I'm Aaron Pollack. For 25+ years I've taken founder-led companies from ambition to category leadership — building brands, launching products, and scaling growth as a CMO at DIMO, Rachio, Nanit, Canary and GreatCall.
Most early-to-growth-stage startups don't need a permanent CMO yet — they need someone who has done it five times and can hit the ground running. I plug in as a fractional CMO to set the strategy, ship the work, and build the team that takes it from here.
From category creation to Amazon #1. I've launched products that beat entrenched incumbents by being clearer, sharper, and shipping faster.
Turn a feature into a category. I rebranded Rachio from "smart watering" to "smart yard" and DIMO from a crypto project into a mass-market vehicle platform.
Performance and brand pulling in the same direction. CAC discipline, channel mix, lifecycle, and the operating cadence to keep growth compounding.
I've built brand presence in 15,000+ retail doors and shipped products that ranked #1 on Amazon in weeks. I know how to make the channel mix actually work.
I've built and rebuilt marketing teams from 1 to 18+. I'll inherit, hire, restructure, and mentor — and leave you with an org that scales after I'm gone.
Board-level partnership for founders and CEOs — pricing strategy, M&A positioning, fundraising narratives, and the calls that don't fit on a slide.
Five CMO and marketing-lead roles. Three #1 product launches. One $800M acquisition. Below, the highlights.
Rebuilt the brand for anyone with a vehicle, expanded into retail, dealerships and fleets across three continents, and led the integration of agentic AI into the connected-vehicle space.
Rebranded a stagnating company around a new mantra — Connect Outside — launched the first new hardware in 5+ years, and stood up Rachio Market to expand the platform.
Owned the rebrand, SaaS upgrade and retention, community, international expansion, partnerships — and ran sales for a year. Built the team from a handful to 18.
Brought modern cellular products and services to an underserved senior audience, scaled the business, and helped build the brand that Best Buy ultimately acquired.
Built and ran Canary's US and international GTM, retail strategy, and digital acquisition — and owned the .is website as a top-3 sales channel.
I've spent my career inside the kinds of companies I now help from the outside — connected hardware brands, IoT platforms, software-enabled consumer products, and category-defining startups. The common thread isn't a vertical. It's the moment a founder needs marketing to stop being scattered tactics and start being a system.
At Nanit, that meant a rebrand, a SaaS motion, and a community that took us to $200M ARR and #1 in the category. At Rachio, it meant rewriting the story from "smart watering" to "smart yard" and snapping the business back into double-digit growth. At DIMO, it meant taking a crypto-native project and making it something anyone with a car would want.
I work best with founders and CEOs who want a partner who'll set strategy and ship the work — and who are ready to grow, not just plan to.
Tell me a little about your company and where you are. I read every note personally and reply within a couple of business days.