About
Between your first marketer and first CMO.
Most B2B companies reach the same point somewhere between $2M and $50M in revenue. Marketing exists and it's busy, but nobody can say which of it creates pipeline, and nobody has the authority to stop the rest. rethought & co. is built for that stage.
01 / Why we exist
The usual answers don't fit.
A full-time CMO is a long search and a big bet. An agency produces more output without deciding what matters. A consultant leaves a plan that goes stale in a shared drive. The companies that grow have someone senior who owns the plan and stays long enough to make it run. That's the job we're hired for.
02 / Manifesto
Plenty of activity. No owner.
Campaigns, content, a new tool every quarter. What's missing is someone with the authority to say which of it matters.
We start with priorities, in writing. We decide what stops, run the work every week in the open, and leave a system that stays.
Business as usual? Think otherwise.
03 / The name
What we're here to rethink.
B2B marketing
Not more activity for its own sake. A clear story, the right buyers and work tied to commercial priorities.
Go-to-market
Not a plan that sits in a deck. Positioning, sales and marketing working from the same priorities, with named owners.
Growth
Not business as usual with a bigger budget. Decide what to change, measure the work and leave a system your team can run.
04 / A note from Staci
Why I started rethought & co.
I've run marketing from inside companies and as an outside CMO, in cybersecurity, industrial automation and the U.S. Army. The pattern held everywhere. Busy teams kept repeating work without asking whether it still made sense. The companies that moved forward had someone senior willing to question the plan and stay to make it run. I built rethought & co. to be that owner, with specialists joining per scope under my direction, and to leave every client with a system their team can keep running.
Staci Cretu, founder
05 / Background
Staci's record.
- Now
- Founder, rethought & co.
- Dates to confirm
- CMO, RunSafe Security
- Dates to confirm
- Fractional CMO and founder, Uncommon Marketing Works
- 2012 to 2016
- Marketing director, Westfalia Technologies
- 2007 to 2012
- Chief, advertising and public affairs, U.S. Army
Education
M.S., Integrated Marketing Communications, Eastern Michigan University.
BBA, Marketing, Penn State.
168%
Year-over-year growth in marketing-sourced pipeline
Staci's record as CMO of RunSafe Security
29%
Share of company pipeline contributed by marketing
Staci's record as CMO of RunSafe Security
20+
Years in B2B marketing leadership
Staci's career record
50+
Brands Staci has worked with
Staci's career record
06 / How we're staffed
Led by Staci. Staffed to the engagement.
rethought & co. is founder-led. Staci leads or directs every engagement. Specialists in content, paid media, design, marketing operations and RevOps join when the scope calls for them, and each one is named in your scope and priced into the plan. You get senior judgment on every decision and the right hands for the work, without paying for a bench you don't use.
07 / How we work
Five rules we hold.
- 01
Own the outcome.
A weekly scorecard the CEO sees. No hiding behind a missed vendor deadline.
- 02
Say the hard thing early.
We name the real problems in the first two weeks, in writing, including the ones that point at leadership.
- 03
Fewer things, finished.
We cut before we add, and we say out loud what we're choosing not to do.
- 04
Show the work.
Decisions, assumptions and numbers live where you can see them.
- 05
Leave it stronger.
We judge an engagement partly by what still works six months after we leave.
Talk to the person who'd lead it.
Every first call is with Staci. Thirty minutes, no pitch deck.