Most Los Angeles founders do not need more marketing hands — they need a marketing brain that owns the outcome. Without one, strategy, execution, and reporting all fall to people who were never meant to set direction. Hiring a full-time CMO solves it in theory, but the salary and the search make it a high-stakes gamble.
A fractional CMO gives you the leadership without the overhead. An experienced operator plugs into your Los Angeles business, owns the marketing plan end to end, and stays accountable for results — while you keep the flexibility to scale the engagement as you grow. It is senior marketing ownership, sized to where you actually are.
Brennen runs the full marketing stack as your fractional CMO: positioning and narrative first, then the demand-generation systems that fill the pipeline, then attribution so spend is defensible — and throughout, building the Los Angeles team, selecting tooling, and writing the playbooks that keep results compounding.
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 triggers are consistent across Los Angeles companies: a growth plateau nobody owns, marketing spend with no clear return, a busy-but-directionless team, or a raise that needs a real growth narrative. Hit any of them and it is time to stop adding tactics and start adding leadership.
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.
Wondering how much a fractional CMO costs? Everything runs on a transparent monthly retainer. You are not giving up equity or signing a long contract, and the invoice does not move around. The retainer is set to your scope and, as a rule of thumb, comes in around 30–50% of full-time CMO comp — senior leadership most Los Angeles companies find pays for itself in pipeline.
Brennen is an operator who has built and led marketing teams from the inside — owning the number, not just advising on it. Los Angeles companies get senior judgment, hands-on execution, and a system the team keeps running after the engagement scales down. He works like a member of your leadership team, not a consultant who hands you a deck and disappears.
The best marketing hire we made was not full-time. Brennen owned the strategy and the number from day one.
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.