When should I hire you instead of a VP of Marketing?

Before you can keep one busy. A VP of Marketing is the right hire once the engine exists. I build the engine: positioning, first channels, reporting, and often the first hire, so the executive you eventually bring in inherits something that works.

What does a fractional marketing leader do?

A senior marketing executive who leads your marketing part time: strategy, execution, and team, without the full-time salary. I set the plan, ship the work, and build the function until it runs without me.

How do you approach long-term marketing and GTM strategy?

Insights and brand awareness first. Customer evidence, voice of the customer, win-loss, and market research set the positioning and the plan. Brand awareness gets built before demand capture, because buyers shortlist brands they already know. Then the demand engine goes on top: a twelve-month GTM roadmap, quarterly targets, and board-ready reporting. In that order, marketing compounds instead of resetting every quarter.

Who do you work with?

Seed to growth-stage B2B SaaS companies, usually 10 to 150 people, where the CEO still owns marketing. B2B and B2C both; a decade inside a market research platform made me fluent in each.

How much time do you commit?

Typically one to two days a week on an ongoing weekly cadence, after a 30-day audit and plan sprint.

Book a thirty minute strategy call. Bring your numbers and your hardest marketing question. You leave with a straight read, whether or not we end up working together.

What makes you different from other consultants?

I have not advised a hundred companies from altitude. I spent over a decade inside one, building the function from first intern to head of marketing: $75M+ in team pipeline, a company-wide repositioning, and an AI marketing system my team runs daily. Depth over breadth.

Victoria Shakespeare

Marketing leader for B2B SaaS CEOs

A decade and counting at Fuel Cycle, first marketing intern to head of marketing

The marketing leader CEOs hire before they need a VP of Marketing.

I help CEOs of seed to growth-stage B2B SaaS companies turn founder-led growth into a repeatable marketing engine, using the playbook I built scaling Fuel Cycle from startup to category leader.

Book a strategy call View resume

Los Angeles, working with companies anywhere
Seed to growth stage, B2B SaaS
Now booking strategy calls

One company, every rung

Most marketing leaders learned their craft across a dozen companies, a chapter at a time. I learned it by building one growth story end to end.

2015First marketing internFuel Cycle's first marketing hire
thenSenior Brand Managerbrand system and creative
thenSenior Marketing Managerdemand gen and partnerships
2023Associate Director, Corporate Marketingran the entire function for 2.5 years
2025Director, Growth Marketing, Head of Marketingrunning Fuel Cycle marketing globally
alsoAdvisor to foundersfor companies going 0 to 1

Every layer of the job, built by hand: positioning, demand, brand, systems, and the team itself. That is what I bring to yours.

Selected accomplishments

$75M+
Pipeline generated
Marketing-sourced pipeline built by the team I helped lead, and ran outright for 2.5 years, since 2020.
$25M+
Closed revenue
From the marketing-sourced pipeline the team built.
AI Marketing OS
Built on the Anthropic API
Production agents for SDR automation, competitive intelligence, and win-back, used daily by the team.
Repositioning
Company-wide
Directed the full rebrand and the platform repositioning to AI-native, through the site relaunch.
$1.25M+
Quarterly pipeline owned
The demand generation number I personally own today across paid, organic, lifecycle, and events.

How I build the long game

Pipeline you rent resets every quarter. I build long-term marketing and GTM strategy in a deliberate order, insights first and brand awareness before demand capture, so the engine compounds instead of starting over.

Insight before strategy
I spent a decade inside the platform Fortune 500 research teams use to understand their customers. So I start where they start: voice of the customer, win-loss, market and competitive research. The evidence sets the positioning, the audience, and the plan before any channel spends a dollar.
Awareness before capture
Buyers shortlist the brands they already know, and they ask AI before they ask Google. So the story ships early: a sharp category narrative, a brand that punches above your stage, and AEO so AI engines can quote you. Awareness built now makes every demand dollar work harder later.
Demand that compounds
On that foundation the engine goes to work: a twelve-month GTM roadmap, quarterly targets, channels sequenced to your stage, and reporting a board can trust. Insight keeps the plan honest. Awareness keeps pipeline affordable. The system gets stronger every quarter.

Demand is rented by the quarter. A place in the buyer’s head is owned for years. The long game is building in that order.

What we'll build together

Senior marketing leadership without the full-time cost. Four engagements, framed the way you will feel them.

Marketing Foundation

Positioning and a narrative that closes deals

Most early products have a clarity problem, not a demand problem. I have repositioned an entire platform and directed a company-wide rebrand. We nail what you are, who it is for, and why you win, in words a buyer repeats to their boss, then build the brand and website to carry it.

Positioning and messaging framework
Homepage rewrite
Sales narrative
Brand and website direction

Demand Engine

Your first repeatable pipeline, running in weeks

Channels, funnel, and campaigns that actually ship, sequenced for your stage: first campaigns before attribution dashboards, pipeline before polish. I have run every B2B channel that matters and built the reporting to prove which ones do.

90-day demand plan
First paid and lifecycle campaigns
CRM and reporting basics
Pipeline targets you can defend

AI Marketing Systems

One marketer who ships like five

I built a production AI Marketing OS on the Anthropic API: agents for SDR automation, competitive intelligence, and win-back that my team runs every day. I build the same leverage into your funnel, with the documentation to run it without me.

Custom agents for your funnel
Prompt and workflow library
AEO so AI engines can quote you
Docs and training for your team

Fractional Marketing Leadership

A head of marketing, before the executive hire

A marketing leader's judgment on your team without the executive salary: brand awareness, growth and performance marketing, board strategy, and a long-term GTM roadmap built insight first. When the time comes for your first full-time marketing hire, I scope the role, run the search, and onboard the person. I was that hire once.

Weekly working sessions
12-month roadmap, quarterly targets
Board-ready reporting
First-hire scorecard and onboarding

How engagements work See the work

Who I work with

CEOs of seed to growth-stage B2B SaaS companies, typically 10 to 150 people
Marketing still lives with the CEO, and it has become the bottleneck
A sales team growing faster than the pipeline that feeds it
A product that wins when buyers understand it, but explaining it takes three meetings
You want AI leverage built into marketing from day one, not retrofitted later
You are deciding between a first marketing hire and senior help, and cannot tell which

It does not work if you want a pair of hands for someone else’s strategy, or a shortcut past the positioning work.

Quick answers

When should I hire you instead of a VP of Marketing?: Before you can keep one busy. A VP of Marketing is the right hire once the engine exists. I build the engine: positioning, first channels, reporting, and often the first hire, so the executive you eventually bring in inherits something that works.
What does a fractional marketing leader do?: A senior marketing executive who leads your marketing part time: strategy, execution, and team, without the full-time salary. I set the plan, ship the work, and build the function until it runs without me.
How do you approach long-term marketing and GTM strategy?: Insights and brand awareness first. Customer evidence, voice of the customer, win-loss, and market research set the positioning and the plan. Brand awareness gets built before demand capture, because buyers shortlist brands they already know. Then the demand engine goes on top: a twelve-month GTM roadmap, quarterly targets, and board-ready reporting. In that order, marketing compounds instead of resetting every quarter.
Who do you work with?: Seed to growth-stage B2B SaaS companies, usually 10 to 150 people, where the CEO still owns marketing. B2B and B2C both; a decade inside a market research platform made me fluent in each.
How much time do you commit?: Typically one to two days a week on an ongoing weekly cadence, after a 30-day audit and plan sprint.
How do we start?: Book a thirty minute strategy call. Bring your numbers and your hardest marketing question. You leave with a straight read, whether or not we end up working together.
What makes you different from other consultants?: I have not advised a hundred companies from altitude. I spent over a decade inside one, building the function from first intern to head of marketing: $75M+ in team pipeline, a company-wide repositioning, and an AI marketing system my team runs daily. Depth over breadth.

The next step

Thirty minutes. No deck required.

Bring your stage, your numbers, and your hardest marketing question. You will leave with a clear next step, whether or not we end up working together.

Book a strategy call Or email me directly LinkedIn

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