Kickoff Call B2B Fintech

Bison Payments Growth Partnership
First 90 Days

Today is about kicking off the partnership — aligning on Bison's business goals across all five lines of business, walking through how we work and what comes next, and surfacing the questions that'll shape the audit. Findings come back at the Business Review (Meeting 2); the costed scope and final plan land at the 30-60-90 (Meeting 3), built around the work most worth doing.

About
Bison Payments is an oil & gas fintech and payments platform headquartered in Oklahoma City, founded and led by North Whipple. The core invoice-funding business is profitable and holds close to 80% market share by dollar volume across ~50,000 suppliers concentrated in Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado. Bison is now standing up four adjacent motions — money movement ("Stripe for oil & gas"), royalty cash advance, a lender marketplace, and channel partnerships (one deal in active conversation represents up to ~½ trillion dollars in annual payments volume) — plus an emerging opening in data-center invoice funding as oil & gas suppliers pick up data-center contracts. The marketing function is being built from zero — no internal marketers today, with North acting as both strategist and bottleneck.
Your Engagement
Starting at
$30k/mo
Fractional CMO + Channel Co-Pilots + MH-1 Platform
+ Scope + Staffing Options
Layer in specialist co-pilots (deeper outbound · AEO/SEO push · BD for lender marketplace · creative for brand evolution) — Bison picks what to turn on, final monthly follows.
Two-Week Trial · Three Meetings
WEEK 0
Meeting 1 · Kickoff — today · audit kicks off · access flowing
WEEK 1
Meeting 2 · Business Review — audit findings across all five lines of business + priority order
WEEK 2
Meeting 3 · 30-60-90 Plan — what we ship in Month 1, 2, 3 plus the team + monthly to match
AFTER TRIAL
Execution begins — brand modernization + multi-product GTM. Any added channel work scoped + priced separately.
100% refund if we don't continue after the trial.
Section 1 · 5 min
Today's Agenda
Seven topics · 50 minutes · today is about aligning on Bison's business goals, the access we'll need, and the discovery that powers the audit. Final scope + costed roadmap land at Meeting 3 (the 30-60-90 Plan).
01
Intros & Context
Both sides of the table, why we're here
5 MIN
02
Partnership Scope
What MH-1 owns + what stays internal to Bison
5 MIN
03
Org Structure
North + Chip + the MH-1 CMO + co-pilots + ecosystem
5 MIN
04
Where We'll Dig Deeper
Product, business, audience tiers, sales-marketing integration
10 MIN
05
Tech Stack & Access
CRM, ads, LinkedIn, email, web, proprietary data, mailers
10 MIN
06
How We Work
Slack, email, cadence, approvals
5 MIN
07
What Happens Next
Audit → Business Review (Week 1) → 30-60-90 (Week 2)
10 MIN
Section 2 · 5 min
Partnership Scope
Today's frame, based on what North has called out so far. The Business Review will sharpen, expand, or reshuffle this — the Meeting 3 plan is built around the final picture.
Starts This Week
Access & Business Review
Full marketing stack across all five lines of business · proprietary data ingestion · brand & positioning teardown
North's Initial Asks
Brand Modernization + Multi-Product GTM
Reposition from "legacy invoice funder" to "fintech of oil & gas" · stand up the money movement, royalty advance, and lender marketplace motions
Open · Business Review May Surface
Channel Sequencing
Where to lean (LinkedIn ABM · paid search · partner BD · direct mail) per tier · which legacy tactics to keep, refine, or retire
The Pod That Runs the Work
Tentative
Tentative pod shape, introduced today. Final composition is confirmed at the end of the Business Review based on the plan Bison signs off on — lanes can be combined, expanded, or paused without re-papering the agreement.
Role
Focus
Fractional CMO
Cross-product plan · weekly cadence with North · integration across all five lines of business
Outbound & Outreach Lead
Outbound / ABM · Referral & Channel Partner Programs · Apollo workflows · sequence design · coordination with Bison's 4-person sales team
Direct Mail & Offline Lead
Direct Mail · mailer campaigns · trifolds · segment-specific physical touchpoints (suppliers + royalty owners)
Paid & LinkedIn Lead
LinkedIn (paid + organic + sales nav — primary paid surface) · Paid Search as the plan warrants
Content & Product Marketing
SEO & AEO authority content · Email / Lifecycle & Nurture · Sales Enablement (decks, case studies, sequences) · multi-product positioning architecture
Brand & Creative
Brand & Positioning · Corporate Website & Product Pages · Landing Pages · brand brain · visual systems · mailer & ad creative
Marketing Engineer
Marketing Engineering & Attribution · data layer · dashboards · AI workflow orchestration alongside Bison's engineering team
Engagement Manager
Operating cadence · cross-product coordination · North's day-to-day contact
Plus the MH-1 bench: channel-specific copilots (email, paid social, content, programmatic) that rotate in for one-off needs without a separate contract, alongside the MarketerHire engineering team that built the AI workflows.
Not In MH-1 Scope
Product / Engineering / Underwriting Bison · Internal
Treasury & Payment Operations Bison · Internal
Sales Execution & Account Management Bison · Sales Team
Legal · Compliance · Regulatory Legal Counsel
Half-Trillion Channel Deal · Term Negotiation North · Direct
PR · Earned Media Out of Scope
In-Person Events & Conferences Out of Scope
Section 3 · 5 min
Organizational Structure
Bison is building the marketing function from zero. North is the strategic owner and final approver; MH-1 stands up the operating engine; the ecosystem (channel partners, lender marketplace, key suppliers) is the GTM surface area we activate against.
NW
North Whipple
Founder · Bison Payments
Strategic owner · final approver · "I'll know it when I see it" — the role MH-1 unblocks
Bison Internal
FOUNDER + SALES + ZERO MARKETERS
Who's in the room
→North Whipple — founder, strategic owner, primary POC
→Chip Alvord — Royalty Cash Advance + B2C-style marketing context
→Sales Team — relationship-driven, ~8/10 close once engaged
→Marketing Admin (TBD) — internal point-person for access & approvals
Build-from-zero mandate
No internal marketers today. The MH-1 CMO + co-pilots are the marketing function until Bison decides what to keep external vs. internalize over time.
MH-1
FRACTIONAL CMO + CHANNEL LEADS + PLATFORM
How the pod is shaped
A multi-role pod under one Fractional CMO. The CMO owns the cross-product plan + weekly cadence with North; channel leads execute their lanes. Full role breakdown lives in the pod table in Section 2 above.
Why a pod vs. hiring
In-house hiring is slow (6+ months per role, sequenced) and at-risk per North's prior experience. The pod ships category fluency from week one — AI trained on Bison's proprietary data, humans in the loop on QA and strategy.
Optional · Scope + Staffing Bison Picks
+Final pod composition set at audit-end based on the plan Bison signs off on
+MH-1 bench access included — channel-specific copilots rotate in for one-off needs
Supporting Cast
Jarred · Strategy & Ops Josh · Technical Lead Andrea · Onboarding MH-1 Platform
Ecosystem & Channels
PARTNERS · OPERATORS · LENDERS
Activation surface
→~500 major operators + ~2,000 smaller — money movement & lending targets
→~50,000 suppliers (trucking, plumbing, electrical, rock haulers) — invoice funding core
→Royalty owners — individual recipients, B2C-flavored motion
→Channel partners — GCs, platform integrators, including the ½T deal in motion
→Lender marketplace participants — capital providers Bison brings into the platform
Compounding Effect
Proprietary customer data + niche industry voice + channel-partner network = a moat banks can't replicate. Each piece compounds: data trains the AI, the AI scales the content, the content earns the partner trust, the partners feed the pipeline.
Section 4 · 10 min
Where We'll Dig Deeper
Kickoff aligned the picture — these are the questions we need answered live so the audit hits the right surfaces. The Business Review at Meeting 2 will come back with the order of attack.
Product & Positioning
→What does "feels like a fintech, not a legacy invoice funder" look like concretely?
→Money movement positioning — closer to Stripe, closer to a bank, or its own category?
→Lender marketplace — how do we frame "bank's bank" without diluting Bison's own brand?
→Royalty Cash Advance — how distinct is the brand from the B2B products?
Business & Financials
→Revenue mix across invoice funding, money movement, royalty advance, lender marketplace?
→2026 targets — funded volume, payments volume, lender marketplace activations?
→Take rate / unit economics per product — what's the CAC ceiling each can support?
→The ½T channel deal — what's marketing's role in closing it vs. supporting post-signature activation?
Audience & GTM
→For each tier (operators · suppliers · royalty · channel), who's the actual decision-maker?
→How "online" is each segment — search, LinkedIn, conferences, trade media?
→Switching cost (lien releases, treasury protocols) — what makes a prospect commit to the change?
→Engagement gate — ~8/10 close once engaged. What's blocking the other 9 of 10 from engaging at all?
Sales-Marketing Integration
→How are leads currently ingested, assigned, and tracked to revenue?
→Cold call + mailer + referral — which is producing what, and what's worth scaling vs. retiring?
→What does the sales team need from marketing that they don't get today — decks, case studies, sequences, intent signals?
→Rejection volume — when Bison says no, what's the pattern and is there a feedback loop worth instrumenting?
Section 5 · 10 min
Access & Assets We'll Need
Everything we'll request access to after today — platforms, ad accounts, data, brand materials. Read access for the audit; write access only where North approves.
Web, Sales & CRM
Corporate Website / Product Pages Pending Access
CRM / Sales Pipeline Pending Access
Sales Engagement (Outreach / Salesloft / Apollo) Pending Access
Direct Mail Vendor(s) Pending Access
Paid Media & Lifecycle
LinkedIn (Ads + Pages + Sales Nav) Pending Access
Google Ads + GA4 Pending Access
Email / Marketing Automation Pending Access
Google Search Console Pending Access
Proprietary Data & AI
Customer / Supplier Database Pending Access
Payments & Funded Volume Data Pending Access
Junior-Staff AI/Enrichment Tools Pending Access
Existing Reporting / Dashboards Pending Access
Brand Assets & Sales Collateral
Logos, Type, Color Systems Pending
Brand & Voice Guidelines Pending
Sales Decks · One-Pagers · Case Studies Pending
Existing Customer Testimonials / References Pending
Section 6 · 5 min
How We Work
A premium growth-partner operating model — clear cadence, full transparency, measurable speed, and a single point of accountability so North isn't the bottleneck.
Communication
Shared Slack + Email
Slack for day-to-day questions and quick approvals (response <4 hrs).
Email for strategy documents and formal approvals. Shared inbox: ai@marketerhire.com (<24 hrs response).
Reporting & Transparency
Weekly · Monthly · Quarterly
Weekly progress updates during the trial. Post-trial: monthly performance dashboards (shared, not walled-garden) and a quarterly QBR. The work — and the data — is always visible to North.
Speed
Platform-Multiplied Pace
Fractional CMO + Co-Pilots + MH-1 platform ships at the cadence of a much larger group — research, creative, campaigns, and reporting compounded by the AI layer trained on Bison's proprietary data. Oil & gas fluency from week one.
Ownership & Accountability
One Team · Plan + Ship
The same team that builds the plan ships the work. The Fractional CMO is North's single point of contact — no hand-offs, no opaque agency layers, no PM tax. Easy turn-up + turn-down as Bison's needs evolve.
Meeting Cadence
Weekly during the two-week trial — deep-dive at a time North picks. Bi-weekly after kickoff, with weekly returning whenever we're shipping a major workstream (brand refresh, money-movement launch, lender marketplace activation, etc.). Approvals on brand-touching work: 24-hr SLA, Slack-first.
Section 7 · 10 min
What Happens After Today
Access this week → audit across Bison's five lines of business → Business Review at Meeting 2 → 30-60-90 plan at Meeting 3 → execution begins after the trial on brand modernization + multi-product GTM. Channel work (paid, outbound, lifecycle, SEO/AEO) gets scoped + priced separately based on what the audit shows.
01 Week 1 · WORK
Foundation & Audit
→Access flowing: web · CRM · ads · LinkedIn · email · sales engagement · direct mail vendors
→Proprietary customer data ingested · AI trained on Bison's industry voice
→Channel audit across all five lines of business — what's working, broken, untouched
→Brand & positioning teardown — how far is Bison from "feels like a fintech"
→Competitive & incumbent landscape — banks, regional fintechs, capital providers
→Pipeline diagnostic — where engagement breaks before the ~8/10 close gate
02 Meeting 2
Business Review
→Cross-product state of the union — where each line is and where the gap is
→Brand modernization path — what changes, what gets retired, what stays
→Multi-product GTM sequence — which product gets full focus first, which compound
→Priority order: what we attack first, what we sequence, what waits
→Costed menu of optional add-ons (paid · outbound · lifecycle · SEO/AEO · BD) — North picks
03 Meeting 3
30-60-90 Day Plan
→What ships in Month 1, 2, 3 — brand refresh + GTM playbooks + analytics buildout
→Which add-on co-pilots Bison wants on — each priced individually
→North approves — execution starts after the trial, first shipped work by Week 4
→Sales-marketing integration plan — what sales gets from marketing every week
→KPI dashboard live: pipeline, funded volume, payments volume, marketing-attributed deals
After the audit, we come back to you with a recommended plan
Meeting 2 · Business Review
We Identify Gaps, Needs & Opportunities
The audit reads the full marketing stack across all five Bison lines of business — every channel, every system — and surfaces where the biggest opportunities sit, where the unmet needs are, and what the highest-leverage work would actually be. No pricing yet — just the read.
Meeting 3 · 30-60-90 Plan
We Recommend a Plan, Staffing & Monthly
A costed plan built around the work most worth doing — the team we'd put on it, what each co-pilot owns, the cadence, and the monthly that follows. North picks what to turn on; the plan scales up or down with Bison, and stays easy to adjust month to month.
100% refund if we don't find the right path forward together.