Tuesday morning, 8:47 AM. The board deck is due in 14 days. Your CMO sends the version they have. It is a campaign calendar with a slide labelled 'strategy.'
Built for Bay Area Series A-C operators ($5M–$50M ARR) or bootstrapped $5M–$30M B2B. Applies to VPs of Marketing, Heads of Growth, marketing-responsible founders, and similar strategic leaders.
Full Marketing Diagnostic is a Bay Area Layer 2 engagement product priced at $15,000–$25,000. Format: 2–4 weeks. Deliverable: 15–25 page Bay Area-context strategy document plus delivery presentation. Built for Bay Area Series A-C operators ($5M–$50M ARR) or bootstrapped $5M–$30M B2B. Routes through ICP funnels, problem pages, and referrals; reached when the buyer has matched their state to the tier. Each engagement is fixed-scope at the start and cannot drift mid-engagement.
A Series B B2B SaaS in Palo Alto entered the diagnostic with three different positioning statements live across the site, paid, and sales decks. Pipeline was flat for two consecutive quarters. The diagnostic identified four axes of drift. 90 days later: positioning consolidated, pricing repackaged, paid budget reallocated by 40%. Pipeline up 2.3x with same headcount and same budget.
SF-4 is fixed-scope and document-as-output. 2-4 weeks. The team owns the document in perpetuity and executes it without us present. SF-5 Fractional CMO is the embedded-leadership format ($15,000-$20,000/month, 6-12 months) for teams that need a senior strategic seat inside the operation, not a document.
The four axes, each with current-state diagnosis, strategic recommendation, measurable outcome targets, and 30-60-90 day sequencing. Plus a Bay Area operating-context section calibrating the recommendations to VC reporting cadence, attribution model fit, and ex-FAANG team patterns where applicable. Written for operator execution, not consultant impression.
The Layer 1 Strategy Diagnostic gate ($5,000, 10 business days) is a standalone diagnostic-entry product, fixed-scope, fixed-price. SF-4 is the Layer 2 engagement-page product for operators routing through ICP funnels, problem pages, or referrals. Different surface, different format depth (15-25 pages vs the gate's 20-30 page version focused on the standalone scope), different buyer entry pattern.
No. The 2-4 week window is sequenced specifically: intake compounds into synthesis, synthesis compounds into the executive review. Pausing breaks the synthesis and the work has to restart. If timing is a constraint, SF-3 Ad-hoc Strategic Intervention ($5,000-$15,000, 1-3 weeks) is structured for shorter windows.
The document includes recommended sequencing across five paths: in-house execution, vendor selection, fractional senior hire, retainer engagement (SF-5), or a scoped follow-on project. Whichever path matches the team capacity and budget gets prioritized. We do not lock the team into our retainer; the document is portable.
90-minute session in week 3, before final delivery. Founder, CMO or VP Marketing, and CFO recommended. The session pressure-tests the recommendations against operator constraints, surfaces budget reality, and catches anything the diagnostic missed. The final delivery in week 4 incorporates the Q&A revisions.
Hybrid. Intake and Q&A are remote (Zoom or equivalent). Final delivery presentation defaults to onsite in the Bay Area; remote-delivery option available on request. Bay Area operators typically want the in-room delivery for executive alignment.
Full Marketing Diagnostic · $15,000–$25,000 · 2–4 weeks. Bay Area engagement, fixed-scope at intake.
Begin SF-4 Full Marketing Diagnostic → See all eight SF tiers