Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Oh, this is simple. Find a friend who is starting a company and has no money to pay a marketing expert and offer to do it for free.

I'm only partially kidding. It really depends on your current experience and how quickly you want the title of VP/CMO.

Michael

First..... begin by marketing yourself. You need accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, make your own website or blog, write articles, etc. You need to promote your skills, experiences and your ambitions. You need to get noticed by the startups.

Then go to where they are. Visit startup related websites, post ads for yourself, look up new companies in company registries at your local governmental agency that handles that, etc, and approach them with your interest.

Offer your services for a salary (because you have to eat) but also perhaps take shares in the start-up. Many people became rich by taking shares and cashing in later.

Start up's require strategic development. Read the book "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind".

https://www.amazon.com/Positioning-Battle-Your-Al-Ries/dp/0071373586

Read all you can about strategic development. Attend events that start up entrepreneurs attend and talk with them. Learn to define and research market segments. Practice with friends and family opportunities. Do the work and eventually you will find YOUR POSITION in this area.

Good luck,

Steve

Dear pokeronomist,

One becomes this kind of marketer by working one's
ass off for little pay (if any) because you BELIEVE in
the product.

You eat, sleep, drink, and live the product. You ARE
the product, and you do not rest until the product is a household name, or, until the product is well established and generating revenue.

You do all THIS by making yourself valuable to the startup heads. You sell yourself on your passion, even if you have no experience to fall back on: passion drives work ethic and work ethic trumps talent (for which read
"experience".

You also asked recently how easy it might be to move from one area to another. The trick with that is selling and offering proven results: this many sales in this period, that many new leads that generated so and so many new contacts. You use this to leverage your input, something along the lines of "This is what I did in XYZ area. Imagine what I can do for you in the world of ABC!"

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
The Direct Response Marketing Guy™
Princeton, NJ, USA

You have to first understand marketing -- especially marketing strategy -- and you have to be very resourceful ... think like an entrepreneur.

There are all kinds of different start-ups. There are retail businesses, manufacturing businesses, service businesses, online businesses, and probably a dozen others. Each one is a little different and has it's own needs and challenges. And each of those requires a slightly different skill set within marketing.

So when you ask "... how someone becomes a VP or CMO of a startup" it's really more about what you really want to do, what industry, what skill set you bring to the party, etc.

And don't get hung-up on the title. Usually start-ups are not big on titles. They want results.

Most small start-ups won't have someone of that title. Have to get to a dozen people (or more) before you might start seeing titles like this. This means it is a well funded start-up (or a not so new start-up).

Most entrepreneurs hire people they know, or they get referred to them by people they know. You need to get into the right circles to have a chance.

A person doesn't always need to be perfect for the position (particularly when the hiring process is through who you know), but must be close. So you need the right experience for that start-up. Start-ups I have seen do often seem to prefer industry experience over marketing-specific experience. So you will likely need close industry experience.