Sarah E. Brown - Lead Upwards

On my path to becoming a startup executive, I inadvertently stumbled upon a career accelerant: consulting. Underrepresented minorities who aren't seen with perceived potential due to systemic bias and don't yet have past performance track records need to find a way to bridge that gap. Consulting can be that bridge.

I'd been a multi‐time director at several startups when I was in between companies after an exit and decided to do some consulting while looking for my next opportunity. I applied for director level as well as head of marketing jobs on a whim. In some companies, “head of” is the stand‐in that can mean everything from senior manager up to CMO, so I wasn't necessarily applying for executive roles.

This was also around the time when I had that fateful VC conversation mentioned in the introduction. After that, I started billing myself as a “fractional marketing leader for hire,” which many early‐stage startups interpreted as startup marketing executive. Without anyone's permission, I started doing executive‐level marketing work for startups, building their go‐to‐market strategies from the ground up. There were things I didn't know how to do and I got paid as a consultant to learn how to do them for my clients without any of the pressure of “being an executive.” I just did the role!

My consulting journey involved learning how to create marketing budgets and annual planning spreadsheets (thank you, former boss and spreadsheet guru Matt Harada, for coaching me through this!). I learned how to build and scale‐up marketing functions quickly for my clients in order to earn their repeat business. One of my consulting clients was acquired by a public company after we worked together for about four months, and then I began working with three new clients, all three of whom eventually offered me full‐time roles at the “head of marketing” or “VP of marketing” title. Just like that, my clients saw me as a head of the department, and I joined one of them. Six months later I asked for and got a promotion to vice president after proving I was already succeeding in that role.

“If you can afford to consult, you can do a three‐month trial to see if you really love the job before you take it. I appreciate the approach of trying an opportunity first as you find your executive fit,” says customer success executive Emilia D'Anzica.

If you're a director and/or a “head of” and want to be a true executive, consulting can be a great way to “live the reality you want” and to de‐risk it to give yourself a chance to be successful without the pressure of jumping into it full‐time.

The worst that can happen is you decide to go back to being a mid‐level manager if and when you join somewhere full‐time. Not everyone can comfortably do consulting without guaranteed business or health insurance, etc., so you'll have to assess your situation and whether you can transition into leadership through this modality. In my case, I'd already had a consulting practice and an LLC I could use between full‐time jobs, including the legal paperwork from when I'd consulted with different levels of experience.

Jennifer Rice, who creates learning programs at Pavilion, a member organization for supporting revenue leaders, builds courses to help professionals transition into their first executive‐level roles and succeed once they're there. Rice sees firsthand how “associates” grow into executive roles through getting hands‐on training and access to a supportive community of peers and mentors.

Many aspiring executives don't get exposed to executive responsibilities in their current jobs, meaning they don't often come across a stretch project that goes into executive territory. This is unlike stretch assignments in other areas of your department or other functions. Pavilion teaches aspiring leaders storytelling with data, financial modeling, and other skills that are required for startup executives, giving them an opportunity to gain a foothold.

Whether it's through consulting, taking a course at an organization like Pavilion, or learning while in your current role, you can find the skills you need to become successful and will only truly know how it is for you once you give it a shot. Here's your friendly sign from the universe that you deserve to take that shot.

1 1.Mochary, M., MacCaw, A., and Talavera, M. (2019), The Great CEO Within: A Tactical Guide to Company Building, Matt Mochary, p. 108.

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