Fractional head of marketing
for early stage companies going from 0->1 (0 -> £2M ARR )
Hi, I’m Elena. I help teams get clarity, traction, and repeatable growth - without hiring a full-time head of marketing.
I’m a fractional marketer and a 3x founder, with over a decade of experience of building marketing functions & strategies from scratch, as well as joining early-stage companies and building marketing systems that scale.
Who you might be
We can be a great fit if one or more of these resonate:
Your marketing + sales are currently founder-led
Your business has been growing quite a bit already but it’s been led by the founders’ efforts so far. And, you want to reach the next level of scale and wear one less hat as a founder.
You have early traction
You experience traction anywhere in the 0 until £2M ARR range …But you have not yet experienced repeatable, steady growth with momentum. And, you’d like for your marketing function to be systemised and scaled.
You want senior strategic marketing direction
…From someone who understands the full business, can shape the right go-to-market approach, will help implement it, and adapt to fast-changing and demanding business priorities.
You’re not yet ready for a full-time senior marketing hire
You might even already have a junior or mid-level hire. But, you would want someone who provides senior strategic direction and is a quick doer as well.
How we can work together
There are two main ways I work with teams. I keep limited availability for both of these options to ensure I can truly make an impact on your business.
Part of your team
I work closely with a small number of companies at a time, joining your team for several days per month as a senior marketing lead - without the commitment of a full-time hire.
This can look like:
Clarifying positioning, messaging, and who you’re really targeting
Managing any junior hires
Shaping your go-to-market approach and marketing priorities
Translating strategy into action (campaigns, launches, experiments)
Supporting execution alongside founders, teams, or agencies
Helping bring focus and momentum to your marketing efforts
Advisory & short projects
I also work with teams on specific strategic questions or projects, rather than joining the team.
This can look like:
Strategy or planning sessions
Go-to-market or positioning work
Audit existing marketing efforts and priorities
Supporting leadership teams with decision-making, whether it’s as a sounding board or strategic advisor
Help leadership teams hire the right full-time marketer
Fractional B2C / B2B Head of Marketing (post demerger re-build)
The company & Context
OneTech supports underrepresented entrepreneurs through accelerators, programmes, and education.
I was brought into OneTech following a demerger, with the marketing function needing to be rebuilt almost from scratch: including a rebrand, messaging, acquisition channels, and team structure..
The results
—> Led a full brand rebuild, combining PR, content, and founder-led storytelling to reposition the organisation
—> Designed and ran a repeatable participant acquisition system via a combination of cold outreach and PPC, significantly reducing time and cost to fill cohorts
—> Achieved ~85% full cohort fulfilment through outbound-led recruitment
—> Scaled the newsletter to 3,000+ engaged subscribers, creating a reliable owned channel
How I approached it
Conducted a full marketing audit
Defined positioning, tone of voice, and core messaging across channels
Identified the highest-leverage acquisition channels for the stage of the organisation
Built simple, repeatable systems and managed a cross-functional team of 4 to execute and iterate
Case studies
Here are some select examples of companies I worked with on a fractional basis and built and scaled the marketing function from the ground up:
First Senior Marketing Hire (fractional) at B2B consultancy
The company & context
Leapwise is a behavioural consultancy that works with UK policing organisations.
I joined Leapwise as a first marketing hire to scale the consultancy. Up until this point, consultancy work had come primarily through existing founder relationships. I joined to move Leapwise beyond relationship-led wins and deliberately scale the business into a repeatable consultancy model.
The results
—> Transitioned Leapwise from relationship-led, founder-dependent wins into a structured consultancy growth model
—> Added over £600k in pipeline value through a structured ABM approach focused on priority accounts
—> Strengthened positioning and messaging to support credibility beyond the founder’s immediate network
How I approached it
Designed and implemented an ABM approach focused on a defined set of priority accounts
Used founder-led content and thought leadership as core demand drivers
Systemised email outreach and content as lead magnets to support both inbound and outbound motion
Founding B2C/B2B Fractional Marketer (bootstrapped growth)
The company & context :
Lost Elephant is an outdoor escape game based in Shoreditch. A live event experience and custom game building for teams (B2B) and individuals (B2C).
As a founding marketer,. the task was to create the brand and build the marketing function from scratch. The real challenge was the starting budget of under £100 (yes, really!) and to grow organically.
The results
—> From zero to 6 figure ARR in year 2 of trading
—> Continued average 9% MoM growth
—> Scored large client names like Monzo, Lloyds Bank, Tate Modern, EE.
—> Grew the marketing budget to five figures (from zero) with organic growth
How I approached it
Grew organically by starting with conquering SEO on free event listing platforms
SEO and AIO (AI optimisation) tas a continued core channel on other platforms
Grew a marketing budget for advertising, primarily Google Search Ads
Built an outbound machine reaching over 20k prospects / month for B2B growth
About me
Hi there! I’m Elena.
I’m a fractional Head of Marketing, a startup advisor, and a multi-time founder. I’ve spent over a decade helping early-stage businesses grow from scratch - often as the first or most senior marketing hire.
I’ve worked across B2B and B2C, including SaaS, tech, consulting, sustainability, and marketplace businesses. Having built companies myself, I look at marketing in the context of the whole business, and not as a separate function, but as something that needs to fit your goals, resources, and reality.
How I think about marketing
I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all or “plug-and-play” marketing. What works depends on your budget, your team’s skillsets, your market, and the stage you’re at. Some companies grow through founder-led content, others through partnerships, sales-led motion, or more traditional demand gen. And, most evolve over time.
What works in the 0-1 stage (approx £0 to £2M ARR) is not what will work in the £2M-£10M stage, and the marketing needs to adapt accordingly.
Both a thinker and a doer. I help shape strategy, but I’m also keen on quick execution. And if something can be made repeatable or owned internally, I’m happy to help your team get there (even if means you’ll need less of my time).
‘Part of your team’ means part of your team - I work flexibly and make sure to show up when it matters.
If you’d like to see examples of how this shows up in real companies, you can explore selected case studies below.