A marketing leader one to three days a week
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader engaged part-time who owns strategy and direction rather than a task list. I take that role for analytical instrumentation and biotech startups: setting the position, writing the messaging, directing content and building the pipeline plan, then handing over to whoever executes it — your team, a freelancer, or me.
What the role actually involves
Owning the position
One claim the company can defend, agreed with the founder and used consistently across every surface.
Directing content
A publishing plan tied to the buying process rather than to a content calendar for its own sake.
Building the pipeline plan
Stage definitions, forecasting assumptions and a nurture approach sized to a capital sales cycle.
Managing the people who execute
Briefing and reviewing freelancers, agencies and junior marketers so the standard holds.
Sitting in commercial reviews
Being in the room when pricing, channel and territory decisions get made.
Handing over
A written record of every decision, so the eventual full-time hire inherits reasoning, not guesswork.
What you are left holding
Nothing here is a slide deck that lives in my account. Every output is a document you own, written so that a new hire can pick it up and work from it.
| Output | Form |
|---|---|
| Market position statement | One page, evidenced |
| Messaging platform | Per audience, per objection |
| Content plan | Quarterly, tied to pipeline stages |
| Pipeline model | Spreadsheet with stated assumptions |
| Monthly commercial review | Written summary and decisions |
| Handover file | Everything, at the end |
Signals this is the right piece of work
You have a product that works and a founder doing the marketing between everything else.
You have hired a marketer who is executing well but has nobody senior to set the direction.
You are raising, and the deck says the market is large without saying which part of it pays first.
You are spending on content and campaigns without a position they hang from.
Questions about the fractional CMO engagement
How many days a week is a fractional CMO?
One to three days is the normal range. Below one day the role becomes advisory and loses the ability to direct work; above three it is cheaper to hire someone full-time.
How is this different from hiring an agency?
An agency executes against a brief. A fractional CMO writes the brief, and is accountable for whether it was the right one. I can also brief and manage an agency if you already have one.
Do you replace a full-time CMO permanently?
No. The role exists to get a company to the point where a full-time hire is worth making, and to leave that hire a written record of every decision rather than a blank page.
What happens in the first month?
The same thing that happens in 90 Days to Market: buyer interviews, a read of the competitive field, and an honest answer on which segment pays first. Direction before activity.
Can you work alongside our existing marketing team?
Yes, and that is the common case. The team keeps executing; I set direction, review output and take the commercial conversations that need a senior marketing voice.
Bring the technology and the number you are measured on.
A first call is thirty minutes and costs nothing. I will tell you whether the role is what you need, or whether one piece of project work would get you further.