Fractional Leaders feat. Tan Rahman

In this blog, we spoke with Tan Rahman, an accomplished digital marketing expert who recently transitioned to a fractional leadership role.

With over 20 years of experience in building brands and scaling businesses globally, Tan shares valuable insights on how scale-ups can optimize resources, grow market share, and achieve impactful results.

Can you please introduce yourself and your journey to becoming a Fractional Leader?

I have spent more than two decades in the digital and marketing industry, where I was an early pioneer in both building and advertising within the digital space. My career has allowed me to work with a wide range of companies, from scale-ups with modest budgets under £100K to large corporations with budgets exceeding £50M. I’ve had the privilege of working with B2C and B2B organisations across multiple regions globally. Now, I’m ready to leverage my extensive experience by serving as a fractional leader, contributing to the growth and strategic development of a diverse set of companies on a part-time or short-term basis.

Let’s talk impact, what achievements are you proud of the most?

I’m particularly proud of the significant impact I’ve had on the growth of brands, from building awareness within their target audiences to driving substantial business expansion. One of my standout achievements was joining a startup as its 12th employee and helping it scale to 2,500 people in just four years, reaching a market cap of $2B after 2 public offerings.

I also played a key role in propelling a smartphone manufacturer from No. 10 to No. 2 in global market share by leading multiple successful worldwide launch campaigns. Additionally, I helped raise $10M for a startup, largely due to the strength of my communications, PR and branding efforts.

Based on your work with start-ups and scale-ups, do you have any pieces of wisdom you could share with businesses in scale-up mode?

For businesses in scale-up mode, maximizing resources is crucial, especially when budgets are tight. If funds are limited, find creative ways to make an impact—whether through borrowing, partnering, or leveraging modern AI tools to help with content creation and asset development.

It’s equally important to hyper-target your customers. In B2B, get directly involved by joining sales calls to understand your clients’ needs, while in B2C, immerse yourself in competing products and their marketing strategies until you know them better than their creators do. Finally, always be willing to roll up your sleeves and put in the hard work to deliver exceptional results, as young companies have only a few opportunities to make a meaningful impact.

If you’re a business interested in hearing more about our Fractional Leadership offering you can:

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If you are a fractional leader and would like to be featured as part of the “Fractional Leaders” series please get in touch.