Plenty of New York, New York companies are one good marketing leader away from their next stage of growth — they just cannot yet justify one at $250,000 a year plus the half-year it takes to hire. That mismatch, needing senior leadership now but not being ready for a full-time executive, is exactly where they get stuck.
The fractional model solves both problems at once. You bring in an executive-caliber marketing leader part-time — owning strategy, managing the team, and reporting to revenue — for roughly a third to a half of a full-time CMO. For most New York companies, senior leadership stops being a someday hire and becomes something you have now.
As your fractional CMO, Brennen owns strategy, execution, and everything between. He sets positioning for the New York 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 New York 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 timing is usually obvious once you see the signals. You have product-market fit and revenue, but growth has plateaued and no one owns the plan to restart it. You are spending on marketing and cannot say what drives pipeline. You are preparing to raise and need a credible growth engine. Any one of these is a good reason for a New York company to start fractionally.
Weeks 1–2: understand your funnel, goals, data, and the gaps holding New York 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 New York, New York business.
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 New York, New York businesses is leadership that comfortably pays for itself.
Brennen is a builder first. He has stood up marketing teams and demand systems from scratch, and he brings that to New York companies as a fractional CMO — hands in the work, accountable for results, and focused on leaving behind a machine that runs without him.
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 New York, New York 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 New York 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 New York 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 New York 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 New York, New York 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 New York, New York 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.