I build revenue-generating marketing functions for software startups.
Whether you're about to make your first marketing hire or growing the function you have, I make sure every step builds toward revenue. Most of my work is in regulated software: fintech, healthtech, edtech, govtech.
Proof · measured on pipeline and revenue
All case studies →The situation
You have marketing, or you're about to hire for it. Either way, it isn't a revenue-generating system yet.
You have a marketing manager or an agency, a HubSpot account, a couple of AI tools, and a dashboard nobody trusts. Content goes out every week. Nobody can say which of it produced pipeline, which leads got dropped, or why sales stopped following up on them.
That's the gap I close. It usually shows up as one of three things: you're about to make your first marketing hire and don't know what to hire for, headcount is flat and the board wants more pipeline, or you bought AI tools and nothing changed.
Related readingYour buyers are finding you through an AI tool. Are you ready?
Every system I build is measured on the pipeline it returns. If it doesn't produce revenue, it doesn't ship.
How it works · three layers
Systems that produce revenue, built in your tools and handed to a named person on your team.
Three layers, built in order, in the tools you already own. Strategy decides who you sell to and what you say. The operating system moves leads from first touch to sales without anyone chasing them. The scoreboard tells you what each channel returned in pipeline and revenue, every month, so the proof is in your own numbers. The full definition.
The strategy layer
Points the engine
Weeks 1–5
- ICP definition, buyer research, and subsegmentation
- A one-page go-to-market per business unit: named segments, channel bets, kill and scale criteria
- Positioning, category narrative, value proposition, messaging architecture
- Brand system specification, creative direction, and naming
- One planning cadence, so every team plans on the same template
The operating system
Runs it
Weeks 3–10
- One written definition of a qualified lead, with deal-value thresholds where they belong
- Lead scoring and routing built into your CRM and marketing automation, with the data architecture underneath
- The marketing-to-sales SLA, one page, signed by both sides
- The AI production process: brief template, subject-matter-expert loop, prompt and template libraries, a written quality bar
- Intake and capacity: one queue, every request scored on pipeline impact
- Lifecycle and nurture sequencing: logic, triggers, branching, timing
The optimization loop
Makes it cheaper per opportunity
Weeks 6–13
- Attribution wiring and a five-metric scoreboard, anchored on pipeline
- Pipeline returned per dollar for every channel, conferences included, refreshed monthly
- Budget reallocation on a quarterly cadence, toward what returns
- A board one-pager that assembles itself from the scoreboard
- The weekly operating cadence your team runs after I leave
Compliance
Built to pass legal review.
In fintech, edtech, healthtech and govtech, every claim on your website is a regulated statement. I put review inside the workflow, so legal sees each claim with its evidence attached instead of reading finished campaigns at the end. I write the rules for what AI can draft and what a person has to approve. And I keep the record an examiner would ask for: prompts, outputs, approvals.
I built marketing this way at a payments company under NACHA and CFPB. It cut manual campaign work by 60%. What changes in fintech, in detail.
By industryFintech and payments·Credit unions·Healthtech·Edtech and workforce·Govtech
Compliance as architecture
Review states, approval routing, and claim substantiation live inside the workflow. Legal stops being the bottleneck because they're a step, not a gate.
I've sat in the sales chair
I served as interim sales leader at the same company, and helped execute its sale when it was acquired. The marketing–sales handshake is the first thing to die after a consultant leaves. I build it from both sides because I have sat in both.
Procurement runs on a fiscal year
School districts, agencies and hospital systems buy on a budget calendar, not on your quarter. Channel bets and sequencing get planned against their year, so pipeline is warm when the window opens.
The security reviewer is on the committee
Your buyer's security and legal teams are in the deal by the second call. The engine carries what they'll ask for: claims with substantiation, a review trail, and content that has already been through the gate.
Packages · two ways in
Before your first marketing hire, or after it.
Same company, same size, two different moments. Which door is yours depends on one question: have you made the hire yet? Both end the same way: a function your team runs, measured on the revenue it produces, with a fixed end date in the agreement.
01 · Before the hire
The First Hire Plan
You're a founder about to make your first marketing hire.
FitSeed to Series A, 10 to 40 people, marketing still run by you.
What the six weeks produce →02 · After the hire
The Diagnostic, then The Marketing Engine
You have a marketer, or a small team, and no engine.
FitA marketer in place, a dozen or more closed deals, budget going out the door.
How the Diagnostic runs →The four packages
Every one is a fixed fee, quoted on the first call. The Diagnostic fee comes off the price of the build. Whether I stay on afterward is your call, never a condition.
01 · Before the hire
The First Hire Plan
Fixed fee, quoted on the first call
- The role to hire: which kind, what level, what to look for
- The twelve-month plan and the segment to lead with
- The budget by quarter: people, programs, tools
- The stack, and the tier of each tool, bought when the hire starts
- One lead definition and a sales-marketing SLA, signed before day one
- The five-metric scoreboard, with baselines
- The hire's first ninety days, written before the first interview
For founders who haven't made the first marketing hire. I decide the role with you; you run the search. The hire inherits a function.
What the six weeks produce →02 · After the hire · start here
The Diagnostic
Fixed fee, quoted on the first call. Credited toward the build
- Stack, process, and funnel audit, by business unit
- Interviews with you, marketing, sales, and the business owners
- The last ninety days of marketing requests, classified
- A findings document, ranked by impact on pipeline
- A board one-pager
- A scoped, priced proposal for the build
Credited in full if we go on to build. Or take the findings and run them yourself, which some people do.
How the two weeks run →03 · The build
The Marketing Engine
Fixed fee, quoted after the Diagnostic
- Everything in the Diagnostic
- All three layers, built and live in your tools
- Your named operator trained alongside me, system by system
- Everything under What you keep, as working files
- Four weeks of support after handoff
Fixed scope and a fixed end date, agreed in writing before anything starts.
The three layers and the 90 days →04 · After, or instead
The Advisory Seat
Fixed monthly fee, quoted on the first call
- Roughly ten hours a month
- A monthly read of the scoreboard
- Kill and scale calls on live channel bets
- On call for whoever runs marketing (usually your operator)
- Strategy and systems only, no production work
The build has a fixed end date. The engagement doesn't have to. After a First Hire Plan, I'm on weekly with your new hire for their first quarter, then monthly. After an Engine, a seat alongside your operator. Or on its own.
How the seat works →- Fixed scope
- Fixed end date
- No open-ended retainer
- One named operator required
Every package is a fixed fee, quoted on the first call. Say in the note whether you have made the marketing hire yet and I will tell you which one fits.
Weighing this against a full-time hire? Here's the year-one math.
Fit
This works when you want a marketing function that produces revenue, and you want to own it.
Four things are usually true of the companies that get the most out of this. If you're not sure which door is yours, say so on the first call and we'll work it out together. Replacing or adding a marketing leader rather than making the first hire? Build the function before you hire.
You're about to make your first marketing hire
01
Seed to Series A, marketing still run by you, and you'd rather the hire inherit a plan, a budget, a stack and a scoreboard than spend their first quarter building them. That's the First Hire Plan.
You have a marketer and want more pipeline from them
02
A marketer or a small team, a dozen or more closed deals, budget going out the door, and nobody can say what it returned. That's the Diagnostic, then the Marketing Engine.
You measure marketing on revenue
03
Every system I build is scored on the pipeline it returns, and the proof sits in your own CRM, not in my deck. If you'd rather measure on activity, we'll disagree about what good looks like.
You want to own it
04
At the end, the function belongs to your team and runs under their hands. Someone on your side gives it a few hours a week during the build. Whether I stay close afterwards is your call, not a condition.
Everything else people ask before the first call is on the FAQ.
About
Neely Thomson
Twenty years building, scaling, and leading B2B SaaS and fintech marketing teams. Most recently I spent four years as Head of Marketing at a B2B fintech payments startup, where I led a company-wide AI marketing transformation, stepped in as interim sales leader, and helped execute the sale when the company was acquired.
Now I do this for software startups, before the first marketing hire or after it. Most of my work is in regulated software.
Track record
- 2020 – presentIndependent · Marketing functions for software startups
- 2022 – 2026B2B fintech payments · Head of Marketing (acquired)
- 2018 – 2022National nonprofit · Director of B2B Engagement
- 2014 – 2016Enterprise collaboration software · Sr. Sales Enablement Marketing Manager
- 2013 – 2014B2B marketing automation software · Marketing Manager
Latest essay
Built with, not for
The biggest gap I saw at a neurotech conference is the same gap in most B2B tech stacks.
Start here
Tell me where you are. I'll tell you which door.
No marketing hire yet, or a marketer and no engine: say which in the note. I'll reply within two business days with a few questions and, if it looks like a fit, what I'd propose and what it costs. Fixed scope and a fixed end date either way, and the plan is yours whether or not we build it together. The two ways in.
Rather talk first? Book a 20-minute call. Or write a few lines below and I'll reply within two business days.
What happens next
- 01You send the note, or book the call.
- 02I reply within two business days with a few questions.
- 03A 20-minute call to pick the right package.
- 04A fixed quote in writing, before anything starts.
- 05We start on a Monday.
Rather write an email? hello@neelythomson.com. Prefer LinkedIn? Message me there.