Accretive Marketing — Fractional CMO for Founder-Led Companies

01 — Approach

Most founder-led companies between $1M and $10M ARR don't have a marketing problem — they have a marketing leadership problem. Disconnected efforts. Spend without a strategy. A team running plays from a missing playbook. I come in to fix that.

01
Strategy & Planning

Annual and quarterly marketing plans, channel mix, ICP definition, positioning, and the OKRs that hold it all accountable.
02
Budget Ownership

Spend allocation across channels, forecasting against pipeline and revenue targets, and CAC/LTV/ROAS reporting your executive team can actually use.
03
Team Leadership

Sourcing, hiring, and managing the lean team — internal hires, freelancers, agencies — against weekly execution rhythms.
04
Initiative Leadership

The cross-functional projects that move the business: rebrands, GTM launches, pricing tests, lifecycle overhauls, outbound builds.
05
Execution Depth

I still write the briefs, audit the ad accounts, fix the deliverability issue, and call the campaign restructure myself when the situation calls for it. Most fractional CMOs won't.

02 — Engagements

Three ways to work together.

Most common

Fractional CMO

$5,000+ / month

Embedded marketing leadership — strategy, budget, team, and execution. I sit at the leadership table, own the marketing function end-to-end, and partner with you on company-wide growth.

Quarterly strategy & OKR setting
Budget ownership and forecasting
Team sourcing, hiring, and management
Channel-level execution oversight
Executive and board reporting

Book a call

Productized engagement

Revenue Engine in 45 Days

$5,000 starting

A done-for-you GTM plan in 30–45 days. Channel strategy, ICP refinement, budget model, and the operating roadmap your team can execute against.

Complete GTM & channel plan
ICP and positioning refinement
90-day execution roadmap
Budget model with ROAS targets

Book a call

Light touch

Strategic Advisory

$500 / month

Monthly strategy calls and ongoing advisory for early-stage founders who need senior counsel without a heavy operational engagement.

Monthly strategy session
Async advisory between calls
Channel and team guidance
Hiring and vendor sourcing

Book a call

03 — Selected Work

Recent engagements.

B2B Leadership Development SaaS

Education / Mid-Market

Performance-based Fractional CMO engagement covering outbound sales infrastructure, demo-path conversion optimization, and LinkedIn content. Built a 240-contact education-sector outbound list with custom Python and AI enrichment for direct phone numbers. Took an underperforming domain from 0% open rates to functional through full deliverability remediation.

Executive Consulting Firm

Professional Services

Built executive-level marketing reporting that connected inputs to outputs so leadership could see what was actually moving the business. Project-managed the marketing rollout for the CEO's book launch — which became a New York Times bestseller.

B2B Design Agency

Brand & Creative Services

Project sprint to develop a full go-to-market strategy aimed at breaking into a new customer category. Delivered deep ICP analysis and segmentation, established outbound sales motions from list-building through sequencing, and refined a content playbook aligned to the new positioning.

Independent Media Brand

Content & Creator Economy

Led a full company rebrand and repositioning effort, including refreshed packaging and core messaging. Built the operational backbone behind it — documented outbound sales and marketing SOPs that let the team execute repeatably without senior oversight on every play.

Creator Analytics Platform

Music & Creator Economy

Project sprint to develop an end-to-end advertising strategy, refine positioning and messaging across the funnel, and rebuild the conversion path for the company's primary paid acquisition offer. Continued on as a strategic advisor for the following six months as the team scaled execution.

Consumer Music SaaS

DTC / Creator Tools

Restructured Meta campaign architecture, refined geo targeting, and diagnosed cost-cap throttling. Built a creator sponsorship system across newsletters, TikTok, and YouTube with full operational SOPs for executive assistant handoff.

04 — In Their Words

Testimonials.

Chris is an experienced marketing leader with a deep understanding of how to execute, plan, socialize initiatives, and delegate work.

Jon Shearer Founder, Cadence Co.

If you're an early-stage startup looking to beef up your marketing, Chris has been there and done that.

Travis Terrell Co-Founder & Co-CEO

05 — About

Chris Small.

I'm a marketing operator who's spent the last decade leading growth at venture-backed startups and consulting for founder-led companies. Accretive Marketing is where I do that work now.

Before going independent, I led marketing at a Nashville-based subscription SaaS through its seed-to-growth stage, ran customer acquisition for a B2B marketplace, and built early-career chops at Apple and Warner Music Group.

I work best with founders who want a senior operator embedded with their team — not a strategy deck and a quarterly check-in.

Previously

VP Growth, FILMPAC
VP Marketing, Soundstripe
Apple
Warner Music Group

Fractional CMO for founder-led companies.

Strategy & Planning

Budget Ownership

Team Leadership

Initiative Leadership

Execution Depth

Three ways to work together.

Fractional CMO

Revenue Engine in 45 Days

Strategic Advisory

Recent engagements.

Testimonials.

Chris Small.

Let's talk about your growth engine.