The Startup Hiring Mistake That Appears to be like Like a Win 

In July, WHOOP employed Dirk-Jan van Hameren, Nike’s former chief advertising and marketing officer, to run advertising and marketing for the wearable-tech firm. On paper, it seemed like a typical senior advertising and marketing rent. In observe, van Hameren walked into an organization that had simply closed a $575 million funding spherical at a $10.1 billion valuation, crossed 3 million members and was already cash-flow constructive.

He didn’t construct a advertising and marketing operate. He inherited one: a 65-person crew already in place, reporting on to him from day one. 

That’s the half founders miss after they have a look at a rent like this and suppose, “We’re ready for that, too.” I’ve spent years inserting advertising and marketing expertise inside growth-stage corporations, and the error I see most frequently is making a senior rent earlier than the infrastructure exists to assist it. 

Here’s tips on how to inform whether or not your organization is truly prepared to rent a advertising and marketing VP or CMO, and what to do if it isn’t but: 

1. Read the indicators earlier than you rent 

These indicators often imply the infrastructure isn’t there but for a VP or CMO, even when the ambition is: There’s no repeatable means leads or prospects are available but, the advertising and marketing finances is determined by whoever’s least expensive that quarter quite than what’s working, and nobody on the crew might inform you which channel truly drives income. 

I labored with one founder who obtained excited a couple of robust résumé, made the rent after which questioned, six months in, why nothing had modified. The new chief was spending most of their time on hands-on execution as a substitute of constructing a crew or a method, whereas the remainder of the management crew stored anticipating rapid progress outcomes. That expectation was the actual downside.  

A senior advertising and marketing chief‘s first few months should go toward diagnosing what’s truly working, not producing outcomes off a method that doesn’t exist but. Skip that step, and any progress you do see received’t maintain. In most circumstances like these, the corporate would have been higher served by a powerful director-level advertising and marketing chief first, then an govt as soon as the complexity and scale truly justified the title. 

A director-level rent prices much less, comes with decrease expectations connected and is commonly extra comfy doing the hands-on work the corporate truly wants proper now. That’s the rent that matches what the corporate can at the moment assist — nothing about it’s a step down. 

2. Set them up earlier than day one  

A senior advertising and marketing chief wants 4 issues within the first 90 days: clear enterprise objectives, actual decision-making authority, entry to knowledge and alignment with the founder on priorities. They additionally want context, together with what’s been tried earlier than, what’s working now and the place the corporate needs to go. Without it, a brand new rent will spend their first month rediscovering issues the corporate already discovered the arduous means, comparable to channels that by no means transformed or messaging that fell flat with the gross sales crew. 

Founders fall quick right here always, altering priorities each few weeks, withholding actual authority whereas nonetheless anticipating possession or demanding outcomes earlier than the chief has had time to construct a method grounded within the firm’s precise knowledge. A 2025 Gartner survey of CEOs and CFOs discovered solely 34% see eye-to-eye with their CMO on advertising and marketing’s function in supporting progress, which is precisely the sort of misalignment that turns a powerful rent right into a six-month disappointment. 

3. Close the hole with out the full-time price ticket 

Fractional management exists to assist shut this hole. It is smart when an organization wants senior-level technique and experience however isn’t prepared for the price, scope or workload of a full-time govt — significantly in periods of progress or transition, or when the advertising and marketing operate itself nonetheless must be constructed earlier than anybody commits to a everlasting chief.  

Alina Vandenberghe, co-founder and co-CEO of Chili Piper, used this strategy after working advertising and marketing herself for a stretch, hitting her numbers however exhausting the mannequin. Rather than hiring a full-time CMO straight away, she introduced on a fractional advertising and marketing govt to check what abilities and attributes her everlasting rent truly wanted. A brief, outlined engagement (three to 6 months, with particular objectives connected) offers you a similar readability. 

Real work will get carried out, and also you study what the function requires earlier than you decide to a wage and a title. Vandenberghe landed on a full-time VP of promoting as soon as that was clear. Van Hameren’s transfer to WHOOP exhibits the opposite finish of that very same course of. The crew, the finances and the dimensions have been already there ready for him, which is exactly why a full-time rent made sense. 

Before you rent the VP or the CMO, ask whether or not your organization appears to be like something like that. If it doesn’t but, that’s not a motive to attend indefinitely. It is a motive to construct the infrastructure first, in order that once you do make the rent, you’re not asking somebody to do a job you have been by no means set as much as give them. 

In July, WHOOP employed Dirk-Jan van Hameren, Nike’s former chief advertising and marketing officer, to run advertising and marketing for the wearable-tech firm. On paper, it seemed like a typical senior advertising and marketing rent. In observe, van Hameren walked into an organization that had simply closed a $575 million funding spherical at a $10.1 billion valuation, crossed 3 million members and was already cash-flow constructive.

He didn’t construct a advertising and marketing operate. He inherited one: a 65-person crew already in place, reporting on to him from day one. 

That’s the half founders miss after they have a look at a rent like this and suppose, “We’re ready for that, too.” I’ve spent years inserting advertising and marketing expertise inside growth-stage corporations, and the error I see most frequently is making a senior rent earlier than the infrastructure exists to assist it.