A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who leads your marketing part-time and owns the growth number. A full retainer with me starts at $20,000 a month, a fixed-scope growth audit is $12,500, and the right moment to hire one is when the team executes well but nobody senior sets the order of operations.
The articles below cover the decisions in the order founders actually make them: is it time, what will it cost, and which model fits, whether that is an agency, a consultant, a head of growth, a growth pod, or a fractional CMO.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · August 22, 2026 · 7 min read
What a fractional CMO costs: the retainer, the $12,500 audit, and how both price against an agency and a full-time CMO's loaded annual cost.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · August 23, 2026 · 8 min read
The trigger signals that mean it is time to hire a fractional CMO, the anti-signals that mean you are too early, and what hiring the wrong level costs.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · August 25, 2026 · 7 min read
A founder gets pitched five kinds of growth help in a month. Sorting them by who answers when the number misses makes the choice obvious.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · September 5, 2026 · 5 min read
Four situations where a fractional CMO fails and I decline the retainer. Run the gates in five minutes before you book anyone's call.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · September 4, 2026 · 5 min read
Agencies target 50-60% gross margin, so about half a retainer can never buy delivery hours. The math that decides who actually works your account.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · August 31, 2026 · 9 min read
A growth audit hands you a ranked list. A roadmap is a dependency graph with dates. What lands in each of the ninety days, and why measurement goes first.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · August 30, 2026 · 8 min read
Two titles treated as one job at two prices. The difference is decision rights, and which of your decisions the new hire is allowed to end.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · August 29, 2026 · 8 min read
A first marketing hire inherits no system, so seniority stalls. Sort two weeks of your own calendar into three bands and the right hire names itself.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · August 28, 2026 · 8 min read
A growth pod puts four part-time specialists on one slide for a fractional CMO's fee. Count the committed hours, then ask who owns the number.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · August 27, 2026 · 7 min read
A six-month-old strategy deck, correct on every page, and a growth number that never moved. How to tell whether you need analysis or an owner.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · August 26, 2026 · 8 min read
A head of growth makes your existing loop run faster. A fractional CMO decides whether that loop is worth running. A backlog test that settles it.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · August 24, 2026 · 8 min read
Fractional CMO vs full-time CMO: a six-month search plus a six-month ramp, $250,000 to $450,000 loaded, and the scope-hours test that settles it.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · August 11, 2026 · 9 min read
Founders who have never had a CMO supervise by checking. The weekly reporting contract I install in week one, and what it buys inside 30 days.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · July 31, 2026 · 7 min read
Fractional CMO vs marketing agency: an agency executes inside your frame, an operator questions it. Pick by the failure mode your stage can absorb.
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Hiring a fractional CMO · July 24, 2026 · 7 min read
What a fractional CMO actually delivers: a 30-day audit, an installed growth operating system, a team that runs it, and an engagement built to end.
Read the article →A full engagement with me starts at $20,000 a month and moves with scope, team size, and whether the mandate includes hiring and board reporting. A fixed-scope growth audit is $12,500 paid once, and advisory runs $5,000 to $7,500 a month. A full-time CMO costs $250,000 to $450,000 a year once bonus, equity and benefits are counted.
When the product sells, CAC is climbing or a channel has plateaued, and marketing decisions are being made by people who each own a channel rather than the number. Too early looks like a company still searching for its first repeatable channel.
An agency executes inside the frame you give it and is accountable for deliverables. A fractional CMO questions the frame and is accountable for the revenue number. Pick by which failure mode your stage can absorb.
I write about what actually moved the numbers. If any of it maps to what you're facing, let's talk.
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