Long story short, I’ve been running an agency for 4 years now. I’m 22 years old. The agency really took off 2 years ago since we deliver insane ROI / crush KPIs... then we were referred along to companies within the same “investor circle” and the rest is history. Clients are mostly Fortune1000s (10K-25k employees). Now I’m not looking to go into the corporate world anytime soon, mainly because of the money... but running this operation costs me a great deal of stress (as you can imagine). Everything comes with a price. I can’t imagine I can keep this up for many more years - and it’s beyond difficult staffing someone as a CEO for my agency due to the “proprietary nature” of what we do. What are your thoughts? Is it common for companies to consider a potential CMO hire based on experience & portfolio as opposed to level of degree / age / years of experience? Has this happened at any of your companies? I know my startup agency CEO experience doesn’t directly translate to CMO experience - but a big part of how we function now is partly “outsourced CMO” model, so this was my initial thought. Thanks! I appreciate feedback in advance. 🙏
Marketing is defined differently in different companies. Digital marketing or whatever scope your company is covering at the moment, could be a very small subset of expectations from a CMO (e.g., corporate strategy, product management, TAM/SAS, financial & strategic analysis for M&A, technology strategy etc.). Barring going to a very similar company as yours, you will need a broader skill set to be a cmo.
A “CEO” would know this.
The operation I run is very VERY small compared to the giants we work for. As mentioned, I’m also young & all of the CEO clients I speak with will never give me an unbiased answer. “Come work for us!” - but what would happen if I actually pursued an offer like that... Anyways, thanks for your comment. 👍