Co-founder/ CMO

Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

Covanest is a digital savings and fashion-focused e-commerce platform that helps shoppers plan and manage their clothing expenses with precision. Users can create a list of clothing needs, save and lock funds, and shop in-app to avoid overspending or missing essentials due to limited cash flow. The platform offers Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) options at checkout, giving shoppers flexible payment choices. Covanest also connects users with nearby fashion designers for convenient, personalized services. The company is building the future of fashion shopping and financial planning, with a strong focus on user experience and accessibility. We are at an exciting stage of building our product, brand, and market presence, and we are looking for an entrepreneurial Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) to join our founding team and help take the company from early-stage startup to a recognized and trusted fintech brand.

About the Role As Co-Founder & CMO, you will own the company’s marketing, brand, growth, customer acquisition, communications, and go-to-market strategy. You will play a critical role in defining how the market understands, trusts, and adopts our financial products. This is a hands-on founder-level position. You will not simply manage a marketing department; you will help build the marketing function, customer base, brand, partnerships, and growth engine from the ground up. You will work closely with the CEO, product, technology, operations, compliance, and business development teams to turn our fintech solution into a compelling and scalable market proposition.

Key Responsibilities 1. Growth & Customer Acquisition - Develop and execute the company's customer acquisition and growth strategy. - Identify and prioritize high-value customer segments. - Build acquisition strategies across digital, social, partnerships, referrals, communities, events, content, and other channels. - Develop customer acquisition funnels from awareness to activation, conversion, retention, and referral. - Establish growth KPIs and continuously optimize marketing performance. - Develop strategies to reduce customer acquisition costs and increase customer lifetime value. - Lead experimentation and growth initiatives to identify scalable acquisition channels. 2. Brand & Trust - Build a credible, differentiated, and trusted fintech brand. - Develop the company's brand positioning, messaging, voice, and visual identity. - Communicate complex financial products in simple, compelling language. - Build customer confidence around security, reliability, transparency, privacy, and responsible financial services. - Lead public relations, media relations, thought leadership, and corporate communications. - Position the company as a credible voice within the fintech and e-commerce ecosystem. 3. Go-to-Market Strategy - Develop and own go-to-market strategies for new products and services. - Work with product and commercial teams to identify customer needs and market opportunities. - Define product positioning, pricing communication, value propositions, and launch strategies. - Develop market-entry strategies for new customer segments and geographic markets. - Conduct ongoing market, customer, and competitor research. - Translate customer insights into actionable marketing and product recommendations. 4. Digital Marketing - Lead the company's digital marketing strategy. - Develop and manage campaigns across social media, search, email, content, influencers, communities, and other relevant channels. - Build a strong content strategy around financial education, customer stories, product benefits, and industry insights. - Use data and analytics to measure campaign effectiveness and improve ROI. - Develop lifecycle marketing strategies for onboarding, engagement, retention, and reactivation. 5. Partnerships & Ecosystem Growth - Identify and develop strategic marketing and distribution partnerships. - Build relationships with financial institutions, technology companies, merchants, communities, creators, businesses, and ecosystem partners. - Develop co-marketing and distribution opportunities. - Support business development and enterprise sales initiatives. - Represent the company at relevant fintech, technology, business, and financial-services events. 6. Customer Experience & Retention - Develop strategies to increase customer activation and retention. - Work with product and customer success teams to understand customer behavior and pain points. - Build customer communication and engagement programs. - Develop referral and loyalty initiatives. - Use customer feedback and behavioral data to improve marketing and product strategy. 7. Compliance-Aware Marketing Because we operate in financial services, marketing must be both compelling and responsible. You will work closely with compliance, legal, risk, and product teams to ensure that marketing communications: - Are accurate and transparent. - Clearly communicate relevant fees, terms, limitations, and risks. - Follow applicable financial-services and advertising requirements. - Protect customer trust and the company's reputation. - Avoid misleading claims or inappropriate promises. You will not be expected to be the company's compliance officer, but you must understand that trust and regulatory responsibility are fundamental to fintech marketing. 8. Build the Marketing Organization - Develop the company's marketing strategy, structure, processes, and budget. - Recruit and lead the initial marketing team as the company grows. - Build relationships with agencies, creators, media, technology providers, and other external partners. - Establish a culture of experimentation, accountability, creativity, and measurable results. - Develop dashboards and reporting systems for marketing and growth performance. Co-Founder Responsibilities As a co-founder, you will contribute beyond the traditional CMO function. You will: - Participate in company-wide strategic decisions. - Help shape the company's mission, vision, values, and culture. - Participate in fundraising and investor presentations. - Support strategic partnerships and business development. - Help recruit early employees and key executives. - Participate in product strategy and customer discovery. - Represent the company to customers, partners, investors, media, and the broader fintech ecosystem. - Take ownership of important company challenges outside your immediate function when necessary. - Help build the company with a long-term founder mindset. Key Performance Indicators Success will be measured using a combination of business, brand, and growth metrics, including: - Customer acquisition and growth. - Customer activation and conversion. - Customer retention. - Customer acquisition cost (CAC). - Customer lifetime value (LTV). - Marketing-generated revenue or transaction volume. - Organic and paid acquisition performance. - Referral and partnership-driven growth. - Brand awareness and engagement. - Marketing ROI. - Product adoption. - Customer satisfaction and trust indicators. The exact KPIs will depend on the company's business model and stage of growth. Requirements We are looking for someone who combines marketing expertise with entrepreneurial execution

. Essential - 7+ years of experience in marketing, growth, brand, business development, or a related field. - Experience in fintech, banking, payments, financial services, SaaS, e-commerce, or another technology-driven business. - Demonstrated experience building and executing customer acquisition strategies. - Strong understanding of digital marketing and growth. - Strong commercial and analytical mindset. - Excellent communication and storytelling skills. - Experience building brands in competitive markets. - Ability to operate strategically while remaining highly hands-on. - Strong understanding of customer psychology and behavior. - Ability to work effectively with product, technology, sales, operations, and compliance teams. Strongly Preferred - Previous startup or early-stage company experience. - Experience launching an e-commerce or Fintech - Experience scaling a consumer or B2B customer base. - Experience with partnerships and ecosystem development. - Experience with performance marketing and growth experimentation. - Experience building a marketing team from the ground up. - Existing relationships within the fintech, technology, media, or business ecosystem. - Experience working in African or emerging markets. Founder Profile We Are Looking For The ideal candidate is: Entrepreneurial — willing to build . Customer-obsessed — understands that fintech growth starts with solving a real financial problem. Commercially minded — understands the relationship between marketing, revenue, transactions, and sustainable growth. Data-driven — uses evidence and experimentation to make decisions. A great storyteller — can turn a complex financial product into a simple and compelling customer proposition. Trust-focused — understands that credibility is one of the most valuable assets a fintech company can build. Hands-on — comfortable developing strategy in the morning and reviewing campaign performance or speaking with customers in the afternoon. Resilient — comfortable operating in an uncertain, fast-changing startup environment.

First 90 Days During the first 90 days, the CMO/Co-Founder will be expected to: Days 1–30 - Understand the product, customers, market, and competitive landscape. - Conduct customer and market research. - Review existing brand and marketing assets. - Define initial customer segments and positioning. - Establish baseline growth and marketing metrics. Days 31–60 - Develop the company's marketing and growth strategy. - Establish the brand and messaging framework. - Build the customer acquisition roadmap. - Identify priority acquisition channels and partnerships. - Launch initial growth experiments. Days 61–90 - Scale the most promising acquisition initiatives. - Establish marketing reporting and performance dashboards. - Develop a content and communications engine. - Build the initial marketing team/partner network. - Present a 12-month growth and brand roadmap to the founding team. What We Offer - Co-founder status with meaningful equity participation. - Opportunity to shape the company's strategy and culture from the beginning. - Significant ownership over brand, marketing, and growth. - Direct access to the founding team and decision-making. - Opportunity to build a major fintech brand from the ground up. - Performance-based upside as the company grows. - Opportunity to participate in fundraising, partnerships, and market expansion.

How to Apply Please submit: 1. Your CV or LinkedIn profile. 2. A brief statement explaining why you want to join CovaNest as a co-founder. 3. Examples of fintech, technology, or growth initiatives you have led. 4. Measurable results from major campaigns or growth projects you have worked on. 5. Links to relevant work, campaigns, brands, content, or projects. 6. Your expectations regarding the co-founder relationship and equity.

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Nigeria