Misnomer Marketing
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The Marketing Foundation Most Startups Are Skipping.

Most founders are running with narrative debt. They have shipped product faster than they have built the story for it. We close the gap. Three pillars. Two engagement shapes. One strategist who stays through the work.
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The Problem

Narrative debt is what happens when a company outruns its own story. Product velocity beats narrative velocity. The pitch wins on traction and stalls on positioning. The board meeting opens with charts and stalls on the slide that explains the company. The new hire takes ninety days to articulate what you do. That is the cost of narrative debt, and it compounds. Think of it as the concrete slab before the kitchen. The kitchen gets the compliments. The slab is why the kitchen stands. Every Misnomer engagement starts by surfacing the debt. Then we pay it down. 

How we work

Three pillars. One foundation.

Pillar One

Category Design and Narrative Strategy

Decide what game you are playing. Then make the rules.
Category design is the work of choosing where you want to win and what language gets you there. Most founders treat category as descriptive. The strongest founders treat it as designed. We write the category brief, build the narrative arc, and pressure-test it against your funding stage, your competitors, and the board questions you keep dodging.
D E L I V E R A B L E S

• Narrative architecture document. One-page core narrative plus three-tier proof structure.
• Investor narrative deck. 10 to 15 slides. Narrative-first, not metric-first.
• Sales narrative one-pager.
• Quarterly board narrative template.

O U T C O M E
Founders typically walk into the next round with a story their lead investor repeats back to them.That is how you know the debt is paid.

Pillar Two

Marketing as Infrastructure

Stop running marketing like a campaign. Start running it like the plumbing.
Most early-stage marketing is a series of campaigns held together by hope. We replace that with infrastructure. Systems that run whether you are funding or hiring or shipping. Routes for inbound. Repeatable lead engines. Sales tooling that survives the next AE who quits.

D E L I V E R A B L E S

• Marketing systems audit. Current stack, gap map, dependency tree.

• ICP and messaging library. Who, what, why, in their language.

• Lead engine design. Channel mix, content cadence, conversion model.

• Sales tooling kit. Decks, one-pagers, demo narrative, objection library.

• Reporting cadence. Monthly KPI review, quarterly strategy review.

O U T C O M E

A founder can take a two-week vacation and the marketing engine still ships.

Pillar Three

The Fractional CMO Seat

We take the chair. You keep the company.
This is the pillar that pulls the others together. We sit in the CMO seat for the duration of the engagement. Strategy. Hiring brief for the eventual full-time CMO. Vendor management. Board readiness.
You get one strategist. Not a junior account manager. Not a rotating team. The same person in the discovery call, the strategy session, and the board prep.
D E L I V E R A B L E S

• Weekly founder stand-up. 60 minutes.

• Monthly strategy session. 2 to 3 hours.

• Quarterly board readiness deck and rehearsal.

• Hiring brief for the full-time CMO when the time comes.

• Vendor and agency management on your behalf.

O U T C O M E

Most fractional CMO retainers replace one to two full-time hires the founder was about to mis-fire on. Typical savings in year one: $250K to $400K.

Engagement Shapes

Two shapes. Pick the one that fits.

  • Most common

The Retainer

For founders who want a strategist in the seat.

Monthly engagement. Three-month minimum. Single strategist. Used most often by founders pre-Series B, in repositioning, or running toward an exit.

  • Weekly founder stand-up. 60 minutes.
  • Monthly strategy session. Two to three hours.
  • Quarterly board readiness. Deck and rehearsal.
  • Hiring brief for the full-time CMO when the time comes.
  • Vendor and agency management on your behalf.
Investment. $12,000 to $20,000 per month, scoped to stage and pace
  • Defined scope

The Project Sprint

For founders with a defined gap, a deadline, or a milestone.
Four to six weeks. Single owner. Clear deliverable. Used most often before a fundraise, before a launch, or after an acquisition.
  • Brand and Positioning Sprint. 4 weeks. Brand audit, positioning workshop, competitive narrative map, GTM narrative document.
  • Investor Narrative Sprint. 4 weeks. Pitch deck rebuild, lead investor narrative coaching, three-meeting prep cadence.
  • GTM Launch Sprint. 6 weeks. Launch narrative, channel plan, content calendar, sales tooling kit.
Investment. $5,000 to $10,000 per sprint, scoped to deliverable.
See full pricing

Core Capabilities

Brand and positioning

Who you are, what makes you different, and how to say it. This is where every engagement starts, because everything else depends on getting this right.

Go-to-market strategy

A structured launch and growth plan that aligns sales, marketing, and product around a single thesis. Built for execution, not a shelf.

Demand generation

Full-funnel programs that attract, engage, and convert the right buyers. Every channel tested. Every dollar tracked.

AI tools

Custom-built AI assessments, lead qualifiers, and interactive tools. Deployed on your domain. Integrated with your CRM. You own the code.

How Every Engagement Starts

Our Process

01

Understand

We map the company you have built. Product, traction, team, market, runway. No discovery questionnaires. One working session.

02

Surface the narrative debt

We name what has been outrunning the story. This is the part most founders have not heard articulated before. It is also the part that makes everything else click.

03

Plan the work

Pillar mix. Engagement shape. Deliverable schedule. Reporting cadence. You sign off. We ship.

Our Work Has a Track Record

$425M+

Raised On Behalf Of Clients

$2.5B+

Across Four Successful Exits

25 yrs

Years At Startups, Google, And AT&T

1

Strategist. No Committees. No Rotating Teams.

5 out of 5 star rating

5/5

“We worked with Jeff to develop our brand and give us direction on how to express it. His insight and expertise helped us avoid costly mistakes and helped us go to market quickly.”

Nick M

CEO

Want to see what your narrative debt looks like?

Take the brand assessment. Five minutes. We will show you where the gap is.

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Fifteen minutes with Jeff. No deck. No pitch.

Fractional CMO for startups. San Diego, California.

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