WHOOP’s Marketing Hire Highlights the Readiness Growth Companies Need Before Hiring a CMO
The hire is only a win if the company can support it
WHOOP’s appointment of former Nike chief marketing officer Dirk-Jan van Hameren shows what a senior marketing hire looks like when the groundwork is already in place. In July, the wearable tech company had more than 3 million members, was cash-flow positive, and had recently raised $575 million at a $10.1 billion valuation. Van Hameren stepped into a 65-person marketing team that was ready to report to him from day one. WHOOP announced the hire; MediaPost reported the funding and valuation.
That’s a very different assignment from asking one executive to invent the strategy, build a team and deliver immediate growth all at once. The mistake founders make is reading the title as evidence that their own business is ready for the same hire. In my experience placing marketing talent at growth stage companies, seniority alone can’t compensate for missing systems.
Check the operating basics first
If customers arrive through no repeatable process, the marketing budget goes to whoever costs least, and nobody can identify which channel produces revenue, a VP or CMO is likely arriving too early. Those are signs the company hasn’t yet built a reliable basis for the role. Even choosing a marketing budget by price instead of evidence can leave a new executive with little to build on.
I’ve seen a founder hire an impressive résumé and, six months later, wonder why growth hadn’t changed. The executive was busy doing hands on marketing work instead of creating strategy or building a team, while other leaders expected fast results. The expectation was out of step with the job the company had actually given them.
A senior leader’s first months should be spent figuring out what works and what doesn’t. If the company expects results before a strategy exists, any gains may prove difficult to sustain. A marketing director may be the better first hire: typically less expensive, closer to execution, and a better fit for a company that hasn’t yet reached executive scale. That’s a sensible match to the work at hand, not a lesser choice.
Give the leader a real mandate
Before a VP or CMO starts, spell out the business goals, grant decision making authority, provide access to data, and agree with the founder on priorities. Share the company’s history, too: past experiments, current results, and intended direction. Otherwise, the new hire may spend weeks rediscovering failed channels or messaging that the sales team already rejected. Clear business goals and genuine ownership give the role a chance to work.
Here’s the thing: founders can’t keep changing priorities every few weeks, hold back authority, and still expect the executive to own the outcome. A 2025 Gartner survey found that only 34% of CEOs and CFOs agree with their CMO on marketing’s role in supporting growth. That gap makes a strong hire vulnerable to disappointment, even when the CMO meets objectives.
Test the role before making it permanent
When a company needs senior marketing judgment but isn’t ready for a full time executive’s cost or workload, fractional leadership can bridge the gap. It can be especially useful while a team is being built or the business is going through a transition. A defined engagement with specific goals—often three to six months—can produce practical work while clarifying what the permanent role needs to cover.
Chili Piper co founder and co CEO Alina Vandenberghe had run marketing herself and hit her numbers, but the arrangement had become exhausting. She brought in a fractional marketing executive to learn which skills and qualities a full time hire should bring. Once that was clear, she hired a full time VP of marketing. The approach lets a company learn what the job requires before committing to a salary and title; fractional leadership can also get real work done along the way.
WHOOP illustrates the other side of the decision: when the team, budget and scale are already there, a permanent executive can make sense. Before hiring a marketing VP or CMO, take an honest look at whether your business has comparable support. If it doesn’t, build the systems first. The point isn’t to wait forever; it’s to give the eventual hire a job the company is equipped to support. For a closer look at the timing question, see this guide to when an in house hire makes sense.