Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (Startup NWA)

The fractional CMO will own all marketing and brand for Startup NWA, reporting to the Executive Director. Roughly 85% of the role centres on Onward FX, a twice-yearly founder-funder exchange that brings national investors to Bentonville for curated one-on-one meetings with vetted founders. The primary mandate is recruiting the right founders nationally, building and managing a full funnel with term sheets as the downstream measure of success.

Beyond Onward FX, the role includes ecosystem storytelling, profiling founders building in the region to raise their visibility with relevant investors and partners. This is a hands-on senior engagement with real budget, creative direction responsibilities, and autonomy to set the marketing plan. The arrangement is primarily remote with travel to Bentonville and Little Rock around key programme moments.

• Lead full-funnel demand generation to recruit qualified founders to Onward FX nationally
• Own brand strategy and creative direction for Startup NWA
• Manage performance marketing campaigns across relevant channels
• Develop and execute ecosystem storytelling to raise regional founder visibility
• Coordinate marketing activity around twice-yearly investor-founder exchange events
• Report on downstream outcomes including capital raised and term sheets signed

• Proven experience in a senior marketing leadership role, ideally in startup or venture-adjacent environments
• Demonstrated ability to build and manage full-funnel demand generation programmes
• Familiarity with the venture capital ecosystem and founder communities
• Strong brand strategy and creative direction capabilities
• Comfortable working fractionally with autonomy and limited oversight
• Willingness to travel to Northwest Arkansas around key programme events

Northwest Arkansas Council is a regional organisation founded in 1990 by local business leaders including Sam Walton, J.B. Hunt, and Don Tyson. It works on the region's most significant economic and civic challenges, spanning jobs, talent, infrastructure, and quality of life. Startup NWA is its programme focused on closing the network gap for founders outside major venture hubs.