There’s a point in a company’s growth when marketing starts to feel heavier than it used to. Work is happening, but confidence in the results slips. Decisions take longer, founders stay involved longer than they want to, and progress becomes harder to explain. In many cases, this isn’t a problem of execution at all, but a sign that the company has outgrown a founder-led model without replacing it with experienced marketing leadership.

Tension between sales and marketing often emerges as companies scale, especially when pipeline becomes less predictable. Sales looks upstream, marketing feels misunderstood, and founders find themselves mediating instead of leading. This friction usually reflects a missing revenue operating model rather than a failure on either team’s part, and it persists until someone defines how demand is meant to turn into revenue.

Early traction can disguise structural issues that surface as companies grow. When results become inconsistent, the instinct is often to add spend or headcount. Without clarity around what is actually working, however, scaling tends to amplify confusion rather than resolve it. Sustainable growth at this stage depends less on speed and more on building a system that can support it.