At some point, most Boston businesses realize their marketing has no one truly steering it. Freelancers execute in silos, an agency runs campaigns against a brief, and no single person owns whether any of it produces pipeline. The obvious fix — a full-time CMO — costs a quarter of a million dollars and months of hiring risk.
A fractional CMO gives you the leadership without the overhead. An experienced operator plugs into your Boston 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.
As your fractional CMO, Brennen owns strategy, execution, and everything between. He sets positioning for the Boston 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 Boston 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.
Most Boston companies reach for a fractional CMO at a recognizable moment: growth stalls, marketing spend outpaces provable results, or a funding round exposes the lack of a real go-to-market plan. If any of that sounds like your business, the timing is right — and starting fractionally beats waiting on a full-time search.
Weeks 1–2: understand your funnel, goals, data, and the gaps holding Boston 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 Boston companies actually need — senior ownership and accountability — part-time and at a fraction of the full-time cost.
The fractional CMO cost is a predictable monthly retainer, nothing more. No equity handed over, no multi-year lock-in, no line items you did not expect. The number tracks the work and typically runs 30–50% of full-time CMO compensation — meaning most Boston companies get senior marketing leadership for well under the cost of hiring one.
What Boston 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.
Brennen turned scattered marketing activity into an accountable growth engine we still run today.
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 Boston, Massachusetts 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 Boston 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 Boston 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 Boston 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 Boston, Massachusetts 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 Boston, Massachusetts 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.