Startup Marketing Hiring Framework

The "Fuel and Engine" framework moves away from confusing sub-functional titles (like demand gen vs. growth) and focuses on the actual constraints of the business. By identifying whether you lack "Fuel" (content and messaging) or an "Engine" (distribution and ops), you can hire a "Pie-Shaped" marketer who fills your specific gaps while maintaining strategic breadth.

Phase 1: The Fuel vs. Engine Diagnostic

Before writing a job description, identify your primary growth bottleneck.

1. Identify the Constraint

• The Fuel: This is the "what." It includes the copy on the website, blog posts, sales decks, calculators, templates, and the core positioning.
  • Symptoms of a Fuel Problem: You have channels set up but nothing interesting to say; your outbound emails have low response rates because the value prop is weak; your website looks generic.
• The Engine: This is the "how." It includes distribution channels, email automation rules, SEO technical setup, paid ad management, and marketing ops (HubSpot/CDP).
  • Symptoms of an Engine Problem: You have amazing content that no one sees; your website has high traffic but 0% conversion; your sales handoff is a manual mess of spreadsheets.

2. Match to Business Model

• Top-Down Sales: Usually requires Fuel first. Sales teams need the story, decks, and content to enable their outbound "engine."
• Product-Led Growth (PLG): Usually requires Engine first. You need to optimize the "marketing-to-product handoff," focusing on conversion, onboarding flows, and lifecycle triggers.

Phase 2: Search for "Pie-Shaped" Marketers

Avoid hiring specialists (who are too narrow) or "big company" executives (who lack "scrappiness"). Instead, hire a Pie-Shaped Marketer (represented by the symbol $\pi$).