I've worked at startups beginning as small as 5 people through multiple funding rounds up to IPO/acquisition, and one frequent mistake I have seen is founders hiring a full-time CMO or VP of Marketing much too soon. Let's explore why this happens, what the problem is, and better approaches including a fractional CMO or marketing advisor.
Founders can come from any background, often having technical or sales experience, but usually they aren't marketing experts. They build an innovative product, raise funding, and hire sales people, but then the initial pent-up demand from early adopters dries up. Time to hire a marketing exec for the leadership team, right? Wrong. As covered in a previous post, you should start with product marketing and a marketing director first. Learn how to position your product and learn how to build and scale demand efficiently first. You don't need a full-time CMO to do these things.
Why is it a mistake to hire a full-time CMO or VP of Marketing right away? The answer comes down to three things: focus, skills, and cost. Unless you simply offering some title inflation to attract someone to your startup, it's likely that a full-time marketing exec will be overkill and spendy. You need someone who wants to operate hands-on, who has recent experience doing not just managing, and who won't hurt your budget and burn rate. A full-time CMO might cost anywhere from $250k-$400k, even before accounting for their benefits and equity(!), depending on credentials and market. And honestly, they might still be a bad fit, which is boring for them and wasteful for you.
Instead, you should consider a pragmatic hire of a fractional CMO or marketing advisor who can help with GTM strategy, planning, and direction specific to your stage and needs. Effective engagements can be anywhere from two hours per month to two days per week, obviously at a corresponding fraction of the cost, but with good scoping they should deliver all the leadership you need. Control your spend and wait until you have steady profits or a new funding round or a marketing team bigger than 3-4 people to justify the full-time marketing exec. You might then be able to promote from within, or you'll be able to attract talent that's more capable for the challenges of the next stage of growth. Who knows, maybe you can even convince your fractional CMO to join fully, and leverage all the knowledge they've already built up around your business....
If you want to explore how I might help you build strong foundations for marketing and bridge your needs until the right time to hire full-time, let's talk about it!