CMOs are caught in a structural trap. They understand the importance of long-term brand building, but with short job tenures, they are incentivized to focus on measurable performance marketing that shows results on their watch, even at the expense of the brand's future.

The potential for great creative work is dictated by the ambition of the CMO, not the prestige of the brand. A great CMO can achieve success with any brand, whereas an average CMO can stifle even the most iconic one. Always follow the person, not the logo.

Jon Miller argues no CMO is great at all three marketing pillars: brand, product marketing, and demand gen. You get a major, a minor, and a gap. An exceptional CMO’s strength isn't being a unicorn, but having the self-awareness to identify their own gap and hire a strong leader to fill it.

The pool of perfect, experienced CMOs is small. A better strategy is to hire a high-potential marketer who can grow into the role. To mitigate risk, founders should contract an experienced CMO as a paid advisor to mentor them, providing strategic oversight and a model for what 'good' looks like.

Founders judge a CMO by their team's quality. When a CMO, lacking domain knowledge, hires a weak leader, the founder doesn't just see a bad hire—they see a CMO with poor judgment. This is a primary driver of lost confidence and a key reason for CMO turnover.

PE-backed companies often need a tactical, data-focused marketer in year one to build foundational systems (the "donkey work"). This contrasts with the strategic, vision-selling CMO needed for a successful exit. Hiring the strategic CMO too early leads to frustration, as they aren't equipped for the essential foundational grind.

While splitting marketing seems like a solution to the unicorn CMO problem, it introduces a new flaw. Few sales or product leaders have the domain expertise to identify and hire truly exceptional demand gen or brand marketers, perpetuating the original issue of building a mediocre team.

The long-term cost of a bad hire—in time, morale, and opportunity—far outweighs the short-term pain of a missed headcount target. Figma's CRO would rather leave a seat open for months than fill it with a candidate he's not truly excited about, even a "solid B player."

A core, often overlooked, part of a marketing leader's job is managing the team's composition like a sports GM. This involves making difficult decisions, such as letting go of a high-performing employee whose role is wrong for the company's current stage, in order to reallocate budget and headcount to functions that will drive immediate growth.