What is a fractional CMO?

A senior marketing operator who runs the CMO role for a company on a fractional basis. The model serves companies that need senior marketing leadership without funding a $355K-$700K loaded full-time hire.

What makes Innovative Group different from Chief Outsiders, Kalungi, or CMOx?

Three structural edges. First: shipped AI products in production (Beat, Next Best Action). Second: a sister VC arm (IG Funding & Incubation, powered by Blitzscaling Ventures) that writes checks into AI companies. Third: six integrated specialty teams that move with every fractional CMO mandate. No incumbent has all three.

Who is the fractional CMO at IG?

Chris Salazar, Founder and CEO of Innovative Group. Eight fractional CMO mandates in eight categories: a leading global hyperscaler, a leading dental 3D printing platform, AllVoiceAI, Unbound, Tru Performance, Meraaki, echo, OneBenefits.

What does an engagement cost?

Pricing is by scope and engagement size, not by published band. Most engagements settle within standard fractional CMO market ranges. The conversation about price happens after we understand what the actual bottleneck is.

How long is a typical engagement?

Compact: 4-8 weeks for a defined intervention. Standard: recurring monthly partnership, most engagements run 6-18 months. Strategic: multi-quarter cross-function partnership.

Does IG only serve B2B SaaS, or other verticals too?

IG fractional CMO work has shipped across cloud infrastructure, dental devices, voice AI, benefits/HR tech, hospitality, and restaurants. Eight categories in eight mandates. The category is the variable; the role is the constant.

What is AI-assisted fractional CMO?

Human-led fractional CMO with AI products as the leverage layer. IG ships Beat and Next Best Action in production. AI replaces the team the operator used to need, not the operator.

How is IG different from a marketing agency?

An agency executes a brief. A fractional CMO writes the brief. IG ships both at once — fractional CMO leadership plus six specialty execution teams under one P&L.

Can a fractional CMO also bring capital?

At IG, yes. The sixth specialty team is Funding & Incubation, powered by Blitzscaling Ventures. On engagements where it applies, IG can write checks into the AI companies it advises.

How fast can we start?

Engagement kickoff inside 2-3 weeks of the discovery call once scope is agreed. First proof of value typically inside 4-6 weeks.

Fractional CMO · Pillar

Fractional CMO Services

We are not a fractional CMO firm. We are an operating company that takes growth problems and runs them. Fractional CMO is one of the ways we work.

Other firms send you an operator. We send you an operator, six specialty teams, an AI engineering bench, and a sister VC arm.

Chris Salazar has served as fractional CMO at a leading global hyperscaler, a leading dental 3D printing platform, AllVoiceAI, Unbound, Tru Performance, Meraaki, echo, and OneBenefits. Eight mandates. Eight categories. Same playbook each time. The category is the variable. The role is the constant.

The five edges no other firm in the SERP can claim together

Pattern density. Most fractional CMOs have run the role once or twice. Chris has run it eight times across eight categories. Cross-pattern judgment is what mid-market boards actually pay for.

Integrated specialty teams. Six teams move with every fractional CMO mandate: Business Growth, Digital Marketing & Technology, AI Solutions, Products, Education & Enablement, Funding & Incubation. Chief Outsiders ships a consultant. IG ships a company.

AI execution depth. IG ships AI products in production. Next Best Action, Beat, agentic personalization at OneBenefits. Most firms use AI. We operate AI. Full receipts at /fractional-cmo/ai-execution/.

VC operator alignment. IG's sixth specialty team is Funding & Incubation, powered by Blitzscaling Ventures. IG can write checks into AI companies it advises. Full framing at /fractional-cmo/funding-bridge/.

Research moat. State of the Buyer H2 2026 is original survey data IG owns and publishes. No other fractional CMO firm in the SERP has equivalent original research.

How the engagement runs

Five steps. Same shape across engagement sizes. The depth and pace scale with the model.

01. Diagnose. Week one is the operator meeting the team and the data. No deck-back-and-forth. We surface what we see, agree what success looks like.

02. Scope. Engagement model and size matched to the bottleneck. See engagement models and pricing.

03. Ship. The operator is embedded. The IG specialty teams move with them. Beat or Next Best Action deployed for client visibility.

04. Measure. Weekly working sessions. Quarterly outcome reviews against agreed metrics.

05. Hand off. Operating manual at handoff. The team runs the work after we step out.

Who this fits

By company size: $10M to $250M revenue. Series A through pre-IPO in venture-backed terms. For mid-market goes deeper.

By vertical: B2B SaaS, AI infrastructure, dental devices, benefits/HR tech, voice AI, hospitality, restaurants. Eight categories, eight mandates. For B2B SaaS and for AI startups go deeper.

By problem: Positioning to pipeline, sales-marketing alignment under scale, GTM rebuilds during platform shifts, AI adoption inside the growth function.

What we are not

Not a marketplace placing operators by the match. vs traditional fractional firms.

Not an agency executing a brief. vs marketing agency.

Not a consultancy writing decks. vs consultant.

Not an AI tool replacing the operator. vs AI-only tools.

Not the full-time hire you may not be ready for. vs full-time CMO.

Not the interim placeholder running yesterday's playbook. vs interim CMO.

Talk to a fractional CMO who has run the role eight times.

30 minutes. Bring the bottleneck. We will tell you whether the engagement fits.

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