
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.
I am a Virtual CMO and startup marketing consultant with over 20 years of experience leading the full marketing life cycle, including category design, category creation, demand creation, branding, PR, digital marketing, content marketing, and events for B2B technology companies. I think differently and do not execute the same old tired marketing playbook. This is the secret to my success and why my clients retain me for multiple years on average.
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
Read moreA Virtual CMO can be more than a temporary head of marketing while you seek to recruit a permanent leader. As a Virtual CMO, I am a business strategist and revenue driver. I build marketing teams and implement tactics that work, always with a revenue-first mindset.
How I Can Work With Early Stage Startups
Read moreI work with companies at all stages, but frequently those that need me most, I cannot assist due to budget or availability. Now, I have a solution for early-stage founders needing help to build the marketing or GTM.
The Technology Adoption Curve & PMF – Part 1
Read moreMarketing that supports where your product is on the technology adoption curve is crucial for success in B2B tech markets. Part 1 covers Innovators and Early Adopters.
The Technology Adoption Curve & PMF – Part 2
Read moreMarketing that supports where your product is on the technology adoption curve is crucial for success in B2B tech markets. Part 2 covers the mass market.
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.
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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.
