CMO Council
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By Exit Five

An exclusive peer network for the top CMOs in B2B companies.

CMO Council is a vetted, NDA-protected community where VPs of Marketing and CMOs at B2B companies share real challenges, real numbers, and real advice with peers who get it.

$50M-1B+

Member company revenue

100%

In-house leaders
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Who This Is For

Built for the people actually running B2B marketing

Not consultants. Not agencies. Not fractional leaders. CMO Council is exclusively for in-house marketing leaders at B2B companies doing $50M+ in revenue.

Who This Is For

You lead marketing at a B2B company

You're a VP of Marketing or CMO with full ownership of the marketing function. Your company does $50M+ in annual revenue. You're making real decisions about budget, team, and strategy every week and you don't have enough peers to pressure-test those decisions with.
This isn't the right fit if

You're not currently leading an in-house marketing team

We keep the room focused on people in the same seat. That means we don't accept consultants, agency owners, fractional CMOs, or vendors. We also don't accept competitors of existing members. Every applicant goes through a 30-minute vetting call before acceptance. It's how we keep the conversations candid and the trust high.
Membership Features

Everything included with your membership

Private Slack Community

NDA-protected space for candid conversations about budget, strategy, hiring, tools, and the real challenges of leading marketing.
"I posted about our attribution stack at 2pm. By 5pm I had replies and two offers to hop on a call."

Peer Advisory Groups

Monthly 60-minute video calls with 5-6 matched peers. Go around the room, air out what's on your mind, and get real help from people in the same seat.
"My peer group helped me rethink my entire demand gen org chart. I implemented the changes the next week."

Exit Five Concierge

Need an intro to a specific member? Looking for a CMO who's scaled through $500M? Want help finding a demand gen hire? Our team makes targeted connections for you.
"Matt connected me with two members who'd both just run ABM evaluations. Saved me months of vendor research."

Speaking and Visibility

Members get invited to speak on the Exit Five podcast (25,000 downloads/month) and present in webinars reaching our 45,000-subscriber newsletter audience.
"My podcast episode drove inbound recruiting interest I wasn't even expecting."

In-Person Events

Annual retreat in Arizona (March), CMO programming in Vermont (September), plus local dinners in cities like Austin, NYC, San Francisco, and more.
"The Arizona retreat was the most valuable two days of my year. Conversations I can't have anywhere else."

Group Calls and Workshops

Live calls on focused topics: org chart design, budget negotiation, board presentation prep, AI strategy. Small enough that you can actually unmute and ask questions.
"The compensation session alone was worth the membership fee."
Online Community

A private Slack community where CMOs actually share the real stuff

Every member signs an NDA. No competitors allowed. No vendors pitching. The result: people share real budget numbers, real org charts, real struggles. The kind of conversations you can't have anywhere else.

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Ask anything, get real answers fast

Post a question and you'll get responses from CMOs who've been there, done that. Need budget benchmarks before a board meeting? You'll get real numbers from peers. Need to gut-check a board deck? Someone will hop on a call that afternoon.

We connect you with the right people

The Exit Five team actively monitors conversations and connects members. If you post about attribution challenges, we'll tag the three members who just went through the same evaluation. If you're hiring, we'll connect you to members who've built similar teams. You're never just posting into the void.

Vendor and tool intelligence

The #1 question type in our community: "Has anyone used [tool]?" Get unfiltered peer reviews on martech tools, agencies, and freelancers from people who've actually used them. No sponsored content. No affiliate links. Just honest takes from your peers.

Structured conversations, not just a feed

We run weekly discussion prompts, themed threads, and targeted matchmaking. This isn't a Slack channel you forget about. It's an active, moderated community with consistent programming designed to keep conversations flowing and members engaged.

Popular conversation topics

Marketing budget as a % of revenue
AI tools and workflows
Org design and hiring
CMO compensation and negotiation
Vendor and agency recommendations
Board presentations and reporting
PLG vs. enterprise GTM
Attribution and analytics stack
Performance reviews and people management
Content strategy and AI-generated content
Marketing automation platforms
Career transitions and promotions

Real conversations happening inside CMO Council

Peer Groups

Deep conversation in a small recurring group

Monthly virtual meetups with 5-6 other marketing leaders. This is where you air out the biggest challenges you're facing at work and personally. Same group every month, so trust builds over time.

How it works

Every month, your group meets for 60 minutes on a video call. Members go around the room, each getting a chance to air out what's on their mind and where they need help. Everyone contributes, everyone benefits.

Topics members have brought: scaling a team through a reorg, defending marketing budget to the board, navigating a PE acquisition, building a demand gen engine from scratch, figuring out AI strategy, delivering tough performance reviews.

You'll walk away with specific, actionable advice from people who've been exactly where you are. And because it's the same group every month, the conversations get deeper over time.

How we match groups

We don't just throw people together. Every group is intentionally matched so you're surrounded by peers who actually understand your context.
Revenue band ($50-100M, $100-500M, $500M+)
Company stage and funding type (PE-backed, public, bootstrapped)
Industry vertical and GTM motion
Shared challenges and growth stage
Hard constraint: no competitors in the same group
What Makes Us Different

This isn't another generic executive community

Most communities are either too big, too broad, or full of people trying to sell you something. We built CMO Council to be the opposite.

01

100% in-house B2B marketing leaders

No consultants. No agencies. No fractional CMOs. No vendors. Every single member is an in-house VP of Marketing or CMO at a B2B company doing $50M+ in revenue. When you ask a question, you get answers from people doing the same job you are.

02

We curate the room

Every applicant goes through a 30-minute vetting call. You declare your competitors upon joining and they're automatically blocked. Every member signs an NDA. The result: a level of candor and trust you won't find anywhere else. People share real numbers, real failures, real strategies.

03

Built by the largest B2B marketing community in the world

CMO Council is built by Exit Five, the largest community for B2B marketers (6,000+ members, 45,000 newsletter subscribers, 25,000 podcast downloads/month). We know what B2B marketing leaders need because we've been building for them since day one.
From Our Members

What members are saying

Don't take our word for it.

Heather Smith, CMO at SpyCloud

"It's remarkable to be in a space with so many brilliant marketers, who want to just have a real, transparent conversation with you and compare notes."

Bill Glenn, SVP Marketing at Esper

"Every day that you're not a part of the CMO Council, you're missing out, and so I would just highly encourage anybody who is on the fence to 100% just go feet first jump in."

Jonathan Pogact, VP Marketing at Seamless.ai

"These are people that are doing it at the highest level. Chances are they've been where you're trying to get to."

Marcy Comer, CMO at EagleView

"The thing that sets CMO Council apart is that it is truly the only space where I can ask questions of my peers in sort of a safe space."
In Person

The conversations that happen off-screen matter most

Online community is the foundation. But the deepest relationships and the biggest breakthroughs happen when you're in the same room.

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Annual Retreat

Marketing Leadership Retreat, Arizona

Every March, we bring members together for an intimate multi-day retreat in Arizona. Small group discussions, working sessions, dinners, and the kind of off-the-record conversations that only happen when you're surrounded by peers you trust.
Annual Conference

Drive Conference, Vermont

Every September, CMO Council members get dedicated programming at Drive, our annual B2B marketing conference in Vermont. Focused sessions designed specifically for senior marketing leaders, plus access to the broader conference and community.
Local Meetups

Member Dinners in Your City

Smaller, informal dinners and meetups in cities where members are concentrated: Austin, NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, and more. A member hosts, we provide the budget. Show up, eat well, talk shop with other marketing leaders.

3+

In-person touchpoints per year, from multi-day retreats to casual local dinners

What we've seen happen at in-person events

Members self-organized at breakfast to talk through org design challenges together.
A crowd formed around a CMO who was demoing their vibe coding setup in Claude.
CMOs at $1B+ companies started recruiting VPs from smaller companies they met at the retreat.
Two members discovered they serve the same industry and swapped numbers to stay connected.
Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Don't take our word for it.

How do you vet members?

You submit an application, then do a 30-minute call with our team. We're looking for in-house B2B marketing leaders at companies doing $50M+ in revenue who will actively contribute to the community. We turn people away regularly to keep the room right.

What if my competitor is already a member?

When you join, you declare your competitors and they're blocked from joining. If a competitor is already in the group, we'll have a conversation about it. We take the no-competitor policy seriously because it's what makes the candor possible.

How much time does this actually take?

That's up to you. Most members check Slack a few times a week, attend their monthly peer group call (60 minutes), and join a live call or event when it fits their schedule. Some are more active, some less. It works around your calendar, not the other way around.

I'm already part of another community like this. How is this different?

We'd encourage you to apply and learn more about what we're building. The short version: we're 100% focused on in-house B2B marketing leaders. Not revenue leaders, not general executives, not a mix of functions. The conversations are specific to the challenges you face running B2B marketing. Several of our members came from other communities specifically because they wanted a more focused, more intimate room.

What's the NDA about?

Every member signs an NDA when they join. It means you can share real numbers, real strategies, and real challenges without worrying about it ending up in a competitor's hands or on LinkedIn. It's the foundation of trust in the group.

What Makes Us Different

Ready to stop making decisions alone?

Apply for CMO Council membership. We'll set up a 30-minute call to see if it's the right fit for both of us.

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