Earnifi
Moved the product story from emergency cash to everyday trust.
Used customer insight to reshape the earned wage access app’s positioning, then carried the new direction into advertising and ad testing.
Product marketing consultant for tech startups
A product marketing consultant helps a tech startup decide who the product is for, what to say about it and how it gets to market, then helps carry those decisions into the launch.
If you’re weighing a consultant against an agency for a launch, here’s the short version. Hire a consultant when the decisions about buyer, positioning and story aren’t made yet. Hire an agency when the strategy is settled and you need more hands to produce and run it.
Signs you need a product marketing consultant
You don’t need to know exactly what’s broken before you hire. If one or two of these sound familiar, it’s worth a conversation.
- A launch is coming and the basics aren’t locked. There’s a date, but no agreed ICP, positioning or definition of success.
- You’re still the only one who can sell it. New reps can’t close without you on the call, because the story lives in your head.
- People find you but don’t get why you’re different. Prospects keep asking what you do, or compare you to the wrong competitors.
- Deals stall and nobody can say why. You lose to “no decision,” and the team has a new theory every week.
- Your team describes the product differently. Ask five people who the customer is and you get five answers.
- Growth has flattened and the plan is more of the same. More outbound, more content, more spend, and nobody has checked whether the message is the problem.
- You’re moving into a new segment or motion. Adding sales-assisted deals to a product-led business, or selling to a new buyer.
- A launch shipped and nothing happened. That usually looks like an execution problem. It’s almost always a foundation problem.
Who I work with
I’m Shannon Kearns, a product marketing and go-to-market consultant for founders of B2B SaaS and B2C tech startups, mostly under $15M in revenue, who still own go-to-market themselves. I do the work personally, with no agency team or subcontractors in between.
Founders who are still the go-to-market team. You might have zero customers and be working out how to land your first beta customers, be pre-product-market fit with a few customers in, or be growing and starting to feel the story slip. Usually there’s no product marketer on the team yet, and the strategy lives in your head.
Most of my clients are B2B SaaS companies under $15M in revenue, mostly hybrid or product-led, often with technical products that are hard to explain quickly. I also work with small B2C technology companies bringing a flagship product to market. Larger companies come to me when one part of the business needs product marketing support it doesn’t have.
What I do
I build the foundation your go-to-market runs on: who the customer is, what the product does for them, what to say about it, and how it reaches the market. Then I help put it to work. Engagements are usually sequenced. Most start with the GTM Strategy Diagnostic and grow once the gaps are visible from the inside.
Start here: GTM Strategy Diagnostic
Two weeks · $2,500
The starting point. Your deliverable is your diagnosis: a readiness verdict, the seven go-to-market decisions each marked validated or a guess, and a test plan.
Then: GTM Strategy Build
4 to 6 more weeks · From $9,500
Optional, and it comes after the Diagnostic. A series of working sessions and workshops, with research in between. We follow what your diagnosis found, so the order fits your company.
What you leave with:
- Early customer profile: who you can win and learn from now, and who your ICP might be later.
- Market, positioning and messaging: the market to play in first, how you’ll position, and the message and pitch you’ll test.
- Pricing and offer: the pricing method to test first and how you’ll validate it.
- Channel and motion: where you’ll start (sales-led, product-led, hybrid, or partner), how you’ll test, and why.
Two ways to keep working together
After the Build
- Execution Support, from $6,000/mo. I work with your team or agencies to produce the assets that help you validate the strategy, like pitch decks, demos, and social, plus coaching through sales calls.
- Founder Advisory, $2,800/mo. Regular working sessions on positioning, market, and go-to-market decisions, with access between calls.
I also run positioning and messaging sprints, product launches, customer and market research, and fractional product marketing. Starting prices are on the services page.
What you get
Documents your team keeps using after I’m gone. Depending on scope:
- A state-of-the-state research summary
- ICP and early customer profile definitions
- A positioning framework and a messaging framework with claims and proof points
- Competitive analysis and customer journey maps
- A launch plan with dates and owners, plus sales enablement materials
- Website messaging recommendations and message testing plans
I also help with execution where it matters, like launch assets, website pages, lifecycle and onboarding. When you need volume (ads, SEO, PR), I can bring in trusted partners and manage them against a brief I wrote. What I don’t do: PR, outbound prospecting, selling, or events.
Starting prices for each engagement are on the services page.
How it works
- A 30-minute call. We talk about what you’re trying to do and whether I’m the right kind of help. If I’m not, I’ll say so and point you to someone better.
- A scoped starting point. Usually the two-week GTM Strategy Diagnostic. Fixed scope, fixed price. I can usually start within two weeks.
- Discovery (first two weeks). Competitive research, customer calls and support tickets, reviews, and short interviews with the people who run sales, marketing, product and customer success. You get a state of the state: what’s known, what’s assumed, what contradicts, and what nobody has decided.
- Decisions. A named ICP, positioning that leaves some buyers out on purpose, and a core claim sales can repeat. You make the final calls. My job is to bring the evidence and push for a decision.
- Test it and take it to market. Messages, segments and offers go in front of real buyers before you scale them. Then we carry the work into the launch, the website and sales enablement.
- Hand it over. Your team can pitch it without you on the call, a new hire can learn the story from what’s written down, and you know what to hire for next, if anything.
While we work together I’m on Slack and email every day, in the meetings where decisions get made, and you get a written update every week on what got done, what’s next and what’s blocked.
Consultant vs agency vs full-time hire
They do different jobs, and plenty of companies use more than one in sequence.
| Product marketing consultant | GTM or marketing agency | Full-time product marketer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best when | Something feels off and needs finding, or you have a scoped push: a launch, a repositioning, a new segment | Your strategy is settled and you need volume | The story needs looking after every week: frequent releases, a sales team, ongoing enablement |
| What you get | Diagnosis, decisions tested in the market, and the assets built on them | Campaigns, content and programs running in market | Continuous ownership inside the company |
| Who does the work | The senior person you hired | Often a different team from the one in the pitch | Your employee, after a hiring cycle and ramp |
| Commitment | A project with an end date, or a monthly fractional arrangement | Usually a monthly retainer with a minimum term | Permanent headcount |
One order I like: a consultant first to find the problem and make the decisions, then a full-time hire who runs with them, with an agency added once there’s a clear brief to execute.
Client stories
A few of the companies I’ve worked with, and what the work changed.
NeuralClaim AI
Gave an early-stage AI product one clear problem and customer to own.
Focused the positioning, messaging and go-to-market strategy around a specific customer and their core problem.
Radiant Health
Reshaped the product portfolio to bring a new brand to life.
Retired one product, relaunched another and introduced a second product line, supported by a go-to-market strategy, content systems and creator marketing.
Bitly
Designed a product launch to bring a bigger brand story to life.
Provided fractional senior marketing leadership for the link and QR product suite, shaping the launch strategy and messaging to support Bitly’s broader repositioning.
Happy Scale
Designing a privacy-first way for Happy Scale to hear directly from its customers.
An ongoing customer research engagement for a consumer weight-tracking app: an in-app research panel the company owns, with no third-party SDK, and Jobs-to-be-Done interviews to inform roadmap and monetization decisions.
OroCommerce
Made the story more specific about who OroCommerce is built for, and why.
An ongoing engagement sharpening the ideal customer profile and messaging to help a B2B e-commerce platform stand out in a crowded, AI-heavy market.
About me
- Led nearly 20 product launches across B2B and B2C tech
- Founding product marketer three times
- Helped three companies reposition to multi-product
- 13 years in marketing, the last 8 in product marketing, across 9 industries
- Named a Top Product Marketing Consultant of 2025
Based in Austin, TX, working with startups worldwide. No assistants, no contractors, no outsourcing.
What clients say
“After 25 years in marketing, I didn’t truly understand world-class product marketing until I worked with Shannon. She is sharp, creative, organized, and deeply detail-oriented.”
Aaron Welch, CEO and Founder
“Shannon helped us strengthen our product marketing foundation and bring much-needed clarity to our strategy and messaging.”
Peter Lukomskij, CEO
Explore services and pricing, see how I work as a product marketing consultant, or read the product marketing consultant FAQ. Founders can start with Founder Advisory or the free Go-to-Market Readiness Assessment.
Questions founders ask
What does a product marketing consultant do for a startup?
A product marketing consultant owns the decisions about how your product is understood and bought: which customers you go after first, how you’re positioned against alternatives, what you say, and how the product reaches the market. For a startup, that usually starts with finding out what’s actually wrong, then testing the fix with real buyers. A good one also helps carry the work into the launch, the website and sales conversations.
Who can help me bring a new product to market?
Your realistic options are a fractional product marketing consultant, a marketing agency, a fractional CMO, or freelancers for single tasks. If nobody on your team owns the go-to-market strategy, a product marketing consultant who also supports execution is usually the best fit, because one person owns it from positioning through launch. I do this work for B2B SaaS and B2C tech startups. If your strategy is already settled and you need production, an agency may be the better call.
Should I hire a product marketing consultant or an agency for my launch?
Ask whether your bottleneck is a decision you haven’t made or volume you can’t produce. A consultant is right for the first: buyer, positioning, story and the launch plan. An agency is right for the second, once the strategy is settled and you need campaigns and assets at scale. Many startups do best with a consultant first and an agency working from the brief the consultant wrote.
What is a fractional product marketing consultant, and is it right for a SaaS startup?
A fractional product marketing consultant is a senior product marketer who works with your team part time on an ongoing basis, instead of one scoped project. For a SaaS startup without a product marketer, it gives you senior judgment and hands-on help without a full-time salary or a long recruiting cycle. In my fractional work that usually means 10 to 25 hours a week, daily access on Slack and a written update every week.
When should a startup hire a product marketing consultant?
Earlier than most founders think: as soon as something in your go-to-market feels off, even if you can’t name the problem yet. Common triggers are a launch on the calendar without an agreed ICP, deals stalling without a clear reason, or a founder who is still the only person who can sell the product. Zero customers isn’t necessarily too early either. At that stage the work is more advisory, focused on figuring out how to get beta customers. For a launch, two to four months out is ideal.
Should I hire a product marketing consultant or a full-time product marketer?
Hire a consultant when you need the strategy settled or a defined problem solved, like a launch or a repositioning. Hire full time when the work is weekly and ongoing: frequent releases, a sales team that needs regular enablement, and positioning that’s already tested. A consultant often makes that first full-time hire easier, because you’re recruiting for a defined job.
Is it too early to hire a product marketing consultant if I’m pre-product-market fit?
Not necessarily, even if you have zero customers. At that stage the work is more advisory, focused on figuring out how to get your first beta customers, and Founder Advisory is usually the right fit. If you already have a product in the market or a few customers and can’t explain why people buy, the work moves to testing which segment responds and which message lands.
How long does an engagement take, and how much does it cost?
Most engagements start with the GTM Strategy Diagnostic, which takes two weeks and costs $2,500. The GTM Strategy Build that follows runs 4 to 6 more weeks, from $9,500. After that you can keep working together through Execution Support or Founder Advisory. Starting prices for every engagement are on my services page. I can usually start within two weeks.
See more answers on the product marketing consultant FAQ.
Book a call
Not sure where your go-to-market stands? Let’s talk it through. 30 minutes, no cost.
If it’s a fit, we start with the two-week GTM Strategy Diagnostic. If it isn’t, I’ll tell you who might be a better fit.