Marketing Advisor for Early-Stage SaaS Founders
Your positioning is fuzzy, your messaging changes every pitch, and your team is about to spend the next quarter chasing the wrong channel. You do not need a fractional CMO running the function. You need 2 to 4 hours a month with someone who has shipped this work at companies that exited or scaled 100x, and will tell you which decision is wrong before you make it.
Cash retainer from $3,000/mo, half-day intensive from $3,500, or 0.25-0.5% equity warrant with 2-year vest (post-pre-seed only). You pick.
Book a 20-min intro call | If you are post-PMF, see operator tier
When you need this vs an operator
You need a marketing advisor (this page) if:
- You are pre-PMF or under $50K MRR and the wedge is still being defined.
- You have a junior marketer or founder-marketer running execution and need a senior reviewer.
- Your team is about to commit to a channel, a positioning shift, or a rebrand and you want a stress test first.
- You are bootstrapped or board-funded and cannot justify $8K-$18K/mo for a fractional CMO.
- You are pre-seed or seed and want equity-aligned strategic input instead of a cash retainer.
You need an operator (not this page) if:
- You are post-PMF with $1M+ ARR and execution speed is the bottleneck.
- You need someone to hire and manage marketers, write briefs daily, or own the demand-gen number.
- You want someone running positioning AND copy AND launches AND analytics. That is a CMO job.
If you cross PMF or your weekly marketing load is over 15 hours, move to operator tier: /fractional-cmo/ or /fractional-head-of-growth/.
What I do as a marketing advisor
- Positioning critique. Once per quarter we pressure-test your current positioning against the actual buyers you are winning, losing, and ignoring. Output is a 1-page positioning statement plus the 3-5 messages it should produce.
- Messaging audit. I review your top 10 customer-facing surfaces (homepage, top landing pages, top sequence emails, sales deck, demo intro) and write a memo on which surfaces contradict each other and what to fix in the next 30 days.
- ICP refinement. We go through your last 50 closed-won and closed-lost deals together. I write you a one-page ICP definition with firmographics, trigger event, disqualifiers, and the buying committee.
- Channel selection. When you are about to pour budget into a new channel, I write the case for and against in writing, with the bet-size and 90-day kill criteria.
- Brand-vs-performance balance. I write you a one-page memo on how to split budget between brand investment and performance acquisition for your stage and ARR band.
- Marketing hire selection. Final-round interviews for your first 1-2 marketers, plus a one-page memo per candidate.
- Async Slack/Loom on demand. Within reason. 24-hour weekday response.
Engagement model and pricing
| Tier | Format | Hours | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. Monthly retainer | 2-4 hrs/month, recurring | 2-4 hrs | From $3,000/mo |
| B. Half-day intensive | Positioning or messaging deep-dive, 14-day async followup | 4-5 hrs | From $3,500 |
| C. Equity warrant | Same scope as Tier A, paid in equity | 2-4 hrs/month | 0.25-0.5% over 2-year vest, 6-month cliff |
Equity-only terms apply only post-pre-seed, with a 12-month minimum and a standard advisor agreement.
Who I work with
- Pre-PMF B2B SaaS founders who have closed pre-seed or seed and have a junior marketer or no marketer.
- Bootstrapped operators at $20K-$200K MRR who need senior input but not full operator-tier engagement.
- AI infrastructure founders building developer-facing or technical-buyer products where positioning is the hardest unsolved problem.
- Pre-seed VCs placing me as a portfolio marketing advisor across 2-3 companies.
What I do NOT do
- I do not write your copy.
- I do not design your brand or visual identity.
- I do not run your campaigns.
- I do not manage your marketing team day-to-day.
- I do not build your marketing tech stack.
- I do not attend daily standups, all-hands, or sales calls.
- I do not take equity-only if you have not closed funding.
Proof
I led acquisition at Elementor during its growth from roughly $200K to over $20M ARR (2018-2020). Elementor raised $15M Series A from Lightspeed in 2020 (TechCrunch, WP Tavern).
I led growth at cnvrg.io ahead of its acquisition by Intel in November 2020 (TechCrunch, Globes).
FAQ
How much does a marketing advisor cost?
Cash retainer starts at $3,000/mo for 2 hours of synchronous work plus async response. Half-day intensives start at $3,500. Equity is 0.25-0.5% over a 2-year vest with a 6-month cliff, post-pre-seed only.
How long is the minimum commitment?
Cash retainer is month-to-month after the first 3 months. Equity is a 12-month minimum.
Can you take equity only?
Yes if you have closed pre-seed or seed. No if you are pre-incorporation or idea-stage.
How many hours per week?
2 to 4 hours per month. Not per week.
Do you work with companies outside Israel?
Yes. About half my advisor work is Israel-based, half is US and EU.
How does this integrate with my existing team?
I work with the founder plus the most senior marketer you have. Interface is the monthly call plus async Loom.
When should I upgrade to fractional CMO?
When your weekly marketing load crosses 15 hours, when you cross PMF, or when you have closed Series A. See /fractional-cmo/.
Will you write the positioning document for me?
The half-day intensive (Tier B) produces a positioning document. The monthly retainer (Tier A) reviews and pressure-tests what your team writes.