The Best Fractional CMOs for Startups (Narrowed Down to 7)

I just did a quick search of ‘Fractional CMO’ among my own LinkedIn connections with the term.

I guess this isn’t so surprising. I’m the co-founder of a growth marketing agency which works with fractional CMOs (these become our Growth Strategists). We also run a community for fractional CMOs, CMOs and Heads of Growth called Growth Circle. 

And fractional CMO is becoming more popular as a title generally (for better and for worse, as I’ve chronicled in my guide to navigating the ‘wild west’ of fractional CMOs). 

This list promised you the best fractional CMOs for startups. In reality, it’s my list of the best fractional CMOs for startups. The people I can vouch for personally, and have worked with directly in some capacity. 

These are the kind of fractional CMOs that: 

• I reached out to when we were conducting early user research for our growth experimentation tool, GrowthEX (and who have shaped the platform it is today). 
• I trust to drive growth for Growth Division’s clients.
• I lean on for support with our own marketing.

They’re smart, effective, entrepreneurial and creative. Now, let’s meet them (in no particular order!).  

1. Beth Thompson

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🎯 Specialises in: B2C/D2C, FMCG, health & wellness, pets, lifestyle. 

🤝 How to work together: Beth offers fractional CMO services (1-4 days/week), plus mentorship options for startup and scale-up founders. 

Lots of CMOs think they understand what it takes to run and scale a business. Beth really does. She founded and later sold Leaf Envy, a plant business, successfully scaling five revenue streams before exiting. Whether for herself or for others, Beth has been successfully growing brands for over 10 years. 

While she has worked across multiple industries and startup types, I think Beth’s overarching strength is her commitment to brand and creative. As well as being an excellent, data-driven strategist, she’s really great at building brands that have a distinctive look and feel, and really strong content. She upholds very high standards here, and it really pays off. 

👋 Learn more about Beth’s experience 

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2. Andy Masson

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🎯 Specialises in: B2B, SaaS, early-stage startups, automation & AI. 

🤝 How to work together: Andy’s a Swiss Army Knife of a growth strategist, offering growth strategy work, Webflow development, SEO, and AI & automation services. 

Andy founded Massive Marketing, a lean, AI-native Webflow agency that builds high-converting websites for startups, along with the digital infrastructure around them (funnels, CRM automation, etc). I first met Andy when he worked at a startup client of Growth Division’s, and we have kept in touch since. 

Andy is a brilliant growth strategist, particularly for early-stage startups. His experience as a solo growth team within several startups is the secret to his wide set of skills. But above all, I see how this made him so resourceful and efficient as a growth marketer. It’s no wonder he’s already such a skilled AI user, helping those early-stage startups to achieve even more with less. 

👋 Learn more about Andy’s experience

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3. Chris Linn

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🎯 Specialises in: B2B, B2C, fintech, digital marketing. 

🤝 How to work together: Chris offers fractional CMO and performance marketing services. 

Chris is a growth strategist and fractional CMO with over 15 years of strategic marketing experience. He’s worked with both startups and scale-ups, from household names to new kids on the block. 

I met Chris a couple of years ago now, and I was immediately impressed by his experience; there’s a hefty string of big ‘ex-’ titles in that LinkedIn headline. Chris has since worked as a Growth Strategist for a number of clients here at Growth Division, with great success. Whether B2B or B2C, Chris’s digital marketing expertise is a huge asset, and he’s always able to offer a trusted second opinion to our channel managers in those spaces. 

👋 Learn more about Chris’s experience

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4. Tom Hurst 

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🎯 Specialises in: B2B, B2C, ecommerce, wealth tech.

🤝 How to work together: Tom works as a growth advisor and strategist. 

Tom is a growth advisor and strategist who has worked with startups across a broad range of industries and verticals. Tom offers a joined-up approach to marketing; whether that’s overseeing an in-house marketing team, assembling a fractional one, or just working directly with the founder. He’s a skilled listener with a great knack for drawing out customer insights during interviews and converting them into messaging. 

Tom is a partner at Growth Division, and he’s been with us pretty much since the beginning. He has a distinct style as a growth advisor, aiming for your partnership to feel ‘more like a co-founder’ than a consultant. 

Tom has himself founded multiple businesses, making him an invaluable sounding board for all manner of strategy questions and sticky situations. And I’ve seen how invested he gets in his clients’ success – just like the founder, he’ll be the one refreshing the backend of the Shopify store, or sharing the brand’s most recent articles from his own LinkedIn account; a real cheerleader, as well as a great strategist. 

👋 Learn more about Tom Hurst’s experience

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5. Oren Greenburg 

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🎯 Specialises in: Typically works with SaaS & fintech B2B companies in the $10-100M ARR range.

🤝 How to work together: Oren runs monthly workshops and 6-week AI advisory partnerships. He also offers AI mentorship and one-off custom AI system builds. 

Oren is a founder, GTM advisor, and AI GTM systems builder. While he has broad startup marketing experience, today Oren works with startups that are experiencing a very specific problem: they’re stuck somewhere between the plan and the execution. Oren whips up smart AI systems to help plug this gap, all grounded in his own extensive marketing and strategy experience. 

I was introduced to Oren by Tristan in the early days of Growth Division and have shared opportunities ever since. We interviewed him last year when developing GrowthEX, our own growth marketing tool, and I was struck once again by his wisdom when it comes to building a successful growth function as a startup. You’ll find him quoted several times in our growth marketing whitepaper. 

👋 Learn more about Oren’s experience

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6. Daniel Hardoon

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🎯 Specialises in: Early-stage tech startups. 

🤝 How to work together: Daniel offers fractional CMO services with a growth marketing focus, as well as other education and branding packages for startups. 

Daniel is the founder of The Startup CMO, and has worked as a growth consultant with over 60 startups to date (including as a Growth Strategist for several Growth Division clients). 

Daniel is the former Head of Growth at Samaipata, a venture capital fund investing in digital businesses, and is himself an angel investor in several early-stage startups. This is Daniel’s unique strength as a fractional CMO; his experience as an investor is what helps him get early-stage startups in really great shape for upcoming fundraising, and he has a strong track record of seeing companies through this period. 

👋 Learn more about Daniel’s experience

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7. Clare Gittins

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🎯 Specialises in: B2C & B2C, community-led brands.

🤝 How to work together: Clare is a Growth Strategist (and partner) at Growth Division, and is also the co-founder of personal branding agency, Ethos. 

Like Tom Hurst, Clare has been with us from nearly the very beginning, proving herself time and time again as a Growth Strategist for both B2C and B2B brands. Clare’s real strength is community building, both across social media platforms and in person. She’s the brains behind Growth Circle, our community for fractional CMOs, and has organised each one of its IRL meetups, which have all been very well-received.  

👋 Learn more about Clare’s experience

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Best fractional CMO for startups: final thoughts

I’d happily recommend each of these fractional CMOs to a friend. But does that mean one of them is right for you? Not necessarily – it’s a very personal choice. 

If you’re in the process of choosing your own fractional CMO right now, here are my top three pieces of advice: 

1. Industry-specific experience isn’t everything. Instead, look for someone who has solved the challenges you’re facing right now. I find experience in other verticals and sectors is actually often a bonus, as they’re able to lift strategies and tactics from completely different places. This can give you a real edge. 

2. Find someone you get on with. You’ll work closely with this person, so this is a non-negotiable for me! 

3. Understand who you’re actually looking for. Do you want someone who feels like a co-founder? Someone to lead your marketing team on a part-time basis? A senior marketing team of one? Someone to build a fractional growth team? Each is valid, but different. 

And of course, always try to go on a recommendation when you can. Failing this, I’ve written about some of the most important traits (and red flags) to look out for when hiring a fractional CMO, so I’d recommend dipping into that in advance. 

🎯 At Growth Division, we build fractional growth teams of 2+ people from our expert network of vetted fractional CMOs and channel-specific experts. If you’re looking for both strategy and execution work, and you’re a high-growth company or startup, let’s explore your options. Book a free 30-minute session with one of our Growth Advisors.