How to Make Your First Marketing Hire: A Seed and Series A Guide

Don't hire until you can write down what the job is. Get a senior team running your go-to-market first, then hire a head of marketing to take over something that already works.

Raising a seed or Series A round is the green light to scale, and your first marketing hire can make or break your go-to-market. This guide covers when to hire, what the job really is, what it costs, and how to get marketing running before the right person starts.

Most founders treat that hire as step one. It works better as step three: get the go-to-market running, learn which channels work, then hire someone to own what's already working. The five chapters below walk through each step, starting with the decision itself.

Seed and Series A marketing, in numbers

• 6 to 8 weeks: how often a Series A board meets, and each meeting needs a marketing update (Unusual Ventures).
• 3 to 6 months: how long it takes to hire your first marketer (First Round).
• $150,000 to $200,000: base pay for a startup head of marketing, per executive recruiter Talentfoot (November 2026).
• 27 months: the average tenure of a software company's CMO (Findem and CMO Huddles, September 2026).
• 90% off year one: HubSpot for Startups for verified Pre-seed to Series A companies (hubspot.com, November 2026).

What you'll learn

• Whether to hire a head of marketing or an agency first
• What a fractional CMO costs, with our prices
• What goes in a go-to-market plan, and what's live by day 45
• Who should set up HubSpot, and what a fund should offer its companies

Should you hire a head of marketing or an agency first?

Don't hire either one yet. If you can't write down what your first marketing leader will own, bring in a senior team that sets the strategy and does the work. Run it until the job is clear. Then hire a head of marketing to take over something that already works.

A hire takes three to six months to find, and a wrong-fit first head of marketing usually costs about a year from start to re-hire. Chapter 1 walks through each option, when hiring first is the right call, and five questions that settle it this week.

How much does a fractional CMO cost?

Anywhere from about $4,000 to $45,000 a month in 2026, and the ranges published for Series A companies sit around $7,000 to $18,000. What moves the price most is whether the CMO only leads, or leads and also does the work.

We publish ours: $8,750 a month for leadership, and $12,250 when we also do the work. Chapter 2 shows what's inside each kind of price, what a full-time hire really costs, and seven questions to ask before you sign.

What goes in a go-to-market plan after a raise?

A go-to-market plan says who you sell to, what you tell them, where you'll reach them, what you'll spend, how you'll measure it, and what your board will see. Write it in the first month and start running it in the second.

Work out what to say before you build the engine that carries it. We go after quick wins in the first weeks, while most agencies are still writing their plan. Chapter 3 has the nine steps in the order we build them, a 90-day roadmap you can copy, and what's live by day 45.

Who should set up HubSpot?

Whoever will run your marketing on it should build it, or work right next to whoever does. Get the lifecycle stages, deal stages, lead scoring, routing and ad attribution in place in the first month, before the first campaign runs, so the board can see where revenue comes from.

Check whether you qualify for HubSpot's startup discount first. Chapter 4 covers who should build it, by team size, what to build first, and what it costs.

What marketing support should a fund give its portfolio?

The work a young company can't easily buy on its own: a position worth repeating, a brand and website that look ready for the next round, a CRM that can measure, a go-to-market plan, and a voice for the founders. Most funds don't have a platform team, so the real job is to recommend one senior team you'd put your name behind, and to make sure every company keeps its own accounts.

Chapter 5 is for investors and venture studios: what helps, when to build a platform team, and how to vet a firm before you recommend it.

Who wrote this guide?

We've been on every side of this decision. We've worked at leading agencies, run a million dollars a month in ads from inside a company, launched businesses, and run our own agency since 2014. We've served as CMO at 8 companies, from startup to acquisition.

Today Digital Star is a senior fractional marketing team for venture-backed startups, most often right after a seed round or Series A. I sit with your leadership team, then we do the work.

FAQs

What should a startup do with marketing right after a Series A?

Get one senior owner for marketing, write the go-to-market plan in the first month, and set up the CRM before the first campaign runs, so your next board meeting has real numbers.

Is a fractional CMO worth it after a seed round?

When you can't yet write down what a full-time head of marketing would own, yes. Compare a lead-only CMO with one who also does the work, and count the people you'd still need to hire.

When should a startup hire its first head of marketing?

Once the job is clear and something is already working for them to take over. Plan on three to six months to find the right person.

Final thought. The round buys you time. Spend it getting the work running, then hire the person who'll keep it running.