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Ask HN: How do I find a CMO/Marketing Expert/Consultant for my startup?

4 points by mansigandhi ↗ HN
We're a 3 people startup currently in Beta and bootstrapped. We're looking to get someone on board for Marketing. How does one go about finding the right person/team? Most of the folks we know are developers.

1. Would giving just (sizable)equity work? We're not yet in a position to pay. 2. If we are to get a 4th person(CMO), how & where does one find marketing experts? 3. Do Consultants and Consulting Firms do marketing/branding for equity? If not, do you know anyone who is affordable.

Any tips/help welcome. Thanks a bunch.

14 comments

[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 49.3 ms ] thread
cyphersanctus
Depending on your startup, (1) just equity can certainly be attractive to the right person. (2) The kind of marketing experts you're looking for can be found by searching on google for blogs relating to growth hacking, SEO, social media, customer acquisition, UX usability, etc. (3) I havent heard of Consulting Firms that do marketing for equity. There is a big company in Germany that takes equity in startups in exchange for ATL media campaigns (on tv, radio, etc). Its a long process though, like with any other investor.

Could you please share your Beta version so that interested parties can contact you?

mansigandhi
Thanks cyphersanctus, that was helpful.

Our startup is http://www.shoutt.me It is currently open to Stanford students only. We're going public early next year.

cyphersanctus
Im interested in checking out the app, I just sent a request for info with my email {username} at gmail. I happen to be a growth hacker that will be living in SV from january onwards. Ill be participating in the AngelHack demo day. I'd be happy to share strategies over a cup of coffee over there. Cheers.
redspark
Have you thought about finding an intern who hustles and just put them to work reading growth hacking blogs and implementing/testing ideas.

Search for: Dan Martell Patrick Vlaskovits Sean Ellis Noah Kagan Hiten Shah Dannielle Morrill

etc.

mansigandhi
Hmm...no we have not, but I'm not sure that's the approach we're looking to take either. I will check out those searches though - thanks
soneill
I posted this above, but to reiterate: Be very careful about hiring interns. You cannot just hire someone to be free labor. According to Federal regulations, you must receive "no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded".

Trust me, I'd love to hire some marketing interns to free work for my startup's launch, but that's just not legal.

mansigandhi
Got it - I'll check out the laws before we do think of hiring interns.
jyu
Even though interns may not cost any money, they are not free. Whenever you have interns (marketing or otherwise), be prepared to invest a bunch of time teaching them, making mistakes which may cost you time and or money, and be prepare for them leaving after several months.

Your app seems viral by nature, without the need to spend money on user acquisition. You might have better chances adding an experienced marketing advisor to your team for nominal equity than hiring someone for only equity.

mansigandhi
You have good points. Them leaving after lot of training/mistakes is not something we can afford at this stage.

We have already worked with a few interns. The time and money we invested into this effort didn't really pay off and we ended up letting them go.

aorshan
If your site is only open to Stanford students, why don't you find a marketing student at Stanford who would be interesting in working for you? Go hang out by the marketing department and introduce yourself to students. Or contact the career center and see if you can post an intern opening.
mansigandhi
Stanford was more a testing ground. We're opening up to all in January.