
Consultant

For Startups
Category design - Product story
Go-To-Market Design
Launch
Build
About Mark Donnigan
As a Virtual CMO, I design and execute go-to-market and marketing programs that produce real business results for growth-stage technology companies.
You are a good fit to work with me if you are a technical founder with a tremendous growth opportunity. But, the high level of attention you placed on engineering your product, has not led to the revenue results you expected.
Therefore, you need a go-to-market and startup marketing consultant who can develop, execute, and operate a proven plan to get the business results you want.
Through my revenue-centered go-to-market framework, I help founding teams execute marketing and sales plans to reach the full potential of their opportunity.
I help disruptive innovation startup companies launch products and open new markets so that they can go further faster and scale sustainably. I am a go-to-market consultant and senior executive who is a virtual marketing executive and business leader supporting the CEO and founders. The ideal phase for me to engage is when your company has grown to $10 million in ARR, and you are ready to invest in accelerating growth.
I work as an embedded executive consultant to your company. With verifiable success leading and developing marketing and go-to-market functions, I bring a holistic revenue-first business perspective based on my B2B and enterprise sales and business development experience. This allows me to work directly with the leadership team to ensure business success. As a testament to my effectiveness, typical client relationships and engagements span multiple years.
In today’s fast-paced business landscape, startups and B2B companies often struggle to achieve their desired revenue outcomes due to various factors. The buyer’s journey is no longer linear, and the buying cycle has been significantly impacted. To keep up with the ongoing digital transformation, businesses must adapt their marketing framework and prioritize developing and executing a solid marketing strategy that fosters growth and generates sustainable, profitable revenue.
One critical element of a successful marketing campaign is having the right marketing leader in place. As a Virtual CMO and Startup Consultant, my primary objective is to engineer, execute, and establish a proven marketing plan that delivers the results that tech founders crave. I specialize in creating category designs and go-to-market strategies that can drive demand for any tech business and position them ahead of their competitors.
To achieve this, I focus on ensuring that the marketing pillars are of high quality and that the right language is used to bridge the language gap between businesses and customers. The words we choose matter in creating content that can ultimately lead to a sale!
In today’s fast-paced business landscape, startups and B2B companies often struggle to achieve their desired revenue outcomes due to various factors. The buyer’s journey is no longer linear, and the buying cycle has been significantly impacted. To keep up with the ongoing digital transformation, businesses must adapt their marketing framework and prioritize developing and executing a solid marketing strategy that fosters growth and generates sustainable, profitable revenue.
One critical element of a successful marketing campaign is having the right marketing leader in place. As a Virtual CMO and Startup Consultant, my primary objective is to engineer, execute, and establish a proven marketing plan that delivers the results that tech founders crave. I specialize in creating category designs and go-to-market strategies that can drive demand for any tech business and position them ahead of their competitors.
To achieve this, I focus on ensuring that the marketing pillars are of high quality and that the right language is used to bridge the language gap between businesses and customers. The words we choose matter in creating content that can ultimately lead to a sale!
I am a go-to-market engineer with a unique mix of sales and marketing acumen. I’ve led go-to-market teams comprising 25 sellers and marketers producing $29 million in annual revenue. I have built and managed channel partners and independent sales rep teams, managing a development and marketing budget of $3 million per year. Over the last dozen years, revenue driven by me and my teams has exceeded $500 million across the companies I’ve worked with.
Marketing Insights
-
What A Virtual CMO Can Do For Your Startup
A Virtual CMO can be more than a temporary head of marketing. As a Virtual or Fractional CMO, I am a business strategist and revenue driver. I build marketing teams with a revenue-first mindset.
-
ABM Success Stories and Key Benefits
ABM is popular in B2B marketing for its personalized approach and higher ROI. Case studies show improved sales alignment, increased visibility, enhanced targeting, and higher conversion rates as benefits.
-
Intro to Account-Based Marketing for Startups
Account-Based Marketing is often discussed as an important strategy for B2B technology companies, but it’s not often understood and rarely executed well. This intro to ABM also serves as a quick start guide.
-
Key Insights for Becoming a Category King
Category design is the surest way to set your tech startup apart. The concept of a category king is not new, yet there is so much information out there that knowing what to do about it can be challenging.
Business Builder + Virtual CMO
I am a sales and marketing leader with a proven track record of producing results for early and growth-stage companies as a Virtual CMO, and go-to-market business consultant.
0
0
0
0
How I Work, What I Do
Revenue Focused
I am unique among marketing consultants, having scaled into the marketing function through sales management. This gives me the distinct perspective of always looking at the marketing function through a revenue lens. I do not separate the marketing job from go-to-market as some with traditional training do.
Operational
I am a first-principles thinker and lead by doing in a strategic and creative capacity as a business builder and value creator. I am business-minded, collaborative, and always operate with a growth mindset. I believe executive relationships are critical to fostering a team's success.
Problem Solver
I bring an ability to quickly and accurately assess markets and ecosystems so that I can deliver the strategy and execution plans required to build the category, grow the market, and meet the business objectives. I've found startups that don't move quickly die, but those that don't move smartly, die faster.
Testimonials
I knew that Mark could help us based on his background and high standing in the video streaming ecosystem, but I was not prepared for the depth of his contribution. Working closely with our marketing and sales leadership, Mark expertly guided us in creating a new category called ‘Video Experience Automation Platform.’ This was a missing component to our previous efforts where we strived to clearly define how what we did was different and, better. As a scientist and technologist, it is rare to find a business and marketing leader with the command of a market and technology, which is why I can recommend Mark highly.

During the two years Mark worked with Visionular, we experienced business expansion and growth in the global market. He demonstrated in-depth strategic ability and practical execution in product marketing and business development. Mark is well connected in the industry. He proactively introduced many resources to our team, including several key customers and talented candidates based on his extensive network. Mark has a special ability to bring together the required sales and marketing components for building an early-stage company and connecting them to the video streaming and technology ecosystem.

Mark is so well anchored in the video streaming and technology ecosystem that when we needed help to refine our key marketing messages, I knew precisely who to call. He has total command of the video streaming ecosystem and understands what’s needed to move a market. Mark came in and helped us to rethink and reshape how we were positioning our products relative to the core markets we were attacking.
