Hiring the first head of marketing at a startup
IMO the challenge with marketing is the very high budget and lack of (visible) returns .Marketing will want to launch marketing campaigns: adwords, facebook, ads in the tube, sponsoring events, sponsoring personalities, TV ads...The smallest ad here and there start at 100k each. It's very quick to burn millions of dollars. It's unbelievable how quick money can go down the drain. Besides, the more they spend the better for their resume so marketing is really enticed to go big.When the founder wants to start marketing. He's probably budgeting to hire a couple people and do some things but he doesn't comprehend the costs. One or two years later, when the founder sees the bills and the lack of returns, he's pulling the plug on marketing.In that sense marketing is like software projects. When your CMO/CTO shows up with a 200 pages spec software / $500k ad project, the answer is to say no. Both type of projects tend to spiral out of control quickly and fail.