Senior marketing ownership, without the salary
I own the plan, work with your team week to week, and report to you monthly. Retained, three-month minimum, from ₹1,50,000/month.
The gap between a marketing executive and a CMO
Most software firms here have one or two capable marketing people and nobody senior above them. So they execute — competently, constantly — against a strategy that was never written down.
The obvious fix is hiring a CMO: a senior salary plus equity, three months to recruit, three more to become useful, and a slow expensive discovery if the fit is wrong.
A seat at your leadership table, on a retainer.
I own the marketing plan and its numbers, work directly with whoever you already have, sit in your leadership meetings, and give you one report a month that tells you the truth.
What you get
The plan
A written strategy with priorities, budget, owners and targets — the document your team has been executing without.
Weekly cadence
Working sessions with your marketing people. Direction, review, unblocking, and standards that hold when I'm not there.
Monthly report
What moved, what didn't, what it cost, and what changes next month. Written for a founder.
Questions
How much does a virtual CMO cost in India?
Retainers start at ₹1,50,000 per month and scale with scope and cadence. That is a fraction of a full-time CMO's salary, and there is no equity, notice period or recruitment cost attached.
What's the difference between a virtual CMO and a fractional CMO?
Nothing meaningful — the terms are used interchangeably. Both mean senior marketing ownership on a part-time retained basis.
How is this different from an agency retainer?
An agency executes. I decide what should be executed and hold your team to it. Some clients have both.
Do you manage our existing agency?
Yes, and it's usually where the first month's value comes from.
What if we have no marketing team yet?
Then we start with hiring — who to bring in first and what to outsource until then.