For a fast-growing San Francisco, California company, the marketing gap is rarely effort — it is leadership. Plenty of activity, plenty of spend, but no one connecting it to revenue. A full-time CMO would close that gap, yet the cost and the hiring timeline make that a heavy bet at your stage.
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 San Francisco businesses, it is often the difference between marketing that drifts and marketing that compounds.
As your fractional CMO, Brennen owns strategy, execution, and everything between. He sets positioning for the San Francisco market, builds the channels that drive pipeline, installs the reporting that keeps everyone honest, and hires and manages the team and systems — so the marketing function runs whether or not he is on the call.
A clear go-to-market for the San Francisco 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.
It tends to come down to a handful of triggers. You have hit a growth ceiling and no one owns breaking through it. You are spending without clear attribution. You have people executing with no strategy above them. Or you are gearing up to raise. For a San Francisco company facing any of these, fractional leadership is the practical next move.
Weeks 1–2: understand your funnel, goals, data, and the gaps holding San Francisco 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.
Think of it as a spectrum. On one end, a full-time CMO: total commitment, total cost, slow to hire. On the other, an agency: plenty of output, no strategic ownership. In the middle sits the fractional CMO — the judgment and accountability of a senior executive without the salary or the six-month search, sized to your San Francisco, California business.
Fractional CMO pricing stays predictable and honest — a flat monthly retainer, no equity, no surprises, scaled to the leadership you need. It typically runs 30–50% of a full-time CMO’s total compensation, so most San Francisco, California companies get the same quality of marketing ownership for meaningfully less than a full-time hire.
Brennen works like a founder who happens to run marketing. For your San Francisco company that means real ownership of strategy and results, hands-on execution instead of hand-offs, and a team and system built to keep compounding long after the engagement ends.
Within a quarter Brennen had our positioning, pipeline, and team pointed in one direction — and it showed.
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 San Francisco, 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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco, 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 San Francisco, 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.