Fractional CMO for brands that need the revenue engine built, not just managed.
Most founder-led brands don't need another agency. They need a senior operator who takes ownership of the growth P&L, wires the systems together, and moves the numbers that matter. That's the seat this engagement fills.
- ▸Founder-led DTC and CPG brands scaling from $1M to $30M+
- ▸Ecommerce teams stuck between agency chaos and in-house gaps
- ▸Boards and PE-backed teams that need adult growth leadership fast
- ▸AI-native companies moving from prototype to durable revenue
Where teams get stuck.
Marketing is spread across three agencies, two freelancers and a founder pulling triple duty — and nobody owns the number. Creative velocity is low, CAC is drifting up, lifecycle is a Klaviyo template from 2022, and Amazon or Shopify performance is decoupled from the paid media it depends on.
You don't need another vendor. You need one operator with real reps who will step in, run the growth P&L, and rebuild the system around outcomes.
The system.
Four workstreams that make the engagement real. Not a deck — the systems that get built and left in place.
- 01 /
Offer, positioning and funnel architecture
The engine starts before the ad account. Pricing, bundles, hero SKUs, landing pages and the sequence a first-time buyer actually walks through — all rewritten to convert. Ninety percent of underperforming spend traces back to a weak offer, not a weak channel.
- 02 /
Paid media, creative and CRO
Meta, Google, TikTok, YouTube and Amazon Ads run as one system with a weekly creative testing cadence, disciplined naming, and landing pages built to close. UGC plus AI creative pipelines keep the concept library refreshed without waiting on quarterly shoots.
- 03 /
Lifecycle, retention and marketplace
Klaviyo flows, replenishment logic, winback and referral loops sit next to Shopify CRO, Amazon Storefronts, A+ content and PDPs — with the retention math wired back into the acquisition budget so LTV actually influences bids.
- 04 /
AI-native workflows and reporting
Agentic workflows across creative production, ad ops, SEO briefs and lead-quality monitoring. GA4, CallRail and channel data land in weekly dashboards a founder or board can read in five minutes.
The symptoms.
If two or three of these read as a description of the current state, this is the right engagement to have a conversation about.
- ✕A growth org spread across three agencies and no single P&L owner.
- ✕Rising blended CAC that founder-led triage can no longer explain.
- ✕Creative velocity stuck at four to six concepts a month while competitors ship weekly.
- ✕Lifecycle stuck on a 2022 Klaviyo template with no retention math wired back to bids.
- ✕Amazon and Shopify performance decoupled from the paid media driving demand.
- ✕Board or investor reporting that still needs to be built by hand every month.
How this runs.
- 01 · Weekly cadence
One weekly growth stand-up with the founder, one working session with the team, one written scorecard.
- 02 · Sixty-day rebuild
First 60 days focus on offer, creative system and paid-media rebuild. First measurable CAC and ROAS deltas land in that window.
- 03 · Ninety-day scale
Ninety days in, lifecycle, retention and marketplace are compounding — and the team can run the system without me in every meeting.
- 04 · Exit path
Every engagement ships a documented operating system and hiring plan so the seat can be permanent when it's time.
Ninety days, not slides.
01 /The first two weeks are diagnostic: a full audit of offer, funnel, ad accounts, lifecycle, marketplace and reporting, plus one-on-ones with the team and agencies already in place. You get a written scorecard, a 90-day plan and a clear read on which vendors stay, go or get repositioned.
02 /Weeks three through eight are a rebuild sprint on the highest-leverage layer — usually offer, PDP and creative — before touching bids. A weekly stand-up with the founder, one working session with the team and a shared scorecard replace status-meeting theatre. First measurable CAC, ROAS and contribution-margin deltas land in this window.
03 /From day 60 to 180, lifecycle, retention and marketplace layer in and the system starts to compound. By the end of the engagement the operating model, hiring plan and documentation are handed off so the seat can go permanent internally when the timing is right.
Proof to review.
Before you reach out.
- How is a fractional CMO different from hiring an agency?
- An agency executes a channel. A fractional CMO owns the growth P&L, sets the strategy, hires or fires the agencies, and takes accountability for CAC, LTV and revenue — not deliverables. Heath has run in-house teams and $3M+ paid budgets, so the seat is operator, not consultant.
- What size company is this a fit for?
- Best fit is founder-led DTC, CPG, ecommerce, fintech or AI-native brands between roughly $1M and $30M in revenue that need senior growth leadership without the $300k full-time hire, or PE-backed teams that need adult supervision on the growth function during a transition.
- How is the engagement priced and structured?
- Typical engagements are three to six months minimum with a monthly retainer, a defined 90-day plan and a documented exit path. The goal is to leave a system and an operating model behind — not a permanent dependency.
If the growth engine needs to be built, not just managed, this is the seat.