GETMYCMO.com
TRENDS IN EARLY-STAGE STARTUP — FROM SEED TO UNTILL SERIES B
The Founder’s Dilemma — You’re Wearing Every Hat
You are building the product, chasing funding, managing cash flow, leading your team, and showing up everywhere your startup needs you. You’re stretched thin, wearing ten hats & marketing… well, it keeps slipping down the priority list, right?
It’s natural — most successful founders push brand and marketing to “later.” But here’s the thing: brands aren’t built when the spotlight’s on — they’re built quietly, in the background, every single day. And the sooner you get strategic about it, the faster it compounds — helping you win markets, attract talent, and raise capital on your terms. Ignore it too long, and you risk becoming just another player — not the category leader you set out to be.
The Costly Shortcuts Most Founders Take
Settling for execution when what you really need is marketing leadership
I get it — budgets are tight, and hiring a full-time CMO feels like a luxury too soon. So, most founders do what seems practical — end up hiring sharp mid-level specialists or lean on outside agencies for execution.
They’re great at what they do — designing events, managing social media, driving PR — but they’re not wired for big-picture thinking. What gets missed is your brand narrative, positioning, and long-term growth strategy.
Marketing ends up fragmented — reactive, tactical, and expensive. Campaigns run. Budgets burn. But the brand? It just floats — no narrative, no compounding equity, no real pull. You miss the chance to build a brand that compounds — a brand that pulls customers, talent, and investors towards you.
That’s where I step in — to connect the dots, bring clarity, and steer your marketing ship — so your business isn’t just running… it’s roaring. 🚀
Marketing Feels Tactical, Not Strategic
Your team/agency is great at execution but lacks strategic direction & coherence. You need a senior-level marketing leadership to step in with big-picture thinking, and alignment of all acitivities with business goals.
Founder-Led Marketing is Unsustainable
You (founder/CEO) are leading marketing decisions, but it’s taking too much time and energy. You need to offload to an expert.
Performance Marketing Outpaces Brand Building
You’re too focused on paid growth and missing out on long-term brand equity. A Fractional CMO balances both and avoids over-dependence on paid channels.
Need Expert Help in Specific Marketing Areas
You have a functional challenge and the team is stuck — content, brand, PR, digital, demand generation, social — it needs specialist intervention.
Crisis Communication or Reputation Management
Facing PR, social, or brand crisis? A seasoned marketing leader helps navigate tough times and protect brand equity and managing stakeholders during high-stress periods.
Lack of Data-Driven Marketing or Poor Attribution
Your marketing feels gut-driven. You need help setting up analytics, attribution models, and dashboards to track ROI and make your spends accountable and efficient.
Lack of Experienced Marketing Leadership
You need an experienced CMO-level leader but can’t justify a full-time hire — or good talent is too expensive or hard to find. Fractional solves this without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.
Limited In-House Marketing Resources
Provides senior-level marketing bandwidth, fills capability gaps, and optimizes cost without building a large team upfront.
Agency Over-Reliance Without Strategy
You’re spending heavily on agencies but lack a strategic marketing head to lead, guide, and extract the right outcomes from them - with better control and outcome predictability.
Need an Unbiased Brand Audit / Health Check
You want an outside-in fresh eyes and external perspective to review marketing strategy, spends, campaigns, results to optimize efforts, reallocate resources and reset direction without internal biases.
Declining Customer Retention or Loyalty
Your acquisition is fine, but churn is rising. You need help analyzing churn reasons, improving retention strategies, and enhancing lifetime value through data-backed approaches.
Stalled Growth or Plateaued Metrics
A fresh lens to identify marketing bottlenecks, reframe strategies, unlock new growth levers and build momentum toward your next phase of scale.
But, wait. What qualifies me to be your Fractional CMO?
Great marketing leadership is equal parts strategy, execution, and adaptability. I bring 15+ years of hands-on experience building brands for $3Bn startups, global consulting, managing multi-stakeholder complexity and founding a full-scale agency — I bring the strategic clarity, cross-industry depth, and operator mindset your business needs. With me as your fractional CMO, you get someone who can think like a founder, act like a marketeer, and deliver like a business partner.
💼 Built Marketing Strategy at Scale — $3 Billion Growth-stage Startup Experience
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Led brand and marketing for Zetwerk Manufacturing (India’s largest manufacturing unicorn) — mastered the playbook of scaling brands and aligning marketing to business OKRs.
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Managed Marketing AOP worth USD 25 Mn with strategic brand initiatives for diverse industries, including Aerospace & Defence, Electronics, and Infra sectors — giving me the ability to handle complex, regulated industries.
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Executed post-merger brand integration for 3 acquired companies, launched 2 new brands (successful spin-offs)
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Market-Driven Brand Growth – Spearheaded deep-dive research with 185+ customer interviews & 950+ quantitative studies — Elevating Zetwerk to #2 Best Engineering Company in India (as per independent brand perception study).
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Industry Thought Leadership – Built Zetwerk’s Insights Platform & 3D immersive museum — showcasing future-forward storytelling & reinforcing category dominance.
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Designed large-scale events, customer panels, and advocacy programs — building trust and positioning.
🎯 Full-Stack Execution Mastery — Agency Founder with Global Industry exposure
As Founder of Truleap Ventures, a full-stack marketing agency, I:
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Co-founded & scaled a full-service marketing agency, working with 32+ brands across industries—from renewable energy to tech.
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Drove 100% YoY budget growth for clients like LONGi Solar & Veolia.
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Built agile, execution-focused marketing playbooks tailored for high-growth companies — Hands-on expertise in content, digital, PR, design, video, events, influencer campaigns.
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Designed scalable org structures, processes, and partner ecosystems ready for CMO-level growth.
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Passionate about empowering teams — reducing founder dependency while institutionalizing marketing.
📊 Consulting Mindset & Ownership — Data, Discipline & Deadline-driven
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Trained with McKinsey (M&A Practice), Essex Lake Group (NYC-based consulting), Ennovent (Austrian Impact Fund) and Xynteo (Norwegian Impact consulting) — strong analytical rigor.
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Data-Driven Decision Making – Managing M&A transactions, financial modeling, startup 0-1 journey and delivering marketing comms projects with largest global institutions — Delivering high-stakes projects under tight deadlines & global stakeholder pressure.
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Social Impact & ESG Marketing – Designing campaigns with UNICEF, USAID, Aditya Birla, Shell, Tata Trusts — skilled at project management, stakeholder alignment, and operating with board-level precision.
Marketing isn’t just a function—it’s your unfair advantage. I help CEOs turn brand trust into business momentum, category leadership into market dominance, and marketing investments into real, measurable growth.
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🎯 Here’s why I can unlock marketing-led growth for your startup:
Shubho Broto Das
What can I solve for you as your Fractional CMO?
As your Fractional CMO, I operate as an extension of your leadership team — driving strategy, execution, and outcomes across all critical marketing elements — I step in where it matters most, without the full-time baggage. Flexible, outcome-driven, and deeply embedded in your business — I focus on what moves the needle.
Brand & Narrative Strategy
Defining what your business stands for, who it serves, and why it matters. Aligning brand purpose, positioning, and messaging with business goals to build long-term equity.
Communication & Creative Strategy
Translate your journey into brand story to create impactful communication across digital and offline channels - one that engages the right audience.
Media, Performance & Growth Marketing
Optimize media mix, acquire customers, drive growth, and make every marketing spend count with data-driven strategies - both digital & traditional channels
Marketing Analytics & Measurement
Build a marketing engine for you that tracks, measures, and optimizes performance across both brand and business metrics.
Stakeholder & Ecosystem Management
Align internal teams and external partners within your business to ensure smooth execution and consistent marketing impact.
Team Building, Hiring & Mentoring
Strengthen marketing capability by hiring the right talent, setting up processes, and mentoring the team toward business goals.
GTM & Product Launches
Craft go-to-market strategies for new launches or market expansion — ensuring strong adoption from Day 1.
Personal Branding & Thought Leadership
Shape the your (founder’s) and your leadership team’s personal brand and thought leadership to build influence and stay future-ready.
💬 Curious How a Fractional CMO Can Accelerate Your Growth?
Get the detailed pitch deck outlining the Fractional CMO model and scope of work. Whether you're exploring this for now or future planning, this deck will help you evaluate if it's the right fit for your startup’s growth journey.
Why a Fractional CMO Makes Sense for Growth-Stage Startups?
Still unsure about hiring a Fractional CMO? Here’s how I drive value at critical inflection points—providing strategic clarity, operational excellence, and high-impact execution without the overhead of a full-time hire.
Unbiased Perspective & Future-Proofing
You need a Fractional CMO who brings an outside-in perspective, challenges internal assumptions, identifies blind spots, aligns marketing efforts with business goals, sets up data-driven frameworks, and even helps benchmark, mentor, and define the right permanent CMO role — ensuring your marketing is future-ready and resilient.
Project Management & Scalable Growth
You need a Fractional CMO who drives targeted experiments/projects with absolute accountability, runs marketing sprints, de-risks new launches, and keeps marketing agile, responsive, and ready to scale — giving you the optionality to adapt without being bogged down.
Speed, Flexibility & Cost Efficiency
You need a Fractional CMO who plugs in fast with a flat learning curve, offers flexible contractual engagement, and brings years of strategic cross-industry thinking without overheads, ESOPs, notice periods or long-term commitments — giving you leadership agility while optimizing costs and avoiding expensive hiring mistakes.
Founder Bandwidth & Strategic Focus
You need a Fractional CMO who steps in to own marketing leadership, make strategic decisions, mentor your team, and free up your mental bandwidth so you can focus on building the business while avoiding the pressure of a rushed or costly full-time hire.
Marketing Capability Uplift & Operational Excellence
You need a Fractional CMO who builds marketing engines and acts as your growth partner, not just an advisor — hiring the right team, setting up systems & SOPs, aligning partners, streamlining resources — and ensuring every marketing spend is optimized for growth, brand equity, and long-term value creation.
Crisis Management & Reputation Building
You need a Fractional CMO who protects brand equity, manages stakeholders, crafts investor-friendly stories, ensures alignment across communications, and drives reputation management while keeping the business on track during high-stress periods.
Is It Time to Bring in a Fractional CMO?
12 High-Impact Use Cases: Wondering when a Fractional CMO makes the most sense? Below are 12 common scenarios where founders and startups have brought me in as a strategic marketing leader — driving clarity, execution, and growth without the overhead of a full-time hire.
If any of these resonate with your current challenges or priorities, it’s a strong signal that your startup is ready for senior marketing leadership — exactly when you need it, and only for as long as you need it.
I can step in on a priority basis and help you build, scale, or fix marketing where it matters most.
"Growth hacks can win customers, but only a brand earns you loyalty. Founders who invest early in brand marketing build an unfair advantage — trust, recall, and pricing power that competitors can’t hack—without it, you’re just another commodity, begging for attention in an ocean of choices."
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy
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Decide Where You Need a Fractional CMO to Create Maximum Impact
Every startup is at a different stage of its marketing journey — sometimes you’re laying the foundation, other times you’re scaling fast, fixing what’s broken, or preparing for a leadership transition. As your Fractional CMO, I can step in exactly where you need — driving strategy, execution, or solving specific challenges — without overcommitting resources.
Explore the five key areas where a Fractional CMO can create value based on your marketing maturity, current priorities, or burning problems. You might need help in just one stage or across two — the engagement is designed to stay flexible, outcome-driven, and tailored to your business goals.
Stage 1: 🔧Building (Early-stage / Zero to One)
Laying the groundwork for brand, marketing, and GTM readiness.
- Define brand positioning, narrative, and storytelling.
- Build the initial marketing strategy aligned to business goals.
- Set up GTM (Go-To-Market) plan and growth loops.
- Identify and hire the core marketing team or key agency partners.
- Create content, performance, PR, digital, and social media strategies.
- Establish marketing tech stack and automation tools.
- Plan initial campaigns (launch, product introduction, brand awareness).
- Align marketing efforts with sales and product roadmap.
Stage 2: 🚀Optimizing (Growth-stage/1-to10)
Sharpening and scaling existing marketing efforts for efficiency and growth.
- Audit existing marketing strategies, campaigns, and team structure.
- Identify inefficiencies, wastages, and untapped growth opportunities.
- Strengthen brand equity, customer acquisition, and retention models.
- Refine performance marketing, content marketing, and SEO efforts.
- Upskill and mentor internal marketing team.
- Prepare the organization and marketing lead for "CMO readiness".
- Plan for scaling marketing spend efficiently as revenue grows.
Stage 3: 🎯 Accelerating (Plateau / Stagnation / Mid-course Correction)
Mid-course corrections, repositioning, or creative rejuvenation to overcome stagnation.
- Offer an external perspective on brand and marketing direction.
- Revisit brand positioning, messaging, and customer segmentation.
- Re-energize creative campaigns, social, and content strategies.
- Recommend pivots in growth channels, GTM, or target audience focus.
- Align marketing with revised business model, new products, or markets.
- Re-establish KPIs and measurement frameworks.
Stage 4: 🛠️ Troubleshooting (Specific Problem-Solving / Project-Based)
Tactical intervention to address specific marketing challenges or short-term projects.
- Provide strategic direction on specific marketing problems (brand, growth, retention, or product marketing).
- Solve campaign issues – creative, performance, PR, influencer, social media.
- Act as a sounding board for founders, growth teams, or investors.
- Manage crisis communications, media relations, or brand reputation challenges.
- Deep-dive into funnel conversion problems or CAC vs LTV imbalances.
- Evaluate agency/vendor partnerships and suggest improvements.
Stage 5: 👤 Transitioning (Interim CMO / Succession Planning)
Provide interim leadership and enable smooth transition until a full-time CMO is in place.
- Act as interim CMO until the full-time leader is hired.
- Support hiring process: define role, screen candidates, and onboard the new CMO.
- Set up systems, frameworks, and culture for the incoming leader.
- Ensure continuity and strategic alignment during the leadership transition.
🚀 Stay Ahead — Insights, Playbooks, and Marketing Wisdom for Founders
Join a growing community of founders, marketers, and growth leaders who get actionable insights, case studies, marketing frameworks, and battle-tested strategies — straight to their inboxes. No fluff, just high-impact content to sharpen your marketing game.
A Transparent Engagement Process — From Day One to Handover
Working with me as your Fractional CMO is designed to be clear, collaborative, and outcome-driven. The engagement follows a structured yet flexible process — starting with understanding your business deeply, building a roadmap, leading execution, and finally setting you up for long-term success.
Depending on your startup’s needs and project scope, we’ll navigate most or all of these steps together — with complete transparency, measurable outcomes, and a clear path to transition when you’re ready for a full-time marketing leader. The goal is simple: drive impact fast, build momentum, and leave you with a stronger marketing function than where we started.
🚀 Discovery & Assessment
Deep-dive into your business, product, customers, and current marketing activities
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Activities: Understand goals, review existing efforts, audit gaps & opportunities.
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Outcome: Clear picture of where you are vs. where you want to go.
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Output: Situation Assessment Report.
✍️ Prioritization & Roadmap
Define focus areas and build a marketing plan (brand, digital, content, PR, Event etc.).
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Activities: Prioritize quick wins vs. long-term bets, map strategy to business goals.
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Outcome: Aligned, actionable roadmap (Live Document)
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Output: Marketing Plan with Timelines & Ownership (team structure, partner agencies, and tools)
🧠 Strategy & Alignment
Craft/refine brand positioning, messaging frameworks, storytelling and channel strategy.
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Activities: Build strategies across acquisition, retention, channel, and communications.
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Outcome: One cohesive marketing strategy.
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Output: Brand & Growth Strategy Document.
🛠 Execution & Oversight
Lead execution hands-on for speed & impact.
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Activities: Oversee teams, agencies, campaigns, optimize budgets, troubleshoot challenges and course-correct in real-time.
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Outcome: Momentum with strategy intact.
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Output: Campaign Oversight & Execution Reports.
💪 Team & Capability Building
Strengthen your internal marketing team.
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Activities: Mentor talent, recommend hires, build scalable processes.
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Outcome: Reduced founder dependency, stronger team.
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Output: Team Assessment & Capability Plan.
📊 Monitoring & Optimization
Set up systems to track, learn, and improve.
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Activities: Monitor metrics, audit campaigns, iterate based on data & market research.
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Outcome: Data-driven decision-making.
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Output: Dashboards & Optimization Insights.
🤝 Transition & Handover
Prepare for a smooth transition to a full-time marketing leader.
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Activities: Support hiring, knowledge transfer, and future-proof systems.
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Outcome: Business ready for the next growth phase.
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Output: Handover Playbook & Sustainability Plan.
"B2B Startup founders that treat brand-building as an afterthought often pay the price in crowded markets later, making it a disposable commodity. A strong brand earns you trust before your sales team even shows up."
— Ben Horowitz, Venture Capitalist & Co-founder, Andreessen Horowitz
You can choose a model that fits your Stage & Needs
Every startup’s marketing needs — and budget — evolve with growth. Whether you need high-impact strategic guidance or a hands-on interim CMO, choose the model that best aligns with your current priorities, marketing maturity, and scale ambitions.
Transparent pricing. Clear deliverables. No surprises.
💡 Most Preferred Model
ADVISORY
High-impact senior guidance, helping founders / teams stay on the right track without operational involvement.
₹1.5 Lakhs – ₹3 Lakhs
Lite Advisory Model
1 Day a Week (8hrs/week)
Suggested Duration
12-18 weeks
Your Stage
Early-stage / Seed to Series A: Need strategic guidance, brand clarity, marketing audits, or mentoring without daily involvement.
Scope / Process of Engagement
- Marketing audit & gap assessment
- Prioritize marketing roadmap – people, processes, partners
- Mentor founder/early marketing lead (mid-level)
- Second opinion on Brand/Content/PR
- Help founders in CMO readiness
STRATEGIC
Deep strategic engagement driving marketing alignment, positioning, and growth systems.
₹6 Lakhs – ₹9 Lakhs
Core Strategic Model
2 Days a Week (16hrs/week)
Suggested Duration
24-30 weeks
Your Stage
Series A/B stage: Need deeper involvement to align scattered marketing efforts, mentor teams, set OKRs, drive GTM, sharpen brand & performance marketing, assist in hiring senior talent.
Scope / Process of Engagement
- Define marketing OKRs
- Refine GTM and narrative
- Align marketing functions (content, design, digital)
- Mentor mid-level leadership
- Guide campaigns & growth
- Support hiring
HYBRID
Acts as the startup’s in-house CMO, fully embedded to lead marketing strategy, execution, and team management.
₹9 Lakhs – ₹18 Lakhs
Embedded Hybrid Model
3 Days a Week (24hrs/week)
Suggested Duration
30-48 weeks
Your Stage
Series B/Growth-stage: Need interim CMO to lead full-stack marketing, run daily ops, manage teams/vendors, scale digital, content, PR, and all channels.
Scope / Process of Engagement
- Act as on-call CMO
- Build and manage teams
- Oversee agencies/vendors
- Lead & own growth loops, brand, performance, content, PR
- Execute campaigns & events - online & offlines
- Free up founder bandwidth
- Report to leadership
PROJECT
Startups facing a critical, time-bound marketing project like rebranding, campaign launch, or product-market fit validation.
₹4 Lakhs – ₹6 Lakhs
Hybrid Project Model
3 Days a week (16-24hrs/week)
Suggested Duration
4-8 weeks
Your Stage
Across all stages with Specific marketing problem or project e.g., event, new product launch, website overhaul, or critical marketing sprints needing expert steering.
Scope / Process of Engagement
- Scope and solution design
- Lead project execution
- Deliver outcome-driven playbooks
- Collaborate with team and vendors
Let’s Talk—No Pressure, Just Possibilities
Building a brand? Scaling growth? Or just curious about what a Fractional CMO can do for you? Let’s chat. No sales pitch, no fluff—just an honest conversation about where you are, where you want to go, and if I can help you get there.
Beyond marketing, I’m learning djembe (Afrikan drums), hacking my way through golf swings, cycling when I can, trying (and often failing) to keep up with daily meditation, and dreaming big at cmounity.com, a peer-to-peer network for moonshot ideas.
Drop me a note, and let’s explore what’s possible!
Fractional marketing expertise that is structured, time-bound & result-driven: built for outcomes, not overheads.
©2025 GetMyCMO.com — Shubho Broto Das - Fractional CMO. All rights reserved.
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