Ambitious Austin businesses often find themselves with marketing that is busy but not accountable. Campaigns ship, agencies invoice, and growth still stalls because no senior operator owns the plan. The traditional answer, a full-time CMO, is a $250,000 line item and a months-long recruit — a lot to commit before you know it will work.
A fractional CMO closes that gap. You get a seasoned marketing executive embedded in your business part-time — owning the strategy, building and leading the team, and taking accountability for the number — for a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire and with none of the hiring risk. For most Austin companies, it is the fastest way to put senior marketing leadership in the building.
The role covers the whole function, not a slice of it. Brennen sets your positioning and message, builds the demand-generation engine that drives qualified pipeline for your Austin business, stands up analytics so you know what is working, and assembles the team and SOPs that keep it all running without him in the room every day.
A clear go-to-market for the Austin 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.
You are ready when the problem is clearly leadership rather than labor. Growth has stalled, the budget is a black box, the team has no strategist above it, or a fundraise is forcing the question. When a Austin company recognizes one of these, a fractional CMO delivers the ownership it is missing — fast.
Weeks 1–2: understand your funnel, goals, data, and the gaps holding Austin 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.
The full-time CMO gives dedication but at $250k and months of risk. The agency gives output but owns nothing above the task list. The fractional CMO gives your Austin, Texas business the strategic ownership and revenue accountability of an executive — part-time, flexible, and a fraction of the price — bridging the two cleanly.
Fractional CMO fees are straightforward: one flat monthly retainer, no equity, no long-term commitment, no surprises. It is scoped to how much leadership the business needs and usually falls between 30% and 50% of a full-time CMO salary — a fraction of the cost for the same caliber of ownership a Austin company would otherwise have to hire full-time.
With Brennen, Austin, Texas companies get a marketing leader who has actually done the job — built the team, owned the budget, carried the number. He operates inside your business, not adjacent to it, and measures success by the engine he leaves running when he scales down.
Brennen operates like a founder — he owned the number, built the team, and the pipeline followed.
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 Austin, Texas 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 Austin 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 Austin 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 Austin 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 Austin, Texas 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 Austin, Texas 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.