Marketing advisor, fractional CMO, agency or first hire: who should a seed or Series A founder bring in?

By Etgar Shpivak, Head of specialization at Ono Academic College.

Founders at seed and Series A often ask me some version of the same question: should we hire a marketer, sign an agency, or bring in someone senior for a few days a week? It usually arrives with the job spec already drafted. The four options solve different problems, and most of the failures I see start when a founder buys the option that fits a different problem.

Who should a seed or Series A founder bring in for marketing?

Whoever fills the gap you actually have. At seed that gap is usually a decision: what you sell, to whom, and why that buyer would switch. That calls for judgment, from an advisor or, for a set period, a fractional CMO.

When the message is settled and you need it produced and run at volume, brief an agency. When you can name the one number marketing will own this year and fund it, make the first hire.

Two guests on my podcast, Founders' Marketing Compass, point the same way. Paul Knegten, founder and former CMO at Beeswax, would not hire a CMO at seed or Series A at all. Barrel Kfir of Dell Technologies Capital puts the first senior marketing leader around the Series B round, once there is enough history to set that role real targets.

A disclosure, so you can weigh what follows: I am one of the four options. I work as an advisor to seed and Series A founders, directly with the founder rather than through a marketing department, and I take the marketing seat only while a company is between hires.

If a VP Marketing is already running things well, I am probably not what you need. Each option below comes with the case where it fails, mine included.

What is the difference between an advisor, a fractional CMO, an agency and a first hire?

The four options, side by side:

The table gives the shape of each payment, not a price. Rates vary too much by market and by person for a number here to tell you much.

When is each option the right call?

When should you bring in a marketing advisor?

While the decisions are still open: which buyer to go after first, what to say to them, and whether the problem is the marketing or the product. The work is sitting in customer calls, reading won and lost deals, and writing the message with the founder.

For example, a founder whose last few deals closed with three very different buyers, a large enterprise, a small startup and a government agency, each signing for a different reason, has no sales motion a new hire could scale yet. That is a question about the product and the customer before it is a marketing question.

Some advisors will also run the paid media for a while when there is nobody else to do it. I do, though it is rarely why founders call.

When is an advisor the wrong choice?

When nobody inside has the hours to act on the decisions. What an advisor produces is a decision, and a decision no one carries out changes nothing. It is also too early before you have customers: with no calls or deals to read, there is nothing to advise on. And if what you want is someone to approve the plan rather than point you somewhere, keep the money.

When does a fractional CMO make sense?

A fractional CMO takes the marketing seat for part of the week: sets the plan, runs the budget and manages whoever is on the team. It fits the gap between two full-time leaders, or a company that needs a senior person in the seat and cannot yet pay for one full time.

Jason Harper, founder of Ready Signal, told me on the podcast why he has no use for one: he came up through marketing agencies and covers the role himself part of the time. That is the test. A founder without that background usually needs someone in the seat. The rest of his hiring rules start with attitude, then effort, then competence.

When is a fractional CMO the wrong choice?

When the founder can already run marketing part of the time, as Harper does. When the company needs someone in the work every day, which a part-time seat cannot give. And, as with any senior seat, when nobody has set the number it owns. I take this seat myself only while a company is between hires; most of my work is the advisory kind above.

When should a startup use a marketing agency?

An agency executes a brief. It is the right buy once you know the message and need it produced and run at volume: the ads, the campaigns, the site. Barrel Kfir, a partner at Dell Technologies Capital, would bring a proven branding agency into almost every early company to set the story, and skip the full-time marketing chief until there is something to judge one on.

I put a condition on that. The agency earns its budget where the category is crowded and rivals look alike, as in the cyber-security market he invests in. His benchmarks by stage are in how much a startup should spend on marketing.

When is an agency the wrong choice?

When no one inside owns the result. Orlie Gruper, a general partner at Mobilitech Capital, says a good agency can do solid work for a company that is not ready for a full-time hire, as long as someone inside steers the effort and pushes it. It is also too early when the brief itself is the open question, because an agency produces what it is briefed to produce.

And where the founders already lead the conversation about the problem, I would rather pay them to publish than pay an agency to invent a story. Paul Knegten says the same of a PR firm at the early stage: it is expensive, and you seldom have enough to say yet.

When is a first marketing hire the right call?

When you can answer two questions, in this order, before you write the job spec. Udi Ledergor, Chief Evangelist and former CMO at Gong, asks them before he takes any marketing role: what will success look like in six to twelve months, and what budget sits behind it?

His example is a founder who needs ten million in new sales this year and can spend five thousand dollars. No hire closes that gap. What decides whether your first marketing hire works goes through both questions.

Before either question, check that there is demand at all. Guy Poreh, co-founder of 5eyes, would put about $100 of ads behind a bare landing page and watch who tries to buy, before any marketer is hired.

When is a first marketing hire the wrong choice?

When the number the role will own depends on something marketing cannot move. Ledergor's sharpest warning is a product stuck at minus fifty on satisfaction, with marketing told to drag it to plus fifty. Marketing can get people to try a product. It cannot make them stay.

It is also the wrong moment when the candidate you like most asks for months to plan before testing anything. Guy Benjamin, CEO and co-founder of Healthee, treats that as the clearest red flag in the interview.

How do you decide between them?

Three questions, in order. Each one rules options out before you look at any person.

1. Do you know what you sell, to whom, and why they would switch? If not, no hire and no agency can fix that yet. Bring in judgment, or run the $100 demand test yourself.
2. Can you name the one number marketing will own in the first year, and the money behind it? If so, you are ready to hire. If you can name the number but not fund it, lower the number before you open the seat.
3. Can the founder run marketing part of the time? If so, add an agency for the production and keep the decisions. If not, someone senior needs to sit in the seat: an advisor above one scrappy generalist, which is what Knegten would do at seed, or a fractional CMO until the full-time role is funded.

Whichever you pick, at this stage knowing the market stays the founder's job. An advisor, an agency or a hire can help you act on what you know; none of them can go and find it out for you.