What Does Each Fractional Role Actually Do? A Founder's Guide
By Megan Luttrell
Founders ask us a version of the same question every week. What does a fractional CFO actually do? Is a fractional COO just an ops consultant with a fancier title? Do you need a head of growth or a CMO first?
Below is a straight answer for all thirteen roles on the AFC Fractional Board: what each one owns, and the moment in a startup's life when you'd actually bring one in. No jargon.
Fractional CFO
A fractional CFO owns your numbers part-time: financial modelling, cash and runway, board and investor reporting, and getting you fundraise-ready. Bring one in when the bookkeeper's spreadsheet stops being enough, or investors start asking for reporting nobody on the team has time to build.
Browse fractional CFOs on the board →
Fractional COO
A fractional COO turns founder-led chaos into systems: operating cadence, processes, team structure, delivery and vendor management. You need one when the founder has become the bottleneck and growth has outpaced how the business actually runs.
Browse fractional COOs on the board →
Fractional CRO
A fractional CRO builds the revenue engine: sales process, pipeline and forecasting, CRM, and hiring and coaching the sales team. Most founders bring one in once founder-led sales hits its ceiling, or before the first sales hires.
Browse fractional CROs on the board →
Fractional CMO
A fractional CMO owns marketing strategy: positioning, go-to-market, channel strategy, and managing agencies or an in-house team. Useful when marketing is a pile of disconnected activity rather than a plan, or ahead of a launch.
Browse fractional CMOs on the board →
Fractional Head of Growth
A fractional head of growth owns acquisition: channel testing, experiments, funnel and conversion work, analytics, and building a repeatable engine. Bring one in once you've found early traction and need to scale the channels that work.
Browse fractional growth leaders on the board →
Fractional CTO
A fractional CTO owns technical strategy: architecture decisions, hiring and leading engineers, managing development partners, and security. Most startups need one when a non-technical founder is making big tech calls alone, or before technical due diligence on a raise.
Browse fractional CTOs on the board →
Fractional Product Leader
A fractional product leader owns what gets built and why: product strategy, customer discovery, roadmap and prioritisation, working with design and engineering. Bring one in when the founder is still acting as product manager, or the roadmap is driven by whoever shouts loudest.
Browse fractional product leaders on the board →
Fractional Design Leader
A fractional design leader owns design quality: product and UX design, research, design systems, and brand consistency. Useful when the product has grown without a clear design approach, or a junior designer needs senior support.
Browse fractional design leaders on the board →
Fractional AI Lead
A fractional AI lead owns AI strategy and delivery: finding real use cases, choosing tools and models, building prototypes, and getting the team to actually adopt it. Bring one in when you know AI matters but nobody's turning experiments into production.
Browse fractional AI leads on the board →
Fractional Data Lead
A fractional data lead owns the numbers behind the numbers: data infrastructure, metrics definitions, dashboards and reporting, and analysis that supports decisions. You need one when every team has a different version of the truth.
Browse fractional data leads on the board →
Fractional HR Leader
A fractional HR or talent leader owns the people side of the business: contracts and policies, performance frameworks, culture, hiring plans and recruiting. Bring one in when hiring starts eating the founder's week, or HR basics need setting up before they become a problem.
Browse fractional HR leaders on the board →
Fractional General Counsel
A fractional general counsel owns legal: commercial contracts, employment matters, IP, privacy and compliance, governance, and managing external law firms. Useful once legal questions come up weekly, or contracts start slowing deals down.
Browse fractional general counsel on the board →
Fractional Comms Lead
A fractional comms lead owns how the company tells its story: messaging and narrative, media relations, announcements, and investor or internal communication. Most founders bring one in around a launch or a raise, when the story isn't landing on its own.
Browse fractional comms leads on the board →
How it works
Every one of these roles works the same way on the board: one to two days a week, briefed for free, no recruiter margin. If you're not sure which one you need, share a brief and matched operators get notified.