Growing Los Angeles, California companies reach a point where marketing needs real leadership — not another freelancer, not a junior hire guessing at strategy, and not an agency running tactics with no ownership of the outcome. But a full-time chief marketing officer is a $250,000-plus commitment that takes four to six months to recruit and is hard to justify before the revenue is there to support it.
A fractional CMO bridges the gap cleanly. You get a senior marketing operator running your strategy and team on a retainer — accountable for pipeline, flexible on hours, and free of the risk and cost of a full-time hire. For Los Angeles businesses, it is often the difference between marketing that drifts and marketing that compounds.
A fractional CMO takes the whole function off your plate. Positioning and messaging get locked so your Los Angeles buyers understand why you win; demand generation gets built and measured to pipeline; analytics get honest; and the team, tools, and SOPs get put in place so marketing keeps producing when the engagement scales down.
A clear go-to-market for the Los Angeles market and beyond — messaging your whole team can repeat.
Channels and campaigns that produce pipeline, measured to revenue instead of clicks.
The right hires, tools, and SOPs — a marketing department that runs itself.
Honest reporting that ties every dollar of spend back to pipeline and closed revenue.
A marketing budget allocated by someone accountable for the return on it.
Marketing that sales trusts and the board understands — one shared number.
The right time is usually when effort stops translating into growth. Your Los Angeles team is working, the invoices are getting paid, and the numbers still are not moving — because no senior operator owns the plan. Add an approaching raise or an undefendable budget, and the case for a fractional CMO makes itself.
Weeks 1–2: understand your funnel, goals, data, and the gaps holding Los Angeles growth back — talk to sales, customers, and the numbers.
Weeks 2–4: lock positioning, choose the channels that fit your motion, and build a 90-day roadmap tied to revenue targets.
Weeks 4–8: install the systems, make or manage the hires, launch the channels, and start producing measurable pipeline.
Weeks 8–12 and on: attribution to revenue, cut what is not working, and double down on what is — then keep compounding.
Each option trades off differently. A full-time CMO delivers dedication but demands $250k-plus and months of hiring risk. An agency delivers capacity but owns none of your strategy or results. A fractional CMO delivers what most Los Angeles companies actually need — senior ownership and accountability — part-time and at a fraction of the full-time cost.
A fractional CMO is priced as a flat retainer, billed monthly, with no equity and no lock-in. The fractional CMO cost depends on how many days of leadership you need and typically works out to 30–50% of a full-time CMO’s total compensation. For Los Angeles, California companies, it is executive marketing without the executive-sized payroll.
What Los Angeles businesses get with Brennen is an operator, not an advisor. He has built demand engines and hired teams from the inside, and he brings that same ownership to your marketing — in the pipeline reviews, in the hiring calls, and answerable for the number the whole way through.
He plugged in like a founder, took the number as his own, and turned our marketing into a real engine.
Client, B2B SaaS — CEO
A fractional CMO is an experienced chief marketing officer who leads your marketing on a part-time, ongoing basis instead of as a full-time employee. You get executive-level strategy, team leadership, and accountability for growth — at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire, and without the long recruiting cycle or equity package.
Yes. Brennen Lesser works with Los Angeles, California companies as a fractional CMO — both remotely and on-site as the engagement requires. That includes founder-led startups, funded scale-ups, SaaS businesses, professional-services firms, and established B2B companies across the Los Angeles metro.
Most fractional CMO engagements run at roughly 30–50% of a full-time CMO salary, billed as a flat monthly retainer with no equity and no long-term contract. The exact number depends on scope and how many days a month you need. For most Los Angeles companies that is a meaningful saving versus a full-time executive who would command $250,000 or more in total compensation.
An agency executes tactics — ads, content, email — usually against a brief you provide. A fractional CMO sits a level above that: they set the strategy, decide which channels to invest in, hire and manage the people (or agencies) who execute, and own the results. Think of it as renting a marketing leader, not renting a marketing vendor.
If you have the budget, the workload, and the revenue to support a $250k+ executive full-time, hire one. If you need senior marketing leadership now but can’t yet justify that cost — or you want to de-risk the decision before committing — a fractional CMO gives you the same caliber of leadership scaled to your stage, and can help you hire your eventual full-time CMO when the time comes.
Most Los Angeles engagements ramp in about two weeks. You skip the four-to-six-month executive search entirely — after a short discovery period, Brennen is embedded in your business, auditing the funnel and shipping a strategy while a full-time search would still be scheduling first-round interviews.
Typically seed-to-Series-B startups, SaaS companies, and growing B2B firms in Los Angeles, California doing roughly $1M–$50M in revenue — companies large enough to need real marketing leadership but not yet large enough to justify a full-time CMO on payroll.
Clear positioning your whole team can articulate, a demand-generation engine measured to pipeline and revenue, honest attribution so you stop wasting spend, and a marketing team and set of systems that keep producing after the engagement scales down. The goal is a self-sustaining function, not dependence on a consultant.
Both. Brennen works with Los Angeles, California teams remotely day-to-day and comes on-site for kickoffs, planning sessions, and key moments where being in the room matters. Modern marketing leadership doesn’t require a desk in your office five days a week.