Stop treating scale like a job title upgrade and start treating it like a system you can prove. Justin sits down with Jonathan Buckley—founder of Artesian Network and a seasoned fractional CMO/CEO—to unpack why early-stage B2B tech companies win when they favor efficacy over efficiency, generalists over siloed specialists, and fractional leadership over rushed, permanent hires. If you’ve ever felt the pressure to “hire the CMO now” after a Series A, this conversation offers a smarter path.
We walk through the traps that stall growth: mistaking friendly beta users for product-market fit, elevating big-company directors into startup VPs, and copying sales playbooks that depend on large BDR teams and no longer deliver ROI. Jonathan shares a practical way to confirm PMF with real evidence—tight ICP definition, channel and message experiments, quant you can trust, and clear conversion signals from first touch to expansion. He explains how fractional teams keep the work senior and hands-on: writing copy, building demand gen infrastructure, instrumenting the funnel, and coaching engineer-founders with metrics that matter. Instead of optimizing costs too early, we focus on building a minimal viable revenue engine you can repeat and predict.
You’ll also hear why finance benefits from the same model. A fractional CFO provides runway visibility, pricing and packaging analysis, and capital planning without bloating burn. Together, a fractional CMO and CFO create a cross-functional spine that speeds decisions and reduces risk. Once the playbook is real—ICP, channels, sales motion, content cadence—then it’s time to hire permanent operators to tune and scale.
If you’re a founder or investor searching for a clear, data-driven route to repeatable revenue, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a founder who needs to hear it, and leave a review with your PMF litmus test—we’ll feature the best ideas on a future show.