The rise of the hybrid creative leader

Why startups need leaders who span creative and marketing. And what happens when they don’t.

At most startups, brand and marketing are two very different functions. One is storytelling, the other is sales. But in my experience, the most effective brand leaders do both.

I’ve led social, content, events, and product marketing initiatives, alongside rebrands and creative direction. And I’ve found that having one person across both camps avoids a ton of wasted time, misalignment, and internal “translation.”

Here’s why this hybrid approach works (especially in startup and scale-up environments):

1. Your brand actually means something.

When creative is off in one corner and marketing in another, you end up with pretty work that doesn’t convert, or conversion work that kills the brand. By owning both, I make sure the brand promise flows through every channel. At Flipdish, we shifted from generic SaaS messaging to positioning built around independence and local power, which showed up in everything from pitch decks to creating Instagram campaigns.

2. You avoid the endless “rebrief” cycle.

I’ve seen companies where creative briefs get rewritten three times because brand and marketing can’t agree on tone or goals. When you have one person across both, decisions get made faster—and the work gets sharper. At PrimaryBid, I run product marketing meetings one day and storyboard investor videos the next. That crossover saves time, and it ensures creative isn’t just “making things pretty”—it’s contributing strategically.

3. You build teams that are flexible, not siloed.

I hire designers who can write. Writers who can think visually. Creatives who want to understand metrics. And marketers who can talk about moodboards.

Because when teams work across the blurry line between brand and marketing, they don’t just create better work, they work better together.

Signs a company doesn't have hybrid leadership:

• Your brand is inconsistent across touch points

• Content sounds nothing like your product experience

• Your growth team doesn’t “get” the brand

• Your design team feels disconnected from business strategy ("no one tells us anything")