How to Hire a Head of Marketing for Your Startup

Early-stage founders often handle marketing themselves. You might find yourself writing copy, chasing leads, and posting on social media late into the night.

But eventually, that DIY approach starts holding the company back. Hiring a head of marketing is a pivotal move. It can unlock new growth and free founders to focus on product and vision.

This guide covers when to hire, what to look for, how to evaluate candidates, and how to set your marketing leader up for success. While the examples focus on SaaS startups, the core principles apply to service businesses and product companies alike.

By the end, you’ll have the clarity and confidence that you know how to hire a head of marketing and set them (and your startup) up to win.

What We’ll Cover

Key Takeaways

• Hire a head of marketing once you have product traction and clear marketing needs. Don’t wait until growth stalls.
• Focus on finding someone who can both set strategy and execute campaigns. Startups need player-coaches, not pure strategists.
• Titles like “Head of Marketing” and “CMO” matter less than stage fit. Hire for what your company needs today and in the near future.
• Look for full-stack marketers who are strong in one or two areas but comfortable flexing across many tasks.
• Prioritize candidates who are scrappy, action-oriented, analytical, and collaborative. Domain and stage experience matter.
• Avoid common mistakes like hiring too junior, waiting too long, chasing unicorns, or relying solely on agencies.
• Set your new marketing leader up for success with clear goals, full context, access to tools, and early integration into company planning.

When Is It Time to Hire a Marketing Leader?

Before we talk about how to hire a head of marketing, we have to talk about when to hire a head of marketing.

Timing matters.

Hire a marketing leader too early and you risk wasting resources. Hire too late and you leave growth opportunities on the table.

But don’t hire just because an investor says so!

Hire because you have real marketing problems to solve.

So how do you know when the time is right? It depends on your company’s stage and go-to-market model.

Here are some key signals:

• You have more marketing needs than you can handle. If growth challenges are piling up (lead generation, content, product positioning, etc.) and you can’t keep up, it’s time to hire.
• Product-market fit is emerging. Many experts advise waiting until you see signs of product-market fit. (Signs such as paying customers and a repeatable way to acquire them.) For B2B startups, Jason Lemkin suggests hiring a head of marketing once you have two scaled sales reps. Don’t wait so long that your sales team runs out of leads or your early momentum fades.
• Your growth model depends on marketing. If your product relies on marketing (e.g., content, SEO, paid channels, or PR) to drive signups you’ll want a marketer earlier. When organic growth (word-of-mouth, virality, self-serve upgrades) isn’t enough to meet your goals anymore, it’s time to hire a marketer.
• SMB vs. Enterprise matters. If you sell to small businesses or consumers, marketing is the engine that drives volume, so hire early. If you sell to large enterprises, you can rely on founder-led sales longer but should still bring in marketing for big launches or to scale your pipeline.

It’s rare to hire a great marketer too early. It’s very common to hire one too late.

If your product has traction and your funnel could convert better or scale faster, a strong head of marketing can quickly pay for themselves. If you’re nearing a major milestone, like a product launch or market expansion, bring marketing on early enough to lay the foundation.

Not sure if you need a Head of Marketing or something else entirely? Check out our guide to building a marketing team, which breaks down the most common roles—from Marketing Manager to Head of Marketing to agency support—and helps you decide who to hire first.

Head of Marketing vs. CMO: What’s the Difference?

Titles can be confusing. Do you need a “Head of Marketing,” “VP of Marketing,” or “CMO”? In early-stage startups, these roles often describe the same person—the top marketer. But there are real differences in scope and stage.

Head of Marketing (or VP/Director of Marketing)

This is the hands-on leader who runs marketing day to day. They’re usually not part of the executive team yet and report directly to the CEO.

They focus on short- to mid-term results: growing leads, users, or revenue. Expect them to both build strategy and execute campaigns. They’re your “player-coach.” This role is common from the seed to Series A stages.

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

A CMO is a C-level executive, more common post–Series B or once you’re scaling past $20M in ARR.

They set long-term vision and ensure marketing supports company-wide goals. A CMO works across departments, presents to the board, and manages larger teams and budgets. They’re fully accountable for marketing’s performance and alignment with business strategy.

Qualities to Look for in a Great Head of Marketing

You don’t just want to know how to hire a head of marketing. You want to know how to hire a how to hire a great head of marketing.

Your first marketing leader will set the tone for the entire function. Choose carefully.

Here’s what to prioritize:

1. Full-Stack Skills with a “T-Shaped” Profile

Early startups need marketers who can wear many hats. Look for someone with deep expertise in one or two areas (like content or demand generation) but broad enough skills to handle whatever’s needed.

Avoid hyper-specialists.

2. Strategic Thinker and Hands-On Doer

You don’t want a pure strategist who can only create decks. You need someone who can plan campaigns and execute them. In the early days, your head of marketing might be a one-person army. Look for strategic workhorses, not ivory tower marketers.

3. Bias for Action

Startups move fast. Great marketing leaders launch minimum viable campaigns, test ideas, and iterate quickly. Look for candidates who have scrappy success stories, not just polished big-budget campaigns.

4. Sales and Customer Alignment

For B2B startups especially, marketing must work hand-in-glove with sales. Your head of marketing should understand pipelines, lead qualification, and even jump on sales calls if needed. In product-led companies, they need to be deeply synced with product and user behavior.

5. Strong Content and Communication Skills

Startup marketing runs on content—emails, blog posts, landing pages, press releases. Your marketing head should either be a strong writer themselves or know how to coach and edit others. Ask for writing samples or have them critique your website during the interview process.

6. Analytical and Data-Informed

Today’s marketers must be comfortable with metrics and experimentation. They should know how to A/B test, measure funnels, and optimize acquisition costs. Look for someone who can balance creativity with analysis.

7. Humble and Collaborative

Ego is toxic in startups. You want someone confident but coachable, who works well with others and is willing to pitch in outside their job description. Scrappiness and teamwork matter more than big titles.

8. Domain and Stage Fit

A great B2B SaaS marketer may not thrive in B2C ecommerce (and vice versa). Prior startup experience is a plus. You want someone who’s operated in lean environments and isn’t fazed by uncertainty or small budgets.

Structuring the Role to Match Your Stage and Go-to-Market

Knowing how to hire a head of marketing isn’t enough. You have to know what the role will look like at your startup first. It’s different for every startup.

And a head of marketing’s role will vary depending on your company’s size and growth model. Here’s how to structure it for maximum impact.

Early-Stage (Seed to Series A): The “Player-Coach”

At this stage, your head of marketing is often a team of one or close to it. They’ll spend most of their time executing, not just managing.

Give them broad ownership, but help them prioritize so they don’t spread too thin.

Focus Areas
Early on, the biggest needs are usually demand generation and messaging. If you’re still figuring out your positioning and target customer, hire someone strong in product marketing. If the story is nailed but you need leads, lean toward a growth marketer.

Many experts recommend hiring a product marketer first, even if lead gen is a priority. Good positioning sharpens all downstream growth efforts.

Go-to-Market Motion Matters

• In product-led growth (PLG) companies, marketing collaborates closely with product. That means working on onboarding flows, in-app prompts, SEO, content, and viral loops.
• In sales-led companies, marketing aligns tightly with sales. Your head of marketing will focus on generating leads, enabling SDRs, and supporting outbound efforts.

Make sure your hire’s experience matches your growth model.

Org Structure
At the start, your head of marketing might not have any direct reports.

But talk early about how they’d build the team. Their first hire might be a growth marketer, a content lead, or a demand gen specialist, depending on their own strengths.

Hire someone excited to grow into a team leader over time.

Later-Stage (Series B and Beyond): The Team Builder

As your company scales, your head of marketing shifts from doing most of the work themselves to leading a growing team.

They’ll:

• Set strategy and KPIs
• Scale channels that work and open new ones
• Manage specialists across content, paid, product marketing, and communications
• Work closely with Finance, Product, Sales, and HR
• Represent marketing in leadership discussions

Some heads of marketing grow into full CMOs at this point. Others may be succeeded by a CMO if the company outpaces their skill set.

Ideally, you hire someone who can scale with the role.

PLG vs. Sales-Led at Scale

• In scaled PLG companies, the marketing leader oversees user acquisition, community, product-led growth experiments, and large inbound campaigns.
• In scaled sales-led companies, marketing often splits by funnel stage: demand gen, nurture, expansion marketing, etc.

Structure the marketing org around your main revenue engines.

Special Cases: Service Businesses and Physical Products

Of course, even if you’re not in the SaaS space, you’ll still need to know how to hire a head of marketing.

If you run a service business (consulting, agencies), marketing focuses more on brand-building, thought leadership, and partnerships. You might hire later, but don’t wait too long once client delivery stabilizes.

If you sell physical products, marketing also includes retail channel strategy, packaging, pricing, and pre-launch buzz. Bring in marketing expertise early—well before launch day.

How to Evaluate Candidates Effectively

Hiring a head of marketing isn’t just about finding a strong resume. It’s about making sure the person can thrive in your startup.

Here’s how to assess candidates in a way that’s structured, practical, and predictive of on-the-job performance.

1. Define What You Actually Need

Before interviewing, get crystal clear on what you need this person to do. Generate pipeline? Drive self-serve signups? Fix your positioning?

Write down the core responsibilities and top success metrics. Share them with candidates early—it helps you attract the right people and structure your interview questions.

2. Screen for Must-Have Skills

Calibrate your initial conversations around your top needs:

• If you need product marketing strength: Ask how they’ve crafted messaging, done customer research, or enabled sales. Have them walk through a positioning project they led.
• If demand gen is the priority: Ask about scrappy campaigns they’ve run, how they measure ROI, and what channels they’ve scaled. Look for specifics, not fluff. “We tripled demo requests in 4 months” beats “we improved awareness.”

Always ask for examples of things they personally owned and executed.

3. Review Work Samples but Don’t Rely on Them Alone

Portfolios (blog posts, landing pages, campaign results) are helpful, but they rarely tell the full story. Use them as a springboard for discussion.

Ask:

• What was the goal of this piece?
• How did you decide on the message?
• What results did it drive?
• Would you do it differently today?

Dig into ownership and context, not just surface-level polish.

4. Use Practical Exercises or Case Studies

One of the best ways to evaluate candidates is to simulate the work they’ll do. Keep it light—no unpaid consulting—but meaningful.

Examples

• Strategy exercise. Ask finalists to outline a 30/60/90-day marketing plan for your company (give background materials). Look for how they prioritize, not just what tactics they list.
• Tactical task. Have them write an outreach email, suggest homepage improvements, or create a basic campaign outline.
• Data thinking. Share anonymized traffic or conversion data. Ask what stands out and what they’d do next.

Keep these under a couple hours max. The goal is insight, not overload.

5. Test for Culture and Team Fit

Ask behavioral questions to understand how they work:

• “Tell me about a time you worked closely with sales or product. How did you align?”
• “What’s a campaign that flopped? What did you learn?”
• “What kind of team environment do you thrive in?”

Let cross-functional peers (e.g., sales or product leads) meet the candidate too. Your head of marketing won’t work in a silo. Fit across teams matters.

6. Always Check References

Talk to former managers, peers, and (if possible)direct reports. Ask:

• “What was their biggest win?”
• “What were they like to work with?”
• “What kind of environment brings out their best?”
• “Any watch-outs I should be aware of?”

Look for consistency between what the candidate says and what others say about them. And don’t skip this step. It often confirms your instincts.

Common Mistakes Founders Make (and How to Avoid Them)

Even experienced founders often misfire when hiring their first head of marketing. Here are the most common mistakes—and how you can avoid them.

Waiting Too Long to Hire

Many founders delay hiring until they’re already desperate for leads or facing stalled growth.

By then, it’s much harder to recover lost momentum. If you have a product in market and even modest traction, start your marketing search.

A strong hire will amplify what’s working and fix what’s not before problems compound.

Under-Hiring (Going Too Junior)

Some startups try to save money by hiring a mid-level marketing manager instead of a true head of marketing.

This rarely works. Junior marketers often need lots of guidance and aren’t ready to own strategy or key metrics like pipeline or revenue. If your growth depends on marketing, hire at the right level of experience.

Over-Hiring (Going Too Senior)

On the flip side, hiring a very senior, big-company CMO can backfire if your company isn’t ready.

Someone who’s used to managing large teams and million-dollar budgets may struggle in a scrappy, hands-on role.

Make sure the person you hire matches your current size and speed.

Chasing Unicorns

It’s tempting to look for a marketer who can do everything: SEO, content, PR, brand, events, paid ads, and more.

That person doesn’t exist (or if they do, they’re already a founder themselves). Focus on the 1–2 areas most critical to your next stage and find someone outstanding there.

You can fill gaps later with agencies, freelancers, or future hires.

Hiring for the Wrong Skill Set

Founders often rush to hire a growth hacker when they really need someone to fix positioning, or vice versa. If your messaging is off, pouring money into ads won’t fix it.

Be honest about your startup’s biggest marketing gap before you hire. Get outside advice if you’re not sure whether you need a storyteller or a growth engine first.

Relying on Agencies Instead of an In-House Leader

Agencies and freelancers can help with execution, but they can’t replace the strategic ownership a true marketing leader provides.

Without someone in-house setting priorities and making daily decisions, agency work tends to drift or stay disconnected from business goals.

Bring in a head of marketing first, then use agencies as extensions of their plan.

Ignoring Culture and Communication Fit

Skill isn’t enough if the person doesn’t fit your team. Startups need marketers who are humble, clear communicators, and team players.

Watch for signs of ego, rigidity, or “consultant-speak” during interviews.

And remember, you’re not just looking for someone who fits your current culture, but someone who makes it stronger.

Poor Onboarding and Alignment

Even a great hire can underperform if they’re thrown into chaos without support. Don’t assume a senior marketer will “just figure it out.” Set clear goals, share customer insights, introduce them to key teammates, and stay involved in the first 90 days. Marketing needs context to thrive.

By being aware of these pitfalls and taking a deliberate, thoughtful approach, you greatly increase your chances of making a hire that accelerates your company’s growth instead of slowing it down.

Onboarding Your New Head of Marketing for Success

Hiring a head of marketing is just the first step. To make the hire succeed, you need a strong onboarding plan.

A well-supported marketing leader can start delivering results much faster.

Align on Goals and Expectations Before Day One

Before your new hire starts, agree on what success looks like for the first 30, 60, and 90 days.

Set a few key deliverables, such as drafting a marketing strategy or launching a quick-win campaign. Make sure the new marketing lead knows when to seek input and when they can act independently.

Immerse Them in Company and Customer Knowledge

The first few weeks should focus on learning, not immediate execution.

• Hold deep-dive sessions where founders and early team members explain the company’s history, key decisions, and lessons learned
• Arrange one-on-one meetings with the sales lead, product manager, customer success, and other cross-functional partners
• Give them access to customer interviews, sales calls, feedback surveys, and any positioning research
• Walk them through the product, or better yet, have them use it themselves to understand the user experience firsthand

The more context they absorb early, the stronger their decisions will be.

Provide Tools and Access

Make sure they have access to all systems they need from day one. That includes analytics tools, CRM platforms, email marketing software, ad accounts, and brand assets. Remove any logistical roadblocks early so they can focus on learning and planning instead of chasing passwords.

Encourage a 30/60/90 Day Plan

Ask your head of marketing to create a plan for their first three months. Help shape the priorities.

• First 30 days: Learn, audit, and find quick wins
• Days 31–60: Build the broader marketing strategy
• Days 61–90: Execute major campaigns and set up reporting systems

Have regular check-ins to discuss progress and recalibrate if needed. Stay involved without micromanaging.

Integrate Them Into Decision-Making Early

Invite your marketing lead into leadership meetings, product planning sessions, and go-to-market discussions. Show the company that marketing has a seat at the table.

This builds internal trust and helps marketing stay aligned with business priorities.

Set Up Regular 1:1 Check-Ins

Hold weekly or biweekly one-on-ones, especially during the first few months.

Ask what’s going well, where they are stuck, and what support they need.

Give feedback promptly and help unblock obstacles. Even strong leaders perform better when they know their CEO has their back.

Balance Patience with Accountability

Marketing takes time to show full results. Give your new head of marketing space to experiment, test, and refine. At the same time, watch for leading indicators like better messaging, stronger campaign execution, or improvements in lead flow.

Set realistic early metrics, but also recognize early wins even if the big numbers take time.

Foster Team Collaboration

Encourage relationships between marketing and other departments from the start.

Marketing and sales should have a standing sync. Marketing and product should meet regularly. Create a spirit of shared goals, not separate silos.

Set the Stage for Growth

Hiring a head of marketing is a major milestone for a startup. It shows you are serious about building a growth engine, not just relying on founder hustle. With the right marketing leader, you gain a partner who can drive user acquisition, sharpen your positioning, and free you to focus on product, customers, and team.

Finding the right person takes work. You need clear expectations, a thoughtful interview process, and an honest understanding of your company’s real marketing needs. You also need to resist common traps, like hiring too late, aiming too junior, or expecting one person to do everything.

Most of all, you need to invest in onboarding and integration. Even a strong hire cannot succeed without support. Share knowledge freely, set clear goals, and plug your marketing lead into the fabric of the team early.

When done right, this hire becomes a turning point. Marketing will stop feeling like an afterthought and start becoming a growth lever. It is a critical step toward building a company that grows deliberately, not just organically.

Hiring your first head of marketing is not about finding a magician. It is about finding a strong, resourceful teammate who can help you win the next stage of the game.

About Roy Harmon

Roy Harmon is a marketing leader who helps SaaS businesses grow. He has worked with multiple startups to drive revenue to seven figures, secure eight-figure funding rounds, and position them for acquisition.

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