A company that can't hire for marketing yet
Funded, founder-led, and too early for a senior hire. Routed to us by your platform team.
The marketing team investors call.
Whether you're backing a company too early to hire for marketing, or unlocking one you've just acquired, Stride builds the go-to-market layer: positioning, content, search, and systems. Senior operators, embedded, live in weeks.
For PE value-creation and VC platform teams
Marketing that creates value across your portfolio.
One partner, two moments in the portfolio lifecycle.
A company you've just acquired
Proven product, two marketers, no CMO. The 100-day clock is already running.
WHY WORK WITH US
- One marketing relationship across your portfolio, not a new vendor hunt every time a founder asks
- Engagements matched to each company's stage and runway, not a one-size retainer
- Portfolio pricing and a single point of contact who knows your whole book
- Founders get senior marketing in week one
Research engagement
Validation Sprint
When you won't build blind.
From €5,500One-off · 6–8 weeks
You have a product and a hypothesis. You're smart enough to know that guessing who it's for is how you waste six months going in the wrong direction. Before you build a product, you want to know what the market actually needs. Also the fastest way to pressure-test a repositioning after a deal.
Know exactly who you're building for, before you spend a penny on dev work.
We recruit real prospects from your ICP, design the interview guide, and run every conversation. You get a debrief with the patterns that matter: what buyers actually care about, who they're considering, and what's stopping them from buying.
What you get
- 15 to 20 buyer interviews for real market research and buying signals
- Jobs-to-be-done analysis: what buyers actually hire a product like yours to do
- ICP validation with named accounts and competitor analysis
- Themed insight report with recommendations and objections
Foundation
Positioning Sprint
Ready to stop pitching from memory?
€3,000One-off · 2–4 weeks
You've got early customers. The product works. But every conversation starts from a different angle, and when you bring in a new hire, a new investor, a new prospect, the story shifts. You're ready for one version that works every time.
One locked strategy that every hire, every brief, and every pitch inherits from.
Structured workshops to surface what makes you genuinely different and who you're actually built for. You leave with a primary ICP, locked messaging pillars, and an AI Knowledge Pack so no one starts from a blank page again.
What you get
- Positioning and messaging document: ICP, JTBD, 3–4 pillar messages
- ICP definitions: Tier 1 buyers and Tier 2 adjacent influencers named and documented
- LinkedIn profile optimisation per founder (banner, headline, About, featured)
- AI Knowledge Pack and 90-day content roadmap
Upkeep
AI Knowledge Maintenance
Your company has moved on since their last positioning doc.
€1,000Per month
Your team is working with AI: Claude, ChatGPT, whatever's in the stack. And it's only as good as the source files it's pulling from. If your positioning docs, ICP definitions, and templates haven't been touched since onboarding, everything your AI produces is working from an outdated brief.
We keep your AI Knowledge Pack current.
Monthly refresh of your positioning, ICP, and messaging pillars as signals shift. Every content module stays calibrated to where you actually are, your latest customer insights, meeting recordings, and investor feedback. Not where you were when you first wrote it.
What you get
- Positioning & messaging: ICP, JTBD, pillar messages
- Target accounts: Tier 1 buyers + Tier 2 influencers, named accounts, competitors
- Brand voice & style based on what's resonating
- Content strategy & roadmap: the 90-day plan each module executes against
- Buyer insight log of customer/transcript language, objections, and signals
Module A
Founder-Led Content
You are the best face for the company.
€2,500Per month
Your perspective is the differentiator. Your network is watching. But LinkedIn is the thing you open with good intentions and close without posting, because doing it well takes time you don't have. Works the same whether you founded the company or were just handed it.
Your name in the right rooms before your sales team makes the call.
Three posts a week written in your voice, reviewed by a senior editor, built on your positioning pillars. Plus the engagement playbook that turns content into real life relationships.
What you get
- 3 text posts per week in founder voice on locked pillar messages
- 1 carousel or infographic per week (5-8 slides or single-asset infographic, brand-designed)
- 5 engagement comments surfaced per day on curated Tier 1/2/3 target accounts
- Biweekly founder syncs for fresh content and updates
- Monthly engagement list refresh: 150-300 connections to target accounts
Module B
SEO & Content Growth
You want to build a channel that compounds growth.
€2,500Per month
You've got locked positioning and you're ready to build something that keeps working while you're not. Your buyers are searching for what you do on Google and increasingly in AI tools. You're just not showing up yet.
Content you own that grows while you sleep and builds a brand paid ads can't buy.
Long-form articles and landing pages written to rank on Google and cited by Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Claude. Technical SEO running continuously. A durable inbound channel that compounds, and gets more valuable the longer it runs.
What you get
- 8 long-form blog posts and 4 landing pages per month, hero image, on-page SEO and AEO optimised
- Technical SEO managed ongoing: on-page, schema, site health, internal linking, AEO structure
- Senior copywriter review on every piece
- AI search visibility: citations, backlinks, PR, and more
Module C
Short-form Videos
Your best pitch happens when you show, not tell.
From €700Per month
Your product is easier to show than explain. We write the brief, direct the creative, and deliver platform-optimised cuts with captions and hooks. The creative thinking is done before you press record.
A steady stream of scroll-stopping video, without a production team.
You show up and perform, or let our AI-native video editors create the magic. Pick the cadence that fits: 4, 10, or 20 reels a month, each briefed, edited, and exported for every platform.
What you get
- 4, 10, or 20 short-form reels per month for TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube Shorts
- Per-video brief: shot list, hook, pacing notes, caption, and hashtag strategy
- Senior video strategy and a content plan tied to business goals
- Monthly strategy session on hooks, angles, and trending formats
Starter4 reels€700/mo
Growth10 reels€1,500/mo
Full Motion20 reels€2,600/mo
Reels are up to 60 seconds. Longer or more heavily produced video is scoped separately.
See more video options
Module D
Sales Enablement
You are one proof point away from closing.
€2,500Per month
The leads are warm. The conversations are good. But when it gets to the internal pitch (the "help me convince my CFO" moment) there's no case study to share, no landing page built for their use case. The deal stalls not because they're not interested, but because you haven't made it easy enough to say yes.
Let marketing do the heavy lifting in the background.
You're a relatively new company facing large competitors who have been in the game for years. You need to build trust and authority and have the right case study or use case for the prospects you're already landing meetings with. You need a pitch that is convincing and relevant.
What you get
- 1 customer case study per month: 30min interview, 800-1,200w write-up, and short-form amplification post
- Company LinkedIn post per month to launch each case study (co-marketing ready)
- 2 sales landing pages per month (ICP-specific, use-case, or vertical-targeted)
- Ongoing Slack support: copy angles, pitch framing, and deck content direction on active deals
Specialist
Paid ads
Put spend behind the channels where your buyers convert.
From €1,500Per month · per ad account · ad spend separate
Google Ads on high-intent search terms, plus LinkedIn, Meta, and X campaigns that amplify your best organic content. Stride briefs strategy and produces the copy and creative; a senior media buyer runs the accounts. Your organic motion makes every click cheaper over time.
One team running the ads, the copy, and the creative.
Search and social managed together, briefed from the same positioning. One point of contact and reporting that ties back to pipeline, not vanity clicks.
What you get
- Google, LinkedIn, Meta, or X campaigns, briefed and targeted by Stride
- Ad copy and graphics support included (up to 4 creative refreshes per month)
- A senior media buyer running each account
- Monthly reporting tied to CAC and pipeline
- One ad account included; additional accounts €1,000/mo each
- Ad spend stays on your card
Stack on any module
Add-ons
Extend the engagement as scope grows.
Publishing, graphics, email, extra content cadence, and sales support all stack on top of an active module when you need more. Add what fits, drop it when you don't.
What's available
- Visual production: LinkedIn, full-content, and ad graphics packs
- Publishing: LinkedIn, blog/CMS, and video, or all three bundled
- Content scaling: cadence boost, pillar pages, commissioned pieces, video kits
- Amplification: put LinkedIn ad spend behind your best founder posts
- PR & media placement: contributed articles, op-eds, and press pitching
- Email marketing, sales motion assist, and quarterly strategy refresh
Support directly via Slack channel and weekly 30-minute sync included in every module. Month to month. No 12-month contracts.
We had two weeks before our launch with no positioning and no founder voice on LinkedIn. Melody had the content strategy locked in week one, and by week two, the press pitch in market and content shipping. We didn't need to hire a CMO or junior marketer.
Stride identified an ICP we would've ignored otherwise and built an organic content motion to reach them. We started showing up in AI search and booking demos from inbound we weren't getting before.
We started getting sales from AI mentions. Stride built an SEO motion to amplify a PPC campaign. Google ROAS is running at 6.5x and AI search citations went up within two weeks. Inbound is now pulling its weight.
Do you have a marketing problem?
No two engagements start the same.
After the discovery call, we come back with a strategy and the highest-leverage packages for your stage, budget, and goals.
From hello to shipping in under two weeks.
Step 1
Discovery call.
A short introductory call to understand your business, current challenges, and whether we're the right fit for each other. If there's a fit, we'll move forward with a deeper strategy process.
Step 2
Intake & research.
You complete a short intake covering your business, ICP hypothesis, current marketing efforts, and growth goals. We review everything, conduct our own research, and prepare for the strategy session.
Step 3
Strategy session.
A 60 to 90 minute working session focused on where the leverage actually sits. Together we diagnose the growth motion, pressure-test assumptions, identify the highest-impact opportunities, and determine the right engagement structure.
Step 4
Strategy & proposal delivered.
Within a week, we return with a clear plan: positioning diagnosis, recommended modules, 90-day roadmap, deliverables, timelines, and investment. We review everything together, answer questions, and align on next steps.
Step 5
Engagement live.
Slack channel opened. Weekly sessions scheduled. First sprint begins. Within two weeks of our first conversation, work is in motion.
Every 30 days
Sprint review.
What shipped, what's working, what changes next. Engagements are reviewed monthly and adjusted based on signal. No long-term contracts. Renewal is earned every cycle.
FAQs
Common questions.
Yes. We run stage-appropriate marketing for VC platform teams and PE value-creation teams, before a company can hire for it or after an acquisition. See our value-creation page.
Before the CMO search does. A search runs a quarter; we're embedded and shipping in week two, and we hand the motion to whoever you eventually hire. See our value-creation page for how the first 90 days run.
No. The engagement is modular by design. You start with what makes sense for your stage and stack from there. The strategy call identifies the highest-leverage starting point. Most founders begin with one or two modules and add as signal builds.
Month to month. There are no 12-month contracts. The engagement renews every 30 days based on what's working. The only exception is the Positioning Sprint and Validation Sprint, which are fixed-scope one-off engagements.
Very little ongoing. After the strategy call and alignment call in week one, your main touchpoint is a standing weekly session: 30 minutes to pressure-test decisions and course-correct. Content is reviewed async. Everything else runs without you.
The same senior person who ran your strategy call runs your account. There is no handoff to a junior team after the pitch. The specialist network for SEO, video, and PPC, and copywriting are each senior operators in their own right, coordinated through Stride.
It depends on the work you've already done. If you have clear positioning, a defined ICP, and documented brand voice, we assess whether an AI Knowledge Pack can be built from your existing materials. If that foundation isn't there yet, the Positioning Sprint is where we start. It's what makes every content module faster and more specific from day one.
Strategy call within a week of reaching out. Strategy and module configuration delivered end of Week 1. Engagement live Week 2. Two weeks from first conversation to content in motion.
You get a dedicated Slack channel with your Stride lead in it. Not an email thread, not a ticketing system. Real-time access for questions, copy reviews, and quick decisions. It's the difference between a vendor relationship and an embedded team member.
Ready when you are
Run with Stride.
Book a call. We scope to your highest leverage point and come back inside a week with the plan. One point of contact, no managing required.
More from our clients.
Our portfolio of companies are each at different stages, all with the same problem: they need marketing moving before they can afford to hire for it. Stride is the boots on the ground that get the right things moving.
We had the technology and potential buyers across six European markets. Stride helped us cut through that to one beachhead with the right use case, the right buyer profile, the right entry market. That clarity was what we needed before anything else could move.
Melody helped me build a consistent voice on LinkedIn, pointed me at the exact community where our buyers actually hang out, and then ran the full motion: discovery loop, SEO, PPC, like a CMO embedded in our Slack and the whole marketing engine was moving without me having to manage it.
When you're moving fast, you don't always have time to stop and pressure-test your marketing decisions. Having a senior marketing voice in Slack who can sense-check strategy, challenge direction, and tell me exactly what to do next means we never have to guess.
