Marcel
Ruettgers
Fractional Head of Growth
I help founder-led $1M to $10M startups go from putting out fires to knowing exactly what to do next. Growth strategy, revenue systems, and GTM operations.
Fractional Head of Growth for founder-led startups.
Most founder-led companies between $1M and $10M hit the same wall. Growth created chaos. Systems are duct-taped together. Everything runs through one person.
The problem is everything runs through you, and nothing is designed to stop.
That's what I fix.
The Method
Find the leaks
I map your entire go-to-market end-to-end. Full clarity on where growth is leaking and why.
Fix the foundation
Before building anything new, fix what's broken. Data, handoffs, pipeline definitions, reporting.
Build the systems
Workflows, playbooks, automation. Designed for your team's actual capacity.
Hand over & advise
I train your team to run everything without me. Then I step into advisory.
For the full picture on how I work with companies:
ruettgersdigital.com →Growth System Health Check
7 questions. 3 minutes. Find out if your growth engine is built to scale, or held together with duct tape.
AI Content Platform
9-month engagement
8x
Customer growth in 9 months
From hundreds to thousands of customers per month. I rebuilt the GTM engine end-to-end: acquisition, conversion, partnerships. The team runs it independently now.
On scaling partnership revenue
"We brought Marcel on to scale affiliates, referrals, and customer advocacy. Long story short, Marcel exceeded our ambitious goals. He is a rare structured thinker that executes and leads with high precision. We'd love to have him back soon."
Eddie Wu
Blaze.ai
On operating speed without breaking things
"Marcel is one of those rare operators who can run at truly any problem, execute relentlessly, pivot fast, share lessons back with the team, communicate delightfully, and collaborate joyfully. A true force multiplier for any team that wants to move fast without breaking things."
Joe Girton
Chief of Staff, Blaze.ai
On strategy execution for a scaling SME
"Marcel has been helping us with our marketing strategy and execution. He created a clear plan, provided regular updates on results, and, very importantly, the plan he is executing is already showing results. We are very satisfied with the professionalism of his work."
Edward van den Bergh
General Manager
On design taste and marketing strategy
"After just a few minutes of discussing my project with Marcel, I knew I wanted to work with him. He asked insightful questions, not only about the technical aspects but also about the marketing strategy and how to authentically reflect my persona. I trust Marcel completely when it comes to design taste, language choices, and promotional advice."
Ania Sosin
Urbanist | Interior Architect | Tutor
On creative leadership and collaboration
"Natural born leader. Marcel is a versatile leader with a wealth of experience in HR, operations, marketing and sales. Together with our skills and experience combined, we created some memorable campaigns that lead to new opportunities and transformative growth. I'm jealous of anyone who gets to work with Marcel."
Grace Houldsworth
Creative Partner in Motion, Brand, Video & Design
On building an online presence
"Marcel was absolutely critical in helping me build my online presence! His expertise and guidance were the key in supporting me to create an effective website. Marcel differentiates himself by offering a kind, dependable and trustworthy level of service, which is hard to find in this space."
Patrick Kelly
Founder of Seichō
What Excites Me
Travelling off the beaten path. Eating and drinking with locals who don't speak your language.
Rock and Roll. Motown soul. Loud.
Any type of martial arts.
Great marketing. The kind that respects the person reading it.
My cat.
Places where mountains meet the ocean.
A book that makes you put it down and stare at the ceiling for a minute.
What I Don't Like
AI slop. You know it when you see it.
Hustle culture and bro energy.
Cold tuna. Genuinely cannot explain this one.
Someone not standing by their word.
What Important Truth Do Very Few People Agree With You On?
Everyone's selling the same AI story: "Do more with less. Fire half the team. Let AI handle it."
I think that's exactly backwards.
The companies that win from here won't be the ones who replaced their marketers with prompts. They'll be the ones who gave their best people better tools, and let them do work that actually builds authentic brands and drives growth.
More quality. More authenticity. Not more volume without people.
Most of the industry will figure this out sometime this year.
By then it'll be obvious.
Scale Stack
One Idea Per Week That Makes Growth Less Chaotic.
Every Thursday, I break down one system, one pattern, or one mistake I've seen in 20 years of building growth infrastructure. Short. Practical. No inspirational fluff.
A Fractional Head of Growth is a senior growth leader who works with multiple founder-led companies part-time instead of joining one as a full-time executive. They own growth strategy, connect marketing and sales and operations into one system, and remove the founder from the day-to-day so the business can scale. Typical engagement runs 15 to 25 hours per week over 3 to 9 months.
It starts with a 30-minute conversation to understand your situation. If there's a fit, we begin with a diagnostic. I map your go-to-market end-to-end, identify where growth is leaking, and deliver a clear action plan. From there, we fix foundations, build systems, and I train your team to run everything without me.
Founder-led companies doing $1M-$10M in revenue. This is the stage where growth creates chaos. You've proven product-market fit but your operations haven't caught up. If you're earlier, focus on selling. If you're later, you probably need a full-time hire. I can help you find one.
You'll see clarity within the first two weeks from the diagnostic alone. Fundamental fixes typically happen in weeks 3-4. Meaningful operational improvements usually show within 60-90 days. This isn't a quick fix. It's building infrastructure that compounds.
Most consultants hand you a strategy deck and wish you luck. I build alongside your team. I'm in your CRM, your workflows, your tools. I train your people. And I stick around to make sure it actually works.
Engagements typically start with a diagnostic project for companies who want clarity before committing to a longer engagement. Let's talk about what makes sense for your situation.
Yes. Most of my work is remote. I work across time zones with companies in Europe, the US, and beyond. For embedded work, we'll figure out a schedule that works.
Want to talk?
30 minutes. No pitch deck. Just a straightforward conversation.
Or email me: mr@marcelruettgers.com