who we help

Marketing Leadership for Early-Stage Ventures

You’re building the business. We’ll help you turn vision into traction with clarity and conviction.

your challenge

Momentum Without a Marketing Engine

You’ve built something real — a product, a prototype, maybe even paying customers. You’re juggling investors, partners, and your first hires. But marketing still feels improvised.

You might be seeing:

❌ No clear plan for how to take the product to market

❌ Messaging that shifts depending on who’s pitching

❌ A website and brand that lag behind your ambition

❌ Lead flow that depends on founder hustle, not systems

❌ Uncertainty about who to hire or what to prioritise

risk of inaction

Without Structure, Early Wins Don’t Scale

Here’s what typically happens when marketing remains vague in the early venture stage:

  • You spend weeks rewriting copy, decks, or pitches — without landing the message
  • Early outreach confuses more than it convinces, limiting traction
  • Competitors with sharper branding steal attention, even if their product is weaker
  • Revenue milestones slip, investor patience shortens, and momentum drifts
  • First hires or agencies underperform because there’s no clear direction

⚠️Early traction is fragile. Without strategy, you risk burning time, capital, and credibility.

our solution

Fractional Marketing Leadership That Builds While You Grow

We help early-stage businesses:

✅ Build launch-ready messaging and positioning decks

✅ Design lean, testable go-to-market strategies

✅ Create simple funnels that generate predictable leads

✅ Sharpen brand and digital presence for credibility

✅ Guide smart early hires or agency partnerships

✅ Transition from founder-led hustle to scalable systems

We work beside you — bringing clarity without complexity.

How We Help Early-Stage Ventures

We help early-stage ventures build strong marketing foundations — clarifying their offer, shaping smart routes to market, setting credible pricing, and creating demand — so growth begins with clarity and confidence.

Clarify Your Value Proposition

We help you sharpen product positioning and messaging so customers, partners, and investors instantly understand your value.

Define Pricing That Signals Value

We guide early ventures to test, refine, and communicate pricing models that support growth without eroding credibility or margin.

Build Smart Go-to-Market Channels

We design lean, testable routes to market that get your product in front of the right buyers quickly and efficiently.

Create Demand With Clear Messaging

We establish brand presence, campaigns, and outreach that generate traction — building credibility and early pipeline.

cross-industry expertise

Sectors We Support

Our Fractional CMOs excel in 'VUCA' environments — bringing clarity and control to volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous situations. We help regulated businesses hit growth milestones with confidence, compliance, and commercial focus.

Marketing Services Tailored for Early Stage Ventures

We provide structure, clarity, and credibility for founders building from zero — without overcommitting resources.

Marketing Advisory

Strategic guidance on pricing, positioning, and go-to-market plans to fuel funding, traction, and scalable growth.

Market Analysis

Evidence-led insight to validate your market, refine fit, and direct resources where growth is most achievable.

Marketing Audit

Independent review of your marketing engine to highlight risks, opportunities, and alignment with growth ambitions.

Marketing Mentoring

Practical coaching for founders and early hires to build confidence, skills, and marketing leadership from day one.

Our project was to create a top-level marketing strategy which, once built, we could drive forward ourselves. And I can honestly say the work has been transformational for Yellowtail. After each workshop with VCMO, both Dennis Hall and I would be amazed at how much we'd achieved. We worked hard! But the results are worth it.

Sarah Steele
Operations Director, Yellowtail Financial Planning
Read the Case Study

Shout out to Paul Mills who bravely took on running a positioning workshop with us yesterday. Is there anything harder than doing the thing your client does for others for them?! Great work. Really thought provoking, and so important to have facilitated by someone with an external perspective!

Bryony Thomas
CEO, watertight business thinking

Paul is a professional strategic marketeer who is able to apply his expertise with marketing budgets large and small. The commercial impact of Shaw & Co's rebrand, which was initiated, designed and implemented by Paul, has been to differentiate us positively in a sector where few have succeeded. He delivers what he promises, on time and on/under budget, to a high quality. Paul made a positive impact on our business that will last.

Rod Leefe
chair, shaw & co

VCMO's audit brought clarity to a complex set of challenges. They cut through the noise and delivered a clear, prioritised roadmap that we could act on immediately. Their ability to engage across teams and translate insight into action was exactly what we needed.

Dr. Ross Burn
Co-founder, Catsci limited  
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Lydia possesses a deep understanding of marketing strategies and has consistently delivered exceptional results. Her ability to analyse market trends, create engaging campaigns, and drive customer acquisition is truly impressive. Her dedication, attention to detail, and strong communication skills make her an invaluable asset to any organisation. I cannot recommend Lydia enough for her expertise, professionalism, and exceptional work ethic.

Alan Leckey
Business Consultant, CCO - the Collaboration Company  

Paul Mills wasn't just an outsourced marketing leader — he was a mentor. His support helped me enhance my technical marketing skills and shape a more strategic mindset, as well as build my  confidence with senior leadership and deliver higher-impact work. He is dependable and skillful, and his guidance has made me feel more capable and prepared for future challenges.

Caitlin Daniels
marketing manager, catsci limited
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VCMO brings knowledge, insight and practical experience to the table, but also something else, which is quite rare, the unwavering commitment to finishing the job without compromising on the quality of the output. Their work for Yellowtail has been exemplary and we're seeing the results already.

Dennis Hall
founder, yellowtail financial planning

Ruth brought great experience and insight to my firm over many years. Her considered and thoughtful approach to problem solving are a real strength and her experience of marketing and business development in the legal sector was invaluable.

Gavin Tyler
Managing Partner, Cripps

VCMO helped us think beyond our capabilities and reframe how we communicate the true value of what we do. Paul's workshop unlocked fresh ideas resulting in a more strategic approach to our content plan and go-to-market materials. The quality of the output and power of the messaging is really impressive.

Peter Ridgway
Business Development Director, Reach Separations
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VCMO has been instrumental in reshaping how we approach marketing at Lucent. Their strategic clarity, attention to detail, and ability to deliver at pace have been exceptional. Paul's embedded himself seamlessly into the team and quickly earned trust — not just from me, but from our wider staff and partners. The website and content strategy he led have already started delivering results, and I now feel far more confident in how we grow the business over the coming years.

Steven Rowe
Founder - Lucent Financial Planning
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VCMO helped me find the words and structure to communicate what I do — and who I do it for — in a way that finally connects. I’ve had more inbound enquiries since the website relaunch than in the previous two years.

Lee Spencer
aka The rowing marine
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Discover if your early-stage business is ready for strategic marketing leadership.

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