This page is for Johns Hopkins FastForward founders looking for free GTM feedback from a B2B SaaS marketing operator with five startup VP of Marketing roles.

For JHU FastForward Founders

You built something out of a Hopkins lab. Now you need a fractional CMO to help you build the B2B GTM motion around it.

Free 30-60 minute GTM session for Johns Hopkins FastForward founders. Honest feedback on your positioning, messaging, and early pipeline. No prep required. No pitch from me.

Request Your Free Session
Why this exists

I got help early. This is how I return it.

I have been VP of Marketing at five early-stage startups. Every one of them was built by people sharper than me on the technical side. What I could do that they couldn't, at least not yet, was take a complex product and turn it into a message that made a buyer say yes.

People gave me their time when I needed it most. That changed where I ended up. These sessions are how I build the bridge behind me.

The session is free because I think the right way to work with early-stage founders is to be useful before anything else. Some of those conversations turn into ongoing work. Most don't, and that's fine. The goal is that you leave with something you can act on that week.

If you're a FastForward founder trying to figure out how to sell what you've built, that's the conversation I want to have.

Who this is for

Built for the FastForward founder profile

If you're a FastForward founder and at least two of those land, this session was built for you.

What we cover

30-60 minutes. One problem. Real feedback. Really free.

01

Positioning and messagingWhy your current language isn't turning technical depth into buyer urgency, and what to change first.

02

ICP sharpnessWhether your ideal customer is actually buyable at your stage, or whether you're aimed at a segment that can't move fast enough to matter right now.

03

Early pipeline structureHow you're generating demand, where the drop-off is, and what a realistic first GTM motion looks like with what you actually have.

04

First marketing hireWhether you're ready to hire, what to look for, and how to avoid the hire that looks right on paper and sets you back six months.

05

Your specific questionBring the thing that's been sitting on your whiteboard for three weeks. That's usually where we start.

No prep required. No slides. No pitch deck. Just show up and we'll dig in.

The FastForward ecosystem

A few companies that came out of Johns Hopkins FastForward

FastForward has produced some of the most consequential health tech and life sciences companies in the country. These are a few you may recognize.

Thrive Earlier Detection
Liquid biopsy for early cancer detection, spun out of the Hopkins Vogelstein Lab. Raised $257M Series B and acquired by Exact Sciences for $2.1 billion.
JHTV Alumni
Delfi Diagnostics
Blood test for early cancer detection using fragmentomics. Raised $100M to commercialize technology developed at Johns Hopkins.
FastForward
ZeroFOX
Social media and digital risk security platform founded by JHU alumni. Raised significant VC and went public via SPAC in 2022.
JHU Alumni
Sonatype
Software supply chain security platform co-founded by a JHU alumnus. Raised over $100M and serves Fortune 100 enterprise customers.
JHU Alumni
About Tom

Five startups. Marketing Leadership.

Tom Berger

Johns Hopkins produces a specific kind of founder: someone who has spent years solving a genuinely hard problem in a lab, who has more depth on the science than almost anyone they'll ever pitch, and who often finds the commercial side of the business the most foreign thing they've ever had to learn. I've worked with founders who fit that profile, and that translation problem, from research-grade rigor to buyer-ready messaging, is something I know how to help with.

I've been VP of Marketing at five B2B SaaS startups, from pre-revenue through Series B. The job was always the same: take a technically strong product, figure out who actually needs to buy it, and build the smallest marketing motion that proves the thesis before you scale it.

I run a Portfolio CMO practice based in the DC/Baltimore area with a small number of Series A and B companies. The free sessions sit outside that. No sales agenda.

More about my background
What comes after

Most sessions end at the session.

The session stands on its own. You'll leave with feedback you can act on. No follow-up pitch, no invoice.

A small number of founders want to keep going after the session. Some are trying to hire their first marketing leader and want a thought partner through that process. Some are a few months from a Series A and need someone in the room while they build the GTM motion. For those conversations, I work as an advisor or a senior marketing leader embedded in the business on a part-time basis, without the overhead of a full-time executive hire.

If that's relevant after we talk, I'll tell you what it looks like. If it's not, the session still stands. More on how I work with founders.

Common questions

Frequently asked

Yes. Fully free. No invoice at the end, no discovery call disguised as a session. I do a small number of these for founders coming out of programs like FastForward because the conversations keep me sharp on what early-stage technical founders are actually navigating. The only thing I ask is that you show up with a real question, not a test of whether I'll pitch you.
Spark stage is often the right time. The positioning decisions you make before you start talking to buyers are the hardest ones to undo. If you're still in customer discovery and trying to figure out who you're actually selling to, that's exactly where this session is most useful. You don't need a marketing plan. You need someone to help you sharpen the commercial story before you've told it to 50 people the wrong way.
FastForward's mentors cover a wide range of topics -- fundraising, IP, team building, clinical validation. This session is narrower on purpose. It's specifically about the commercial side: how you're positioning what you built, whether your ICP is actually buyable, and what your first real pipeline motion looks like. I've been VP of Marketing at five startups. That's all I focus on. If GTM is the gap, that's where I can go deeper than a generalist mentor typically will.
The founders I've seen struggle most in digital health aren't struggling because of the science. They're struggling because the buying process in health systems and payer organizations is long, opaque, and involves four to six stakeholders who all have different definitions of "value." Getting the commercial story right early -- who is the actual economic buyer, what does the clinical champion need to say to procurement, what does a pilot proposal need to look like -- changes outcomes. That's the conversation we'd have.
The free session is a single conversation. You bring one problem, I give you honest feedback, you leave with something you can act on that week. Ongoing advisory work is different: I'm embedded in the business on a part-time basis, attending team meetings, working through the GTM strategy over months, and accountable to your pipeline results, not just the quality of the advice. The session is the right place to start. Ongoing work is for founders who want to keep the conversation going.
Send me an email with one sentence on what you're building and one sentence on the specific thing you want to think through. I'll reply within 48 hours to find a time. The session is 30-60 minutes over video call. No deck, no prep. Just show up ready to talk through the problem.
Ready when you are

One conversation. Something concrete to act on.

Send a quick email with what you're building and what you want to think through. I'll get back to you within 48 hours.

[email protected] Subject line: Free GTM Session -- JHU FastForward