The traditional marketing team model is breaking. In this episode of Startup Marketer Uncut, host The Kay Prince talks with Mack McKelvey, CEO of SalientMG and former SVP at Millennial Media, about how the CMO role is evolving, and why fractional CMOs, outsourced teams, and agile marketing models are taking over the startup world.

Mack breaks down what early-stage founders get wrong about marketing, when it makes sense to hire full-time versus fractional, and how to treat marketing as an investment, not a cost. If you’ve ever questioned whether your startup is built for growth or just survival, this conversation will change how you think about building your team.

Check out http://morepositive.ai/ to find positive news stories that brighten your day.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Why traditional marketing teams don’t fit startups

5:12 - The rise of the fractional CMO

12:45 - When to hire in-house vs. outsource

20:20 - How to make founders see marketing as an investment

28:55 - The “era of the individual” and investing in yourself

StartUp Marketer (SUM) is the first marketing ecosystem designed specifically for startup marketers. It fuses accelerator muscle and community wisdom to elevate your startup marketing skills and help you accelerate your startup’s trajectory. By blending development tools—including on-demand courses, downloadable resources, and a comprehensive content library—with vibrant "spaces" for real-time interaction, SUM ensures marketers remain at the industry’s cutting edge.Learn More Here: https://thestartupmarketer.com/

What if the best marketing move you can make… is the wrong one?

In this episode, we sit down with Alex Stonehouse, founder of Brilliantly Wrong and marketing strategist for early-stage startups, to talk about why playing it safe kills growth, how to build trust before traction, and why speed beats perfection every time. From crafting authentic thought leadership to balancing brand and performance, Alex shares the real frameworks that make startups stand out without the fluff or 50-slide decks.

Topics include:

- The “Brilliantly Wrong” mindset and how it sparks creativity

- How to build brand trust before product-market fit

- Go-to-market strategy for pre-seed, seed, and Series A startups

- Moving with culture (and knowing when to take risks)

If you’ve ever felt buried under bloated marketing plans or “best practices” that don’t actually work, this one’s for you.

StartUp Marketer (SUM) is the first marketing ecosystem designed specifically for startup marketers. It fuses accelerator muscle and community wisdom to elevate your startup marketing skills and help you accelerate your startup’s trajectory. By blending development tools—including on-demand courses, downloadable resources, and a comprehensive content library—with vibrant "spaces" for real-time interaction, SUM ensures marketers remain at the industry’s cutting edge.

Learn More Here: https://thestartupmarketer.com/

Most brands still treat their customers like transactions, and it’s costing them everything. In this episode of Startup Marketing Uncut, we sit down with Christina Garnett, fractional Chief Customer Officer and author of Transforming Customer Brand Relationships, to talk about how empathy, authenticity, and community can transform your bottom line.

We dive into:

- Why so many companies still see customers as revenue, not people, and how to fix it.

- The power of micro-moments, handwritten notes, and “third places” to build real connection.

- How to turn customers into loyal advocates (and why that matters most in a downturn).

- Why community-led growth isn’t a hype cycle, it’s a survival strategy.

Whether you’re a scrappy startup or scaling fast, this conversation will change the way you think about customer experience, and show you how to build a brand people never want to leave.

StartUp Marketer (SUM) is the first marketing ecosystem designed specifically for startup marketers. It fuses accelerator muscle and community wisdom to elevate your startup marketing skills and help you accelerate your startup’s trajectory. By blending development tools—including on-demand courses, downloadable resources, and a comprehensive content library—with vibrant "spaces" for real-time interaction, SUM ensures marketers remain at the industry’s cutting edge.Learn More Here: https://thestartupmarketer.com/

Deadlines are looming. Budgets are tiny. And somehow, you’re expected to do it all.

Welcome to StartUp Marketing Uncut — a new podcast built by and for startup marketers who are done pretending it’s easy, and done thinking it's impossible. Hosted by The Kay Prince, each episode cuts through the chaos with unfiltered conversations, fresh perspectives, and actionable insights from the people actually doing the work.

New name. New season. New energy. Episodes drop every two weeks — and they’re all under 30 minutes, because your time is valuable.

Subscribe now and join the rebellion against “fluff” marketing advice.

Deadlines are looming. Budgets are tiny. And somehow, you're expected to do it all.

Welcome to StartUp Marketing Uncut — a new podcast built by and for startup marketers who are done pretending it's easy, and done thinking it's impossible. Hosted by The Kay Prince, each episode cuts through the chaos with unfiltered conversations, fresh perspectives, and actionable insights from the people actually doing the work.

New name. New season. New energy. Episodes drop every two weeks — and they're all under 30 minutes, because your time is valuable.

Subscribe now and join the rebellion against "fluff" marketing advice.

Forget retainers and bloated decks: Dana Hork is building a better agency model from the ground up. In this episode, the Beers with Friends founder shares how productized services, sprint-based delivery, and brand clarity are reshaping the agency world. You’ll learn why mind reading is for suckers, what a “beer run” is in marketing, and how to get marketers and founders to finally speak the same language.

You’ll hear:

• Why trust and collaboration beat the black-box agency mode

• How to talk to your founder without reading their mind

• Why marketers should fall in love with the problem, not the solution

• What it means to build brand from the inside out
  
  

If you're tired of bloated campaigns, vague retainers, or founder-marketer misalignment, this episode will feel like a crisp, cold one at the end of a long sprint. Cheers.

In this episode, Jake Goldman, Head of Public Affairs and Communications at Beta Technologies, shares how his team communicates credibility in the high-stakes world of electric aviation. “This isn’t an app,” he explains—it’s about putting people in planes, managing regulators, and proving the tech works. Jake covers how public affairs, lean teams, and political comms experience shape the strategy, and why the press release is just the last part of the story.

Join us for this fascinating conversation about the intersection of breakthrough technology and strategic communications with one of the industry's rising communications leaders.

Visit www.thestartupmarketer.com to learn more and be part of the community.

Sabra Willner brings decades of experience across agencies, Fortune 500s, and startups into one of the most dynamic interviews of the series. She breaks down the role of marketing not just as a growth engine, but as a driver of business transformation. From customer advisory boards to brand mascots to the underutilized power of BDRs, Sabra explains how strategic creativity and close collaboration across teams can set startups apart—without blowing their budget. Her episode is packed with actionable insights and controversial takes sure to get you thinking about your own brand strategy.

In this episode, Genean Jones lays down a masterclass in modern go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Drawing from her deep experience in startups and Fortune 50s alike, she defines GTM not as a marketing function or a sales plan, but as a strategic machine that unites product, sales, marketing, customer success, and finance. She emphasizes that post-sale growth is often the most overlooked opportunity in a startup’s revenue strategy—and explains why marketers must not just embrace data, but speak the language of finance to prove their value. Whether she’s talking about putting CS under marketing or why she’d hire a strategist over a CMO at Series B, Genean challenges outdated org structures with sharp, cross-functional insights.

Wade Prince never planned on becoming a marketer. As the Chief Market Intelligence Officer at The Gormley Group, a consultancy specializing in helping companies land federal contracts, Wade found himself unexpectedly leading the marketing charge. With no formal marketing background, he bootstrapped a strategy from scratch in a traditionally marketing-averse industry. In this episode, he opens up about educating internal stakeholders, building visibility in a niche market, and learning to attribute impact even when ROI is tough to track.

Wade’s story is a case study in grassroots marketing leadership. From launching SEO and LinkedIn campaigns to creating testimonial videos in an industry that values confidentiality, he shares real talk on what it takes to build credibility and drive results in government contracting.