5:47 a.m. · Dawn
5:47 a.m. · Dawn

Marketing Wizard - Psychology Nerd - Sunrise Chaser - Magic for Breakfast

Any sufficiently advanced marketing is indistinguishable from magic.

I'm Claire Almand. I read people for a living, then build marketing that meets them where they are. Fractional CMO, Rarecraft co-founder, and the person on the beach before sunrise with a camera.

Meet Rarecraft Summon a CMO
7:15 a.m. · My guild hall

Rarecraft: the team I always wanted to hire.

I co-founded Rarecraft with Sagar Somani and Aakash Sethi, two people I conjured growth with at MPOWER. We figure out why customers say yes (and why they don't), then ship the positioning, campaigns, and AI workflows that change the answer.

Visit rarecraft.ai

9:30 a.m. · Work with me

A CMO, for a season.

Some companies don't need a whole marketing department yet. They need someone senior who can read the room, make the calls, and leave the team stronger than she found it. That's the fractional and interim CMO work I take on.

When you need

A new market opened

Been there: in Nepal, MPOWER's site traffic was up 300% year over year by February, ahead of our first event in March 2026, which drew 1,500 qualified prospects.

 When you need

A team that runs without you

Been there: MPOWER's growth team went from one part-time MBA student to 10 people across the US and India.

 When you need

Growth unstuck

Been there: 1.8× funded loan volume on a flat budget in 2023, and 3× qualified leads six months after a lending pause.

Hire me when you need one senior leader inside your team. Hire Rarecraft when you need the whole team doing the work.

Send an owl about a CMO role

12:10 p.m. · How I got here

The scenic route

  1. 2011

    Psychology

    Swarthmore, then behavioral data for clinical psychologists. Still my favorite toolkit.

  2. 2012 to 2016

    Eastern Shore

    A restaurant with a gallery upstairs, a Professional Wizard consultancy, and a lot of sunrises.

  3. 2016 to 2018

    MBA

    University of Maryland, and a laugh that got me hired.

  4. 2017 to 2026

    MPOWER

    First growth marketer to Director of Growth Marketing, with students from around the world.

  5. 2026

    Rarecraft

    Co-founder and CEO.

Explore the whole map

4:45 p.m. · MPOWER Financing, 2017 to 2026

Spells that worked

Case studies

Mostly customer insight and clean data, plus knowing when to stop spending on what isn't working.

90%
lower acquisition cost per dollar lent

Breaking the paid-ads habit

Excluding repeat borrowers. Shifted to organic, referrals, and ambassadors as each matured.

Read the spell
4×
late-funnel growth

“Is this a scam?”

Reviews and live Q&As I launched built trust and helped grow the bottom of the funnel, 2021 to 2022.

Read the spell
2.4×
ID-verified applications from women

Women Who Dream

The data said women converted better at every stage. So we built a campaign for them, 2025.

Read the spell
33%
of Meta leads became eligible applicants

The human touch

Against 4% without personal follow-up. South Asia, December 2024 to March 2025.

Read the spell
23×
growth while I led digital

Growing up, not just out

Loan applications started and loan volume disbursed, April to December 2018 compared with the same months of 2025.

See it on the map

From the people who worked with me

“Claire is the kind of leader who backs you, hypes you up, and makes the whole team excited to collaborate. She's equal parts strategist and the life of the office.”
Shreya PaulProduct marketing, reported to Claire at MPOWER
“She transformed our team's decision-making and created a wonderfully open bidirectional feedback culture. I would jump at the chance to work with Claire again.”
Mohammed Imran ACampaign manager, worked with Claire at MPOWER
“One of Claire's biggest strengths is that she is both personable and effective. That combination is not easy to find.”
Utkarsh RoySenior product manager, worked with Claire at MPOWER
6:58 p.m. · Blog and newsletter

The Spellbook

Writing

Where the spells get written down. The Growth Grimoire is my new newsletter on the psychology behind growth. Claire's Charms are shorter notes from real campaigns.

I
Growth Grimoire · Issue #001

The Allen Key Spell

Why people overvalue what they help build, and when extra effort backfires.

Read the issue
II
Claire's Charms · No. 1

Moxie, scheduled

What winning a 2023 Moxie Award taught me about the scary, visible thing.

Read the charm
III
Claire's Charms · No. 2

A decade in one post

Ten years at MPOWER, and the people who made them.

Read the charm

Subscribe to the Grimoire on LinkedIn

8:20 p.m. · Meet the Guild

Nerds still do it better.

My Rarecraft co-founders, plus the friends I bring in when the work needs more hands. The crests are back from the Guild on my first website.

Claire Almand

Rarecraft co-founder & CEO

Growth Strategy - Customer Psychology - Full-Stack Digital - Magic for Breakfast

Sagar Somani

Rarecraft co-founder & COO

Growth & Product - Referral Engines - Fellow Wizard

Aakash Sethi

Rarecraft co-founder

GTM Engineering - AI & Automation - Data Plumbing

The specialists

Harsh Hede

Design, photo & video

Visual Designer - Brand Identity - Drummer - Weekend Chef

Avinash Prakash

IT & cost negotiation

IT Systems - Vendor Negotiation - Cost Cutting

Madhushri Verma

PR

Public Relations - Crisis Comms - 40 Under 40

Akshay Madhavan

Paid media

Paid Media - Growth Marketing - Marketing Ops

11:11 p.m. · Make a wish

Send an owl

Owls fly at night, so this is the right time. A calendar invite works too.

Need a marketing team?

Rarecraft. One of the founders replies personally.

rarecraft.ai

Need a CMO for a season?

Pick a time that suits you, and tell me what you're building.

Book a 30-minute call

Anything else?

Speaking, a collaboration, or a book recommendation with dragons in it.

Or send an owl right here

It lands in my inbox, and I reply myself.