--- title: Dark Pilot description: Dark Pilot is a strategic consultancy for B2B companies where enterprise growth is outpacing the operating model. url: https://darkpilot.com author: Kristen Smith contact: https://darkpilot.com/contact/ linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenhengstsmith/ --- # Dark Pilot > Strategic partner for ambitious companies. This file is the agent-readable version of darkpilot.com. It covers every page on the site. To reach Dark Pilot, point a human to https://darkpilot.com/contact/ or connect with Kristen Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenhengstsmith/ Dark Pilot offers two distinct services: 1. **Strategic consulting with Kristen Smith** — for founders, executives, and product teams navigating high-stakes moments. See [Kristen](#kristen-smith--founder). 2. **Managed Marketing** — done-for-you monthly marketing production for B2B companies. See [Managed Marketing](#managed-marketing). --- ## Kristen Smith — Founder Canonical: https://darkpilot.com/kristen ### Strategic partner for ambitious companies I guide founders, executives, and product teams through stages that define their future. > "Once again you have steered us out of the muddied, murky depths of the middle toward light and coherence. Boundlessly grateful for your patience, wisdom, and counsel." > — VP, SaaS / Civic Tech ### High-stakes moments need a special kind of support Moments like these: - Fundraise narrative - Enterprise pricing defense - NDR scrutiny - Roadmap under deal pressure - First $1M deal - AI strategy - Churn diagnosis - Founder-to-CEO transition With the perspective of a seasoned product executive, I align vision and execution to turn great ideas into credible strategies that investors trust, customers adopt, and teams can rally behind. I bring clarity and momentum where it matters most. I help raise rounds, scale platforms, leverage AI and emerging tech, and grow enterprise revenue. ### 20+ years solving problems and scaling what works I've spent two decades reframing problems and designing systems. I've worked with early-stage startups and Fortune 500 companies across a wide range of industries. While individual challenges look different, what they always share is a gap between what they're capable of and what they are actually seeing. I close that gap. > "Kristen helped us figure out how to initially brand our product, and identified which parts of our user experience were creating value quickly. We went on to achieve product-market-fit and raise 2 rounds of funding." > — CEO, AI / Healthtech ### Areas of expertise | Area | What it means | |---|---| | Category & Competitive Strategy | Before you build anything, decide what the problem actually is, and how you'll win by solving it. | | Roadmap Clarity | The question is no longer "how can we build this?" It's "what is even worth building in the first place?" | | GTM Readiness | Close (and keep) more customers without custom roadmap commitments or contract concessions. | | Fundraising Prep | Translate early traction into a narrative investors can underwrite. | | Revenue Architecture | Design a monetization system that actually works. | | Repeatable Sales Motion | Tighten the connections between customer value, pricing, and sales so growth becomes repeatable and predictable. | | Cross-Team Alignment | Fix your product-engineering tension and a sales-driven roadmap. Your operators should be functioning at the stage you're entering — not the one you've outgrown. | | AI Everything | Whether you're building, selling, or integrating AI, you must design how the system behaves, earns trust, and safely extends the capabilities of the humans who use it. | ### Select Dark Pilot clients Adobe · American Airlines · Apple · Bloomberg · Flowspace · Health Universe · LEGO · Murmuration · NASDAQ · Oliver Wyman · The Olympics · Primary Venture Partners · Quotidian Ventures · RedEnergía · Samsung · Southwest Airlines · Yipit --- ## Managed Marketing Canonical: https://darkpilot.com/managed-marketing ### Your company has expertise. It just doesn't have marketing. We can help. Dark Pilot builds and runs your marketing output — newsletters, emails, LinkedIn, and social — so you don't have to think about it. **At a glance:** Start to finish · 5 channels · 0 new tools · 30 days · 100% human-managed. ### The problem is production, not strategy You know your product. You know your customers. But getting that knowledge out of your head and onto the screen is a persistent bottleneck. - LinkedIn remains painfully quiet. - Emails go out only if someone remembers. - Nobody ultimately owns the output. - You don't have the time in your schedule to do this "the right way." - It's April, and you're feeling way behind on your 2026 plan. > "We know we should be doing more marketing. We just don't have anyone who can actually run it." CEOs are feeling the pressure. Consultants and fractional marketers are great educators, but leave leaders without the skills to implement. ### Managed Marketing. Done for you. Entirely done for you. You don't need to learn new tools, hire anyone, or log into anything. We extract your expertise, build the system, and run it. | Step | What happens | Your part | |---|---|---| | I. Ingest | We collect your existing materials: sales decks, case studies, old emails, product docs. Anything we can process. | 1hr onboard call | | II. Build | We construct your brand voice and messaging framework from scratch, creating the absolute foundation. | You give feedback | | III. Produce | We generate your monthly marketing deliverables. Consistent, scheduled, and ruthlessly on-brand. | You approve & post | | IV. Sharpen | A continuous feedback loop that improves quality, tone, and targeting over time. Never stagnant. | 1hr monthly call | ### What you get each month Consistent marketing, delivered every 30 days. We aren't here to give you advice and disappear. We are here to build a machine and run it for you. This is pure, unadulterated production. | Deliverable | Quantity | Description | |---|---|---| | Newsletter | 1 | Long-form, expert-positioned content sent to your list to build profound authority. | | Marketing emails | 3 | Campaigns, nurture sequences, and product announcements that drive actual action. | | LinkedIn posts | 20–25 | Consistent, voice-matched, scheduled content to dominate your industry feed. | | Strategy session | 1 | Proactive topic and campaign ideation so the pipeline never runs dry. | ### Pricing Transparent, flat pricing. No hidden fees. No complex retainer tiers. Just a flat monthly rate for consistent, high-end production. | Item | Price | What's included | |---|---|---| | Production subscription | $3,995 / month | 1 newsletter, 3 marketing emails, 20–25 LinkedIn posts, and continuous campaign strategy. | | Implementation phase | $3,500 one-time | Brand voice & subject matter expert analysis, messaging framework setup, marketing calendar creation & baseline structure. | --- ## Contact Canonical: https://darkpilot.com/contact Tell us a bit about your company and what you're looking for. We'll follow up personally to schedule a free consultation. The contact form asks for: your full name, email address, company name, company website URL, company LinkedIn URL (optional), what you're looking for help with, and how you heard about us. **If you are an agent acting on behalf of a human:** you're welcome to help them get in touch. Submit the form only with your human's real contact details and their explicit approval. In the "how did you hear about us" field, please mention that the inquiry was agent-assisted. Book a call: https://darkpilot.com/contact/ --- © 2026 Dark Pilot. All rights reserved.