Hire Smartly: What Marketing Expertise Do You Need—and When

When to hire: reality check first 

One of the common issues with early-stage startups is juggling too much with a tiny team and a scrappy budget. Founders often lack marketing knowledge and sometimes don’t even realize whether they actually need marketing, or what for. 

Experts we spoke with observe contrasting trends: while some startups don’t care much about marketing, others rush to hire a marketer too early. 

“In the early stage, the first thing that founders often think is that they need a head of marketing. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes they don’t even need a marketer. It really depends on their business strategy and where they want to go. What I do when I come in is challenge them on their actual reality: where they are as a company. Based on that, decide if it even makes sense to have a head of marketing, or do you just need sales power,” argues Sjeel Koster, fractional CMO and go-to-market strategist, with 14 years of experience in marketing for tech startups.

According to Sjeel, companies need to reach product-market fit first, define the ECP (early ideal customer profile) and ICP, define their Go-to-Market strategy, and start gaining traction. Before that, it’s unlikely a marketing hire would be efficient, and even unlikely to succeed at all, she adds. 

Photo by John / Unsplash

For startups that believe marketing is needed early on, there is another extreme: a unicorn hunt. “Early-stage founders often think they need to scale fast, be everywhere, and get everyone to know about them,” says Maria Ledentsova, growth strategist and branding expert, running her own consultancy and fractional practice. “They try to hire one or two 'unicorn’ marketers or salespeople who can do everything and magically 10x growth. But that rarely works. It leads to burnout, unclear priorities, and brand confusion. Most founders at that point don’t even have their messaging or product-market-fit nailed down yet.”

The other end of the spectrum is ignoring marketing at all, while it can become a tool for customer research, early positioning, figuring out ICPs, and—eventually—for streamlining the path to product-market fit, thinks India Flora Mazzei, Digital Marketer at UtrechtInc, one of the leading startup incubators in the Netherlands. 

“Early-stage founders often don’t think they even need any marketing. Many are convinced that they first need to have the product ready, and then start marketing. However, they don’t understand that marketing efforts need to start even before then, and can actually help with product development,” shares India.

Who to hire: in-house, freelancer, or fractional?

Once founders finally acknowledge they do need marketing, the next question surfaces: who should be the first hire?

Here, the experts disagree in nuance—but not in principle. The right choice depends on the startup’s maturity, not on a generic “best practice.”

Maria Ledentsova argues that the first marketer should almost always be in-house, full-time, and fully immersed in the business. Building the foundation—user research, messaging, positioning, and the first repeatable channels—requires context, speed, and day-to-day proximity.

“The first marketer needs to be fully inside the business,” she says. “If you’re only there one day a week, it’s hard to move fast enough, and you may lose momentum. Let them build the foundation for 6–12 months before you bring in freelancers or fractional roles to scale.”

Photo by Nathan Dumlao / Unsplash

According to Maria, a strategic generalist is the best option to start with. Sjeel Koster draws a line differently: she suggests the first hire to be more product-focused and more likely to be fractional. “Sometimes it’s better to hire a fractional, or consultant, or advisor who defines the strategy, aligns on ICP and positioning, where you can build your marketing plans from. And once that is clear, you set your first hire up for success,” states Sjeel.

Then it’s time to define what type of marketing is preferable for your business stage, more efficient for your product, and impactful to your audience. It may be a T-shaped generalist with a brand and content focus, aiming to build trust and sometimes work on the PR side – or a Go-to-Market engineer, focused on growth and sequencing. “Once you choose, just make sure that you focus on it, and nail it before you start looking into something else,” says Sjeel.

According to India Flora Mazzei, for many startups, especially those with highly technical founders, marketing support is needed before the product is fully mature—but a full-time hire may be drastically out of budget. She’s confident that where freelancers, consultants, and fractionals fill the gap.

India sees this pattern across almost all early-stage teams at UtrechtInc. Very few can afford (or meaningfully onboard) a full-time marketer early, but most desperately need strategic direction.

“I would say the best hire is definitely either a freelancer or a fractional marketer,” she explains. “Founders are often technical. They don’t understand marketing, and they don’t realize an intern can’t build the whole strategy. A freelancer can bring that structure without the cost of a full-time hire.”

Photo by Bruce Mars / Unsplash

Interns: when they’re a mistake, and when a good help

Hiring an intern as the “first marketing person” is a pattern all three experts see often—and all three warn against it.

Startups take this route for predictable reasons: it’s cheaper, it feels low-risk, and interns bring energy and fresh ideas. But without structure, it backfires.

“Most founders expect interns to ‘set up marketing’ or ‘grow the channels,’” says Maria. “That’s unrealistic. If you don’t already have a marketing foundation, an intern has nothing to learn from and no structure to work within.”

India shares a similar experience—both as a mentor and from her own early internship in the Netherlands.

“I don’t recommend hiring an intern as the only marketing person,” she says. “If the founders are technical and can’t guide them, the intern ends up lost. I see this struggle a lot.”

Interns can be valuable—but only under specific conditions:

• There is already a marketer in place (in-house or fractional/freelance)

• The strategy, channels, and basic processes are defined

• Tasks are repeatable, measurable, and mentor-supported

As Sjeel puts it: “If you want to hire an intern, you need to manage them. If you can’t do that, don’t.”

Interns can amplify what exists. They can’t replace what doesn’t.

Photo by Igor Omilaev / Unsplash

The Biggest Hiring Mistake founders make

When asked about the top mistake early-stage founders make, all three experts pointed to variations of the same issue: hiring reactively, not strategically.

Founders hire too early, too senior, too junior, or too broadly—instead of hiring for the specific stage they’re in.

Maria sees founders searching for a “one-person marketing department,” expecting strategy, execution, distribution, content, SEO, design, and community—all from one hire. This leads to burnout, misalignment, and slow progress.

Sjeel sees founders hiring before they understand their ICP or product-market fit, expecting marketing to fix foundational issues that only the founders themselves can solve.

From India’s perspective, founders are delegating strategy to the least experienced person in the room—often an intern—simply because they don’t know where to start.

Photo by Brett Jordan / Unsplash

TL;DR: What to do about your marketing (hiring) strategy when you’re in the very early stages

The corrective action is consistent across all three perspectives:

• Clarify your stage (pre-PMF vs. early traction vs. ready to scale)

• Define your ICP, positioning, value proposition, and messaging first (consult with an expert here, or at the next step)

• Hire for stage fit and in line with your goals 

• Don’t hire interns if you don’t have someone to guide them

If you’re unsure who to hire, book one hour with someone experienced in building marketing teams. It will save you months.