Your Next CRO Should Work Two Days a Week

You're hiring a new CRO or CMO. You've listed the usual must-haves—enterprise experience, SaaS pedigree, a Rolodex the size of a Salesforce database—and you’re bracing yourself for a six-month search and a seven-figure comp plan.

Here’s a question: Do you actually need a full-time exec?

Because increasingly, the answer—for tech companies trying to scale smarter—is no.

In fact, clinging to full-time commercial leadership might be one of the biggest blind spots in your go-to-market strategy. Let’s talk about why.

The Full-Time Fallacy

We’ve been conditioned to think that full-time equals commitment, impact, and alignment. But in the real world of high-velocity tech, that assumption is increasingly flawed.

Hiring full-time senior commercial leaders comes with baggage:

• Six- to nine-month hiring cycles

• Expensive relocation packages

• Risky bets with long onboarding curves

• Internal politics, legacy playbooks, and the “but that’s how we’ve always done it” mindset

And to top it off according to Gartner, the average tenure of a CRO is just 16 months. So let’s recap: You're spending months hiring someone to solve problems they might not even stick around long enough to finish.

Sound broken? That’s because it is.

The Rise of Fractional and On-Demand Leadership

Now, contrast that with this:You bring in a fractional CRO—an operator who's been there, done it, and knows how to plug into your system fast. No drawn-out honeymoon period. No empire-building. Just focused action on the gaps holding you back.

This isn’t about consultants dropping decks and walking away. We’re talking hands-on, sleeves-rolled-up leadership, just in the right dose.

And it’s not just for startups. Across the board, tech companies are waking up to the power of modular teams and outcome-driven roles. McKinsey calls it the “new model of leadership,” where execution velocity trumps executive permanence.

“Leaders who can flex in and out—bringing deep expertise to a specific need—are becoming more valuable than those who stick around but fail to move the needle.”– McKinsey, 2023

What Type of Company is This Right For?

Let’s make one thing clear: fractional and on-demand leadership isn’t for everyone. But that’s also the point. It’s not a compromise model—it’s a precision tool. And when applied to the right situation, it beats full-time leadership hands down.

Here’s how it breaks down:

Best Fit

• Series A to Series C tech companies with product-market fit but go-to-market inefficiencies

• Founder-led sales teams in transition who need to professionalize without bureaucratizing

• Mid-market SaaS firms plateauing after early growth

• Bootstrapped or PE-backed companies that need execution without bloated cost

These companies need leadership that’s sharp, strategic, and surgically focused on outcomes. Not someone to “own a team” or “build a department” just to tick a box.

Less Suitable

• Seed-stage startups still trying to find product-market fit (they often need hands-on hustlers, not high-level frameworks)

• Public or late-stage enterprises with multi-layered org. structures and heavy internal governance

• Hyper-growth scaleups with the capital and complexity to justify permanent C-suite teams

Fractional isn’t about plugging a hole. It’s about unlocking leverage without adding friction. That only works when the company’s size, pace, and priorities demand speed and precision over presence.

“But They Won’t Be Committed…” (And Other Myths)

Let’s clear up a few common objections.

“A fractional leader won’t be as committed.”You know who’s often not committed? The wrong full-time hire.Fractional leaders live and die by results. They don’t have time to waste. Their reputation depends on the impact they make.

“They won’t get our culture.”Sometimes, that’s exactly what you need. Someone who won’t buy into your bad habits, who’ll challenge the status quo, and who brings fresh perspective without the internal baggage.

“We need someone in the trenches every day.”Why? To sit in meetings? Or to drive clarity, focus, and pipeline? You don’t need proximity, you need progress.

Tech’s Shift to Modular Leadership

We’re seeing a shift toward composable commercial teams—a dynamic blend of full-time, fractional, and specialist support. A fractional CRO sets the strategic direction, while contract RevOps builds the dashboards and systems that underpin execution. On-demand sales enablement specialists drive the rollout of high-impact playbooks, and freelance content teams align messaging to product launches. It’s lean, flexible, and built for speed.

The tools are already in place to support this —Slack, Hubspot, Gong, Notion, you name it. So why does the typical leadership model still look like it’s 2012?

“The future org chart looks more like a network than a pyramid.”– a16z, 2023

The Real Question: What Problem Are You Trying to Solve?

If you’re hiring for status, hierarchy, or comfort—you’ll default to full-time.If you’re hiring to solve a problem—unlocking a market, fixing a pipeline, building a revenue engine—you’ll care less about employment contracts and more about outcomes.

And that’s the real opportunity.  Fractional leaders are not a cost-cutting hack. They’re a strategic upgrade.

You get senior firepower, without the long-term drag. You get specialisation. You get focused time, not busy work. And best of all, you get objectivity, which is often the first casualty of full-time leadership.

So, Should Your Next CRO Work Two Days a Week?

If:

• You need fast traction in a new market

• Your GTM feels sluggish or bloated

• Your sales team is underperforming but not broken

• You’re gearing up for a fundraise or M&A event

...then yes. You don’t need more noise. You need clarity, focus, and leadership that moves the dial, not just fills the diary.

Flexible leadership isn’t a trend. It’s how tech companies will win in the next 10 years. Not by scaling headcount, but by scaling precision.

Want to explore if a fractional model is right for your team?

We help founders and investors build modular, high-performing commercial engines.