Fractional leadership backed by agency execution
Fractional CMO and PR/Comms Leadership agency for what comes next
Cast Influence embeds senior marketing and communications leaders into founder-led startups, Series A through Series C companies, and established teams at an inflection point. We set direction, lead the people and partners, and bring PR, creator, and influencer execution when the plan calls for it.
For founders and CEOs, investors and boards, and the marketing and communications leaders working alongside them.
Selected client signals
Agency engagements, not fractional appointments. Earned coverage figures cover the stated period and exclude syndicated pickup.
Fractional leadership
Two leadership offers
Fractional CMO
Senior marketing leadership for a company that needs one plan and one accountable owner before it needs another full-time executive.
Call when
Marketing reports to the founder, spend is rising without a plan, or the board is asking for one.
Owns
- Positioning
- Go-to-market plan
- Budget and channel decisions
- Team and agency direction
- Launch oversight
- Measurement
- Permanent-hire preparation
Outcome
One plan the leadership team agrees on, a budget attached to it, and a function a permanent CMO can inherit.
Justin KraftFractional CMO and Comms leader
View the Fractional CMO offer
Leadership
Fractional PR/Comms Leadership
Senior PR/Comms Leadership for a company whose story, press function, executive visibility or exposure has outgrown its current ownership.
Call when
A funding event, launch, regulated market or leadership change is coming, and nobody senior owns the story.
Owns
- Narrative
- Earned media operation
- Spokespersons
- Executive communications
- Issues readiness
- Agency direction
- Reporting
- Permanent-hire preparation
Outcome
One defensible narrative, a press function that runs, and prepared positions before the hard questions arrive.
Leah TaylorFractional PR/Comms lead
View PR/Comms Leadership
Start where you are
What moment are you in?
The five situations we are called into most. Pick the closest one and we will show the leadership, the proof, and the people.
Founder-led growth
Marketing still reports to the founder and decisions are stacking up.
Series A to C scale
People and partners are producing work from disconnected priorities.
Leadership transition
A CMO or communications leader has left and the function needs continuity.
Launch or funding
A dated announcement the market has to understand correctly.
U.S. market entry
Entering the U.S. needs one accountable go-to-market lead.
Evidence first
Featured work
Selected engagements, the role Cast played, and what the work produced. None is presented as fractional leadership unless it was.
Why this model
Why leadership and execution belong together
Most companies at this stage are not short of advice or short of execution. They are short of one senior person who holds both: who sets the plan, briefs the work, sequences the team and answers for the result.
That is why leadership and execution sit in the same engagement here. The five patterns below are what we are usually called in to fix.
Advisors recommend, then leave
The person who sets the plan stays to run it, so decisions do not wait for the next workshop.
Agencies wait for a brief
A senior leader writes the brief, sets the priority, and judges the work against the plan.
Internal teams inherit conflicting asks
One owner sequences the work, so the team builds against a single set of priorities.
Handoffs lose the story
Narrative, press, creators and content run from one message house under one leader.
Nobody owns the result
Outcome hypotheses agreed up front and reported to the leadership team and the board.
The Cast Method
Frame. Activate. Compound.
01 FRAME
Find the signal.
Align leadership. Agree the business moment, priorities, owners, narrative, budget and measures of success before the work starts.
Message house and proof inventory
Audience and stakeholder map
Spokesperson and risk preparation
02 ACTIVATE
Make the market care.
Coordinate execution. Direct the internal team, current agencies and Cast specialists against one plan: press, creators, executives, content and launch.
Media and new-media programme
Creator and executive activation
Launch room and single calendar
03 COMPOUND
Turn attention into authority.
Build operating maturity. Turn the work into a function that reports, learns and holds authority, ready for a permanent leader to inherit.
Quality and authority reporting
Customer proof engine
Next-moment planning
Programs for your need
Programs, each with a senior owner
Every program runs beneath an accountable Cast leader and follows Frame, Activate, Compound. Each can run as a Strategy Sprint, Embedded Leadership, or Leadership Plus Execution.
Category Authority System
Narrative and message house; funding and product launch plan; business and trade media; analyst program where appropriate; executive platform; customer and data proof; monthly insight and measurement.
Proof anchor: MURAL, Apollo.io, Doist, Qatalog
Culture & Launch Command Center
Launch narrative; audience and creator map; consumer, trade and business media; creator strategy and operations; events and partnerships; community and executive coordination; launch reporting.
Proof anchor: Arcade1Up, PrizePicks, Bandsintown
U.S. Authority Program
Local narrative sprint; competitive and target-account map; U.S. media, podcast and analyst plan; executive visit and event activation; global-local workflow; regional authority dashboard.
Proof anchor: approved public examples plus anonymised expansion proof
Evidence-to-Authority Program
Technical and commercial message architecture; claim and proof matrix; media and expert strategy; technical spokesperson preparation; milestone launch; policy and investor context where relevant.
Proof anchor: Qnovo and other approved technical work
Fractional Growth & Comms Leadership
Four to eight week strategy sprint or embedded leadership; positioning; team and partner plan; budget and roadmap; PR, content and creator prioritisation; executive operating cadence and dashboard.
Proof anchor: Arcade1Up leadership proof plus permissioned examples
Movement Builder
Participation narrative; partner and creator map; founder platform; launch and event PR; community content; sponsor or partnership story; lightweight measurement.
Proof anchor: Bandsintown, Aspire 2 More Fitness
Senior operators
Named leaders, inside the work
Justin Kraft leads fractional CMO engagements and Leah Taylor leads fractional PR/Comms. The lead is named for each engagement, supported by the senior bench, and stays inside the work.
Justin Kraft
Co-Founder and Fractional CMO
Leah Taylor
Co-Founder and Fractional PR/Comms Lead
Jerry Griffin
Senior PR Consultant
Kirsten Underwood
Senior PR Director
Lynn Trono
Media Relations + Crisis Communications Advisor
Nora Murray
Media Training Consultant
Harley
Happiness Officer
“We've loved working with Cast Influence for the past several years. They are communicative and proactive and work really hard to deeply understand your business and find opportunities that align with your goals. They have great rapport both with journalists and with our team internally. We are happy to recommend their services!”
Recognition
Awards are not the promise. They are a signal that the work holds up outside the room.
2024 Inc. Power Partner
Named by Inc. for marketing and public relations.
Two Gold Fourteener Awards
Colorado PR industry recognition for campaign work.
Long-tenure client relationships
Several relationships measured in years, not campaigns.
Briefing Notes
A monthly senior point of view on a real launch, funding, category, media, or trust problem.
No trend summaries. One brief a month, written by the operators doing the work.
Diagnostic
Inflection Point Readiness Assessment
Eight questions across story, proof, leadership, timing, approvals, channels, measurement, and ownership. You see the score before we ask for an email.
Plan for what is next.
Tell us the moment and the date. A senior operator responds within one business day, and qualified conversations can book straight into the calendar.
What happens next