Commencing her career on the agency side and quickly moving to big tech companies like Microsoft and Sony, Roshni Wijayasinha had the opportunity to work at a startup; she saw herself falling in love with the ability to build something from scratch, the amount of creativity needed to stretch lean budgets, and the fast pace.
After a few stints as the Head of Marketing at local tech companies and seeing the impact of her work on their businesses, Roshni decided to help more startups be able to grow and launched Prosh Marketing.
Prosh Marketing initially started off as an independent consultancy where she helped startups and small businesses grow by leveraging my marketing experience. She soon learned that consultants were viewed negatively in the marketing world, known for creating PowerPoint decks and not executing.
This was actually a core strength and key area of interest for Roshni, and so she soon evolved into a Fractional CMO who was able to not only develop a strategy but also help build the people, processes and tools to help businesses also implement these plans.
The business soon expanded as its strategic partnerships grew. Roshni brought on more Fractional CMOs to help its clients and introduced a new layer of Fractional Marketing Directors who were more hands-on and tactical, coaching our clients’ in-house marketing teams.
In an interview with CIOLook, Roshni shared valuable facts highlighting her professional tenure and the traits that helped her to scale the horizons of success.
Below are the excerpts from the interview:
Tell us something more about your company and its mission and vision.
Prosh Marketing was created to help startups and small businesses maximize their marketing potential through access to fractional or part-time marketing leaders. I noticed a gap in the market where startups were trying to attain lofty goals like hitting a Series A investment with a junior marketer or sometimes even an intern.
With a little bit of marketing expertise and experience, we have been able to help many businesses expedite their growth. One important offering we provide is training – we believe that startups need eventually become self-sustaining. Unlike agencies that might do all your marketing for you, we coach our clients to learn how to do this themselves or with a series of partners who can support them.
Enlighten us on how you have impacted your niche through your expertise in the market.
Leveraging my marketing expertise and experience, I’ve been able to assist in building several businesses across the globe. To date, I’ve helped launch over 50 companies, brands and products to markets worldwide and mentored many startups and Founders to build their own businesses and grow their marketing function.
In addition, I teach Startup Marketing at the Schulich School of Business at York University, influencing many budding entrepreneurs and startup marketers.
Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization.
At Prosh Marketing, we value the following:
Kindness – we treat our colleagues and clients with respect and compassion because we want to be treated with kindness in return.
Excellence – we are high achievers and know that our clients have a lot at stake. Therefore, we must work to the highest degree of excellence.
Integrity – we believe in transparency and are trusted with our client’s growth. That’s why we uphold the highest level of integrity when it comes to our work.
Collaboration – by working together, we can all learn from each other and grow. It is also impossible for us to do our work independently, so it is in our interest to collaborate deeply.
Curiosity – as marketers, we are always exploring new possibilities and learning. Asking questions, challenging the norm, and asking why, are some ways we show this.
Optimism – we strongly believe that we can help our clients grow, and we’re excited about this opportunity so we’re optimistic about our work, industry and customers.
Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your solutions resourceful?
Because the majority of our work is delivered remotely, we’ve had to rely on technology to help us work with startups. For example, we’ve been using tools like Miro to help with virtual whiteboarding sessions, helping client groups participate in workshops like they might in person, with sticky notes and all.
We also leverage tools like Airtable to track social content feedback and approvals more seamlessly from a client perspective.
The marketing technology we implement with our clients also helps them run efficient, profitable marketing departments. We use tools like Asana to keep track of projects, Hubspot to keep track of leads and clients, and a variety of tools for email automation as well.
What change would you like to bring to your industry if given a chance?
If given a chance, I would love to see marketing work more as an integrated function with other departments.
Marketing plays such an important role in product development; for example, they also need to work closely with Finance for budgeting and forecasting, they support sales in many ways, they help create an employer brand to help HR attract the right kind of talent, and they also work with operations to deliver and optimize customer experiences.
A stronger, more integrated function within these teams could help better collaboration.
What, according to you, could be the next significant change in your sector? How is your company preparing to be a part of that change?
With the rise in gig work and the growth of SMBs, I believe there will be a rise in fractional workers providing part-time solutions for growing businesses. Prosh Marketing is perfectly positioned with our network of Fractional CMOs, all experienced marketing leaders.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future goals for your company?
I aim to continue growing Prosh Marketing into more markets (we’ve already helped companies in Canada, the US, Europe and New Zealand) and expand our network of Fractional CMOs. There are more startups and SMBs that we can help with our program and team, and we also offer fractional marketing leaders a great place to work, learn and collaborate.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into your sector?
Consider yourself as a product or service. What is your value proposition, differentiation, and competitive advantage? Does your target market care about these things?
Trying to be a jack of all trades can make you a master of none and ultimately, you’ll need to figure out how to position yourself in your market to attract and close business.
