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\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
In July,\u00a0WHOOP hired Dirk-Jan van Hameren<\/a>, Nike\u2019s\u00a0former chief marketing officer, to run\u00a0marketing for the wearable-tech company. On paper, it looked like a typical senior marketing hire. In practice, van Hameren walked into a company that had just closed a\u00a0$575 million funding round<\/a>\u00a0at a\u00a0$10.1 billion\u00a0valuation, crossed\u00a03 million members\u00a0and was already cash-flow positive. <\/p>\n He\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0build a marketing function. He inherited one: a 65-person team already in place, reporting directly to him from day one.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s\u00a0the part founders miss when they look at a hire like this and think, \u201cWe\u2019re ready for that, too.\u201d\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0spent years placing marketing talent inside growth-stage companies, and the mistake I see most often is making a senior hire before the infrastructure exists to support it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here\u2019s\u00a0how to tell whether your company is\u00a0actually ready\u00a0to\u00a0hire a marketing VP or CMO<\/a>, and what to do if it\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0yet:\u00a0<\/p>\n These signs usually mean the infrastructure isn\u2019t there yet for a VP or CMO, even if the ambition is:\u00a0There\u2019s no repeatable way leads or customers come in yet, the marketing budget depends on whoever\u2019s cheapest that quarter rather than what\u2019s working,\u00a0and\u00a0no one on the team could tell you which channel actually drives revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n I worked with one\u00a0founder\u00a0who\u00a0got\u00a0excited about a strong r\u00e9sum\u00e9, made\u00a0the\u00a0hire\u00a0and then wondered, six months in, why nothing had\u00a0changed.\u00a0The new leader was spending most of their time on hands-on execution instead of building a team or a strategy, while the rest of the leadership team kept expecting immediate growth results.\u00a0That expectation was\u00a0the\u00a0real problem.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A senior marketing leader\u2018s first few months should go toward diagnosing\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0actually working, not producing results off a strategy that\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0exist yet. Skip that step, and any growth you do see\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0hold. In most cases like these, the company would have been better served by a strong director-level marketing leader first, then an executive once the complexity and scale\u00a0actually justified\u00a0the title.\u00a0<\/p>\n A director-level hire costs less, comes with lower expectations attached and is often more comfortable doing the hands-on work the company actually needs right now.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0the hire that fits what the company can currently support \u2014 nothing about it is a step down.\u00a0<\/p>\n A senior marketing leader needs four things in the first\u00a090\u00a0days:\u00a0clear business goals, real decision-making authority, access to\u00a0data\u00a0and alignment with the founder on priorities. They also need context, including\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0been tried before,\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0working\u00a0now\u00a0and where the company wants to go.\u00a0Without it, a new hire will spend their first month rediscovering things the company already learned the hard way,\u00a0such as\u00a0channels that never converted or messaging that fell flat with the sales team.\u00a0<\/p>\n Founders fall short here constantly, changing priorities every few weeks, withholding real authority while still expecting ownership or\u00a0demanding results before the leader has had time to build a strategy grounded in the company\u2019s actual data.\u00a0A\u00a02025 Gartner survey<\/a>\u00a0of CEOs and CFOs found only 34% see eye-to-eye with their CMO on marketing\u2019s role in supporting growth, which is exactly the kind of misalignment that turns a strong hire into a six-month disappointment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fractional leadership exists\u00a0to help close\u00a0this gap. It makes sense when a company needs senior-level strategy and expertise but isn\u2019t ready for the cost, scope or workload of a full-time executive \u2014 particularly during periods of growth or transition, or when the marketing function itself still needs to be built before anyone commits to a permanent leader.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Alina Vandenberghe,\u00a0co-founder and co-CEO of Chili Piper, used this approach after running marketing herself for a stretch, hitting her numbers but exhausting the model.\u00a0Rather than hiring a full-time CMO right away, she\u00a0brought on\u00a0a fractional marketing executive<\/a> to test what skills and attributes her permanent hire\u00a0actually needed. A short, defined engagement (three to six months, with specific goals attached) gives you the same clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n Real work gets done, and you learn what the role\u00a0requires\u00a0before you commit to a salary and a title.\u00a0Vandenberghe landed on a full-time VP of marketing once that was clear.\u00a0Van Hameren\u2019s move to WHOOP shows the other end of that same process.\u00a0The team, the budget and the scale were already there waiting for him, which is\u00a0precisely\u00a0why a full-time hire made sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before you hire the VP or the CMO, ask whether your company\u00a0looks anything\u00a0like that. If it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0yet,\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0not a reason to wait indefinitely. It\u00a0is\u00a0a reason to build the infrastructure first, so that when you do make the hire,\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0not asking someone to do a job you were never set up to give them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n In July,\u00a0WHOOP hired Dirk-Jan van Hameren<\/a>, Nike\u2019s\u00a0former chief marketing officer, to run\u00a0marketing for the wearable-tech company. On paper, it looked like a typical senior marketing hire. In practice, van Hameren walked into a company that had just closed a\u00a0$575 million funding round<\/a>\u00a0at a\u00a0$10.1 billion\u00a0valuation, crossed\u00a03 million members\u00a0and was already cash-flow positive. <\/p>\n He\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0build a marketing function. He inherited one: a 65-person team already in place, reporting directly to him from day one.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s\u00a0the part founders miss when they look at a hire like this and think, \u201cWe\u2019re ready for that, too.\u201d\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0spent years placing marketing talent inside growth-stage companies, and the mistake I see most often is making a senior hire before the infrastructure exists to support it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n1. Read the signs before you hire\u00a0<\/h2>\n
2.\u00a0Set them up before day one\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n
3. Close the gap without the full-time price tag\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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