MCFADIN DATA · AI · ADVISORY

For data and AI vendors

The GTM calls that shape your next two quarters.

Positioning, content, DevRel, community, and analyst strategy for data and AI companies. From someone who has been the technical buyer your sales team is trying to reach, and who has lived the vendor journey from the inside.

Book a 30-minute introduction call

We do GTM advisory for data and AI companies because we have spent twenty years watching technical products try to land with senior engineering buyers. We know what makes them land and what makes them get politely passed over. We know which conferences route enterprise deals and which ones flatter you with attendance numbers. We know which analyst conversations are worth your CEO’s time and which ones are a polite filing exercise.

We have also done the vendor journey from the inside. Thirteen years at DataStax: building, selling, positioning, hiring DevRel, running analyst calls, owning customer references, through the 2025 acquisition by IBM. The exit is one we lived, not one we have only watched. When we advise on the GTM calls in front of you, we are advising from inside the seat you are sitting in.

This is not a fractional CMO retainer. It is a senior technical voice on the calls where positioning, technical content, DevRel, and community strategy meet the actual buying behavior of CTOs and platform leaders. The work is more like having a former buyer in your strategy meetings than having a marketer in your funnel.

Topics that come up most often

Each engagement is shaped to what is on your calendar this quarter. These are the topics we end up working on most.

  • 01

    Positioning

    How a technical product is described to a senior engineering buyer. Where the current messaging is undermining the sale. What the proof points should be, and which ones are wasted.

  • 02

    Technical content strategy

    What to publish, what to give away, what to keep, and who should be writing it. The content programs that actually move pipeline versus the ones that move vanity metrics.

  • 03

    DevRel program design and hiring

    When a DevRel team is the right shape, how to scope the roles, who to hire, what to measure. We have hired and run these teams before.

  • 04

    Open source and community strategy

    For projects going commercial, projects under foundation governance, and products with a community adjacent to the core sale.

  • 05

    Advisory board curation

    Who should be on it, what you should ask them, how to actually use it. Most advisory boards are a logo wall. Yours does not have to be.

  • 06

    Conference and analyst strategy

    Which conferences matter, which keynotes are worth chasing, how to talk to Gartner and the analysts that route enterprise deals.

  • 07

    Customer reference and case study programs

    How to build one, what to ask customers to say, and the difference between a useful reference and a logo wall.

Engagement shape

The retainer is the default. For bounded one-shot work, project engagements are available.

Retainer (default)

Standing weekly or biweekly call. Async review on positioning docs, blog drafts, conference abstracts, advisory board pitches, customer story drafts. Quarterly cadence, 10 to 40 hours per month.

Project (alternative)

Scoped one-shots: a positioning audit, an advisory board build, a DevRel program design, an analyst-readiness sprint. Project fee, written deliverable, defined end date.

Questions vendors ask

How is this different from a fractional CMO or generic marketing advisor?
It is not generic marketing advice. It is twenty years of being on the technical-buyer side of the table. Architecture reviews for the CTOs your sales team is trying to reach. PMC seats on the open-source projects your product builds on. Talks at the conferences where your customers actually decide what to adopt. We know what makes a data or AI product land with a senior technical buyer because we have been that buyer.
Have you done the vendor side, not just the buyer side?
Yes. Thirteen years at DataStax: building, selling, positioning, hiring DevRel, running analyst calls, owning customer references, through the 2025 acquisition by IBM. The exit is one we lived, not one we have only watched.
Retainer or project?
Retainer is the default. For one-shot work (a positioning audit, an advisory board build, a DevRel program design) we also take project-scoped engagements. Mention it on the first call and we will tell you which shape fits.
Would you take equity instead of cash?
Sometimes, for early-stage companies, as a portion of the engagement. We will not do all-equity engagements. Mention it on the first call.
We are also a buyer for our own internal data infrastructure. Can the same retainer cover both?
Yes, often inside one retainer when the line between buying and building blurs. The buyer-side advisory for your own platform decisions is described on the Strategic Advisory page. Same operator, two conversations.
Do you work with companies competing in adjacent spaces?
We hold one retainer per direct competitive lane at a time. We will tell you on the first call if a conflict already exists. Conflicts policy is on the How we work page.

Let’s look at it together.

Bring us whatever GTM call is on your desk this quarter. Positioning, hiring DevRel, an analyst conversation, an advisory board you do not know how to use. Thirty minutes, no pitch. We will tell you what we see.

Book a 30-minute introduction call hello@mcfad.in