Growing Seattle, Washington 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 Seattle 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 Seattle 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 Seattle 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 signals are rarely subtle. Revenue is real but growth has flattened. Spend is up but attribution is murky. A capable team is busy but rudderless. A fundraise is looming and the growth engine is not investor-ready. Each of these, on its own, is enough reason for a Seattle business to bring in fractional marketing leadership.
Weeks 1–2: understand your funnel, goals, data, and the gaps holding Seattle 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.
Weigh the three options and the fractional model stands out. A full-time CMO means dedicated leadership at $250k-plus and a months-long hire. An agency means hands, not ownership — it executes your brief and bills you for it. A fractional CMO gives you the strategic accountability of an executive, delivered part-time and priced for your Seattle stage.
Fractional CMO rates work as a flat retainer billed monthly and scoped to your needs. A company that mainly needs strategy pays for fewer days; one that needs building pays for more. Either way it tends to run about a third to a half of a full-time CMO’s cost, which for most Seattle, Washington businesses is leadership that comfortably pays for itself.
The difference with Brennen is ownership. He does not parachute in with recommendations and leave; he embeds in your Seattle, Washington business, builds the engine, leads the people, and answers for pipeline. You end the engagement with a marketing function that stands on its own.
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 Seattle, Washington 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 Seattle 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 Seattle 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 Seattle 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 Seattle, Washington 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 Seattle, Washington 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.