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How do you hire your first CMO ?

Aurelio
8 replies
Hi everyone! As Product creators or start-up founders, we're doing our best to scale our company and one pivotal milestone often comes up: hiring our first Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). This role is crucial as it transitions our marketing from foundational tactics to strategic, scalable campaigns. I've been doing my company marketing so far (and so good), but it's definitely not my job. I'm currently at this crossroad and curious about how others have approached this significant hire. How did you decide it was the right time to hire a CMO? What qualities and experiences did you prioritize in your candidates? And, how did you integrate them into your existing team to ensure a smooth and successful transition? Cheers,

Replies

Yuki
I'm extremely unqualified to answer this question but ill take a stab since my mentor has been offered a CMO role at multi 8 figure valuation company. You probably already know this also, but I think it's pretty important to hire someone with a marketing trackrecord of growing small, unknown businesses on a budget (i.e. they aren't blowing venture funding & ideally they have bootstrapping experience). To me that shows they are resourceful/scrappy and can make the most out of every marketing dollar. I think hiring a seasoned marketer from a large company like Apple wouldn't make sense because the brand itself carries so much weight.
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Mustaasam Saleem
In my opinion, it depends on the founder's strengths and the company's growth stage. If one of the founders has a marketing superpower, they should oversee. However, if marketing isn't their expertise, it's wise to hire an industry expert as soon as the budget allows. This enables the founder to focus on their areas of strength, such as development, and ensures the company can scale quickly. As for hiring, I would prioritize candidates with a proven track record in scalable marketing strategies, team leadership, and industry expertise. To ensure a smooth transition, involve the existing team in the hiring process, and establish clear goals and KPIs.
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Fabian Maume
Monitor your activation and retention metrics. Until you get good retention is will be quite inefficient to invest in marketing. Then I would recommend you to consider a fractional CMO or marketing junior with mentoring at the start to save on budget. I actually wrote a blog post on the topic: https://www.tetriz.io/blog/do-yo...
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Fabian Maume
@aureliovolle That is great. It can be a good time to hire some marketing people. If you are low on budget I recommend you to hire a junior and get him/her mentored.
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Emily Harris
The best CMO needs to be able to use different online and offline marketing tools in order to execute campaigns.
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Julie Campbell
Start by clearly defining what you need in terms of skills and experience. From there, you can check reviews of potential candidates on platforms like LinkedIn or Glassdoor to get a sense of their reputation. It’s also smart to use special tools to check info about the person, such as background check services or professional networks, to verify their qualifications and past performance. If this feels overwhelming, you might consider applying to a recruiting agency. They can take a lot of the legwork out of the process and provide vetted candidates who meet your criteria.
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