The name Makk comes from the old Norse word meaning “make”. We’re here to support the makers. The startup founders and their teams who are passionate about what they do.
Founded by 2 marketers and business leaders, with the belief that startup marketing can be done better, Makk is a unique consultancy providing high-potential businesses with the right strategic guidance at the right time.
We work almost exclusively with early stage and vc-backed startups, because our collective experience of scaling and marketing these types of businesses means we can deliver real value.
Paddy O’Neill
Founding Partner
With 15 years of marketing agency experience, Paddy specialises in brand development, digital acquisition and customer retention for startups.
As an experienced Fractional CMO, Paddy has developed and executed countless successful campaigns for early-stage and established startups alike, helping them to develop impactful GTM strategies and marketing communications.
Mike Grindy
Founding Partner
Mike is the Founder and Chairman of digital agency Passion Digital and CMO at tech startup Dropless. His background has provided a rounded understanding and practical experience in the challenges that startups encounter.
As well as a marketer and agency leader, Mike’s experience of scaling a number of his own companies enables him to offer a unique insight, helping businesses to get the most value from working with a consultant.
Darcie Tanner
Partner, Fractional CMO
A senior consultant and CMO with 20 years of experience working with multi-faceted organisations on structure, operations, growth and global campaign delivery.
Darcie left the agency world in 2019 and began consulting as an Interim & Fractional Chief Marketing Officer for scaling startups, supporting companies and brands to establish requirements, develop solutions, support integration and advising on operations and measurement.
Matt Dibben
Consultant, Fractional Sales Director
Matt brings 25 years of authentic Sales Leadership to any organisation that is ready for their next stage of growth.
He has worked successfully in several markets and is most prominent in his quick understanding of the value proposition, rapid relationship building and a deep understanding of the sales process and how to effectively deliver long term and repeatable growth.
Charlie Southwell
Consultant, Fractional CMO
Charlie is a digital marketing strategist who has had a varied career with start-ups, big brands and governments. He launched TaskRabbit into the UK, led Red Bull UK social media channels and wrote the first ever social media guidance for MPs for the House of Commons.
As a fractional marketing director Charlie now focuses on helping businesses make the biggest possible impact. He helps companies build long term lead and demand generation building repeatable systems for business growth.
Heledd Jones
Consultant, Fractional CMO
Heledd is an all-round marketer with 20 years experience, with 15 years spent on building and growing brands within FTSE100 Admiral Group: Confused.com, Admiral Money and Veygo – taking them all from start-up to scale-up by working across both marketing strategy and tactical implementation.
Now a startup marketing consultant, she applies her experience to a range of high-growth businesses.
Katie Mcphee
Consultant, Fractional CMO
Katie is a leader in go-to-market, growth and marketing strategy for category disruptors. She played a key role in scaling Eventbrite’s European business from 2011 up to and following its 2018 IPO; launching peer-to-peer car sharing platform Karshare; and more recently building the marketing and demand generation function of climate tech challenger, Sust Global. Katie graduated from a Masters in Behaviour Change in 2022 and is passionate about applying the behavioural insights from her studies to the go-to-market planning process for innovative businesses.
Gareth Edwards
Consultant, Fractional CMO/CPO
With over 20 years of experience in marketing and strategy, Gareth is a seasoned professional with a proven track record of success. He has spent 15 years leading digital strategy and marketing for some of the UK’s largest financial services brands, including Bank of Scotland, Standard Life, NatWest, and Scottish Widows. More recently, he has taken on leadership roles within MedTech/Climate Tech scaleups as Chief Product Owner and Chief Client Officer.
We value long term partnerships over billable hours, which allows us to align our objectives with those of our clients. This requires a relentless commitment to acting in the best interests of our clients, but ultimately delivers more value for everyone.
As a consultancy it’s our expertise and our time that we sell, so we believe in treating everybody’s time as equally valuable. That goes for clients, suppliers and our own time. It’s important to respect other peoples’ time by being transparent in every interaction.
Makk was born out of frustration from agency politics and a desire to build better relationships with clients. We believe that transparency and honesty are critical for successful, long term relationships with both clients and suppliers.
Consultants, tools and methodologies are all matched to the needs of our clients on a case by case basis. One-size-fits-all is ineffective and, frankly, not as exciting.
“We worked with Makk to develop a go-to-market strategy and launch for our B2B SaaS application.Makk’s structured approach and rapid grasp of our market and technology made working with the team a joy – together we were able to deliver a plan that will help us reach our revenue and investment targets for the next 12 months and beyond.
Additionally, as we were a small marketing team, Makk’s vast network of agencies and freelancers proved invaluable in building a robust team of full funnel talent.”
Sam Gillingham, Marketing Director
“We worked with Makk to review and audit our growth strategy. As a startup, poised for growth, it was extremely valuable to have the team’s wealth of expertise challenge our assumptions and provide constructive, and most importantly actionable feedback.”
Aaron Shaw, Co-Founder
“Makk helped us setting up our go-to-market plan and to improve our investor readiness before our funding round. They combine high-value, strategic advice, with hands-on support whenever it’s needed.
They were extremely flexible in their terms and you could see they were looking to find a solution that would work for our company, and not for an immediate cash reward for them. Most importantly, they care about the company, the product, and the team, and that makes all the difference – they are not just another agency or freelancer, they’re part of our team..”
Jorge Higueras, Co-Founder
“Working with the Makk team has been a true delight. The process was extremely thorough, starting with in-depth due diligence both with our team and behind the scenes on our market and industry, and ending with a well thought out marketing plan that detailed multiple areas of digital strategy. The team was easy to work with, insightful, and responsive- despite being in very different time zones!
Overall, we’re thrilled to have had the chance to work with the Makk team and are excited to put their marketing strategy into action.”
Hanna Wu, Co-Founder & CEO
We’d love to hear about your business and to tell you more about how we can help you to grow it. We don’t waste time so we’ll be back in touch quickly.
