Growth strategy & GTM
Challenge and support the thinking behind growth plans, from where to focus efforts and how to win, through to whether the organisation has the capability and commercial engine to deliver.
Commercial & GTM NED
Board-level commercial insight for growing SaaS and technology businesses
Growth-stage businesses don't always need another person in the boardroom with a finance, operations or technical background. Sometimes they need someone who understands how the market sees the business, why customers buy, where the growth is coming from and what needs to change to unlock the next stage.
I bring 25 years of marketing and commercial leadership across SaaS, technology and B2B businesses, including four years as CMO of a PE-backed global SaaS company. I work with boards and leadership teams to provide an informed commercial perspective, constructive challenge and practical insight across growth strategy, GTM, customers, markets and organisational capability.
Where I can add value
Customer & market insight
Bring an independent perspective on customers, competitors, market positioning, and changing buyer needs. Helping boards test whether the business is seeing the market clearly.
Positioning & differentiation
Challenge whether the company's proposition reflects its ambitions and remains relevant as markets, competitors and customer expectations evolve.
Commercial performance
Look beyond headline revenue and pipeline numbers to understand the underlying drivers of commercial performance, the quality of growth and where attention may be needed.
Organisational capability
Consider whether the leadership, structure, skills and marketing or commercial capability are keeping pace with the business's ambitions.
International expansion
Bring experience of taking SaaS and technology propositions into new markets, including the practical considerations around positioning, partners, GTM and market entry.
M&A and integration
Support boards through the commercial aspects of acquisition and integration, including positioning, customer communication, market narrative, organisational alignment and bringing businesses together around a coherent proposition.
The questions I bring to the boardroom
Good board challenge isn't about having all the answers. It's about asking the questions that help the leadership team see the situation differently.
Questions such as:
Are we clear about where our growth is really coming from?
Does our positioning reflect the business we are becoming?
Are we genuinely aligned around our target markets and customers?
Do we have the commercial capability to deliver our growth plans?
What are customers telling us that we may not be seeing clearly enough?
Are our GTM investments producing the outcomes we expect?
What needs to change before the next stage of growth?
I bring an independent perspective, informed by having been on the executive side of these decisions myself.
Experience
Experience from inside the executive team
I've spent much of my career working alongside founders, CEOs and executive teams through periods of growth and change.
Most recently, I spent four years as CMO of a PE-backed global SaaS business, where I was part of the executive leadership team and worked closely with the Board through significant growth, international expansion and post-acquisition integration.
I built and scaled the marketing function, developed board-level growth reporting and dashboards, led positioning following a merger and worked closely with sales to strengthen GTM alignment.
Before that, I held senior marketing and consultancy roles across SaaS and technology businesses, including supporting US market entry, building marketing functions, developing commercial positioning and working with founders and executives through periods of growth, transformation and change.
This means I understand the difference between a strategy that looks good in a board paper and one that can actually be delivered by the business.
SELECTED EXPEREINCE
PE-backed SaaS leadership
Four years as CMO within the executive leadership team of a PE-backed global SaaS business, with regular Board reporting and responsibility for the marketing growth agenda.
Growth & commercial performance
Delivered 3x MQL target and helped establish marketing as a more predictable growth engine. Worked with sales to strengthen GTM alignment and achieve 2.5x pipeline coverage within 12 months.
Growth, change & integration
Experience spanning post-acquisition integration, repositioning, international expansion, organisational development and building the capabilities needed to support the next stage of growth.
Customer & market perspective
Built customer advisory and feedback programmes, used win/loss insight to inform strategy and brought customer and market intelligence into commercial decision-making.
How I work as a NED
I bring constructive challenge rather than simply agreeing with the executive team.
I ask questions, test assumptions and bring a different perspective, while recognising that the executive team is responsible for running the business.
My experience as an executive means I understand the realities behind the numbers and the practical implications of board decisions.
I'm commercially curious, straightforward and collaborative. I don't need to be the subject-matter expert in every conversation; my value comes from connecting the dots between customers, markets, strategy, GTM and organisational capability.
And because I've spent much of my career close to execution, I know when a strategy is likely to work in practice and when the business may need to change something underneath it first.
Where I can be most useful
I'm particularly interested in working with:
- Growth-stage SaaS and technology businesses
- PE-backed businesses preparing for or navigating their next stage of growth
- Businesses undergoing significant commercial or organisational change
- Companies entering new markets or evolving their proposition
- Businesses following acquisition or merger
- Leadership teams that would benefit from additional commercial and GTM challenge at Board level
A commercial perspective around the Board table
My role isn't to run the marketing function from the boardroom. It's to bring an experienced, independent commercial perspective that helps the Board and executive team make better-informed decisions about growth, customers, markets and the capability needed to deliver the strategy.