Fractional Marketing Strategist for an Innovative Startup
Remote · Contract · About 5 hours a week
Idiodóneo S.L. is a Madrid-based startup building new tools that change how people learn languages.
Our first product, Plaza, is an online marketplace for language learning built around live video
conversation. Learners book sessions with instructors, and they can also talk for free with peers who
are learning their language.
Plaza is designed around a particular way of talking: each person speaks their own native language and
listens to the other's. Each side hears a native speaker at natural speed, talking about things that
matter, and nobody has to perform in a language they don't yet speak well. The approach has solid
academic grounding (receptive multilingualism, lingua receptiva, intercomprehension), but few
learners have ever heard of it. Helping them discover it is a big part of this job.
Plaza is in development, with launch planned for 2027. We're a lean, close-knit team where good ideas get
acted on quickly and everyone's work shows. We have a real product being built and a long pre-launch
period ahead of us, and we intend to use it well.
The role
We're looking for a senior marketing strategist, on a fractional basis, to turn our pre-launch
strategy from a well-researched draft into a plan we can execute, and then to steer that execution
alongside a full-time community manager based in Madrid.
You'll work directly with the founder. A pre-launch playbook already exists. It covers market
reasoning, positioning, a working ranking of language pairs, a plan for a founding community of
instructors, and a list of open questions. Your job is to challenge it, sharpen it and make it
actionable.
The role does not include recruiting instructors or hiring staff. At around five hours a week,
your time goes into strategy, decisions and a handful of high-value relationships.
If you've grown a marketplace from nothing on a modest budget, and you'd enjoy doing it again for an
idea most people haven't heard of yet, we'd love to hear from you.
What you'll deliver in your first three months:
- Strategic goals. A small set of objective, measurable goals that, once met, set up the
launch and the growth after it to succeed, and that you can convince us are achievable. This
includes defining what "ready to launch" means for each language pair.
- A roadmap. A plan of concrete tasks in several parallel lanes, each one measurable
against the goals. Launch timing follows product development, so the plan has to adapt to it
and keep paying off for as long as the pre-launch period lasts.
- A budget. What the plan should cost and why, refined through ongoing discussions with
the founder to ensure an effective and resourceful plan.
- Language-pair priorities. A strong voice on which language pairs we lead with and how
we roll out the rest, backed by real data.
- A positioning strategy. A clearly argued, believable plan for how learners and
instructors come to know and understand this way of talking, and to associate it with
Plaza.
- Expert relationships. You'll personally find and engage scholars, researchers and
thought leaders in language learning whose contributions would lend weight to the approach and
credibility to the brand. This is the hands-on, outward-facing part of the role.
- A working rhythm with our community manager, who will carry out much of the plan:
recruiting our founding instructors and producing a steady flow of content. We're hiring for
that role at the same time, so you may be shaping their work from their first weeks.
Requirements
- You've launched a marketplace and taken it from zero to solid growth. You understand the
critical-mass problem because you've solved it, not just read about it.
- You've built a consumer (B2C) brand.
- You did it at a small company with a modest budget, and you know how to create demand without
heavy ad spend or a large funding round behind you.
- You work well independently, in English, with a founder who will want to hear your reasoning,
not just your conclusions.
Nice to have:
- Above all, a track record with content that builds presence and authority over months, such as
articles, perspectives and resources. We'd especially like to see content that brought in expert
voices or helped establish a new idea or category.
- Experience in language learning, education or edtech.
- Spanish or other languages, though English is all the role requires.
What we offer:
A fractional contract, around 5 hours a week, fully remote
Senior fractional rates (tell us your usual rate when you apply)
Direct work with the founder, and a real say in how a new product reaches its market
Some overlap with Madrid working hours (Central European Time)
Starting as soon as possible
Excited by this challenge?
Send a short note to jobs@idiodoneo.es that covers:
- the marketplace you took from zero: what critical mass meant there and how you reached it;
- links to content or campaigns you led and are proud of;
- how you'd approach your first month with us;
- your usual rate, hourly or daily, in your own currency.
Include your CV or LinkedIn profile. A few honest paragraphs will tell us more than a formal cover
letter.