Fractional CMO | Strategic Marketing Leader | Managing Director at Strategic Brand Builders | Creating High ROI Marketing Strategy

I build marketing machines that scale — not just campaigns that look good on paper.

Over the last 10+ years, I’ve helped $3M+ businesses clarify their message, build systems that support growth, and align marketing with sales and finance. Whether leading internal teams or collaborating with external vendors, I bring a CMO-level mindset to every challenge: strategy first, execution built to scale, and ROI that actually holds up under scrutiny.

From brand positioning and funnel design to performance marketing and CRM optimization, I’ve worked with founders, CFOs, and EOS implementers to turn chaos into clarity — and marketing into a true growth lever.

🧠 What I bring:
- Executive-level strategy with hands-on systems thinking
- Deep experience across brand, demand gen, and marketing ops
- Team leadership that drives performance and accountability
- A track record of turning vision into revenue — fast

Right now, I’m open to:
- Full-time marketing leadership roles (VP or CMO-level)
- Fractional CMO partnerships with companies ready to scale but not ready to hire in-house

When I’m not building marketing systems, you’ll find me surfing, exploring new cities, or taking the long road with the top off my Jeep. I believe the best businesses are the ones that give you freedom — and I help build the kind of marketing that makes that possible.

Want to jam on strategy, growth, or whether your marketing’s really working?
📅 Let’s talk — I promise it’ll be more fun than your last “brand audit.” https://app.reclaim.ai/m/trent-warner/quick-meeting

Trent Warner

Valentine Boyev

CEO at Halo Lab ✦ Helped 500+ companies to raise 💲revenue and investments through digital design and marketing → $500M+ in client total funding

With a passion for creating unique and scalable digital products, I help brands achieve their goals and enhance their online presence.

Key Achievements:

✅ $500m+ in client total funding

✅ 500+ happy clients

✅ 99+ international awards

✅ 120+ glowing reviews


I specialize in:

⤷  Web Design Services: Creating eye-catching and user-friendly websites that grab attention and drive results.

⤷  Website Development: Building strong, reliable websites that fit your business perfectly.

⤷  User Experience Design: Making sure your users have a smooth and enjoyable experience.

⤷  Brand Design: Crafting unique brand identities that really pop.

⤷  Conversion Optimization: Helping turn your visitors into loyal customers.

⤷  Digital Web Solutions: Providing all the web solutions you need in one place.

⤷  Website Redesign for Results: Giving your old website a makeover to boost performance and engagement.

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My Journey

My career began 15 years ago as a UI/UX designer, driven by a passion for creativity and beauty. For me, design is more than a job—it’s a way of life, an ever-exciting, fantastic world.

I believe in thinking outside the box and continuously renewing my knowledge. This mindset has guided me in helping people fall in love with brands and assisting agencies in winning new business.

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Halo Lab

Another passion I discovered is mentoring young designers at Halo Lab, where I help them become true professionals. Sharing my knowledge not only helps others but also fuels my own learning journey.

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Have a BIG idea in mind?

Contact me directly: inquiry@halo-lab.com

Co-Founder & CEO

Halo Lab is a full-stack design & development team.

We created digital projects almost every day since 2013.

We work with a diverse range of innovative startups and established companies. We've launched over 350 projects, helping our clients secure a total of $370M in funding. 

Some of our standout projects include:

- Kinetik: A healthcare platform with over 3,500 integrated providers.
- Bookclub24: A German online library for book collectors.
- Raven.gg: A leading brand in custom esports clothing design.
- Mighty Buildings: Pioneers in sustainable 3D-printed houses.

“$5K for a full app” sound too good to be true.

A credible app budget runs anywhere from $50K–$250K+, depending on scope and complexity. 

At $5K, what you’re really buying is a prototype, a landing MVP, or a template, not a production-grade product.

The hidden costs show up later:

✦ No QA.
✦ No security.
✦ No IP clarity.
✦ No discovery.
✦ No maintenance plan.

So what does a serious proposal include?

1. Discovery: user flows, integrations, edge cases.
2. Delivery plan: milestones, QA, release strategy.
3. Security & compliance baked in.
4. Ongoing ops & maintenance plan.

🚩 If a vendor quotes $5K for the whole thing, don’t think “deal.” 
Think “demo.”
The real bill will come later, in rewrites, downtime, or lost trust.

The smarter play: if budget is tight, scope a small, clear MVP with defined limits and a real path to production. 

That way, your “cheap” start doesn’t become an expensive rewrite.

♻️ Share it resonates.
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CEO @ Halo Lab ✦ Leading a 130+ design-driven B2B software company → 500+ products shipped & scaled

7 UI rules I wish I knew earlier.

(to make the UI work for the product growth).

1. Focus on fixing real user problems, not curious design. Function over form.

2. Stop guessing what works. Test all UI elements - buttons, CTAs, days of the week, color schemes - before you make a decision. Let the data choose.

3. Waiting for the perfect design means you're going to miss the needs of your users. Get feedback early and iterate fast.

4. Do not make the user think. Use simple, clear language that anyone can understand. The simpler the better.

5. The best way to reduce friction is to eliminate a choice.
 Focus on what matters.

6. Your UI is never "finished." It will evolve with user feedback and as your product changes.

7. If your product isn't optimized for mobile, you're losing users (we saw 40% drop-off on mobile checkout before the redesign).

Ultimately, outstanding UI is about making your product simple, clear, and effective for the people using it.
Design for your users, not for your ego.

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in designing for usability?

♻️ Share this to help others avoid mistakes.
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If 40% of users would be “very disappointed” without your product, you’re close to PMF.

But users don’t feel “very disappointed” because of features.
They feel it because:
The product solves a real pain
The value is obvious
The experience feels effortless
That’s UX.

Data shows:
88% won’t return after one bad experience.
69% of enterprise software fails to deliver value.
60% of users abandon purchases due to poor UX.
42% of startups fail because there’s no real market need.

Most of those failures are about building the wrong solution, making value hard to access, creating friction before the “aha” moment.

Great UX design does three critical things:

1. Identifies the real problem before you build.
2. Clarifies the value proposition instantly.
3. Removes friction between intent and outcome.

Without that foundation, development becomes expensive experimentation.
With it, you build toward validated demand.

What about the ROI? Forrester reports:
415% ROI from UX investment.
Payback in under 6 months.
Massive reduction in rework costs.

PMF isn’t when users say, “Nice product.”
It’s when they say, “I can’t work without this.”

That’s a UX outcome.

We help product teams turn friction into traction through strategic UX design. Explore our UX design services → https://lnkd.in/dm3U-5yX

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How UX drives product-market fit

Stop increasing your expenses by 200% to 300%.

Start choosing the right build path.

Here is a rough estimate of costs associated with the two approaches based upon typical U.S. agency pricing and costs for the first year.

If your product is a marketing site, landing page, content hub, or simple store
→ Choose Webflow - аaster launch, lower cost, no dev retainer, easy updates.

Year-one cost:
🔹 $3.5K–$25K build.
🔹 $200–$900/year hosting.
🔹 $0 maintenance (no updates, no security patches, no plugins to babysit)

Explore our Webflow services 👉 https://lnkd.in/dHvy96bR

If your product needs real logic.
→ Choose custom code - because Webflow can’t handle user auth, multi-role logic, complex data structures, or real product architecture.

Year-one cost:
🔹 $25K–$150K+ build.
🔹 Hosting: $50–$200/mo
🔹 Ongoing engineering maintenance required.

Explore our Web development services 👉 https://lnkd.in/dKwsDnTh

The simple rule:
If the website’s job is to communicate → Webflow.
If the product’s job is to compute or interact → Code.
That’s it.

And the fastest way to save time + money is knowing the difference early.

♻️ Share this to help others make a choice.
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Freelancers execute tasks.

Dedicated teams build products.

That’s the real difference.

And it’s why enterprise companies increasingly choose dedicated product design teams over solo contractors.

1. No “Vacation Pause”.
2. You’re getting product intelligence.
3. Real consistency.
4. Strategic partnership.

Last quarter, we analyzed costs for 23 SaaS products: freelancer projects averaged 40% more in rework costs despite lower rates.

The freelancer model often means:
- Coordination overhead
- Inconsistent quality
- Rework
- Delays

Dedicated teams deliver faster, more predictably, and with built-in quality control.

If you’re building a serious product in SaaS, fintech, healthtech, you need a systemized, cross-functional product design engine.

👉 Partner with Halo Lab’s dedicated product design team and build with consistency, speed, and strategic clarity 👉 https://bit.ly/49wqB0p

Let’s talk about your next release.

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What a dedicated product design team does

I watched a founder burn $180K on hiring before shipping a single feature.

Here's the math they missed:

🔹 In-house.
High salaries + benefits.
Recruitment delays + costs.
Equipment + admin overhead.

🔹 Dedicated team.
No hiring delays.
Immediate start with senior talent.
Clear monthly cost, no hidden overhead.

One client switched after 4 months of failed interviews — saved $60K and launched 6 weeks later.

Dedicated teams aren’t just cheaper. They’re faster.
You skip 3-6 months of recruitment delays.
You get structured delivery and clear accountability.
While others are still hiring, you’re already shipping.

Want to know your project cost?
We built a Smart Calculator to help founders like you get a realistic cost estimate. 

Try it here 👉 https://bit.ly/469trIn

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Dedicated vs in-house

Every product fosters feelings.

Slack develops curiosity (you check threads). 
LinkedIn develops affirmation (you observe reactions). 
Airbnb develops trust (you reside within somebody else's space). 
Uber develops control (you follow the car, the route, the pricing).

The emotional loop your product supports, becomes the habit that makes users return or leave.

And here is where many teams miss. Your design doesn't just support feelings. It influences them.

✦

For every engagement - a micro-feeling is triggered - frustration, relief, pride, fear. 
These micro-feelings accumulate into a memory. Then memory drives retention.

Behavioral design studies confirmed that:

✦ Positive feelings (clarity, control, competence) are proven to increase engagement by 30-40%.

✦ Unresolved frustration (human error, waiting, loss of context) is the leading cause of churn within SaaS and consumer apps.
So when your UX creates anxiety (loading uncertainty, unclear steps, overwhelming dashboards) - the user has accomplished their task, but subconsciously will avoid returning.

✦

Every product trains some solution.
Banking apps establish trust through clarity, confirmation, and feedback.
Healthtech products establish calm through predictability, empathy, and clarity in high-stress situations.
Productivity tools establish competence through progress visibility and responsive approaches.
E-commerce establishes confidence through speed, reassurance, and visual clarity.

If your UI, motion, and feedback loops do not align with the emotion you want to establish, they will establish the opposite.

Ways to audit emotional design in your product.

1. Avatar the emotion you want your users to feel. (Do you want them caring, empowered, energized, etc.?) 

2. Map the emotion to each interaction. For every step: "What is this moment teaching?" 

3. Test the users' reactions, not just the usability. Record facial expressions or tone, or even keywords in a survey, after each interaction. 

4. Design feedback loop(s)- use motion, microcopy, timing, etc. to bake enrich positive emotions in the experience.

Any emotional association your product will have already taught emotion - even if you weren't designing for it. Are you sure it was the right one?

♻️ Share this to help others audit their products.
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