through a rebrand and website relaunch. Held the CMO seat while an in-house VP was hired and ramped.
Southgate Motors
Sat as the group-level marketing head across three OEM programs. Consolidated agency spend and rebuilt the reporting stack for the ownership group.
Embedded and leading in two weeks.
Here's the ramp.
- Step 01Week 1
Onboard & diagnose
Access, interviews with your team, review of last-90-day performance, and a written diagnostic of where the funnel is leaking.
Deliverables- Stakeholder interviews
- Access to platforms + reports
- 90-day performance diagnostic
- Findings memo
- Step 02Weeks 2–3
Draft the plan
A defensible 90-day plan tied to a real number. We name the bets, name the KPIs, and name what we're going to stop doing.
Deliverables- ICP + positioning refresh
- Channel mix + budget
- 90-day priorities + owners
- KPI scorecard v1
- Step 03Week 4
Take the seat
Formal handoff of the marketing operating cadence. Weekly stand-ups start. Vendor calls come to us. The board deck is now our document.
Deliverables- Weekly team stand-up
- Vendor + agency review
- Sales–marketing SLA
- Board deck template
- Step 04Month 2+
Lead + report
We run the cadence, mentor the team, and show up to the board meeting with a scorecard tied to pipeline — every month, without fail.
Deliverables- Monthly board readout
- Quarterly working session
- Hiring + vendor changes
- Rolling roadmap
The unsexy stuff we get right so your board doesn't ask twice.
Senior leadership, by the month.
Sized to your stage.
Starter · 16 hrs / mo
The strategy seat. Right-sized for early-stage teams that need direction more than execution oversight.
- Annual + quarterly plan
- Monthly KPI scorecard
- Weekly 1:1 with founder/CEO
- Agency & vendor oversight
- Quarterly board readout
Growth · 28 hrs / mo
Strategy plus active team leadership — the right fit when you already have marketers and agencies but no one running them.
- Everything in Starter
- Weekly team stand-up + 1:1s
- Hiring support (JDs + interviews)
- Full-funnel attribution build
- Monthly board readout
Full · 40 hrs / mo
For companies in a real growth or repositioning moment. We're in the operating cadence as much as a full-time CMO.
- Everything in Growth
- Co-own pipeline with sales leadership
- Brand & positioning refresh
- Vendor consolidation / re-bid
- Active CMO succession plan
Hours reflect senior leadership time. Custom scopes available for multi-brand or complex programs. Initial 90-day term, then month-to-month with 30 days' notice. Media, tools, and vendor spend billed separately and paid directly to the platform — no markup.
The questions every founder
asks on the first call.
Real answers. Anything we miss, get on the phone with us.
Related Services
Apply to work with Chris.
A limited number of CMO seats, by application.
The seat is intentionally rare — we cap concurrent engagements so Chris can be present for every board meeting. If we're a fit, we'll respond within two business days with a first call and a draft 90-day plan.
- Every engagement is led by Chris personally.
- Limited concurrent engagements — we don't overbook the seat.
- Honest fit assessment on the first call.
- Draft 90-day plan if we're matched.