I help founders, CEOs and leadership teams scale their companies effectively — whether that means unlocking new growth, entering markets or structuring high-performance organizations.

Stefan Petzinger – Strategic Growth Advisor | Consultant to Founders, CEOs & Boards

With 25+ years of experience across tech, scale-ups and global agencies, I act as strategic partner who brings structure, speed and clarity to complex growth challenges.

My core expertise lies in immersing myself quickly into organizations and their growth challenges and to develop and implement solutions that help to overcome these challenges with high efficiency and measurable success. With a proven track record in many categories, on-the-ground expertise in the world’s most important business regions and access to an extensive network I can hit the ground running and deliver value from Day one.

I am available for short- and long-term consultancy as well as interim management. I am also interested in non-executive directors positions.

What I Help With

  • Identifying growth bottlenecks and developing actionable strategies
  • Structuring marketing, sales and product functions for scale
  • Supporting market expansion and internationalization
  • Aligning growth strategy with investor expectations
  • Acting as interim leadership to stabilize or accelerate teams
  • Coaching leadership teams or supporting junior leaders
  • Bridging the gap between short-term performance and long-term brand-building
  • Advising boards and C-level teams on key commercial decisions

How I Execute

  • Auditing growth activities across marketing, sales, product and operations
  • Developing and implementing go-to-market strategies that scale
  • Structuring and optimizing marketing organizations, teams and workflows
  • Building positioning, messaging and customer segmentation frameworks
  • Defining budgets, KPIs, OKRs and performance measurement systems
  • Creating integrated growth plans that combine brand, performance and product
  • Taking on interim or fractional leadership roles to stabilize or accelerate teams
  • Selecting, onboarding and managing external partners and agencies
  • Coaching founders and marketing leads of all levels through critical growth phases
  • Aligning stakeholders — from team to board level

For Founders & CEOs

You’re not looking for fluff, and you’re not hiring another agency. You need someone who’s been in the room, knows how to scale, and can help you move fast — without blowing up your team or your budget.

  • Evaluate your growth strategy: Before you burn through cash on the wrong channels or hires, I’ll help you validate what’s actually going to drive traction.
  • Turn investor pressure into a clear plan: Translate “triple growth in 12 months” into something your team can execute — with priorities, KPIs, and no BS.
  • Build the right team structure: I’ll help you figure out who you actually need, when you need them, and how to avoid hiring a CMO six months too early (or too late).
  • Align the org on your growth levers: Product, marketing and sales need to pull in the same direction. I help connect the dots and remove the friction.
  • Be your senior sounding board: I’ve worked with enough founders to know how difficult it can be to do the right things. Sometimes you need someone to challenge your thinking in a straightforward manner.
  • Step in when things break: Whether you’ve lost your marketing lead, hit a wall, or just need momentum — I’ll jump in, roll up the sleeves, get my hands dirty, and help you reset.

About me:

  • C-level operator experienced in rapid scaling of businesses either in-market or through market expansion
  • Successful in bridging a combination of brand and performance approaches over all relevant marketing channels
  • Respected manager, people and business leader with proven track record and high integrity, able to build high-performance teams that excel in the most challenging environments
  • Strong believer in data and measurement, obsessed with numbers and well-versed in all approaches to attribution
  • Major driver of disruptive and innovative thinking and an advocate for all things digital
  • Extensive on-the-ground experience in Europe, China and US, bi-lingual in English and German
  • Experienced presenter, panelist and negotiator

Professional experience:

2023–present  
Independent Consultant / Interim CMO / Advisor

2024-present
Hapimag AG, Steinhausen
Non Executive Board Member
Proud to serve as non-executive board member (Verwaltungsrat) for the Hapimag AG. Hapimag is a community-owned holiday resort operator that owns over 5.000 apartments in 56 resorts across 15 countries.

04/21–12/22
PlusDental, Berlin & Valencia
Chief Marketing Officer
Responsible for all Marketing and Growth activities
Member of the management team that took the company from Series B up to €131m exit to Straumann Group

2020–21  
Independent Consultant
Supported great scale-ups such as PlusDental, Trade Republic and Drivekyte

2019–20  
Tourlane, Berlin
SVP, Global Marketing
Responsible for all marketing activities (PPC, Social, Comms, Content, SEO, CRM)
Member of the management board and reporting to CEO and founder

2014–19   
KAYAK Software Corporation, Berlin
SVP, Marketing Europe & Managing Director, KAYAK Germany GmbH
Responsible for all non-PPC growth activities of the KAYAK brands (incl. swoodoo, checkfelix and cheapflights) in Europe.
Co-Managing Director of KAYAK’s Berlin office with 150 employees

2011–14
Leo Burnett Shanghai, China
Managing Director
Responsible for output, P&L and operations of Leo Burnett Shanghai, a 150 person agency serving a large variety of clients in all creative disciplines. Personally responsible for the accounts of Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Skoda

2007–10
DDB International, Berlin
Global Business Director
Global account leader for Volkswagen, one of the network’s biggest and most prestigious clients. DDB served Volkswagen in 30+ markets

1996–06   
Strawberryfrog BV, Amsterdam
Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam
Jung von Matt/Alster, Hamburg
BBDO New York
Worked my way up the ranks from AAE to Account Director in various Account Management roles

Education:

I hold a business degree (Diplom-Kaufmann) with Marketing Major from the University of Hamburg, Germany

References & Details:

Please get in touch and I will be happy to provide references and share detailed descriptions of projects I worked on.

Contact information:

+49(176)99102227
stefan(at)petzinger.de
linkedin.com/in/stefpetz

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