Build
Design, build, and deploy a custom tool.
Quoted per project
Pricing, without the theater
Fractional CMO pricing that respects your time and your runway.
Ballparks up front so you can decide quickly, qualify fit, and get back to building. Every tier is a flat monthly fee, agreed before kickoff.
How much CMO do you need?
Board-ready
6 to 9 hrs / week
From $6,000 / month
You have a team. You need a CMO in the room.
The seat
10 to 15 hrs / week
From $10,000 / month
Strategy, plus the systems to run it.
Seat plus build
16 to 25 hrs / week
From $16,000 / month
I run the function while you hire.
Full-time equivalent
25+ hrs / week
From $26,000 / month
A raise or an exit on a clock.
Counsel
Hours of my hands
Ownership
Every tier is a flat monthly fee, agreed before kickoff. No overages and no hourly true-up. If the scope changes, we change the tier, and we do it before the work, not after it.
Advisory
Advisory is not a fifth tier.
It is a separate engagement: judgment on retainer for teams that already have hands. Three hours of calls a month, email replies within one business day, advice only, never deliverables.
Built, not advised
AI tool pricing
Custom assessments and lead qualifiers, built inside engagements and deployed on your domain. You own the code, the data, and every lead they generate.
Build and manage
Build plus monthly optimization and maintenance.
Project fee plus retainer
Concierge
Full AI tool suite alongside a fractional CMO engagement.
Contact for scope
Website design and build is Ascendly (opens in a new tab), the sister company: a flat $5,000, live in fifteen business days.
FAQ
Questions founders actually ask
What does this cost compared to hiring, or to an agency?
A full-time Series A CMO costs well into six figures in base, plus equity, plus a three-month search and a ninety-day ramp before the first decision gets made. The seat, at $10,000 a month, is a fraction of that, starts Monday, and does not need to be recruited. An agency is cheaper per hour and will not sit in your board meeting or write your investor narrative. The fractional model works because scale does not require full-time presence. It requires full-time thinking, applied at the right inflection points.
Do you work on equity or success fees?
Cash covers the work. Success fees and equity can be layered when outcomes are measurable and incentives align.
How do you measure success?
Two layers. Process metrics catch problems early: are we shipping on cadence, are deliverables landing, are we in the right meetings. Outcome metrics tell us whether the work moved the business: revenue, qualified pipeline, fundraising readiness, share of voice. Both get reviewed monthly, against a single north-star metric agreed at kickoff.
Who does the work?
I do. Every meeting, every deliverable, every decision. There are no junior account managers and no rotating team. For specialized work, trusted partners are brought in, and every introduction is made with the client in the room.
Is there hourly billing?
No. Hourly billing creates a built-in deadline to achieve success. The work runs until the project is complete, not until the clock runs out.
What does Advisory include?
Three hours of calls each month, structured however helps you most, and email between calls with replies within one business day. The work is judgment: what to build, what to skip, and what is about to bite you. $2,500 a month, three-month minimum, then month to month.
Why does Advisory ship no deliverables?
The moment I build the deck, I am executing, and execution is the job of the seat, at the price of the seat. Advisory stays advice so the line stays clean: your team builds, I direct. If a deliverable is what you need, that is a fractional engagement, and I will say so.
How does a client move from Advisory to the seat?
By telling me the day you want my hands on the work. I will tell you honestly whether you are there. Fractional CMO retainers start at $6,000 a month across four published tiers, and the person does not change.