Fractional CMO / Head of Growth
You got the brand this far. Let's figure out what's next.
I'm Zach. I work with founder-led DTC brands doing $1-10M as a part-time CMO or head of growth. I own the strategy across every channel, from first click to repeat order, and make sure it all works together.
15 years in DTC. Built a brand from $0 to 8 figures. Agency, in-house, and now fractional.
Brands I've worked with
What I hear from founders
Almost every first call sounds like some version of this:
"Every agency says they drove the revenue. Add it all up and it's way more than we actually did."
"I think we're spending too much on Meta. I just can't prove it."
"I have a team. I need someone between me and them."
"We grew fast, now it's flat, and I don't know which lever to pull."
Some of the work
Frozen Meat/Seafood Brand
Scaling from zero to eight figures
The challenge: Growth outpaced the business. Orders were climbing faster than ops, inventory, and cold-chain fulfillment could keep up, and every new sale put margins at risk.
What I led: Came in as the first marketing hire and helped build the DTC business from zero to 8 figures. As we scaled, my role expanded beyond marketing into pricing, inventory, merchandising, and fulfillment so growth actually translated into a healthier business.
FanBox
Expanding to new schools
The challenge: A proven membership model that needed to launch at a lot of new schools at once.
What I led: The expansion playbook, channel mix, budget, and the agencies and partners executing it.
Outcome: Built the repeatable growth playbook used to expand the model across new schools.
UCAN
Turning trial into repeat customers
The challenge: Plenty of people were trying the product. Not enough were coming back to buy.
What I led: A new retention and influencer strategy. The team rebuilt the flows around it, and conversion nearly doubled.
The Crab Place
Modernizing a legacy brand
The challenge: A well-established brand whose site and reporting hadn't kept up with how people shop now.
What I led: Site priorities, reporting, and channel strategy across the business.
Outcome: Built a cleaner growth foundation around a new site, better reporting, and a modern channel mix.
What I own
The numbers
CAC, LTV, contribution margin, and growth. Not just what the ad platforms say.
The roadmap
Built around where your business actually is. Sometimes that's creative. Sometimes it's retention. Sometimes it's pricing or the site. I go through the data and decide where the bets go.
The team
Who's doing what, what each channel should focus on, and how they work together. Could be your in-house team, agencies, or other freelancers.
I start by figuring out what's actually broken.
I look at the numbers, acquisition, retention, site, creative, team, and agencies. Then I give you a prioritized view of where I'd put the next dollar and the next hour.
1. Get under the hood
Ads, email, site, economics, reporting, team, and agencies. I want to understand what's actually happening, not what each platform says is happening.
2. Prioritize
You get a clear view of what's working, what's not, and what I'd fix first.
3. Then we decide
If it makes sense to keep going, I come on as your part-time CMO or Head of Growth. Month to month.
Two ways to work with me
Most engagements fall into one of these. Some founders start as an advisor and move into fractional. We figure out which fits on the first call.
Fractional CMO / Head of Growth
Embedded with your team
I come on part-time and own the growth strategy across every channel. I manage your team, agencies, and partners, and make sure the numbers move. Month to month.
- •Owns strategy across every channel
- •Manages your team, agencies, and partners
- •Hands-on, in the work with you
Advisor
Need the thinking, not another person to manage.
For founders or marketing leaders who want an experienced DTC operator to pressure-test decisions, review performance, and help decide where to place the next bet.
- •Strategic guidance and a sounding board
- •Regular performance and strategy reviews
- •For teams that already have marketing execution covered
A bit about me
I've been in DTC and ecommerce for about 15 years. I started out running paid search and social at Tinuiti, then went in-house as the first marketing hire at a food brand.
That job quickly became a lot more than marketing. I helped build the DTC business from zero to 8 figures and eventually found myself dealing with pricing, inventory, merchandising, fulfillment, and all the other things that determine whether growth is actually good for the business.
After that I ran growth for DTC brands at VaynerCommerce. Big budgets, big teams, but a lot of brands I didn't really care about. So I went out on my own.
Now I work with a handful of founders at a time, on brands I actually like. I'm based outside Philly and work with brands across the US and Canada.
Want me to take a look?
Most engagements start with an audit. I dig into your ads, email, site, and numbers, and you get a short list of what I'd fix first. Then we figure out if it makes sense to keep going.
zp/dtc · Philadelphia, PA
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