Fractional CMO for hardware and deep-tech companies
Senior marketing leadership for companies whose product is harder to explain than it is to build, from an operator who writes the plan, does the work, and documents it so you can eventually run it without him.
What a fractional CMO actually does
Definition
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who leads your marketing function part-time under a defined engagement owning strategy, plan and results instead of joining your payroll. The right time is when marketing decisions outweigh the founder's available judgment, but before a full-time executive is justified.
The version I sell adds two things most fractional CMOs don't. Execution: I don't hand you a strategy deck and a list of agencies, I build and run the function. And an exit: every engagement runs six months and ends with documented systems and a handoff, because the team is designed to be deleted.
Who it's right for
- Stage: Series A–B. Funded, product in market, paying customers.
- Category: hardware and deep tech robotics, aerospace and defense, automotive and mobility, advanced manufacturing, engineering.
- Symptom: engineering is years ahead of go-to-market. The founder is the funnel. The activity isn't a system.
- Intent: you want the function in-house eventually, you just don't want to build it by trial and error. Not to mention the time it takes.
What I own
- Positioning and messaging architecture
- ICP definition and account selection
- The go-to-market plan and its sequencing
- Demand generation and ABM programs
- Content strategy and editorial standard
- Events and trade show programs
- Marketing ops: CRM, attribution, automation
- Pricing input (structured, with evidence)
- The marketing hiring plan and role specs
- Board and investor reporting for marketing
What I don't
- Sales closing — I build the pipeline engine; your closers close
- Product decisions — input yes, authority no
- Final pricing authority — same
- One-off projects: a logo, a single campaign, a deck
- Month-to-month trials — the unit of work is six months
Naming what I don't do is part of the offer. A fractional CMO who claims everything is a generalist agency with one employee.
The first 90 days
| Weeks | What happens | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | The Teardown: twelve audit areas including positioning, ICP, messaging, site, search and AI visibility, content, demand channels, CRM and attribution, sales collateral, competitive set, events, team and vendors. | A prioritized roadmap with owners, effort estimates and a timeline. |
| 4–6 | Foundations: the highest-leverage fixes from the roadmap, usually positioning, the site's commercial pages, and CRM hygiene. | The story a buyer actually understands, live and instrumented. |
| 7–10 | Systems: signal monitoring, enrichment, reporting automation, content ops. The instrumentation layer. | A weekly outbound queue and a monthly report you'd show the board. |
| 11–13 | Programs at pace: ABM engagement plans, content shipping, the next event booked with target accounts attached. | Pipeline you can trace to the plan. |
What it costs
A fixed monthly retainer over a six-month term, scoped to the track and the depth of involvement. Media, software and contractor costs are billed at cost with no markup. No percentage-of-spend pricing, ever. I'll give you an estimate on the first call, I'd rather scope it than quote a range that fits nobody.
How the engagement is structured — tracks, terms, the month-three checkpoint — is on the engagements page.
Fractional CMO questions
What is a fractional CMO?
A senior marketing leader who runs your marketing function part-time under a defined engagement, rather than joining payroll. You get CMO-level judgment, planning and accountability for a fraction of the fully-loaded cost of a full-time executive — which for an experienced B2B CMO runs well into six figures with equity.
How many hours a week do you work on our business?
Enough to own the outcome — typically the equivalent of one to two days a week, weighted heavily toward the front of the engagement, where the Teardown and the build happen. I scope by responsibility, not hours, and I cap my client count so ownership is real.
When is a hardware startup ready for a fractional CMO?
Three signals: you've raised a Series A or later, you have a product in market with paying customers, and the founder is still the only reliable source of pipeline. If you're pre-revenue, you need customer conversations, not a marketing function.
How is this different from an agency?
An agency executes a plan someone else wrote and is structurally incentivized to keep the retainer alive. A fractional CMO writes the plan, is accountable for it, and — in my model — executes it too, then documents everything so your own team can take over at month six.
How is this different from a full-time CMO?
A full-time CMO makes sense when marketing needs daily executive attention across a large team — usually Series C and later. Before that, a full-time executive spends most of the week managing the function a fractional operator would simply build. You're buying the same judgment without the payroll commitment.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes, before the Teardown in every engagement — most of my clients' roadmaps, customer lists and technical specs are sensitive, and some are export-controlled. For ITAR-adjacent work, the AI systems I build run on locally-hosted models inside your infrastructure.
What do you not own?
Sales closing, product decisions and pricing authority — I give structured input on all three, but they belong to you. I also don't do one-off projects: a logo, a single campaign, a deck. The unit of work is the function, not the artifact.
What does it cost?
A fixed monthly retainer over a six-month term, scoped to the track and depth of involvement. Media, software and contractor costs are billed at cost with no markup, and I never price as a percentage of spend. I'll give you a number on the first call.
Bring me your hardest go-to-market problem
Thirty minutes. I'll come with three observations about your market already prepared. No deck.