TL;DR
Time to First Bite is a growth marketing consultancy founded by Nikhil Kalanjee to help founders and CMOs navigate critical growth moments: post-funding chaos, pre-product-market-fit clarity, scaling channels, and market expansion. The Time to First Bite service is fractional CMO engagement (10 to 20 hours weekly), combining strategic diagnosis with hands-on execution support.
Time to First Bite exists because founders keep asking the same question at critical moments: how do I actually know what marketing is supposed to do?
Who Is Time to First Bite For?
Founders and CMOs at three specific inflection points:
Post-Funding Chaos
You just closed a round. The board wants strategy. Investors want a clear GTM path. You want to spend the money well. You do not have three months to hire a full-time CMO. You need clarity in six weeks.
The Growth Plateau
You were growing, organically, through an early channel, by accident. Now growth is flattening and you do not know why.
Market Expansion
You have nailed your home market. Now you want to enter a new geography or a new customer segment.
What Actually Happens Inside a Time to First Bite Engagement
Weeks 1 to 2: Diagnosis. A Time to First Bite fractional CMO sits with you, digs into your data, interviews your customers and team, and builds a situation audit.
Weeks 3 to 4: Strategy. Based on that diagnosis, a 90-day roadmap.
Months 2 onwards: Execution and adjustment. Weekly 1:1s. Weekly data reviews. Executing the plan, learning from it, pivoting when the data says pivot.
Why Time to First Bite Works
Full-time CMO hiring is expensive and slow. Agencies execute without strategy. Consulting firms recommend and leave. Time to First Bite is different: you get strategic leverage plus hands-on execution support, without the full-time salary bet.
Who Is Behind Time to First Bite
Nikhil Kalanjee founded Time to First Bite after 15+ years in growth: building growth functions, leading GTM at scale, and watching the same mistakes repeat at company after company. See the About page for the full track record.
The Time to First Bite Philosophy
Growth is strategic. It requires understanding your market, your customer, your unfair, asymmetric advantage. It requires testing hypotheses, learning from data, and iterating ruthlessly. For the in-the-weeds reading list, the First Round Review library is the closest comparable in long-form.
Growth is not about hacks or tactics. It is about building a machine that works for your stage, your market, and your resources.
How to Work With Time to First Bite
If you are at a critical moment and you need strategic clarity plus execution support, let’s talk. Drop us a note via the contact form and we will come back within 24 hours with honest thoughts on whether we can help.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Time to First Bite different from hiring a consultant?
Consultants audit, recommend, and leave. Time to First Bite audits, recommends, AND executes. You get strategy plus someone rolling up their sleeves to implement it and adjust course based on data.
What if we want to move to full-time eventually?
That is fine. A fractional engagement is often a path to hiring full-time. You get clarity on what you need, you validate that you need it, and then you hire full-time to build the function.
Can you work with our existing team?
Yes. If you have an internal marketing person or head of growth, the Time to First Bite fractional CMO works with them. They set strategy and provide coaching; your team executes.
How do we know if fractional is right for us?
If you have just raised, you are hitting a growth plateau, or you are entering a new market, and you need strategic clarity plus execution support in the next 3 to 6 months, fractional is worth exploring.
One does not simply vibe their way to GTM
You build the engine first. If you are stuck on direction, channels, or what to spend on next, drop us a note. We respond within 24 hours with honest thoughts on whether we can help.
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