Fractional CMO for Startups
Senior growth leadership for startups, from a founder who has sold two companies
At a glance: Provider: Dalai Group. Offer: Fractional Growth Leadership for startups. Led by: Pilar Lazzati, 4X founder with two exits. Audience: startups with revenue to grow.
A fractional CMO for a startup is a senior marketing and revenue leader who works with you part time, so you get a go-to-market plan without a full-time executive salary. Dalai Group's Fractional Growth Leadership gives startups a four-time founder who has built companies from nothing, in charge of positioning, pipeline and priorities.
You have a product. You need customers
Startup founders often have a product that works and a pipeline that does not. Money is limited, time is shorter, and every marketing dollar has to earn its place. A senior leader decides where the next dollar goes, what to stop doing, and what the team should build first.
What a fractional CMO does for a startup
- Decides who to sell to first and what to say to them
- Sets one revenue goal and a plan sized to your budget and team
- Builds the first repeatable path from first touch to paying customer
- Chooses the few channels that fit your stage and stops the ones that only produce clicks
- Builds search and organic demand that does not depend on paid spend
- Leads your first marketers, freelancers and agencies against numbers
- Reports in plain language, so a founder or an investor can read it quickly
- Brings in AI and automation where they save real work
When it makes sense
- You have early revenue and need a repeatable way to grow it
- You are preparing for a raise and need a go-to-market story investors believe
- You are doing marketing yourself and it is taking too much of your week
- You have hired agencies or freelancers and nobody senior is directing them
Built from experience
Pilar has built companies from almost nothing. She built MailCreations from scratch with a $3,000 budget and sold it in 3 years for $6.4 million, so she knows how to scale companies. She grew 1001 Consejos from under $1,000 to 20 million visitors a month with no ads, pure SEO. She knows how little a founder has to work with at the start, and how to spend it.
Where Dalai Group works
- Technology and SaaS
- Ecommerce and consumer goods
- Financial services and fintech
- Health
- Media and entertainment
How an engagement works
01Fit conversation, 20 minutes, free
02Revenue Audit, paid, fixed scope, with a ranked list of fixes
03AI Revenue System Sprint, if you want a specific system built
04Fractional Growth Leadership, ongoing, scoped to your needs
Fractional CMO vs agency vs full-time CMO for startups
| Fractional CMO | Agency | Full-time CMO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | Senior leadership and a plan | Execution of channels | A dedicated executive on payroll |
| Best when | You need leadership now and cannot yet justify a full-time seat | You have a strategy and need hands | You have scale, a team and a long runway |
| Cost | Scoped to need | Retainer plus media | Salary, benefits and equity |
| Risk | Short commitment | Retainer | Salary, equity and severance |
Why Pilar
Pilar Lazzati is a 4X founder with two exits. She co-built MailCreations and sold it to Livedoor, a public company, for more than $6 million. She grew 1001 Consejos from under $1,000 to 20 million visitors a month with no ads, pure SEO. She ran Dalai Group for 21 years serving brands and companies across technology, ecommerce and consumer goods, financial services, health and media, and has led HubSpot and Salesforce migrations. For the last three years she has built AI revenue systems and agents: pipeline follow-up, editorial and HR engines, an AI Chief of Staff, an AI CMO, an AI marketing brain and a GTM engine.
Questions founders ask
What does a fractional CMO do for a startup?
Leads marketing strategy and execution part time, accountable for revenue results, at a cost scoped to your stage.
Is this for early-stage startups with no revenue?
It fits startups with a working product and a need to grow revenue. If you are earlier than that, book a fit call and we will say so.
How many hours a week?
It depends on need. Engagements are scoped to the problem, not sold as a fixed package.
Can you work with our existing team and agencies?
Yes. That is the usual setup. A fractional CMO decides what work is worth doing and directs the people who do it.
What does it cost?
It is scoped to your needs. For market context, see our fractional CMO cost guide.
Where do we start?
Most engagements begin with the Revenue Audit, so you know the first fix before you commit to ongoing leadership.