The Portfolio Executives

I’ve spent over twenty years leading marketing in B2B tech, from small pre-seed startups through to large PE-backed global businesses. The work I’ve enjoyed most has always come at a turning point: a business breaking into a new region, selling to government for the first time, or working out who it is after an acquisition. Lots of companies reach those moments without needing, or being ready for, a full-time CMO. I wanted to be the person they could call. I’m also passionate about helping other marketers get better at what they do, and doing that across several teams is more rewarding than doing it in just one.

I started with people I already knew, telling former colleagues, founders and investors plainly what I could offer and what I couldn’t. Alongside that, I took on advisory work, judged industry awards and joined a couple of fractional networks. Each conversation led to another, eventually bringing me my first fractional client, CitySwift, an early-stage startup using predictive AI and big data to optimise public transport schedules.

CitySwift’s software uses predictive AI and big data to build bus timetables that put the right vehicle on the right route at the right time. When I joined, the sales team were struggling to get meetings with any of the big five UK bus operators, partly because the messaging was all about data and AI, and that wasn’t what operators cared about.

Then COVID arrived. As lockdown looked likely, I pulled the leadership, product and sales teams together and suggested we change course. With some tweaks to the algorithms, the software could help keep passengers socially distanced and make sure buses still ran when and where key workers needed them. When lockdown came, most operators switched to Sunday timetables, leaving nurses and care workers stranded. We had the answer.

We ran a targeted account-based campaign focused on those five operators and the decision-makers within each one. We won contracts with all of them, followed by major operators overseas, including New York’s MTA. That credibility helped CitySwift raise €2 million. When the pandemic eased, we switched back to the original proposition with the biggest clients already on board.

Along the way, I’ve learned to start with people and always be authentic. Working behind a shop counter as a teenager taught me more about customers than most marketing books. Every strong campaign I’ve run since has come from understanding what buyers actually worry about. As a fractional leader, you also have to earn trust quickly. That means doing what you said you’d do, when you said you’d do it, and being honest when something isn’t working.

I’ve also learned to be clear-eyed about AI. Every marketing team uses it now. The skill is knowing when it helps and when it simply makes you sound like everyone else.

Portfolio working suits me because businesses are far more comfortable bringing in senior people part-time than they were five years ago. Budgets are tighter, but growth targets aren’t, so experienced leadership without a full-time salary can make sense. For me, it means variety, the opportunity to work in sectors I know well, and a better balance between work and the rest of life.

Looking ahead, I’d like to build a small group of long-term clients where I’m part of the leadership team rather than an external consultant. I’d also like to do more mentoring, particularly with marketers stepping into their first leadership role. It’s the part of the job I’d do for free, though I’d rather not tell clients that.