Who is Erin Toughill's brand strategy practice for?

Series A through Series C founders and CMOs at venture-backed B2B and consumer brands preparing for category leadership, fundraising, or a major repositioning. Fractional and interim marketing leaders are also a core audience.

What happens on the 30-minute Strategy Diagnostic?

A focused working session to diagnose your current positioning, identify the highest-leverage narrative gap, and recommend a specific engagement path — sprint, fractional, or fundraising narrative. There is no pitch deck.

How long does a typical repositioning engagement take?

Most repositioning sprints are delivered in 21 calendar days from kickoff to launch-ready assets, with optional fractional support afterward.

How many clients does Erin work with at one time?

The practice is deliberately capped at 12 active engagements per quarter to preserve senior-level attention on every account.

Does Erin work on fundraising or IPO narrative?

Yes. Narrative work for Series B/C raises and pre-IPO positioning is a core engagement, alongside repositioning sprints and fractional brand director retainers.

Brand Strategy & Growth Advisory · Est. 2019 · San Francisco

Strategic brand and growth advisory for founders who refuse to look like everyone else.

Erin Toughill is a brand strategist and former founder who has shaped category-defining narratives for 180+ growth-stage companies. Engagements typically sharpen positioning in 21 days and unlock measurable lifts in pipeline, press coverage, and investor confidence.

Book a Strategy Diagnostic →

Now booking Q1 — 12 active engagements per quarter, capped by design.

I. Who This Is For

Three readers, three problems, one practice.

The roster is deliberately narrow. If any of the following sounds like a Tuesday afternoon, the diagnostic is a useful 30 minutes.

Series A–C founders preparing for category leadership.

You have product-market fit, a real number on the board, and a board that keeps asking what your category is. The story you wrote at seed no longer explains the company you are building.

CMOs at venture-backed B2B and consumer brands.

You inherited a positioning doc written by a founder in a hurry, three agencies, and a Notion page. The team needs a single, opinionated narrative they can run with — not another 90-slide strategy.

Founders and execs entering fundraising, repositioning, or a major exit.

You need investors, press, and category analysts to describe you in the same sentence. The current story does not survive a partner meeting at a top-quartile firm.

Not a fit if you are pre-revenue, looking for logo work, a website refresh, or "brand awareness" without an operating number behind it. The diagnostic will say so on the call.

II. A Point of View

Most brand work fails because it tries to make a company sound bigger than it is. The job is the opposite — to make a company sound exactly as dangerous, specific, and inevitable as it actually is, and then to back that claim with every public artifact from that day forward.

— Erin Toughill, founder

III. How Clients Engage

Three formats. All senior-led. No delegation to a junior team.

Every engagement is staffed by Erin directly with a tight bench of senior contractors. No agency overhead, no account managers, no 18-person Slack channel.

01 —

Repositioning Sprint

A 21-day engagement that rewrites the category, the narrative, and the public-facing artifacts. Built for founders who need a story their board, sales team, and press can all repeat back.

21 calendar days · Fixed scope · One senior lead

02 —

Fractional Brand Director

A six-month embedded engagement for CMOs who need a senior strategist in the room without the full-time hire. Weekly working sessions, narrative stewardship, and artifact review.

6-month minimum · Weekly cadence · Board-facing

03 —

Narrative for Fundraising or Exit

A tightly scoped engagement designed around a specific event — a Series B raise, a strategic acquisition, or a repositioning ahead of a major launch. Deliverables are tuned to the diligence cycle.

Event-anchored · 6–10 weeks · Diligence-ready

Not sure which one fits? The diagnostic will tell you in 30 minutes.

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IV. By the Numbers

Proof, presented as type.

No marketing graphics, no animated counters, no infographics. Just the numbers, written large enough to argue with.

180+

brand engagements completed since 2019 across B2B SaaS, fintech, healthtech, and consumer.

3.2×

average lift in qualified inbound pipeline within 90 days of repositioning launch.

calendar days. The average length of a Repositioning Sprint, start to final artifact.

$740M+

in cumulative client valuation influenced through positioning and narrative work since 2019.

4 client companies have exited at valuations above $100M between 2020 and 2025.

12 active engagements per quarter — capped by design to preserve senior-level focus.

40+ Y Combinator portfolio companies have used these positioning frameworks.

V. Recognition & Citations

Where the work has been recognized, and where the frameworks are used.

Forbes 30 Under 30 — Marketing & Advertising, 2021 · Adweek Creative 100, 2023 · Ad Age 40 Under 40, 2024 · SaaStr Annual — regular speaker · First Round Capital CMO Summits · Pavilion founder track · Y Combinator — positioning frameworks used by 40+ portfolio companies · Cited in The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Axios, and The Information · Forbes 30 Under 30 — Marketing & Advertising, 2021 · Adweek Creative 100, 2023 · Ad Age 40 Under 40, 2024 · SaaStr Annual — regular speaker · First Round Capital CMO Summits · Pavilion founder track · Y Combinator — positioning frameworks used by 40+ portfolio companies · Cited in The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Axios, and The Information ·

The diagnostic is a 30-minute conversation, not a sales call. You leave with a clear read on your positioning — whether or not we ever work together.

Book a Strategy Diagnostic →