Senior marketing perspective,
when you need it.
Not every company needs a full 12-week engagement. The Advisory is designed for two distinct situations: founders who completed the engagement and want a senior sounding board as they scale, and founders who need CMO-level thinking now but aren't ready for the full engagement.
Post-Engagement
Advisory
You completed the 12-week engagement. The foundation is in place. Your team is executing the 12-month plan. What you need now isn't another deep engagement — it's a senior voice in the room on a regular cadence to pressure-test decisions, stay the course, and avoid backsliding on the work you did.
- You completed a 12-week Fractional CMO Engagement
- Your team is executing but benefits from a strategic check-in
- You want a sounding board for key hiring, channel, or positioning decisions
- You're approaching a fundraise and need marketing narrative support
Standalone
Advisory
You're not ready for the full engagement — whether because of timing, funding stage, or capacity availability. But you have real marketing problems that need a real practitioner, not another generalist consultant with a framework deck.
The Standalone Advisory gives you a recurring session — monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly — focused on the highest-leverage questions in front of you. No discovery process, no fixed deliverables — just senior judgment applied to the work that matters right now.
Advisory works on its own merits — but for some founders, it also leads into the full 12-week engagement when the timing is right. That tends to fit teams currently raising a seed round with product-market fit established.
- You've raised under $3M and the full engagement isn't yet the right fit financially
- You're currently raising a seed round, have product-market fit, and want senior marketing judgment in place before the capital lands
- Engagement capacity is full and you're on the waitlist
- You have a specific problem — ICP, pipeline, a bad CRM setup — and need focused help
- You're being pushed to "add AI" to your go-to-market motion and want a practitioner's read on where it actually pays back — before you buy tools or hire for it
- You're an accelerator, incubator, or VC wanting CMO support for portfolio companies
High-leverage thinking,
low overhead.
Advisory isn't a retainer with deliverables. It's access to a practitioner who has seen your exact situation across 20 engagements — and can tell you what works, what doesn't, and what to do next.
Monthly, Bi-weekly, or Weekly Sessions
Structured around your highest-priority questions. No wasted time on status updates — come with a real problem, leave with a clear direction.
Revenue Pipeline Assessment
Where is the pipeline leaking? What's the conversion rate at each stage? What's the highest-leverage fix? These are the questions worth paying for.
ICP & Buyer Journey Clarity
If you're not converting at the rate you should, it almost always traces back to ICP clarity. Getting this right in an advisory context is often faster than you'd expect.
Marketing Goal Identification
What should marketing actually be accountable for? What KPIs matter at your stage? How do you translate investor expectations into a team-level plan?
Competency & Capability Check
Do you have the right people doing the right things? Is your marketing team structured for your current stage or the stage you were at two years ago?
AI-in-the-Motion Review
Which go-to-market activities should move from human to AI-assisted first? What's the payoff in time, volume, and efficacy — and what's the sequence? A working map from someone who runs this daily, not a tool pitch.
“Mike gave us the operating frameworks our revenue team now runs on — how we evaluate hires, how we segment our ICP, how we decide what to pilot. Time with him is one of the highest-leverage hours on my calendar.”
Jay Maharaj · Founder & CEO, TeamLinkt
“It’s been transformational. This is money well spent.”
Neil Anderson · Founder/CEO, SkillShark Software
Advisory Tiers
Three cadences. One session at a time.
Sounding Board
Monthly session
Goal Pacing
Bi-weekly sessions
Active Advisory
Weekly sessions
Availability: Limited to 5 concurrent advisory clients. That's intentional — each session gets my sharpest thinking, not what I can spare from an overcommitted calendar.
Advisory engagements are month-to-month. No lock-in. If you're not getting outsized value from our time together, we shouldn't be talking.
Better marketing outcomes for your portfolio.
I work with accelerators, incubators, and venture capital firms that want to give their portfolio companies access to senior marketing judgment — without the cost or complexity of a full engagement for every company.
Scale-Up Support
Better support for scale-up stage companies in your program — helping them build the marketing foundation that converts their product traction into a pipeline their investors can believe in.
Due Diligence Support
An independent marketing assessment of companies you're evaluating — whether for program admission, continued participation, or investment. Know what you're getting into.
Group Sessions
Cohort-wide workshops on the marketing challenges that are holding multiple companies back — ICP, pipeline process, CRM — delivered as a group to maximize impact and minimize cost. Recent example: "Go-to-Market in the AI Age," delivered to the Co.Labs founder cohort, July 2026.
Where the advisory
is applied.
Alongside direct client engagements, I advise a set of programs and organizations that support the B2B SaaS and tech startup ecosystem across Canada.
Saskatchewan's provincial tech incubator, supporting early-stage B2B software founders navigate the path from idea to product-market fit and first revenue. I advise portfolio companies on go-to-market strategy and revenue foundations.
co-labs.ca →The Haskayne ScaleUp program, powered by Creative Destruction Lab, works with executive teams of commercial-stage companies executing against aggressive growth milestones. I serve as a mentor helping companies sharpen their go-to-market and revenue operations.
haskayne.ucalgary.ca →A global accelerator for early-stage quantum technology and advanced AI startups, with Canadian operations based at Quantum City (University of Calgary). I support cohort companies on commercialization strategy and early revenue development.
qai-ventures.com →The Canadian arm of NAR's REACH program — the 2024 Accelerator of the Year — accelerates the most promising real estate and adjacent technology companies. I provide marketing and revenue mentorship to REACH Canada cohort companies.
nar-reach.com →Calgary's pre-seed venture fund investing in early-stage B2B SaaS and digital transformation companies across Alberta and the Prairies. I advise Metiquity's portfolio founders on go-to-market strategy and building the revenue foundations that support follow-on raises.
metiquity.ca →What is fractional CMO advisory?
Recurring access to a senior marketing practitioner — monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly — for B2B SaaS founders who need CMO-level judgment without a full 12-week engagement. It's not a retainer with deliverables; it's senior judgment applied to the highest-leverage questions in front of you.
What are the advisory cadences?
Three, one session at a time: Sounding Board (monthly), Goal Pacing (bi-weekly), and Active Advisory (weekly). You pick the cadence that matches how much momentum you need right now.
Is there a contract or minimum commitment?
Advisory is month-to-month. No lock-in. If you're not getting outsized value from the time, we shouldn't be talking. Capacity is intentionally limited to five concurrent advisory clients so each session gets sharp thinking.
Who is advisory for?
Two situations: founders who completed the 12-week engagement and want a senior sounding board as they scale, and founders who need CMO-level thinking now but aren't ready for the full engagement — for example, having raised under $3M, or currently raising a seed round with product-market fit established. It also serves accelerators, incubators, and VCs wanting marketing support for portfolio companies.
How is advisory different from the 12-week engagement?
The engagement builds your marketing foundation from scratch over a fixed 12 weeks; advisory is ongoing, lighter-touch judgment with no discovery process and no fixed deliverables. Some founders start with advisory and move into the full engagement when the timing is right.
Can advisory cover AI adoption in our go-to-market?
Yes — it's one of the most common standalone-advisory topics. Sessions map your motion across the automation spectrum (human → tech-enabled → human-in-the-loop → fully automated), sequence the highest-payoff moves, and pressure-test tool and hiring decisions against what the fundamentals actually require.
Do you advise accelerators, incubators, and VCs too?
Yes. I advise programs and funds across the Canadian tech ecosystem — including Co.Labs, CDL Rockies ScaleUp, QAI Ventures, REACH Canada, and Metiquity Ventures — supporting portfolio companies with go-to-market and revenue foundations, independent due-diligence assessments, and cohort workshops.
Not sure which path is right? That's what the first conversation is for.
30 minutes. I figure out where you are and what level of engagement actually makes sense.
Check Availability30 minutes · Mutual fit assessment · Limited availability