Hiring a full-time CMO too early is a capital-allocation mistake. What you actually need is senior operating leadership that has run the number — not advised on it.
The era of growth by burning capital is over. Boards and investors 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.
Much of my operating career was built at Chicago companies — Shiftgig, Cubii, Golfmiles, CodaPet — and two of the three exits happened here.
Joined at employee #14, built the growth org, and helped scale a two-sided marketplace from zero to $100M in revenue before its acquisition.
Took over a Chicago consumer-hardware company losing $40K a month, reached profitability in 60 days, and built the engine behind a $100M exit while creating the under-desk fitness category.
Led marketing for a Chicago venture inside NBCUniversal's portfolio, building growth through airline loyalty partnerships.
Built the national leader in in-home pet end-of-life care — +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.
P&L accountability, not a slide deck of recommendations. The growth number is mine to hit.
First 30 days: CAC, LTV:CAC, and payback on the table before a dollar more goes out the door.
High-ROAS paid acquisition plus owned channels that compound after the spend stops — co-equal, not paid-only.
One-Person ICP, the Pain Ladder, funnel math, attribution, and growth loops — the framework behind every engagement.
Hire, structure, and coach the team so the capability stays when the engagement ends.
To the founder or board in the language of payback and burn multiple — not marketing vanity metrics.
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.
Enter your website. The diagnostic reads your company and your market the way an operator would — where the funded pain is, what your current marketing is actually selling to, the gap, and what I'd do next. A few minutes; the output is yours to keep.
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.
No. I'm Chicago-based with deep roots here — Shiftgig, Cubii, Golfmiles, and CodaPet were all Chicago companies — but I work nationally and have operated well beyond it. PartnerSlate and Therma (GlacierGrid) were Bay Area companies, and 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.
The first conversation is a diagnostic: your CAC, payback, and channel mix against real benchmarks. If a fractional engagement isn't the right answer, I'll say so.