Delay Your Next Management Hire
You need a Head of Marketing. Or Sales. Or Product. But at £100k+ fully loaded, you can't justify it yet. What if you could get the thinking without the headcount?
The problem: you need the role, not the person
At your stage, you don't need someone managing a marketing team of 10. You need someone who can think through positioning, develop channel strategy, and help you prioritize what actually matters. You need the capability, not the org chart entry.
But good senior people cost £80-150k+ fully loaded. For a company doing £500k-£1M in ARR, that's a massive commitment. And frankly, most of what you'd pay them for isn't execution—it's strategic thinking and decision-making frameworks. The stuff that happens in their heads.
So you either hire prematurely (and burn runway), hire underqualified (and get underqualified thinking), or muddle through yourself (and miss things you don't know you're missing).
The Board of One solution
Board of One gives you management-level strategic thinking on demand. Not generic advice—specific frameworks, recommendations, and analysis grounded in your actual business context.
Need to develop a pricing strategy? Get multi-perspective analysis that considers your margins, market, and competitive positioning. Trying to prioritize product features? Get frameworks that weigh customer feedback, strategic fit, and resource constraints.
Describe the decision or challenge
"Should we go upmarket to enterprise or double down on SMB?" or "How should we structure our pricing tiers?"
Get multi-perspective analysis
Expert personas debate the decision—marketing, finance, operations, product—each bringing their lens to your specific situation.
Receive documented recommendations
Clear next steps, reasoning documented, trade-offs explicit. Not just what to do, but why—so you can defend and adapt the decision.
Who this is for
Stage
£200k-£2M ARR. Past the "just ship it" phase, but before the "we need a leadership team" phase.
Situation
You're making decisions that need senior thinking, but can't justify senior salaries yet.
Constraint
Runway-conscious. Every hire needs to be justified. You want to delay until you're truly ready.
What you get instead of a hire
Marketing strategy thinking
- →Positioning and messaging frameworks
- →Channel prioritization and budget allocation
- →Competitive differentiation strategy
- →Content and demand gen planning
Sales strategy thinking
- →Pricing strategy and packaging
- →Sales process and qualification criteria
- →Segment targeting and expansion strategy
- →Win/loss analysis and competitive response
Product strategy thinking
- →Feature prioritization frameworks
- →Roadmap sequencing and trade-offs
- →User research synthesis and insights
- →Platform vs. feature decisions
Operations & finance thinking
- →Process design and efficiency
- →Financial modeling and scenario planning
- →Metrics frameworks and KPIs
- →Resource allocation and budgeting
Frequently asked questions
How can software replace a Head of Marketing/Sales/Product?
It doesn't replace them entirely—it replaces the strategic thinking and framework development you'd get from them. When you're at £500k ARR, you don't need someone managing a team of 10. You need someone helping you think through positioning, channel strategy, and prioritization. Board of One provides that thinking, documented and actionable, until you're ready to hire someone to execute at scale.
What stage companies benefit most from this?
Typically £200k-£2M ARR. Early enough that a £100k+ hire would be a significant portion of your burn, but mature enough that you're facing decisions that need management-level thinking. You're past the "just ship it" phase but not yet at the "we need a leadership team" phase.
Won't I eventually need to hire these people anyway?
Yes—and you'll hire them better. Board of One helps you develop clear frameworks, documented decisions, and strategic clarity. When you do hire, you'll know exactly what you need, have materials to onboard them, and can evaluate candidates against real criteria rather than vague "senior experience."
How is this different from just asking ChatGPT for advice?
ChatGPT gives generic advice without context. Board of One knows your business model, your metrics, your competitive positioning, and your constraints. When you ask about pricing strategy, it references your current margins and target market. When you discuss channel prioritization, it considers your CAC and runway. Context transforms generic advice into actionable guidance.
What kinds of "Head of X" thinking does Board of One provide?
Strategic frameworks for marketing (positioning, messaging, channel strategy), sales (pricing, process, qualification), product (prioritization, roadmapping, user research synthesis), operations (process design, efficiency), and finance (forecasting, scenario planning, metrics frameworks). Not execution—thinking and planning.
How much time does this actually save?
Founders typically spend 5-10 hours per week in strategic thinking mode—reading, researching, debating options internally. Board of One compresses this by giving you structured frameworks, multi-perspective analysis, and clear recommendations in minutes instead of hours. More importantly, it surfaces considerations you'd otherwise miss.