By Paul Kettelle, Co-Founder & CEOHere's a conversation I've had with more founders than I can count, and it usually starts the same way: “I know I need a CMO. Or a COO. Or honestly, at this point, probably a CFO too.” Then they stop, because the next sentence is always some version of “but I can't justify a six-figure hire for a job that's maybe 60% full-time yet.”
So the seat stays empty. Marketing keeps reporting “we posted a lot this month” instead of a pipeline number anyone trusts. Every operational fire still gets routed through the founder, personally, forever. The books close late enough that hiring and pricing decisions are really just educated guessing. Everyone knows the fix. Nobody can justify the price tag or the six-month search to get there.
We built Fractional Executives because I got tired of watching good companies stall out on that exact math.
What a fractional executive actually is
A Branch fractional executive owns a number and builds the function so it runs without them. Senior judgment, without a senior salary, and without the eighteen-month commitment before you even know if it's working. We're launching with three seats, because these are the three gaps we keep seeing:
Chris Dennen
For when marketing is a cost center nobody can explain.
Rebecca Brady
For when everything, and I mean everything, still runs through the founder.
Charles Antone
For when big decisions are getting made on a bookkeeper's numbers.
Why fractional, and not the other two ways to fill the seat
There are really three ways to fill an empty leadership seat, and I think most companies default to the wrong one just because it's the one they've heard of.
Full-time hire
Right when you can afford the seat and you already know exactly who belongs in it.
- Cost
- Six figures + equity
- Time to start
- 3 to 6 months
- Commitment
- Multi-year
Strategy project
Right when you need the plan, not a person to run it forever.
- Cost
- Fixed fee, quoted up front
- Time to start
- A few weeks
- Commitment
- Defined end date
Fractional executive
Right when you need someone to own running it, week after week, until it actually works.
- Cost
- Fixed monthly retainer
- Time to start
- About 2 weeks
- Commitment
- Quarter to quarter
Not sure which one you need? That's a perfectly normal problem, and honestly, it's what the first call is for. A lot of clients start with a strategy workshop or an operational assessment, then add a fractional seat once it's clear execution needs an owner, not just a plan sitting in a deck.
How it actually works
Diagnose
We get into the function, meet your team, read your numbers, and land on the one number this seat will own. Written plan before month two.
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A fixed weekly cadence. Your fractional exec runs the meetings, owns the scorecard, makes the calls, and reports to you like any other leader.
Hand off
Once the business can carry a full-time leader, we help you hire and onboard one, then step back.
The function stays. We don't. That's the whole point.
Who you'll actually be working with
Every Branch fractional executive has run the function they're offering to run for you, inside a real growing company, not just advised on it from the sidelines. You get one named leader in your meetings every single week, with the rest of Branch behind them at no extra cost to you.