Written by Tom Glason, CEO of ScaleWise, the go-to-market (GTM) and talent partner for fast-scaling B2B tech companies, discusses how fractional GTM leadership is emerging as a smarter route to scale.
In the fiercely competitive start-up ecosystem, gaining traction early can determine a company’s future success. Many businesses fail not because their products lack potential, but because they struggle to build effective go-to-market (GTM) functions quickly. Hiring full-time commercial leaders is costly, risky and often time-consuming. For founders juggling fundraising, hiring, and customer growth, a six-month executive search feels impossible. They need results tomorrow, not next summer. As a result, start-ups are increasingly turning to fractional GTM leaders as a practical solution, bringing seasoned expertise into the business on a part-time or interim basis.
Fractional leaders are senior-level operators who can be embedded in a business within two to three weeks, with specific objectives, often on a flexible timeline. Their experience allows them to make an immediate impact, guiding sales, marketing, and growth strategies without the lengthy onboarding associated with permanent hires.
Why start-ups are turning to fractional leaders
Fractional leadership has become more prevalent as companies look for alternatives to traditional executive hiring. Start-ups often face unique pressures from tight budgets to rapid scaling expectations. A single misstep in hiring a GTM leader can have significant consequences. Onboarding a full-time executive normally takes more than six months, from search and interviews to notice periods and eventual integration. By the time a permanent hire is fully embedded within the business, a fast-moving start-up may have already missed critical opportunities.
In the worst-case scenario, the new leader turns out not to be the right fit for the business, forcing the company back to square one. The cycle of recruiting, rehiring and reintegrating can easily push timelines out by a further 12 to 18 months, at which point the market opportunity may have already passed.
Fractional hires solve this problem by stepping into the management team with minimal lead time – often within two to three weeks. They are able to identify issues and implement proven strategies, producing results immediately. This allows founders to access flexible go-to-market expertise without committing to a long-term contract. It enables a company to maintain momentum, whilst testing strategic approaches and refining its commercial operations before deciding on permanent hires.
Building commercial functions quickly and efficiently
Start-ups often use fractional GTM leaders to fill crucial gaps in their business strategy. Whether entering a new market or looking to the next stage of funding, these leaders bring both the perspective and practical know-how needed to build the right processes from the ground up to ensure success. By joining as an external hire to the organisation, fractional leaders can act with authority and objectivity.
In many cases, they can also help recruit permanent executives and establish processes that endure beyond their time with the business. In fact, our experience placing fractional leaders into startups over the last five years has shown that around 30% of the time, fractional leaders remain in the company long-term, taking on permanent roles when the fit proves right.
Fractional leadership in action
A powerful example of this approach comes from ScaleWise’s work with HiComply, a fast-growing SaaS platform helping organisations automate their security compliance and risk management processes. Despite strong product-market fit and growing ARR, the company’s CEO, Ed Bartlett, was still juggling investor relations and leading the marketing, sales, and customer success teams. To unlock the next stage of growth, HiComply needed proven commercial leadership without the cost or risk of a permanent Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) hire.
ScaleWise ran a structured process that delivered a shortlist of four high-quality CRO candidates in just one week – a search that would normally take six months. The chosen fractional CRO quickly identified critical gaps in demand generation and sales development. He rebuilt the GTM engine: creating a new Sales Development function, refocusing Marketing on demand generation, empowering Customer Success to drive expansion, and aligning Account Executives around a robust sales process.
The impact was immediate. HiComply secured higher-value customers with longer-term contracts and even achieved its best sales month in 18 months within weeks of the fractional CRO’s arrival. The leader’s cultural fit and commercial impact ultimately led to him stepping into a full-time role – proof of how fractional leadership can deliver both rapid results and long-term transformation.
The emerging advantage of fractional GTM leaders
It is clear that fractional leadership offers particular advantages for start-ups. It allows them to accelerate growth without overextending internal resources and maintain speed in decision-making. Founders also gain access to senior-level expertise while avoiding the financial and operational risks of mis-hiring, creating a more resilient foundation for future scale.
As a result, the model of fractional GTM leadership is increasingly being recognised as a smarter way for start-ups to scale. These leaders are helping companies accelerate revenue and navigate complex, fast-moving markets, and by combining external perspective with hands-on execution, they provide a unique blend of strategy and delivery.
In today’s start-up landscape, speed is everything. Fractional GTM leaders are emerging as the secret ingredient for capital-efficient growth. The smartest founders in 2025 won’t just build great products. They’ll bring in the right fractional leaders to turn them into scalable businesses.