The 18 Types of
Startup Marketers
David Berkowitz
Principal, Serial Marketer
@dberkowitz
david@serialmarketer.net

About this presentation
This is based on a talk given at Talent Land in Guadalajara Mexico in April
2019.
This is fully annotated version, based on an article that I originally shared
on LinkedIn (the original version had only 16 though). There are lots of
generalizations here, as there are in any framework, but they’re all based
on real-world examples.
All illustrations are original creations via the artist “hiraarshad” who I
commissioned via Fiverr. As a bonus, you can find Fiverr and a lot of my
favorite services and apps on this public spreadsheet.
Please share any thoughts and feedback. I welcome hearing how this
resonates with your experience.
David Berkowitz
Serial Marketer

Connecting ideas and people
3
Join the Serial Marketers
community on Slack:
serialmarketers.net
Subscribe to my
weekly newsletter:
bit.ly/seriallysignup

This is based on scores of interviews (both seeking and
hiring) and hundreds of conversations with fellow
marketers. These interviews are often so draining.

It just seemed like one of us was pushing
something that the other didn’t want.

Sometimes, it felt like we were in entirely
different worlds, not communicating with
each other.

So how do we get past this failure to
communicate? That’s the goal of this talk. Jpw
cam we start getting along?

How do we get to feeling like this
where hirers and seekers interact?

Even if it doesn’t work out quite so nicely, let’s
at least wind up in a place of mutual respect.

Let’s meet the marketers!

1) The Growth Hacker
Strengths:
• Efficiently acquires customers
• Data-driven decision-maker
• Loves to test & learn
• Can optimize around practically any metric
Weaknesses:
• Blind spots with building brands
• Underinvests in less direct paths to shorten sales
cycles
Recommendations:
• Pair with a Communicator, Creative, or Strategist to
have the Growth Hacker better quantify their work

2) The Manager
Strengths:
• Management experience
• Can handle any size team
• Focuses on growth trajectory of members of their
team
Weaknesses:
• Could be a political maneuverer obsessed with
headcount above all else
• May be so focused on meetings with their team that
they don’t have time to do their main job
Recommendations:
• Focus on evaluating their leadership qualities rather
than purely the quantity of their direct reports

3) The Communicator
Strengths:
• Verbal and written communication eloquence
• Might share responsibilities with the Evangelist or
report into them
• Can bring ideas to life and make the inexplicable
comprehensible
Weaknesses:
• Can be in a silo if communications is in a separate
group from marketing
• Needs to be included in core conversations and
decisions, not marginalized
Recommendations:
• Give them access to key processes and personnel,
and invite them to be part of making decisions

4) The Evangelist
Strengths:
• A strong voice and face for your business
• They often have their own audience, so they come
with their own media channel
• Can dazzle prospects and the press
Weaknesses:
• Often lacks substance if they don’t have internal
responsibilities
• That can prevent them from truly being part of the
team
Recommendations:
• Find substantive ways to make use of their talents,
such as incorporating them as an executive sponsor
on key accounts or contributing in other measurable
ways

5) The Creative
Strengths:
• Impeccable design skills
• Brimming with new ideas
• A skilled storyteller
• Can give life to the most mundane or technical
products
Weaknesses:
• Potential turf wars if the Creative wants to influence
product design and can’t due to their marketing focus
• Needs freedom to operate – and may face challenges
in a culture where everything is data-driven
Recommendations:
• Establish a clear process with how they fit in with
product design; this is also an easier role to fill via
consultants who prefer not to go in-house

6) The Strategist
Strengths:
• A master cartographer
• Provides the insights that lead to the big idea, small
idea, and every other idea
• Can at times interchange with and usually interact
well with the Creative
Weaknesses:
• Ideas and plans alone don’t grow a business – you
need a team that can execute
• Could clash with the Creative, especially without
clear roles and responsibilities
Recommendations:
• Find out how they can execute, or this risks being a
luxury hire

7) The Generalist
Strengths:
• Can do a little bit of everything
• Often surprises the team with how much they’ve
experienced and how well they can apply what
they’ve learned
• They often can muster resources to get any job done
• A kindred spirit of the Connector
Weaknesses:
• They risk being a master of none
Recommendations:
• Find out where they truly excel, what they can
oversee competently, and what areas are totally new
for them

8) The Soldier
Strengths:
• Great at following orders
• A strong team player who knows their job and
reliably performs it
Weaknesses:
• When you need them to take ownership, they’re
usually ill-prepared to do so
• So averse to confrontation that they tend to stick to
saying what their superiors want to hear
Recommendations:
• Decide on if you want to groom the Soldier to lead;
if so, push them out of their comfort zone; if not, find
ways for them to advance internally without taking
on leadership responsibilities

9) The Connector
Strengths:
• They’re two degrees away from anyone you need to
get in front of – and maybe one degree
• Skilled at coming up with great options for anything
and anyone you need
• Can add value when trying to find other key hires
Weaknesses:
• Just because they can connect you, they still might
not get you in front of the right people in the right
way to close a deal
Recommendations:
• Pair the Connector with the right Closer, or at least
strong counterparts from the sales team

10) The Product Marketer
Strengths:
• Can build in feedback loops to keep customers
hooked while roping in new customers
• If the product itself can sustain such loops, this may
be the only key marketing hire needed for awhile
Weaknesses:
• Few products work that well, so product marketers
can only work so much magic
Recommendations:
• Ensure the Product Marketer has enough resources
to support product growth and get the product into
more prospects’ hands

11) The Ladder Climber
Strengths:
• Rising through the ranks and constantly promoted,
they often come from other teams and take on
marketing as well
• Adaptable and loyal, they have tremendous
institutional knowledge
Weaknesses:
• Often lacks any training in marketing
• Can prevent the company from seeking a skilled
subject matter expert
Recommendations:
• Typically, one needs to hire someone for the Ladder
Climber to report into; couch this as a way to expand
opportunities for them, or switch them to another
role

12) The Globalist
Strengths:
• Your ads targeting Mauritius will never run in
Mauritania
• This marketer can target any audience anywhere
and has years of international experience
Weaknesses:
• If you only need to focus on your home market or
another key region, their experience will be overkill
Recommendations:
• Set realistic expectations before making such a hire,
as many companies that say they are building global
businesses and teams rarely expand very far quickly

13) The Closer
Strengths:
• Typically a salesperson who winds up in marketing
roles
• Perfect for when a seller is best to lead marketing
Weaknesses:
• Sales is not marketing, so there still needs to be a
team that can do marketing properly
Recommendations:
• Even when this kind of CMO may manage sales and
marketing together (just like a chief revenue officer
may), the Closer should have marketers that
complement their strengths

14) The Engineer
Strengths:
• May be as technical as the founder, if not more
• Can apply methodologies like Agile or Waterfall to
the marketing process
• A dream for developers given there’s no language
barrier
Weaknesses:
• Often struggles to translate what they’re doing to
anyone but the most technical audiences
Recommendations:
• Best fit to lead a team if external audiences are also
developers or otherwise technical; ensure Engineers
can collaborate well with Sales and other groups that
don’t have as much technical knowledge

15) The Spendthrift
Strengths:
• Convinced it takes money to make money, and
making money is their endgame
• Generous with supporting other teams like Sales and
Product
Weaknesses:
• Protecting the burn rate tends to be an issue
• May pad metrics to ensure spending fits in with
target customer acquisition costs (CAC)
Recommendations:
• Frugal CEOs and COOs are bound to clash with the
Spendthrift; look for the Spendthrift to show results to
justify expenditures

16) The Miser
Strengths:
• Very protective of the burn rate
• Won’t blow through even a modest marketing
budget
Weaknesses:
• More caution comes with less experimentation
• Might skimp on quality and make your brand
look cheap
• Reticent to seek necessary additional resources
Recommendations:
• Encourage them to think bigger as if money is no
object to learn what is really on their wish list;
regularly check in with other teams like Sales and
Product to ensure Marketing is supporting them

17) The CEO
Strengths:
• The CEO or another founder may serve as the
default CMO
• Knows the company better than anyone
• Some CEOs are inherently talented marketers
Weaknesses:
• Typically doesn’t have the time to focus on
marketing, even if they have the skills
Recommendations:
• Know when to let go, let the right
hire take over, and then figure out
which type of marketer you need

18) The Unicorn
Strengths:
• Can do literally everything
• Great at direct marketing and brand marketing
• Creative strategist with deep analytics chops
• Worked in exactly the vertical you want
• Doesn’t cost anywhere nearly as much as they should
• Has right amount of experience –
a lot of what’s relevant, but not too much
• A 10 out of 10 in every single criteria you list
Weaknesses:
• Does not actually exist
Recommendations:
• Use this guide as a way to get past your fantasy of this
unicorn hire. Consider this your reality check.

Which type of marketer are you?

Which type of marketer are you?
(Okay, not her – she doesn’t exist!)

Who’s missing?
?
I’d love to know what
other types of marketers
should be here. Please
contact me with other
ideas.

Action items: if you’re hiring…
Be very specific about the kinds of marketer or marketers you’re
looking for.
Put more time into determining criteria up front, and save time
later as you zero in on the right kinds of candidates faster.
Prioritize skill sets – don’t always worry about someone checking
all the boxes. Make sure you get the best match for the most
important criteria, and you can always fill in the rest.
If you’re building a team, decide on who should lead. Practically
any type has leadership potential, but the CEO or hiring lead
has to determine where to start.

Action items: if you’re seeking jobs…
Be honest with yourself about what kind of marketer you are
and what you’re not. You probably relate to more than one type.
Be selective. Don’t try to apply to any and every job when the
hirer’s priorities are different from yours.
Build networks. Make friends with other marketers. If you’re an
Engineer, know who good Communicators. Make the world a
little smaller. Share the wealth – and the opportunities.
Set goals for the kind of marketer you want to be. Play to your
strengths while learning new skills. Ensure that others will see
you in the same way you want to be seen. Adapt accordingly.

Plot yourself on these
trait scales
Oftentimes, you will find yourself partially identifying with one
kind of marketer, but also identifying with some of a very different
kind of marketer’s traits. Where do you fit on these scales?

Trait: Maker vs. Communicator
Do you like to make and build things, or do you like to make prospects and customers understand the
value of what others create?

Trait: Miser vs. Spendthrift
Is your priority protecting the company’s burn rate at all costs, even if it means underinvesting in
marketing, or spending whatever it takes to go after your target customers and make your company
seem like a much bigger, more powerful brand?

Trait: Internal vs. External Focus
Are your meetings mostly with internal team members or external parties? Is your job to always be at
the office or be there as little as possible?

Trait: Tactical vs. Strategic
Are you all about flawless execution or brilliant strategies?

Trait: Specialist vs. Generalist
Do you prefer to specialize in that one area and build your reputation around how great you are at it?
Or are you that Renaissance hire who can do a bit of everything? This could also be the hedgehog vs.
fox scale, where Isaiah Berlin wrote a story based on Greek poet Archilochus who said “a fox knows
many things, but a hedgehog one important thing.”

Trait: Soloist vs. Team Leader
Are you determined to be your own department, with all the autonomy it brings, even if you’re not as
tied into a bigger team? Or do you love managing others, building out your department, and
shepherding others along their career paths?

Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQ)
These are questions I’ve received on stage and in response to
some of the published columns. I’ll add to this as more questions
come in.

FAQ
What is my ideal team?
Balance is key. You want to have a mix of strengths, especially in a
smaller team. A Product Marketer and a Growth Hacker together
may overlap too much with limited resources, but a Connector,
Closer, and Engineer could do wonders, depending on the
company’s needs. Most people also fall into more than one
category, with one trait leading the way, so again, with a small team,
you can tap into some of those lesser traits of your team members
as being good enough to get you far enough along.

FAQ
Is there a best type?
You’re probably going to find that the best types are those you relate
to, or those you’re jealous of. I’m envious of growth hackers; they’re
in such high demand and have a very valuable, specialized skillset.
As a generalist, I wish I could have that kind of focus and such a
clear mission statement. But some growth hackers might be jealous
of the breadth of what I’ve been able to work on and accomplish.
It’s also possible though that you just love the type you are, and
that’s fantastic. We should all be so lucky to love our jobs so much.

FAQ
Should I be more of a specialist or generalist?
Yes.
It depends though. When you reach advanced stages of your career,
it helps to have a wide range of experience. Still, with 10 or 20 or
30 years under your belt, many people will probably know you as
one thing – ‘the closer gal’ or ‘the social media guy.’ There’s
something to be said for owning your reputation and leaning into it,
rather than trying to change perception. Earlier on, it is so much
easier to be a specialist. That doesn’t mean you have to go that
route, but if it’s a skill that’s remotely in demand in your market, it
helps to be known as having some degree of competence or
expertise there.

FAQ
If I’m a generalist, how do I become more of a specialist?
Learn however and wherever you can. There are probably tons of
online courses in whatever field you’re looking to get into – search
engine marketing, account-based marketing, public relations, using
content marketing for demand generation, or practically anything
else.

Thank you!
Reach out anytime.
David Berkowitz
Principal, Serial Marketer
@dberkowitz
david@serialmarketer.net
www.serialmarketer.net
Subscribe: bit.ly/seriallysignup