Ten execs for less than one part-time hire.
A single fractional exec runs $3,500 to $20,000 a month for one function, part-time. Marskel gives you ten specialist functions, expert-reviewed, for $79 to $799 a month. The human judgment stays. The overhead goes.
Hire one exec part-time, or get all ten expert-reviewed for a fraction of the cost. You keep control of both.
The honest breakdown
Marskel
Full-time exec
Fractional exec
Agency
Source: Marskel Research, The Real Cost of Building a Startup Team (2026). Full methodology and 30+ dated sources at marskel.com/research/cost-of-a-startup-team
If you were going to...
...hire full-time
A full-time exec is $250k to $500k a year all-in once you count benefits, equity and recruiting. Startup exec tenure averages 18 to 24 months, so most founders hire two or three over a few years. Marskel covers ten functions for less than one month of that salary.
...go fractional
A fractional CFO at seed stage runs $3,500 to $7,500 a month for one function, a few days a week. Smart for deep, single-function work. Marskel handles the other nine functions in parallel, with a human expert still signing off.
...use an agency
Agencies execute. They do not own strategy or sit in your exec meetings. Marskel ships the strategy and the deliverable, expert-reviewed, and you keep the wheel.
When hiring still wins
Hire a person when you need someone in the room full-time, owning a single function end to end, with deep context built over years. For everything before that, and for the nine functions you cannot afford to staff yet, Marskel covers the gap.
Questions founders ask
You raised. Now build the company.
Ten execs, signed off by real humans, working the second you sign up.