The Best Startup Fractional CMOs and Growth Leaders

Who should you know about when it comes to startup growth? Who should you be following for the latest in growth tips? Which growth experts regularly deliver valuable, actionable content to their followers? If these questions resonate, this article is for you.

We’ve looked far and wide to find the very best in startup growth. We’ve pulled a collection of well-known startup growth leaders who have been there and done it. Everyone in this list has been part of startups that have rapidly scaled. Some have synthesised their knowledge into well regarded books, some have built their own fractional CMO services others work purely as advisors.

Matt Lerner

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewlerner/ Website - https://www.systm.co/about-matt-lerner

Matt Lerner is the co-founder of SYSTM, a coaching firm that helps early-stage startups unlock growth through proven systems and rapid experimentation. Formerly a growth leader at PayPal and a partner at 500 Startups, he specialises in helping small teams scale effectively.

Matt authored Growth Levers and How to Find Them and shares weekly insights via his "two-minute newsletter." Through SYSTM’s 10-week program, he supports 80+ startups yearly in developing growth models and understanding customer behaviour. A frequent guest lecturer and podcast guest, Lerner is based near London and remains a key voice in the startup growth community.

Maya Moufarek

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmoufarek/ Website - https://www.marketingcube.co/

Maya Moufarek is the founder of Marketing Cube, a London-based consultancy helping startups and scale-ups achieve sustainable growth. Maya has over 15 years of experience at Google, American Express, Cisco and then building her own startup, Pharmacy2U..

Maya specialises in brand, growth, and performance marketing. As the founding CMO of Pharmacy2U, she led it to become the UK’s largest online pharmacy. Beyond growth advising, she also invests and advises startups, sitting on a number of well-known startup boards. Her work spans global markets, and she’s known for her strategic clarity, speed, and hands-on execution.

Tristan Gillen

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristangillen/ Website - https://www.tristangillen.com/

Tristan Gillen is a startup growth strategist and co-founder of Growth Division, a globally renowned startup growth agency that helps seed stage startups identify and validate scalable marketing channels. With experience spanning over 100 startups, including Oddbox, SeedLegals, Weavr, Stability AI and many more, he specialises in go-to-market strategy, building growth teams and optimising the startup growth process.

Prior to Growth Division he founded and grew a mobile payment app startup in the UK alongside his long-term business partner, Tom Dewhurst where they raised money, scaled to tens of thousands of customers and signed up some globally recognised brands. More recently, Tristan and Tom have founded GrowthEX, a growth marketing platform that enables startup growth teams to unlock scalable growth through AI agents.

Tristan has partnered with and helps mentor startups for the likes of Partech VC, Shilling VC, Pre-seed to Succeed, Seedcamp, TechStars and more.

Oren Greenberg

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/orengreenberg Website - https://www.orengreenberg.com/

Oren Greenberg is a seasoned fractional CMO and growth advisor with over 20 years of experience in SaaS and B2B marketing. As the founder of Kurve, he builds data-driven growth engines handling everything from demand creation and capture to team development for scale-ups and corporates like Lenovo, Canon, British Telecom, and Peakon.

Oren is now focusing on his on-demand CMO offering, which combines strategic clarity with hands-on execution, installing scalable tech stacks and mentoring internal teams.

He regularly speaks at industry events and contributes thought leadership on growth frameworks like the Ansoff Matrix and integrated marketing tactics. Oren regularly produces informative, researched content that he distributes on LinkedIn, so he is well worth following. He excels in transforming marketing chaos into structured, sustainable growth across both start-ups and established businesses.

Mehul Garg

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/growthfractionalcmo/ Website - https://www.begargantuan.com/

Mehul is the founder of Be Gargantuan, a London-based fractional CMO and growth consultancy specialising in DTC growth. Mehul focuses on crafting bespoke, profit-first growth strategies for scale-ups and mid-size consumer businesses.

With over six years as an on-demand marketing leader and more than 45 client engagements across the UK, Europe, and the US, he applies a unique four-pillar growth philosophy: strategic clarity, people-driven change, global perspective, and tailored execution.

Mehul identifies core growth barriers, builds high‑performance teams, and mentors talent to deliver actionable roadmaps, from quick “strategy validation” sessions to deep fractional‑CMO collaborations. His services include performance audits and part‑time CMO roles (1‑3 days/week), offering C‑suite leadership without full‑time costs. Known for fixing broken funnels, optimising budgets, and building scalable marketing infrastructure, Mehul helps businesses break out of stagnation and chart their pathway to sustainable, profitable growth.

Jess Saumarez

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-saumarez/ Website - https://www.themarketingplot.com/

Jess Saumarez is the founder behind The Marketing Plot, a fractional CMO service based in the UK focused on B2B growth through expert marketing and brand strategy. Jess is a Certified Digital Marketing Leader and draws on her own experience founding and running tech startups to help others avoid launch delays and scale efficiently.

Jess designs flexible, “embedded” CMO roles, working via subscription, to deliver strategy, HubSpot integrations, content, and branding at startup-friendly costs. Clients praise her for clear, high-impact websites and go‑to‑market planning. Jess is a 2024 Great British Entrepreneur Awards finalist, and she blends creative insight with commercial rigor, runs marketing Q&As, and trains founders on personal branding, SEO, and growth tactics.

Beth Chapman

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-chapman-b02ab856/ Website - https://www.fractional-cmo-service.com/

Beth Chapman is a seasoned fractional CMO and growth strategist operating through Fractional CMO Service, based in London. As a two-time founder, most notably of multi‑million-pound D2C brand Leaf Envy, she brings over a decade of experience in building community-focused, scalable consumer brand. Her services include part-time CMO roles (1–4 days/week), strategic growth roadmaps, marketing team building, tech-stack optimisation, and performance audits, all tailored to client needs.

Beth partners with startups and scale-ups to establish marketing clarity, harness data-driven decision-making, and implement sustainable digital strategies, helping clients transform fragmented marketing efforts into cohesive growth engines. She contributes thought leadership through her “Bold Moves” newsletter and client meetups, and advises via initiatives like Google for Startups. Beth’s hands-on, customer-centric approach ensures brands are both performance-optimised and primed for long-term scaling.

Andrew Crump

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/axcrump/ Website - https://www.unkillable.co/

Andrew  Crump is the founder of Unkillable, a growth consultancy and newsletter helping startups and scale-ups build robust product and growth strategies. With roots in founding startups (including Mitoo) and having done a stint over in Palo Alto where he mixed with the leading minds in startup growth he brings a wealth of hands-on experience.

Andrew graduated from 500 Startups, and serves as an AI Advisor to Google for Startups and a startup advisor at Seedcamp. At Unkillable, Crump developed the Core & Explore OKRs system, practical goal-setting and discovery method tailored to startup contexts and is writing a related book.

He also publishes the Unkillable Substack, offering weekly insights on growth, goals, and startup mistakes. Beyond consultancy, he makes small early-stage investments and is known for translating theory into repeatable, outcome-driven systems. Based in Lisbon, Andrew excels at transforming chaotic new ventures into scalable, goal-oriented organisations.

Tom Hurst

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/twrhurst/ Website - https://www.kindredworks.co.uk/

Tom Hurst is a Fractional CMO and Growth Strategist, based in London. He’s also a Partner of Growth Division, a growth marketing agency where he builds fractional growth teams for startups and scale-ups.

Tom has led growth or marketing teams at over 20 businesses, spanning a range of industries across both D2C and B2B. Recent clients include Ocean Bottle, Rock Face, Musiversal, Sleeper, Makers Academy and Retain International.

He works on both a retained and one-off basis with clients, offering a range of growth services including: go-to-market strategies, campaign strategies, marketing channel audits, ad creative research and briefing, customer research and leading marketing or growth teams on a fractional basis.

With hands-on entrepreneurial experience, founding TakePlace (a venue platform that generated £3m+ for partner landlords) and now scaling Growth Division as a Partner, his aim is to blend marketing and founder skills to drive results and sustainable growth for clients.