Fractional Head of Growth
AI-native fractional operator. A definition, a comparison vs alternatives (Fractional CMO, growth agency, full-time hire), and the engagement model Yaniv uses with post-PMF B2B SaaS, B2C, and e-commerce companies.
What a fractional head of growth actually does
A fractional head of growth runs your entire growth function on a part-time engagement. I own the funnel from first click to paid revenue. Not a channel. Not a campaign. The whole system. That means acquisition, activation, conversion, and retention all sit under one operator who reports against revenue, not vanity metrics. You get senior growth leadership without the full-time salary, equity, and ramp time of a VP hire.
Most companies hire a fractional head of growth at one of two moments. Either traffic is climbing but revenue is flat, or paid spend is rising while the return per dollar keeps shrinking. Both problems live in the funnel, not the ad account. I came up running growth inside fast-scaling software companies. I took Elementor to 100x ARR and drove Riverside +337% MRR by fixing the path from sign-up to paid, not by buying more clicks.
The work starts with a diagnostic. Before I touch a single budget line, I map your full funnel against your actual data: analytics, the billing system, and the source of truth for revenue. I find the steps where intent leaks out. A landing page that converts visitors but loses them at sign-up. An onboarding flow that activates 20% when it should activate 50%. A pricing page that buries the plan most buyers want. These are the leaks a fractional head of growth is paid to find and seal.
Then I build the operating system. Weekly growth metrics, one source of truth, and a prioritized backlog scored by impact and effort. Every test ships with a hypothesis and a number it has to move. I run the experiments, read the results, kill what loses, and double down on what wins. Having managed $100M+ in budgets across paid channels, I know which levers move revenue and which ones only move dashboards. A good fractional head of growth says no to nine ideas so the tenth gets real resources.
I work directly with your team, not around it. Your engineers, designers, and marketers stay in the loop because growth that depends on one outside operator collapses the day the engagement ends. I install the cadence, the metrics, and the decision framework so the system keeps running. The goal of a fractional head of growth is to leave you with a growth engine, not a dependency. For context on how product-led companies measure this, the OpenView guide to product-led growth maps the same funnel stages I instrument.
Engagements run monthly. Most clients start with a four-week diagnostic so we both see the funnel before committing to a longer build. You get a senior operator who has done this inside companies that scaled, a clear plan tied to revenue, and weekly proof that the numbers are moving. If you want a fractional head of growth who treats your funnel like a P&L and not a slide deck, that is exactly how I work. From traffic to revenue, owned end to end.
Related
Frequently asked questions
What is a fractional head of growth and how is it different from a consultant?
A consultant hands you a deck and leaves. A fractional head of growth owns execution. I run your growth function part-time: acquisition, activation, conversion, and retention all report to me, and I am measured on revenue moved, not slides delivered. I work inside your team, ship tests weekly, and stay accountable to the numbers until the funnel improves.
When should a company hire a fractional head of growth instead of a full-time VP?
Hire fractional when you need senior growth leadership but cannot justify a full-time salary, equity, and a six-month ramp. It fits companies between $1M and $20M in revenue, post product-market-fit, with traffic that is not converting to revenue. You get a proven operator in weeks, not months, and you scale the engagement up or down as the work demands.
How does a fractional head of growth measure success?
Against revenue and the funnel steps that produce it. I set one source of truth, then track activation rate, conversion to paid, and retention every week. Each test ships with a hypothesis and a target number. If a change does not move a metric that ladders up to revenue, it gets killed. The scoreboard is the P&L, not impressions or reach.
What does a fractional head of growth engagement actually look like month to month?
Month one is a diagnostic: I map your full funnel against live data and find where intent leaks out. Month two onward I build the operating system, a prioritized test backlog scored by impact and effort, and run experiments weekly. You get a standing growth review, clear decisions, and a backlog that always shows what we are testing and why.
Will hiring a fractional head of growth create a dependency on one outside person?
No, that is a failure mode I design against. I install the metrics, cadence, and decision framework inside your team so the growth engine keeps running after the engagement ends. Your engineers, designers, and marketers stay in the loop on every test. The deliverable is a system your team owns, not a black box that collapses the day I leave.
A Fractional Head of Growth is a senior operator who joins your company part-time and owns the entire growth function end-to-end: acquisition, activation, retention, attribution, and the marketing data stack. They join the leadership cadence and are accountable for revenue, not deliverables.
The engagement is between an agency (single channel, deliverable-based) and a full-time CMO (six-figure salary, 6-12 month ramp). 4-5 hours/day per client, 2-3 clients at a time, 6-12 month engagements.
What "Fractional" Actually Means
Fractional means part-time, but at the same level of seniority, ownership, and accountability as a full-time hire. It is not "fewer hours of an agency" or "advisor on retainer." It is a senior operator embedded in your team, in your tools, and in your weekly leadership cadence, working the equivalent of one to two full days a week per client.
The model exists because mid-stage post-PMF companies need senior growth leadership before they can justify a $300K+ all-in CMO salary. The math works because senior operators can spread that level of seniority across 2-3 companies without losing depth.
Fractional Head of Growth vs Alternatives
| Option | What you get | Cost | Time to value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing agency | Single-channel execution. Junior team. Bills against deliverables. | $8K-$18K/mo | Weeks |
| Growth advisor | 2-4 hours per month of strategy. No execution. No accountability. | $3K-$5K/mo | One call |
| Fractional Head of Growth | Senior, embedded, owns the whole funnel. 4-5 hrs/day. | $8K-$18K/mo | 2 weeks |
| Full-time CMO | Senior, dedicated, owns the whole org. Hiring, team building. | $300K-$500K/yr loaded | 3-6 mo recruit + 6-12 mo ramp |
Two Stages, Two Engagement Shapes
Same operator, different shape depending on stage.
Stage 1: Pre-PMF / Earliest Post-PMF
Sub-$1M ARR. 4-10 person team. No marketing team yet. Hunting for the first 100/week signups, then 500/week. Hands-on operator who owns paid, content, SEO, GEO, lifecycle, and community in one head.
- ✓Funded AI / SaaS startups (seed or pre-Series A)
- ✓Founders who need a generalist operator, not a strategist
- ✓$8K-$18K/mo plus equity warrant or outcome bonus
Stage 2: Post-PMF Scaling
$1M-$20M ARR. Existing marketing team. Senior leadership unblocking specific bottlenecks: paid acquisition at scale, GEO, attribution, retention, lifecycle.
- ✓Acquisition plateaued, need senior rebuild
- ✓Funnel leaking, need diagnostic + execution leader
- ✓$8K-$18K/mo retainer, 4-5 hrs/day average
When It's the Wrong Hire
- Pre-product startup still searching for ICP (no PMF, no funding)
- Want only paid media management or single-channel work (hire an agency)
- Want a brand strategy deck (hire a brand consultant)
- Enterprise sales motion with $100K+ ACVs (different operator profile)
Hard Prerequisite: Tracking
If you can't measure it, Yaniv won't run it.
Mixpanel/Amplitude/Segment, Stripe, server-side conversion tracking: either connected before week 1, or connected during week 1. No exceptions.
Fractional retainers get wasted in one of two ways: bad strategy, or great strategy on broken measurement. The second is more common. We fix the measurement layer first, every time.
The AI-Native Operating Stack
Yaniv runs the same infrastructure he installs in client businesses.
Most fractional CMOs talk about AI. Yaniv lives it. 80% of his day runs on his VPS with Claude Code as the primary tool. Coolify manages 40+ applications on subdomains. n8n runs the marketing automation. Everything is connected to Telegram for real-time signal. The same stack he would install in your business if you asked.
The advantage compounds. Where most operators launch one A/B test per week, Yaniv launches ten. AI doesn't replace operator judgment; it removes the bottleneck on operator throughput.
How Yaniv Sequences Channels
Most CMOs run channels. Operators sequence them.
Step 1Google Ads first
Search intent is the cleanest buy signal in marketing. Lowest CAC, fastest learning. Build from search up.
Step 2LinkedIn second
Once Google reveals which personas convert, LinkedIn targets them with surgical precision. Expensive clicks, qualified users.
Step 3Meta + Reddit + TikTok at 50+ signups/week
Below 50/week you're feeding noise. Above 50/week the platform AI starts to work. Volume unlocks algorithmic optimization.
Step 4Influencers when the math works
The right creator can 5x conversion. Most don't. Test, double down, or cut. This is a default, not a template. The work is knowing when to break it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between a Fractional Head of Growth and a Fractional CMO?Fractional CMO is a title. Fractional Head of Growth describes the scope: end-to-end ownership of the growth function, not just marketing strategy. A fractional CMO might give you a strategy deck. A fractional head of growth lives in your Mixpanel, runs your ads, writes your emails, and is accountable for revenue metrics. Yaniv does both, but the engagement is operator-shaped, not consultant-shaped.
How much time do you spend per client?4-5 hours per day on average, up to 9 during intensive periods. 2-3 clients at a time. This isn't advisory, it's embedded operation. You'll see me in your Slack, your analytics, your weekly leadership meeting.
What's the minimum engagement length?6 months. Growth compounds. A 3-month engagement is too short to build systems that outlast the engagement. If after 3 months we're not seeing measurable progress, I'll tell you.
Do you manage a team or work solo?Both. I operate directly (ads, analytics, content strategy, technical implementation) and lead existing marketing team members. I don't bring a sub-team. I work with what you have and hire when the data says to hire.
What industries do you work with?B2B SaaS, B2C subscription products, and e-commerce. Post-PMF. The common thread is measurable growth with a digital acquisition model. If your sales cycle is 12+ months with $100K+ ACVs, a different operator profile fits better.
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