collabs — fractional cmo

Fractional CMO for teams rebuilding marketing for the AI era.

You need a CMO. Just not every day. Senior marketing leadership embedded in your team — with the judgement, ownership, and operating experience of a full-time hire, plus the AI-native perspective to redesign how the function works.

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what this is

Embedded leadership.
Owned outcomes.
No long-term lock-in.

Fractional CMO is the senior marketing leader inside your team — accountable for the strategy, leading the function, owning the outcomes. Different in kind from an advisor (who spars) and from an agency (who executes).

01 — Embedded

Inside the team, not outside the wall

Joining standups, leadership meetings, key Slack channels. Treated as the marketing leader, not a vendor. Your team reports into me on marketing strategy.

02 — Accountable

Owning outcomes, not just recommendations

Strategy, hiring, vendor management, in-quarter execution oversight. The buck stops here for marketing — same as if you'd hired full-time.

03 — Time-boxed

3 to 6 months, scaling up or down

Long enough to land real change. Short enough to avoid the open-ended retainer trap. Most engagements wind down naturally as the function matures and a FT hire takes over.

the difference

20 years of operating.
Now deep in the AI rebuild.

Most fractional CMOs are advising on yesterday's marketing playbook. The function is being rebuilt underneath everyone — agents in roles, AI in workflows, strategy and outputs shifting. Senior marketing leadership in 2026 has to be fluent in both the old playbook and the new one.

the operating playbook

Twenty years inside the function — through every stage.

Leadership roles across SoundCloud, Pitch, Grover, and Prolific — 20 years of building marketing engines through every stage from seed to scale.

Positioning, demand generation, brand, team building, board reporting, hiring and firing. Been there, done that, got many, many t-shirts.

the AI rebuild

A builder as well as a strategist.

Builder mindset with deep technical experience of building and deploying AI-native marketing functions — agent-team org design, AI-augmented workflows, MCP-friendly tech stack, and hybrid human/agent team structures.

Inference exists at the intersection of strategy and systems; the fractional CMO work is where that thesis gets applied to your business.

how it works

Four phases.
Built to land real change.

A fractional CMO engagement runs differently to advisory or sprints — heavier upfront investment, sustained momentum through the middle, deliberate handover at the end. Here's the shape it usually takes.

01 — Discovery

Discovery & scope.

Where is the function today? Where does it need to be in 6 months? What are the load-bearing decisions? We agree the scope and shape — days/week, focus areas, outcomes — and shake hands on it.

02 — Embed

First 30 days.

Diagnostic of what's working, what's broken, what's missing. Meeting your team, your stakeholders, your customers. End of month one: a clear plan for the next quarter.

03 — Operate

Months 2 onward.

Running the function. Setting strategy, owning execution oversight, managing vendors, building the team, reporting back to the C-suite. This is where the value compounds.

04 — Hand off

Last 4 weeks.

Either: the function matures to the point where I'll help you hire a full-time marketing leader and handover. Or: the work gets bigger than originally scoped and we extend or restructure.

commitment shape

Default engagement mode.
Flexes each time.

time commitment

~2 days/week

Embedded enough to lead, light enough to not become a default headcount.

engagement length

3–6 months minimum

Long enough to land real change; short enough to avoid drift.

day rhythm

Standing days each week

Predictable cadence so your team and I are in rhythm, not negotiating each week.

access

Slack, standups, leadership

Embedded in your tooling and rituals — treated as the marketing leader, not a vendor logging in for meetings.

team coaching

From week one

The goal is to bring your team to a place where you don't need me — through systems, clear planning, and coaching.

pricing

Scoped to fit

Anchored against the FT alternative. Talk through your shape and we'll work it out.

fit check

Who this is —
and isn't — for.

Fractional CMO is a serious commitment on both sides. Self-qualifying upfront saves us wasted time.

This is for you if

You're a B2B SaaS founder seed to Series B who needs senior marketing leadership but can't justify a $200k+ FT hire
You've outgrown founder-led marketing but a junior hire would be over their head
You've burned out on agencies and consultants and want someone with real skin in the game
You want a senior brain who'll own the strategy and accept accountability for the outcomes — not just advise

This isn't for you if

You already have a senior marketing leader — look at Advisory for sparring rather than embedding
You need one specific piece of strategic work shipped — a Foundation Sprint is the better shape
You want pure hands-on execution — a fractional CMO leads, you'll still need executors below
You're pre-traction and marketing should still be founder-led

faq

Frequently asked questions.

What's left on your mind...

What does fractional CMO actually mean?

A senior marketing leader embedded in your team part-time. I attend leadership meetings, set strategy, own outcomes, manage vendors and hires. Treated as the marketing leader — not as an outside consultant or contractor.

How is this different from advisory?

Advisory is a brain on call — sparring, second opinions, async input. You still own the function and the execution. Fractional CMO is the leader of the function — I own the strategy, the team, the outcomes. Different commitment in both directions.

How is this different from hiring a full-time CMO?

Same seniority and accountability, a fraction of the cost and commitment. Scales down naturally when the work matures, rather than carrying a $200k+ headcount through quiet quarters. The trade-off is days-per-week rather than full-time presence — which works for most companies seed to Series B.

How does the AI rebuild angle work in practice?

Most fractional CMOs are operating from a playbook designed before AI rewrote the function. Inference's whole thesis is that marketing is becoming a system design problem — agents in roles, AI-augmented workflows, hybrid team design. I bring both the operator pattern matching from the old playbook and the AI-native experience of rebuilding for the new one.

What's the minimum commitment?

3 months minimum to give the work time to land. Most engagements run 6 months; some extend longer. Month-to-month thereafter with 30 days' notice either way — no long lock-in once we're past the initial commitment.

What kinds of companies do you work with?

Primarily B2B SaaS, seed to Series B. Most often companies that have outgrown founder-led marketing, aren't ready for (or can't justify) a FT CMO, and want senior leadership to set the function up well rather than figure it out as they go.

start with a conversation

Let's explore
your challenges.

Tell me about your team, where the function is, and what's coming up. 30 minutes. We'll figure out whether fractional CMO is the right shape — or whether something lighter (Advisory) or more focused (a Sprint) is actually what you need.