05 / Case Study
Polaris Partner Group
Running a senior marketing function across concurrent clients.
- Role
- Head of Marketing / Marketing Engagement Lead
- Period
- 2024 – Present
- Disciplines
- Go-to-Market Strategy · Brand Advisory · Operating Model · AI-Assisted Production
Context
Polaris Partner Group advises B2B clients on go-to-market strategy, brand marketing, product positioning, creative, content, and digital execution, with performance reported directly to founders, investors, and senior stakeholders.
Client sectors span AI and machine learning, quantum computing, digital identity and authentication, cybersecurity and fraud, payments, iGaming, and multimedia.
The structural problem is that each engagement wants a full senior marketing function, and no single engagement justifies one. The interesting work has been building an operating model where that is not a contradiction.
My role
I lead client engagements end to end — research and positioning through creative, launch and reporting — and act as the senior marketing voice in rooms that would otherwise be talking to an agency.
I also serve as Chief Storyteller for an AI startup in the Polaris portfolio, owning brand, narrative, and market positioning ahead of public launch.
Underneath both, I run an AI-assisted engagement model: automated market and competitive research, AI-supported content and creative production, and custom internal tooling built to deliver senior-level output at consultancy speed across concurrent clients.
What changed
- Led the full rebrand of a quantum encryption company — naming, visual identity, messaging architecture and audience-tier strategy through to go-to-market launch. Published as the Symmatrics case study.
- Launched that company's new website, sitemap and complete go-to-market funnel, including Salesforce integration and customer outreach infrastructure.
- Built brand and product research foundations across engagements: messaging pillars, competitive positioning, and audience segmentation across three market tiers.
- Owns brand, narrative and market positioning for a pre-launch AI startup in the portfolio as Chief Storyteller.
- Established an AI-assisted delivery model spanning automated research, AI-supported production, and custom internal tooling, sustaining senior-level output across concurrent clients.
Looking back
The AI-assisted model is worth reporting honestly rather than enthusiastically. It compresses research and first-draft production dramatically, which does not make the work uniformly faster — it moves the bottleneck to judgement and client alignment. That is a better bottleneck to have, and it is still a bottleneck.
The other shift is the reporting line. Presenting directly to founders and investors means far less time defending decisions internally, and much more pressure to be specific about what a given decision will and will not do.