Alex M.

CMO | Fractional Head of Growth | Over $200M in Incremental Revenue 📈 | Aspiring Movie Critic | Angel Investor

Executive marketing leader helping companies achieve their next level of growth.  Successful at both Fortune 50 companies and startups.  Examples include: 

 📈 At BENlabs, I managed all marketing teams, created all marketing infrastructure, guided the company's rebranding and helped spear its transformation from an agency model to an AI tech-oriented firm. My teams achieved revenue growth of our direct to consumer business and the most ever leads from a marketing team. 

 📈 At Bloomberg Media I reduced paid media costs by 400% and helped grow it first subscription business from $1M to $100M.  I did this by managing all our media expenditures, hiring and managing our agencies and signing partnerships with the likes of JetBlue and Samsung. 

 📈 At TubeBuddy I increased revenue by 30% during my first 6 months by revising pricing and packaging and A/B testing our messaging and positioning. 

 📈 At Verizon, I managed go to market and used a mixture of direct response and top of funnel marketing to lead multicultural marketing for the northeast area.  My team was responsible for an incremental 300K subscribers. Along the way, I won an award for Latino Marketer of the Year. 

None of the above happens without thinking a lot about leadership, both of my direct reports and cross functional colleagues while caring a lot about the intersection of data and creativity.

Fractional CMO

I oversee all marketing for BENlabs.  A tech company infusing AI into the creator economy across content optimization,  product placement, and influencer marketing. 

I lead a 20-person team that oversees the whole marketing funnel, including, brand, growth, and paid media.

Some recent wins include:

1) Increased our organic views by 200% 2) Led the creation of our brand strategy and creative assets 3) Increased subscribers and revenue 30% YoY

We work autonomously, and independently with a NO BS approach.   We believe in being world-class because intrinsically it is the best way to connect individual interests with company ones.

Come and join us.  We are just getting started!

𝗜'𝗺 𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀. 
The most underrated way to grow? It's not content. 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵. 

And most marketers completely ignore it.

Two years in, here's the sequence I'd give anyone starting a service business.

𝟭. 𝗡𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿. Get specific about what you're selling. Talk about the problem, not the solution. People don't buy features. They buy relief from something costing them time, money, or sleep.

𝟮. 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗺 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵. Tell everyone you know. Friends, family, former coworkers, your LinkedIn network. It feels awkward. That's why most people skip it. These people already trust you. Let them help.

𝟯. 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵. Most of us don't have an audience waiting to buy from us. So you go find them. Email. LinkedIn DMs. Not glamorous. But this is where you learn what resonates before you spend a single dollar.

𝟰. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴. You could start here. Plenty of people build audiences first and figure out the offer later. But if you need revenue now, content won't pay your bills in month two. Let outreach conversations shape what you post. That way everything you publish is already validated.

𝟱. 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗮𝗹𝘀. Find people already selling to your audience. Figure out how to help each other win. Shared-customer partnerships are the most underrated growth channel nobody talks about.

𝟲. 𝗔𝗱𝘀. Dead last. Build the best landing page you can. Invest in your brand. Go all out. But only after one through five are working. Ads are fuel. Fuel without an engine just burns.

Content is what marketers reach for first. Outreach is what gets a service business moving. Stop choosing between them. Run both together.

Alex Montas Hernández

Growth-Focused CMO | $100M+ in Attributed Revenue | SaaS · AI · PLG

12 years of scaling subscription businesses. These are the 3 channels I keep betting on and how I'm evolving them in 2026.

PLG SAAS

Andrew Capland

Coach for heads of growth | PLG advisor | former growth @ Postscript, Wistia, HubSpot

I help heads of growth have more influence and impact with 1:1 coaching -  and I help early-stage SaaS teams scale as a product-led growth advisor.

After coaching more than 50 clients, it's become clear... Most Growth Teams face the same struggles:

You’re not always sure which lever to pull to drive meaningful impact.

You don’t have a repeatable operating system, so there's no structured process for prioritizing experiments, aligning across teams, or scaling execution

You're spending too much time convincing instead of executing. You're constantly selling ideas internally, securing resources, and fighting for buy-in.

Your role feels misunderstood because your boss has never done your job, and leadership sees the numbers but doesn’t always recognize the full impact of growth.

You’re ready for the next level but don’t have a clear roadmap to get there.

I'm Andrew

I’m the former growth lead at two high-volume PLG businesses: Director of Growth at Wistia, and Head of Growth at Postscript.

I’ve been where you are.

I’ve built and scaled growth teams from scratch, run hundreds of experiments, and made every mistake in the book. I know what "good" looks like, and I know how overwhelming it can feel without mentorship from someone who's done your job.

Now, I take everything I've learned to help other growth leaders increase their impact and influence.

☎️ Book a call to work with me ☎️
https://deliveringvalue.co/get-started

Founder

Delivering Value offers coaching & advising for product-led growth teams.

Because scaling a product-led business is hard. It's a really effective go-to market model, when done right. But, it’s still relatively new and most companies don’t have someone with extensive PLG experience. 

That means you spend a lot of time and money making mistakes trying to figure it out. Or, you feel overwhelmed by all the content out there, trying to teach yourself.

That’s were the idea of Delivering Value was born. To help early-stage tech companies save time by avoiding common mistakes, learn proven frameworks & methods instead of trying to figure it out themselves, & ultimately grow faster.

Services include:
* 1:1 coaching for heads of growth
* PLG advising for SaaS teams
* Digital products for the growth community

I specialize in helping clients who work at small to mid-sized SaaS companies (usually starting around $8-$10 million in ARR), not tech unicorns. If that sounds like you, send me a message!

5 minutes before our call, I got an email from the Head of Growth at one of the largest vibe coding apps in the world.

"Dude, I'm really sorry."

"My daycare just called. My daughter has a fever. I'm in the car on the way to pick her up right now. I gotta cancel our call today"

I wrote back: "Hey, no problem at all. Totally understand. Hit me back when she feels better and we'll get something on the books."

That was last week.

Then yesterday, I found myself on the other end of that exchange.

I didn't have to cancel, but I was running late to a sales call because my wife and I were juggling our sick 20mo sick daughter at home.

She woke up over the weekend throwing up. And I made one of those 2:30am drives to the 24-hr CVS. 

My wife and I got maybe 4 hours of sleep. So yesterday morning, I was the one asking for a few extra minutes, as we passed her off between our meetings.

Last week I was on the receiving end. 

This week I was the one asking for grace.

A lot of millennials are growing into their leadership chapter right now. Some are parents. Some aren't. But every single one has stuff outside of work that bleeds into it.

A sick kid. An aging parent. A health scare. Family living in a war zone. Or something else personal they haven't told anyone about.

Without the context, it's easy to look at last minute cancellation, or someone running late - and be annoyed about the inconvenience.

It's worth remembering, whether you're managing a team or just on one. 

Always assume best intentions.

Everybody has stuff. Everybody deserves grace.

Coach for heads of growth | PLG advisor | Former 2x growth lead (Wistia, Postscript) | Co-Founder Camp Solo | Host Growing Forward Pod 🎙️

My friend took a new job and said, "i'm sure it'll be a sh*t show there too - I just don't know why yet." He figured he'd give it one year, then reevaluate the fit.

That was the smartest career advice I've ever heard.

He'd just spent eight years at the same company, and left frustrated. Things had changed so much over the last two. So, instead of pressure-testing every new gig against some unrealistic criteria, he set a different goal.

"I'll give it one year, then see how it feels."

That framing changed how I think about my own career. And it's changed how I coach every client who's nervous about saying yes to another difficult founder, another early-stage company that might not work out, another opportunity that doesn't check all the boxes.

I've started calling it, “the one year deal.”

Because things are changing so fast.

The "hot" companies of 2026 weren't on anyone's radar two years ago. And companies that felt "safe" two years ago, have struggled to maintain PMF. 

Nobody predicted this.

The most successful VPs and leaders know this better than anyone. They move around. They find perfect moment-fit, not forever-fit. 

And when the moment changes, they go find a new company where the fit is right again.

Go in with eyes open. Give it everything you've got. Then sit down with yourself after a year and ask: does this still fit? Is this still the right place for me?

If yes, great. If not, you're not a failure. You did exactly what you were supposed to do.

The guilt you're feeling about taking a job that doesn't check every box is the wrong story.

The right story is: I made a smart decision for where I am right now, and I'm going to own it with intention.

I was coaching a Head of Growth who had scaled his team to 37 people. And somewhere along the way, his biggest superpower was becoming his biggest problem.

He didn't see it yet.

I always joked that even though he lived on the west coast, he had east coast energy. He talked fast, made quick decisions, and was always thinking three steps ahead.

But what came naturally to him didn't translate to his team.

His execs didn't understand his strategy. His team struggled to execute the way he did. So in every meeting, he was the one pushing everything forward, involved in every detail.

Sound familiar?

First, we translated his strategy into language his executives understood. Framed it to earn buy-in and resources. And built an operating system so his team could execute without him involved in every project.

Once that clicked, everything accelerated. 

He built a 25-person overseas contractor team that let him validate ideas in days instead of quarters. Without breaking his budget.

In the process, Philip went from being the bottleneck to building a word-class growth team that didn't need him in every decision.

He got so good at building high-performing overseas teams that he turned it into a company.

Hire Overseas helps growth teams build pre-vetted contractor teams: growth marketers, paid ads specialists, SEOs, designers, content creators. Built for teams that need to move fast without full-time headcount.

When you're ready to scale your team 👉 https://lnkd.in/evUTZXW3

Created by a former member of our tribe, for people just like us.

I'm sharing this on a Saturday. So if nobody sees it, I can tell myself it's not a failure.

I've been sitting on an idea for 2 years. Too scared to do anything about it.

Partly because things were going well and I didn't want to mess with that. Partly because if I tried it and it didn't work, I'd have to explain that to my college friends when we meet up for dinner.

But this past year, things changed.

My roster has been full for a while. I have more demand for 1:1 coaching than I can take on.  And at some point, everyone says the same thing. 

They feel alone in their role. 

They have no one to bounce ideas off of. 

The new Directors, VPs, and Heads of Growth are working remotely, juggling young families, fighting off burnout, and sick of making decisions with AI that agrees with everything they say.

They want to be surrounded by other A players on the same journey. People who'll be honest with them.

That's exactly what I wanted when I was in-house. 

I didn't have it either.

I'm calling it the Growth Council. A small room where you can share your real challenges with people who understand your job and will be honest with you.

I'm opening the doors in the next few weeks.

If you want to be first to know 👉🏼 deliveringvalue.co/council

One day, my CEO walked over to my desk, sat down next to me, and said, "stop, that's not your job."

I still remember that moment vividly.

We hadn't worked much together at that point. So it was a heart-racing moment at the time.

Before I started and scaled my first growth team - I was a growth marketer focused on user acquisition. 

And our CEO would occasionally Slack me ideas he'd heard from his startup founder network - tests they'd run, channels they were scaling, copy that converted, and other random stuff they'd tried.

And every single time, I said "yes, great call. Adding it to the next sprint."

I thought I was being helpful. 

But he saw the situation differently.

He said: "My job is to bring growth ideas to the right person - that's you. Your job is to evaluate if the ideas are any good for us. Not to automatically say yes because I'm the CEO. I have bad ideas all the time."

That conversation changed how I think about prioritization entirely.

Because until that point, I'd been rewarded for saying yes. For being helpful. For taking things on. That instinct got me promotions and raises before.

But that instinct was also quietly costing me.

Every yes meant something more important got delayed. Every yes meant my actual priorities got diluted. And every yes sent a signal that I didn’t have a clear point of view on what actually mattered.

And after coaching more than 90+ growth leaders since then, I've learned the ones who build the most influence and impact say no way more than they say yes.

(and when they do say no, they explain the trade-off clearly: "If we take this on, here's what we're delaying.")

That's how you build trust.

I made a video breaking down the 5 prioritization skills that separate growth leaders who have real impact from the ones who just stay busy.

Take a peek on youtube if you want my deep dive here https://lnkd.in/eXXGYfsJ

When used appropriately, saying no can be a career superpower.

I was scrolling LinkedIn on my way into the gym when I almost spit out my coffee.

One of my old clients (head of marketing) had just been promoted to CEO.

(I wasn't surprised she made it - just that it happened so fast)

And when her boss made the offer, she actually did spill her coffee.

She was leading the marketing org at a PLG company with millions of users when we worked together. And she'd built her whole career on saying yes to things she didn't know how to do yet.

Say yes first. Figure it out later.

Never run a campaign? Yes, I'll figure it out. 
No idea what an integrated marketing calendar is? Yes, I'll figure it out. 
Head of marketing at a scaleup with no infrastructure? Yes, I'll figure it out.

It worked. In 6 years, she went social media manager to CEO.

But somewhere in the middle, that habit became a liability.

The skills that get you to head of marketing, head of growth, VP of whatever - can be the same skills that hold you back once you're there.

You said yes to everything. You raised your hand before you knew the answer. You out-worked everybody in the room.

And then you land the leadership role.

Suddenly you're drowning in great ideas you can't execute. You're in every meeting. Every decision flows through you.

That job requires something different. 

Sequencing. Prioritization. Saying no to things that feel important. Being okay with mediocre in some areas so you can be exceptional in the ones that actually matter.

That transition is hard. And some people never make it. 

Because your superpower and your kryptonite are usually the same thing.

She figured it out. 

This week on Growing Forward, Arielle Johncox walked me through the whole journey - and everything she had to unlearn to get there.

Catch it here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eeYqaNqg

My dad: "Hey buddy, how's it going?"

Me: "I feel really anxious, but I can't figure out why."

Also me: "Have you ever felt like that?"

My dad, after a pause: "Uh, no. I don't think so."

Then we both laughed. But I wasn't really laughing.

That was me at peak imposter syndrome + burnout. I woke up tired and anxious almost every morning during that time. 

Always focused on what I hadn't done.
Ways I was falling short. 
Goals I hadn't hit.

I didn't even realize how much my focus was impacting my confidence until my coach asked me a question during one of our sessions:

"What was a win you had this week?"

I gave her one. 

She said: "What else?"

And I came up with another. 

She kept pushing. By the time I had three, I realized - I actually had been doing okay. I was just ignoring my wins. And instead focusing on what I hadn't done well.

She gave me an assignment: 

Write down 3 wins every day.

Didn't have to be big. Praise from a teammate. An experiment that moved the needle. A hard conversation I didn't avoid. A KPI headed in the right direction.

And after a few weeks of this exercise I realized that my brain started scanning for wins during the day instead of scanning for everything I hadn't done yet. 

Like a muscle. The more I trained it, the stronger it got.

I've given this same assignment to almost every client I've coached. It's not a cure for imposter syndrome. But it's one of the most underrated tools I know for rebuilding your confidence over time.

If you're a growth leader who's been silently carrying that "general state of uneasiness" - you're not alone. 

Most people just don't have the courage to say this stuff out loud.

And if nobody's asked you how you're actually doing lately, I'm asking.

A few minutes before the scariest call of my week, I prepped my battle station. 

Microwaved my coffee. Put my notes on the second monitor. Then nervously clicked my pen. Waited for everyone else to sign-in.

By the time all 10 joined, I could feel my body entering that mode where you're not sure if it's peak performance or you're about to have a panic attack.

I've spent dozens of hours with each of these people individually. But I'd never had them all in the same room before.

I've publicly shared that I'm starting a group coaching program in Q2. Privately, I have no idea how to run one. This was my first attempt at figuring it out.

I invited 10 growth leaders onto a Zoom. 

Directors, VPs, Heads of Growth, all navigating similar challenges right now. I picked a topic relevant to everyone, set up the call, and hoped for the best.

A few minutes in, something happened that slowed my heart rate down.

People just started talking. Jumping in. Problem-solving. Connecting. All the things I was hoping would happen - started happening on their own.

About 20 minutes in, two of them realized they'd lived through the exact same situation. Just in different order.

One had just been asked to step into an interim VP of Marketing role after their boss was let go. The other had just come out the other side of that exact situation a few months earlier.

So he shared everything he had learned.

That's the room I'm building. A place where the person who just solved your problem is sitting right next to you.

The Growth Council opens 5 spots in Q2. 

I'm reviewing applications personally. If you're a Director, VP, or Head of Growth ready to stop figuring it out alone, apply at the link in bio.

If I didn’t care about hurting your feelings, here’s what I’d tell you about running a growth team.

1. Your boss has no idea what you do - and it's probably your fault. A huge part of the job is making it clear.

2. Nobody understands what your team is working on, or why. If you can’t explain it simply, you shouldn't expect support and resources.

3. Don’t get fooled by the fancy jargon and acronyms. Most are just complicated ways of saying “deliver value to your users.” Focus on that, and you'll be okay.

4. Unless you're also a customer - stop making decisions based on your personal preferences, or leadership’s. Anchor on the user and the data.

5. You don’t have to say yes to everything. Your real job is figuring out which opportunities deserve a yes.

That’s my starter list anyways.

"We're just too busy. There are more things we could be doing. We don't have time to do them."

I've heard some version of this from almost every new Director trying to make a case for more headcount.

And I get it. You ARE too busy.

But so is every other team lead asking for another hire right now.

And "we're drowning" is not a compelling hiring argument. That's just how it usually feels working at a startup.

On a call last week, I pushed back on a client who came in with exactly this framing. I asked them one question:

"Are you hiring to get rid of work that feels annoying - or are you hiring into an opportunity that would move the needle in a major way for the business?"

They paused. Nobody had ever framed it that way for them.

Here's what I've seen from the growth leaders who are most effective at getting headcount approved:

They lead with what's being left on the table. Not how busy they are. 

They walk into that conversation and say:

"If we had someone who could execute on X, here's what we'd be able to achieve. Here's what it would mean for our main goals. And here's what it's costing us every month we don't."

That's a more compelling case.

The modeling/math can go in the appendix (of however you make this argument). But the story, the opportunity, and the cost of inaction - that's what you lead with.

(The one exception: if YOU are the specific bottleneck on something that would unlock outsized impact for the business, then yes - hiring to free you up is absolutely the right move. But that's a different argument, and it still needs to be framed as opportunity, not overwhelm.)

I’ve found this approach works much better.

I spent years pushing for a promotion - and felt completely lost after I got it.

I was leading a cross-functional growth team at a cool tech startup. The title I'd been chasing. Director of Growth. 

I'd told myself everything would be way easier once I got that title. People would finally trust my decisions. I wouldn't have to fight so hard for budget, justify extra headcount, or sell my strategy up down and sideways.

But within a few weeks I realized I was having the same debates - with a new title. It was frustrating.

I just wanted to quietly do good work. 

I didn't want to complain. Because who complains after a promotion? 

But on the inside I was really frustrated because I had pushed so hard for something I wasn't enjoying.

My team could hear about it - that would impact their motivation. My execs definitely couldn't know - they'd question if I was the right person for that job. And talking about it at dinner with my wife felt crazy.

It wasn't until I started working with a coach that I learned this is actually a documented thing. High performers who've spent years working toward a goal often fall into a low-grade depression after they achieve it.

The person chasing the goal was their identity. When the goal is gone, so is the motivation and sense of self.

That conversation didn't fix everything. 

But it was the first time I'd said it out loud to someone who didn't need anything from me. Someone I could think out loud with without it costing me anything.

It took me months to figure out a new title wasn't the finish line.

"Dude, I've had the SAME arguments with the SAME people in the SAME ways so many times that I'm just exhausted... I've stopped pushing as hard."

A VP of Growth said that on our call.

He'd been questioning if he was focused on the right things. But I thought the real challenge was something else.

So I asked him a simple question:

"If you were fired tomorrow and they hired someone new for your exact job, do you think they'd do something drastically different than what you're doing?"

He thought about it for a while. 

"No. I think they'd probably see the same opportunities I do."

Then he gave the answer above, which meant his instincts weren't the problem. He'd stopped trusting himself.

Confidence erodes slowly. 

The idea you pitched that got ignored and then credited to someone else 6 mos later. The meeting where you had the answer but didn't want to risk being wrong. The quarter you missed your numbers, while other teams hit theirs.

Those all chip away.

Then one day you realize the swaggy version of you that walked in 18 months ago (who wasn't scared to push, make mistakes, or ask for permission) is gone. 

You're still there. But you're quieter. Less swag.

So we built him a trophy file.

A running doc of his wins, thank-you's, Slack claps, screenshots, and data points to remind himself all of the value he brings every day. And we added three things every single day.

It's a small activity. But a huge tool.

Because your edge doesn't come back on its own. You have to find it, one win at a time.

One of my best clients got leveled after 16 months.

They didn't hire someone to replace her. They hired a more senior growth advisor to work directly with her CEO instead.

She was understandably frustrated. 

The advisor recommended most of the same things she'd been pushing for internally. They saw the same opportunities. 

But they shared them in a way that made it easier for the execs to get behind.

In retrospect, her CEO never understood what she was working on, or why. And by the time that was clear, it was too late. The trust was already gone.

Growth is still a relatively new discipline. 

And unlike marketing or product, where most executives think they understand the playbook, growth sits across all of it.

You might push for product changes to drive usage that conflicts with the product team roadmap. Or see an acquisition opportunity in a channel marketing hasn't prioritized. 

You're often doing work that bumps into other teams. 

That's the nature of the job.

If you're not constantly managing alignment, you end up in a million meetings, getting blocked, or both.

The average Head of Growth I meet lasts in their role around 18 months. 

But the ones who last 3-4 yrs treat communication as core part of the job. 

They market what they're doing and why. They make trade-offs visible. They get alignment before they ship, and rebuild it every time something changes.

The ones who don't run into challenges.

Full breakdown on youtube 👉 https://lnkd.in/ew4VYZBA

"Julie" is a VP of Growth who told me she was waking up at 3am to refresh her dashboards every night. 

She was putting lots of pressure on herself to win - fast.

She'd just stepped into the role from a more traditional VP of Marketing background. And she was figuring it for the first time, and alone.

She had been working with an executive coach when I met her. 

But generic leadership wisdom can only go so far when the actual challenge is leading a cross-functional growth team through AI, shifting channels, resource constraints, and an evolving concept of product-market fit.

At some point, she stopped working with the exec coach and worked with me.

She jokingly called our sessions "growth therapy." 

She'd show up to our calls feeling overwhelmed by all the competing priorities. By the end of the hour, she'd have clarity on what to tackle first and a growing "not right now" list for everything else.

I'm not a certified executive coach (though my mom is and probably how I fell into this). 

But I've just done this job twice and coached 90+ other people through it. 

It was clear she needed someone who had seen her exact challenges before and help her develop processes and frameworks to solve them.

A year later, her team hit 40%+ year-over-year growth. 

The only thing that changed was she stopped figuring it out alone.

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