Fractional CMO & GTM Advisory

Your market
won't wait.
Neither will I.

Senior marketing leadership — AI-native, outcome-obsessed, built for the speed early-stage requires. I build the engine. Your team drives it.

Book a Free Call → See how I work →

Brands I've worked at and with

cb Crunchbase Dropbox Salesforce NVIDIA Earnest Syndio Groopit Lumio EVA Works ``` cb Crunchbase Dropbox Salesforce NVIDIA Earnest Syndio Groopit Lumio EVA Works
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As heard on

The case for now

The window between
idea and traction
is shorter than you think.

You're past early validation. Investors are watching. Revenue has to move. But a full-time CMO is a $300K+ bet before you've proven the motion — and an agency will hand you a brand book when what you need is a pipeline.

I drop in at the executive level, work at the speed of your runway, and use AI to do in days what used to take months. I've scaled companies from $10M to over $1B in ARR. I know what breaks at each stage because I've broken it — and fixed it.

This isn't consulting. It's a partnership with accountability — built for founders who are done paying for slide decks.

Sound like what you've been looking for?

30 minutes. No deck. Just an honest conversation about where you are and what's in the way.

Book a Free Call →
How I work

I build the engine.
Your team drives it.

I'm not here to execute your email blasts. What I do is build the strategy, the frameworks, the playbooks, and the tools — designed precisely around whoever you have executing. So your team isn't guessing. They're running a system that actually works, on priorities that are actually right.

The foundation

Strategy & narrative architecture

I own the thinking that has to be right before everything else can work — GTM strategy, market positioning, brand narrative, fundraising story. When the stakes require it, I also write: the copy, the deck, the investor memo, the homepage. Senior judgment on the page, not just in a meeting.

01

Playbooks built to be executed

Every framework I build is designed so the people you already have can run it — without me staying forever.

02

AI-accelerated output

I use AI to compress research, copy, and iteration cycles. Senior-level work at startup velocity — not someday, right now.

03

Honest, fast feedback

I'll tell you when you're solving the wrong problem, hiring the wrong person, or building the wrong motion. That candor is the job. You don't need a yes-person — you need someone who's seen this play out before and will tell you the truth fast enough to matter.

04

PLG and sales-led fluency

I don't pick a religion. I build the motion that fits your product, your stage, and your market — not the one I used last time.

What we build
together

Every engagement is scoped to your specific stage and gaps. These are the areas I go deep.

Narrative & Category Design

So your story stops sounding like everyone else's — and starts making investors lean forward.

Positioning & Messaging

So every prospect immediately understands why you, why now, and why not the alternative.

GTM Strategy & Revenue Architecture

So your first dollar of marketing spend generates a second — with a model that actually scales.

Demand Generation

So qualified pipeline is a system, not a prayer — built on channels that convert at your stage.

Board Storytelling & Investor Decks

So your board meetings build confidence and your fundraising narrative commands premium multiples.

Pricing & Packaging Strategy

So your pricing accelerates expansion revenue instead of creating a ceiling on it.

AI Adoption in Marketing

So your team operates at 10x capacity — and your competitors wonder how you move so fast.

Org Design & Marketing Hiring

So when you hire, you build the right team in the right order — not the one that looked good on a deck.

AI-first practice

I don't talk about AI.
I build with it.

Every engagement runs on an AI-augmented workflow — faster research, faster copy, faster iteration. The strategic judgment stays mine. The speed becomes yours.

For clients this means senior-level output at startup velocity. Competitive intelligence in days. Brand voice tools your team actually uses. Content systems that scale without headcount.

Custom GPTs & Brand Voice AI

Bespoke tools trained on your voice, product, and ICP — so content stays on-strategy without you reviewing every word.

AI-Accelerated Research

Competitive intelligence, ICP analysis, and market sizing that used to take three weeks — delivered in three days.

Scalable Content Systems

Automated workflows that produce consistent, on-brand output without the full-time content team tax.

AI Adoption Roadmap

A measurable plan to embed AI across your marketing function — not a buzzword, a workflow.

The engagement model

Simple by design.
Serious by nature.

Minimum 3-month engagements. I work embedded as your CMO — in Slack, in your docs, in your team meetings. Not advising from a distance.

No-pressure guarantee. If there's not a genuine fit after our discovery call, I'll tell you — and point you toward someone who might be a better match. No pitch, no hard sell. Ever.

01

Discovery & Diagnosis

30–60 minutes mapping where you are, where you're stuck, and what success looks like in 90 days. If the fit isn't there, I'll say so.

02

Scope & Proposal

A clear scope, timeline, and investment — no 12-page SOW, no ambiguity. You know exactly what you're getting and when.

03

Build, Equip & Deliver

I build the strategy, frameworks, and playbooks. Your team executes. I make sure they're running the right plays, on the right priorities, in the right order.

Typical monthly investment

$10K — $35K

Less than 10% the cost of a full-time CMO. Scoped to your stage and goals — let's talk about what makes sense.

What people say

People who've worked
with me up close

“

Shanee is the most impressive marketing leader I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Her genius for product-led growth and her ability to run marketing organizations that drive revenue is well-established and undisputed. If you get a chance to work with her, do yourself a favor and make it happen.

Matt Schulman

Product Comms, Stripe · Previously Crunchbase

// LinkedIn Recommendation

“

You will be better with Shanee on your team. Period. Her contagious high-impact, high-EQ disposition drove the growth of many others and the company itself. She leads with empathy, tenacity, curiosity and a miraculous ability to paint the picture at 10,000ft while possessing a deep understanding of everything in the weeds.

Arianna Todero

Director of Product Marketing, Crunchbase · Direct report, 4 years

// LinkedIn Recommendation

“

Shanee was the best manager I've had in my career. She pushed for her team to have a seat at the table during significant cross-functional initiatives — enabling me to become a thought leader whose work could impact the whole organization. She advocated for her team of 30+ daily and led with empathy, transparency, and passion.

Ashley Dixon

Lifecycle Marketing Director, Crunchbase · Direct report, 4 years

// LinkedIn Recommendation

Shanee Ben-Zur, Fractional CMO and GTM Advisor
About

I've scaled it.
I've broken it.
I know the difference.

I started in PR and crisis communications — which means I learned early that narrative is infrastructure. Get the story wrong and nothing else works. I spent the next 15+ years proving it, building marketing functions at companies that redefined their categories.

First social media leader at NVIDIA, Dropbox, and PlayStation. CMO and Chief Growth Officer at Crunchbase — where I helped take the company through a $50M oversubscribed Series D. CMO at Earnest. Along the way I've worked across Salesforce, Dropbox, NVIDIA, and agencies supporting Intel and Comcast — scaling revenue from $10M to over $1B ARR by building the systems, the stories, and the teams that made it inevitable.

Now I take that experience directly to founders who don't have time for the learning curve. I know what works at Seed. I know what breaks at Series B. I know how to build for the stage you're in — not the one you're hoping for.

Speed is a competitive advantage. AI makes it structural. I'm here to help you build something that matters — fast.

15+

Years scaling B2B tech companies

$1B+

ARR reached across career

5+

Category-defining companies

Ready?

Let's find your
voice in the market.

30 minutes. No pitch deck. Just a real conversation about where you are and whether I can help.

Book a Free Discovery Call →

Or reach me directly at shanee@shaneegtm.com

Common questions

Everything you want to
know before reaching out

The questions I get most often in discovery calls — answered directly.

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A fractional CMO functions as your head of marketing at the executive level — setting strategy, owning positioning, building the GTM motion, and making the decisions a full-time CMO would make. The difference is that you're not paying for a full-time salary, benefits, equity, and recruiting costs. I show up embedded in your team — in Slack, in your leadership meetings, in your board prep — working at the pace your company actually moves. I also build the frameworks, playbooks, and tools that your existing team executes against, so the work compounds beyond my time in the engagement.
An agency executes tactics — they run your ads, produce your content, manage your social. A fractional CMO owns the strategy those tactics serve. Agencies need direction. A fractional CMO provides it. The other meaningful difference is accountability: agencies are accountable to deliverables, I'm accountable to outcomes. If your pipeline isn't moving, that's my problem to solve — not a scope-of-work conversation. Most early-stage companies actually need both, in that order: get the strategy right first, then bring in execution support.
The signal I see most often: you have product-market fit evidence but marketing feels like throwing things at the wall. Or you're heading into a fundraise and your narrative isn't landing. Or you have a junior marketer executing hard with no strategic direction. Seed through Series B is the sweet spot — early enough that the right strategy creates compounding advantage, late enough that you have something real to build around. If you're asking whether you need one, you probably do.
My engagements typically run $10K–$35K per month, scoped to your stage, goals, and the complexity of what we're building. For context: a full-time CMO in the US runs $250K–$550K in base salary alone, before equity, benefits, and the 3–6 months it takes to recruit and onboard them. A fractional engagement gets you senior strategic leadership immediately, at a fraction of that cost, with no long-term hiring commitment. The investment is scoped in our discovery conversation — there's no standard package because no two companies need the same thing.
I require a minimum of three months — anything shorter doesn't give enough time to diagnose, build, and see real results. Most engagements run six to twelve months. The goal is never to make you dependent on me — it's to build systems and develop your team to the point where you either don't need a fractional CMO anymore, or you're ready to hire a full-time one with a clear brief for what they're walking into. Some clients extend because the scope grows; some transition out when the foundation is solid. Both outcomes are wins.
Technically they describe the same thing — a senior marketing leader who isn't full-time. In practice, "fractional" signals a different operating model: structured engagement, defined scope, clear deliverables, and an expectation that the relationship has a shape and an endpoint. "Part-time" can mean anything from 10 hours a week of general help to a reduced-hours version of a full-time role. A fractional CMO brings a framework for how the engagement works, not just availability.
Yes — and this is one of the highest-leverage things I do. Investor narrative isn't a different skill from go-to-market narrative; it's the same positioning work told to a different audience with different stakes. I've helped companies raise oversubscribed rounds by building the story that connects market opportunity, product differentiation, and traction into something that makes investors feel urgency. The deck is often the last thing we work on — the positioning has to be right first, or the deck just makes the confusion more polished.
Three things that separate good from great: pattern recognition at your stage — someone who's been in the room when Series A companies break through and when they don't; a real point of view on your market — not someone who asks you what you think the positioning should be and reflects it back; and proof of execution, not just strategy. Ask to see work they've actually made — positioning docs, decks, copy, not just frameworks. The red flag is someone who talks primarily in frameworks and hasn't touched the work in years.
You're ready if you have evidence of something working — even early signal — and you need to figure out how to make it repeatable and scalable. You're not ready if you're still searching for product-market fit — at that stage you need founder-led discovery, not a marketing strategy. The other readiness signal is internal: do you have at least one person who can execute? A fractional CMO without anyone to build with is just expensive advice. If you have a junior marketer, a growth engineer, or even a capable founder who can run plays — that's enough to start.
Week one is deep listening — customer calls, internal interviews, reviewing everything that exists: positioning docs, sales decks, win/loss data, pipeline reports. I want to understand what's actually true about your market before I say anything prescriptive. Week two I start sharing observations — what I see that you might be too close to see. Weeks three and four are the first deliverables: usually a positioning brief, a 90-day marketing plan, and clarity on the one or two things that will move the needle most. By day 30 you should feel like you have direction, not just a new person in your Slack.
This is specifically where I focus. AI-native GTM isn't just about using AI tools in your marketing workflow — it's about how you position in a market where the competitive landscape shifts monthly, where buyers are skeptical of hype, and where the technology's capabilities are often ahead of the market's ability to understand them. I've worked with AI and SaaS companies across multiple market cycles and understand how to build GTM motions that create durable differentiation rather than chasing whatever the current AI narrative is. I also run my own practice on AI-augmented workflows, so I'm not advising on this theoretically.
I work alongside your team, not above them in a way that creates confusion. In practice: I set the strategy and priorities, I build the frameworks and playbooks, your team executes. I'm not here to replace your junior marketer — I'm here to make sure they're working on the right things in the right way. I also do a lot of the writing myself when the stakes require it: positioning copy, investor narratives, board materials. What I don't do is manage their day-to-day tasks or become a bottleneck. The goal is a team that runs better after I leave than it did before I arrived.
The direct cost comparison is significant: a full-time CMO costs $250K–$550K in base salary, plus 15–25% equity, benefits, and typically 3–6 months to recruit. A fractional engagement at $10K–$35K/month means you get senior strategic leadership for under 10% of that cost, with no equity dilution and no long-term commitment. The bigger ROI question is speed: a fractional CMO starts contributing in week one. A full-time CMO is typically effective at month four or five. In a startup where six months of wrong direction can be fatal, that timing difference is the most valuable thing.
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