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Key Takeaways
- Many founders make the error of hiring a senior chief earlier than the infrastructure exists to assist it. They anticipate the chief to provide outcomes off of a technique that doesn’t exist but.
- Learn the indicators earlier than you rent: no repeatable manner leads or prospects are available, the finances is dependent upon whoever’s least expensive quite than what’s working, nobody is aware of which channel really drives income.
- Set them up earlier than day one: They want clear enterprise objectives, actual decision-making authority, entry to information and alignment with the founder on priorities.
- Take into account fractional management: Actual work will get achieved, and also you study what the position really requires earlier than you decide to a wage and a title.
In July, WHOOP employed Dirk-Jan van Hameren, Nike’s former chief advertising officer, to run advertising for the wearable-tech firm. On paper, it regarded like a typical senior advertising rent. In apply, van Hameren walked into an organization that had simply closed a $575 million funding spherical at a $10.1 billion valuation, crossed 3 million members and was already cash-flow constructive.
He didn’t construct a advertising operate. He inherited one: a 65-person workforce already in place, reporting on to him from day one.
That’s the half founders miss after they take a look at a rent like this and suppose, “We’re prepared for that, too.” I’ve spent years putting advertising expertise inside growth-stage corporations, and the error I see most frequently is making a senior rent earlier than the infrastructure exists to assist it.
Right here’s how one can inform whether or not your organization is really prepared to rent a advertising VP or CMO, and what to do if it isn’t but:
1. Learn the indicators earlier than you rent
These indicators often imply the infrastructure isn’t there but for a VP or CMO, even when the ambition is: There’s no repeatable manner leads or prospects are available but, the advertising finances is dependent upon whoever’s least expensive that quarter quite than what’s working, and nobody on the workforce may let you know which channel really drives income.
I labored with one founder who bought excited a couple of robust résumé, made the rent after which questioned, six months in, why nothing had modified. The brand new chief was spending most of their time on hands-on execution as an alternative of constructing a workforce or a technique, whereas the remainder of the management workforce saved anticipating rapid progress outcomes. That expectation was the actual downside.
A senior advertising chief‘s first few months ought to go towards diagnosing what’s really working, not producing outcomes off a technique that doesn’t exist but. Skip that step, and any progress you do see gained’t maintain. Normally like these, the corporate would have been higher served by a powerful director-level advertising chief first, then an govt as soon as the complexity and scale really justified the title.
A director-level rent prices much less, comes with decrease expectations connected and is usually extra snug doing the hands-on work the corporate really wants proper now. That’s the rent that matches what the corporate can at present assist — nothing about it’s a step down.
2. Set them up earlier than day one
A senior advertising chief wants 4 issues within the first 90 days: clear enterprise objectives, actual decision-making authority, entry to information and alignment with the founder on priorities. Additionally they want context, together with what’s been tried earlier than, what’s working now and the place the corporate needs to go. With out it, a brand new rent will spend their first month rediscovering issues the corporate already discovered the arduous manner, comparable to channels that by no means transformed or messaging that fell flat with the gross sales workforce.
Founders fall brief right here consistently, altering priorities each few weeks, withholding actual authority whereas nonetheless anticipating possession or demanding outcomes earlier than the chief has had time to construct a technique grounded within the firm’s precise information. A 2025 Gartner survey of CEOs and CFOs discovered solely 34% see eye-to-eye with their CMO on advertising’s position in supporting progress, which is precisely the form of misalignment that turns a powerful rent right into a six-month disappointment.
3. Shut the hole with out the full-time price ticket
Fractional management exists to assist shut this hole. It is sensible when an organization wants senior-level technique and experience however isn’t prepared for the fee, scope or workload of a full-time govt — notably during times of progress or transition, or when the advertising operate itself nonetheless must be constructed earlier than anybody commits to a everlasting chief.
Alina Vandenberghe, co-founder and co-CEO of Chili Piper, used this method after working advertising herself for a stretch, hitting her numbers however exhausting the mannequin. Reasonably than hiring a full-time CMO immediately, she introduced on a fractional advertising govt to check what expertise and attributes her everlasting rent really wanted. A brief, outlined engagement (three to 6 months, with particular objectives connected) offers you a similar readability.
Actual work will get achieved, and also you study what the position requires earlier than you decide to a wage and a title. Vandenberghe landed on a full-time VP of selling as soon as that was clear. Van Hameren’s transfer to WHOOP exhibits the opposite finish of that very same course of. The workforce, the finances and the dimensions have been already there ready for him, which is exactly why a full-time rent made sense.
Earlier than you rent the VP or the CMO, ask whether or not your organization appears to be like something like that. If it doesn’t but, that’s not a motive to attend indefinitely. It is a motive to construct the infrastructure first, in order that whenever you do make the rent, you’re not asking somebody to do a job you have been by no means set as much as give them.
Key Takeaways
- Many founders make the error of hiring a senior chief earlier than the infrastructure exists to assist it. They anticipate the chief to provide outcomes off of a technique that doesn’t exist but.
- Learn the indicators earlier than you rent: no repeatable manner leads or prospects are available, the finances is dependent upon whoever’s least expensive quite than what’s working, nobody is aware of which channel really drives income.
- Set them up earlier than day one: They want clear enterprise objectives, actual decision-making authority, entry to information and alignment with the founder on priorities.
- Take into account fractional management: Actual work will get achieved, and also you study what the position really requires earlier than you decide to a wage and a title.
In July, WHOOP employed Dirk-Jan van Hameren, Nike’s former chief advertising officer, to run advertising for the wearable-tech firm. On paper, it regarded like a typical senior advertising rent. In apply, van Hameren walked into an organization that had simply closed a $575 million funding spherical at a $10.1 billion valuation, crossed 3 million members and was already cash-flow constructive.
He didn’t construct a advertising operate. He inherited one: a 65-person workforce already in place, reporting on to him from day one.
That’s the half founders miss after they take a look at a rent like this and suppose, “We’re prepared for that, too.” I’ve spent years putting advertising expertise inside growth-stage corporations, and the error I see most frequently is making a senior rent earlier than the infrastructure exists to assist it.