Hiring a full-time CMO too early is a capital-allocation mistake. What most growth-stage companies actually need is senior operating leadership with P&L accountability — someone who has run the number, not advised on it. I'm a Chicago-based growth executive with $400M+ in revenue driven, three exits, and a $100M+/yr paid channel built at a public company at 7× ROAS. Every operating role of my career has been at a Chicago company.
The era of growth by burning capital is over. Boards and investors now underwrite efficiency — CAC payback, burn multiple, revenue per head — not spend. A full-time CMO is the right hire when the engine is built and needs an owner. Until then, the fully-loaded cost, the equity, and the severance risk buy you a title, not a system.
A fractional engagement inverts that: you get the executive who builds the engine — unit economics first, then paid and owned channels as co-equal engines that compound — at a fraction of the cost, with a mandate that ends when the machine runs without them. Demand you build, not demand you rent.
That's the operating thesis behind the Revenue Compound System — the same eight-module framework I run inside every engagement, from the One-Person ICP and the Pain Ladder to attribution, paid growth, and growth loops.
Every operating role of my career has been at a Chicago company. Two of the three exits happened here.
VP Marketing · Employee #14
$0 → $100M · 2M workers · acquired
Joined a Chicago two-sided labor marketplace at employee #14, built the growth org to 40+, and helped scale it from zero to $100M in revenue before its acquisition.
VP Marketing · First marketing hire
−$40K/mo → profitable in 60 days → $100M exit
Took over a Chicago consumer hardware company losing $40K a month, reached profitability in 60 days, and built the growth engine behind a $100M exit — while creating the under-desk fitness category.
CMO
Enterprise growth inside the Comcast portfolio
Ran marketing for a Chicago venture inside NBCUniversal's portfolio, building growth through airline loyalty partnerships that reached 100M+ members.
Head of Marketing
170+ markets · ~80% non-paid volume · 6.5× ROAS
Built the national category leader in in-home pet end-of-life care from Chicago — 170+ profitable metros, +225% revenue growth to a mid-eight-figure run rate, run by a five-person AI-native team.
Beyond Chicago: rebuilt paid acquisition for The RealReal (NASDAQ: REAL) from a cold restart — $300K to $2M+/month in spend at 7× ROAS, scaling the channel to $100M+ per year in attributed revenue while cutting CAC 40%.
Fractional CMO or interim Head of Growth — the mandate is operating, not advising.
Fractional leadership works when the fit is honest. These are the situations where the model earns its keep.
Portfolio companies that need a unit-economics reset and a growth engine that survives diligence — not another agency layer.
The CAC math that raised the round stopped working. You need senior operating leadership before the next raise, not after.
You've outgrown freelancers and agencies but a full-time CMO is premature. A fractional engagement bridges the gap without the equity and severance risk.
Someone who has run the number at a public company and taken companies to exit — and who builds systems, not decks.
A defined weekly commitment with full ownership of the growth number. I audit unit economics in the first 30 days, then build and run the growth engine — paid acquisition, owned channels, attribution, and the team — reporting to the founder or board on capital-efficiency metrics. It is an operating role, not an advisory one.
An agency executes channels; a consultant recommends. A fractional CMO owns the P&L outcome, makes the hiring and budget calls, and builds in-house capability that stays after the engagement. I've held the number as an operator through three exits — that accountability is the difference.
I'm based in Chicago and every operating role in my career has been at a Chicago company — Shiftgig, Cubii, Golfmiles, CodaPet. But I work nationally: my longest engagement was rebuilding paid acquisition for The RealReal, a public company, scaling the channel to $100M+ per year in attributed revenue at 7× ROAS.
The title matters less than the mandate. If you need positioning, category strategy, and a growth engine built end to end, that's the fractional CMO scope. If you need someone to run acquisition and fix the funnel math while you search for a full-time hire, that's interim Head of Growth. I take both, and the diagnostic first month is the same.