Macrium Case Study

Business type

B2B & B2C SaaS

Solution type

Fractional Hire (CRO)

Size of commercial team

Company stage

Bootstrapped ($7 million ARR)

Founded in 2006, Macrium is laser-focused on providing effective data backup and easy-to-use recovery solutions for homes, small businesses, public sector networks, and multinational companies. Headquartered in Manchester, with offices in London and Denver (USA), Macrium partners with 2000+ resellers and its software has been downloaded more than 10 million times worldwide.

Macrium’s Need

As a well-known and respected name with 15+ years in the data backup industry, Macrium was receiving a large amount of inbound enquiries and organic downloads, but didn’t have a cohesive go-to-market strategy in place to to maximise its revenue potential.

With a complex channel model (distributors & resellers) and diverse customer base (ranging from enterprise B2B to personal B2C), Macrium needed a revenue leader to assess its overall commercial strategy and make recommendations for increasing its revenue share.

In particular, Macrium was looking for an experienced Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) to cast a forensic eye across the B2B and B2C sales processes, and evaluate its readiness to scale. Macrium also sought recommendations on how to build the right GTM structure to achieve its commercial goals.

ScaleWise Impact

Macrium engaged ScaleWise to find a fractional CRO. Working with Macrium’s CEO, Scalewise outlined a detailed role and candidate brief for a CRO that could start asap two days per week (with some flexibility for increased days per month) for an initial three months and work on a hybrid (Manchester and London) basis. Thanks to ScaleWise’s deep knowledge of the fractional GTM market and its unique matching process, Macrium recruited an experienced fractional CRO who started in the business four weeks later.

ScaleWise had the following impact:

1. Fractional CRO hired in five weeks

Thanks to ScaleWise’s streamlined matching process – which included a detailed role brief and hand-picking a shortlist of five well-suited candidates from its network – Macrium was able to start interviewing candidates in just a few weeks and make an accepted offer within five weeks.

2. Perfect fit

From the outset, ScaleWise knew exactly what Macrium was looking for in the role and produced a detailed candidate brief that included essential skills (i.e. scaled a founder led business in Macrium’s ARR range and had significant experience working with resellers and distributors), ideal skills (i.e. Hubspot and Zoho experience) and personal attributes (i.e. data-driven and strong at managing change). ScaleWise then used this criteria to filter the shortlist of ideally-suited candidates and ensure Macrium found the perfect match.

3. Immediate impact

Macrium wanted a CRO who could make an impact from Day 1 without the need for hand-holding. ScaleWise not only ensured all candidates suited this profile, but also worked with Macrium and the chosen candidate to pinpoint clear responsibilities and objectives. This ensured that the candidate was able to start delivering the changes that Macrium’s revenue organisation required straightaway.

“The recruitment process and result exceeded my expectations. ScaleWise provided us with five exceptional candidates and our fractional CRO has been instrumental in delivering the crucial changes we needed. We will definitely use ScaleWise again in the future.”

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Interim & Fractional leadership?

Think of it as head-renting instead of head-hunting. Rather than spending time and money trying to hire a full-time leader, Interim & Fractional leadership involves hiring leaders on either a short-term or part-time basis usually to carry out a specific purpose. They are experienced senior-level operators that can be parachuted into your company on short notice to drive high-performance in particular aspects of your business.

Unlike a coach or a consultant, Interim & Fractional leaders are hands-on doers whose remit is to get stuck in and get things done. For more information, check out our: Definitive guide to Interim & Fractional Leadership.

2. What is the difference between Interim & Fractional?

Interim & Fractional leaders both provide flexible GTM support based on your specific needs. Interim leaders usually work full-time (4-5 days per week) for a set period of time (i.e. 4-6 months) to bridge an ‘interim’ leadership gap. Fractional leaders work a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost, usually working between 2–4 days per week on a rolling basis. As Interim & Fractional leaders flexibly work between both roles depending on the requirement, we consider them as one leadership solution.

3. How does ScaleWise place the right Interim & Fractional candidate?

We’ll help you define what you need and produce a detailed role brief with realistic goals. This goes beyond a job description, capturing the specific leader profile required and clear deliverables. Then we’ll produce a shortlist of suitable candidates (based on your needs, culture and leadership style) from our wide network of experienced Interim & Fractional commercial leaders. Finally, we’ll organise interviews to ensure there’s a cultural chemistry and expertise alignment from the outset.

4. How experienced are the Interim & Fractional candidates?

At ScaleWise, all our Interim & Fractional leaders have scaled at least one company (Seed to Series C) in senior GTM roles, usually at VP or C-Suite level in sales, marketing, customer success, partnerships or revenue operations (RevOps). Many have worked with other scale-ups in Interim & Fractional roles too. As such, they’re adept at quickly diagnosing issues, prioritising solutions and having an immediate impact.

5. What are the standard deliverables an Interim & Fractional leader can achieve?

Instead of joining with a wide-ranging brief, Interim & Fractional leaders focus on pre-agreed objectives. During the engagement, they will implement and execute a pre-agreed plan, so it’s crucial to agree on these objectives, deadlines and KPIs beforehand. Interim & Fractional leaders can also help interview and onboard their permanent replacement, ensuring they hit the ground running.

For example, the five most common tasks for an Interim & Fractional VP of Sales include restructuring the sales process, devising a coherent commercial strategy with company-wide buy-in, improving sales team performance and advising on sales hires (i.e. SDRs, AEs or even their full-time replacement).

6. How long does it take to hire an Interim & Fractional leader?

Unlike full-time hiring (which can take up to 6 months), Interim & Fractional leaders are placed within 1–4 weeks and can have an immediate impact. This short time frame is possible thanks to ScaleWise’s unrivalled network of GTM leaders and the idiosyncrasies of the Interim & Fractional model (i.e. they don’t need company-wide onboarding and can dive into pre-agreed tasks straight away).

7. What happens if my Interim & Fractional leader doesn’t work out?

ScaleWise’s matching process vastly minimises the risk of a bad partnership. However, if the Interim & Fractional leader is not working out, it’s easy to terminate the relationship as there’s no long-term contract (you take out a month-by-month contract with ScaleWise, not the leader).

At ScaleWise, we find the reverse is usually true. Companies either hire their Interim & Fractional leader full-time (this happens in 35% of cases at ScaleWise) or they decide they no longer need support in one area (i.e. sales) and want support in another area (i.e. marketing). With ScaleWise, moving from an Interim & Fractional sales leader to an Interim & Fractional marketing leader is simple.

8. How do employees respond to being managed by an Interim & Fractional leader?

Interim & Fractional leaders are not hands-off consultants, but highly-experienced commercial leaders who join with a clear mandate and instantly command respect from the team due to their previous experience. Employees respond well to their ‘external’ status as it doesn’t disrupt the internal team dynamic (and avoids office politics) and enables them to objectively make swift strategic decisions (not decisions based on bias or nostalgia).

However, it’s important for the leadership team to support the Interim & Fractional leader and make it clear to employees that they have the authority to make changes (it helps if an internal leader introduces an Interim & Fractional leader to all the key divisions within the business at the start).

9. Do Interim & Fractional leaders often join full-time after working with a company?

Our Interim & Fractional leaders turn into permanent employees every 1 in 3 placements. If you’re looking for a leader that will eventually transition to full-time, it’s worth being upfront about this in the matching stage.

10. Who is the contract with: ScaleWise or the Interim & Fractional leader?

Interim & Fractional leaders placed through ScaleWise are contracted to ScaleWise, not your company. That means we can place them quickly and easily without you needing to negotiate payment terms or waste any time setting up contracts and billing relationships with lots of different leaders. It also makes it easier to change GTM support if required (i.e. using an Interim & Fractional Customer Success leader after working with an Interim & Fractional CMO).

11. When and how do Interim & Fractional leaders work?

Unlike a coach or a consultant, Interim & Fractional leaders are hands-on doers who get stuck in and get things done. At the outset, they will agree working schedules, practices and processes with you, including days of the week, communication channels, check-ins and access to the wider team.

For example, a leader might work part-time (i.e. three days’ work spread out across the week to ensure responsiveness to company needs) in a hybrid capacity for a few companies concurrently. No matter the working agreement, though, it’s crucial to schedule frequent catch-ups (i.e. one hour per week) to discuss updates, barriers and progress.

12. How do I know Interim & Fractional leaders are motivated to work for my business?

Interim & Fractional leaders are scaling professionals. To get roles, they need a strong catalogue of past successes, positive case studies of their previous Interim & Fractional work, and supportive references. As such, they always commit to the role whole-heartedly.

Yet, more importantly, they are motivated by enjoyment. They have often chosen a portfolio career as they love taking on new challenges and sharing their insights to help companies grow, so the more fulfilling the role, the more the Interim & Fractional leader will go above and beyond.

Using ScaleWise to hire a fractional Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) in four weeks.

Macrium’s Need