Christy Marchand - September 2025 Entrepreneur of the Month
The NIACC John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center and North Iowa Area SBDC are proud to announce Christy Marchand, co-founder of Altus CXO in North Iowa, as the September 2025 Entrepreneur of the Month.
Christy Marchand built her career in corporate finance and executive leadership, but she always carried an entrepreneurial drive. “I’ve always been passionate about helping people make smart business decisions, especially when it comes to accounting and finance,” Christy said. “Even in my corporate roles, I treated the company’s finances as if they were my own.” When the timing was right for her family, she decided to take her expertise and turn it into a business that could serve organizations in need of high-level leadership.
That idea became Altus CXO, a fractional executive and C-suite services firm. Christy describes the firm as a one-stop-shop for organizations that need top-level expertise without the cost of a full-time executive team. “We work primarily with middle-market organizations across all industries,” she said. “I personally spend a lot of time in agriculture, ag-business, and startups because of my background. What makes us different is that we don’t just focus on one lane like finance or accounting — we take a holistic approach.”
Altus CXO delivers leadership in finance, HR, technology, marketing, and operations. Clients gain the benefit of collective expertise rather than relying on a single individual. “The beauty of Altus CXO is that clients don’t just get me — they get the collective wisdom of 30 professionals across 10 states,” Christy explained. “That’s 30 brains, not just one, working to solve challenges and open up opportunities. If one of us doesn’t know the answer, someone else does.”
Christy said the idea began with her interest in fractional leadership models but expanded quickly. She wanted to offer clients more than one perspective and believed that building a team from the start would set the business apart. “Altus CXO started with the idea of using a fractional model but expanding on it,” she said. “I partnered with trusted and brilliant individuals across multiple disciplines so we could offer clients a wide array of expertise from day one.”
The approach is working. In less than two years, Altus CXO has grown to 30 team members across 10 states, serving more than 65 clients from coast to coast. The firm continues to add new clients every month. Christy attributes much of that growth to the ecosystem of collaboration she and her co-founders have cultivated. “A big part of our growth has been building and nurturing a circle of influence — other professionals we can refer clients to, and who refer business back to us,” she said. “That ecosystem of trust and collaboration has been vital to our traction.”
Part of that ecosystem includes the NIACC John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center and North Iowa Area SBDC. Christy connected with the Pappajohn Center early on as she developed her business plan. “They’ve been a tremendous sounding board for new ideas, for encouragement, and even for the occasional frustration that comes with entrepreneurship,” she said. “More importantly, they’ve become a trusted member of my circle of influence — a two-way referral avenue and a resource that’s helped both Altus CXO and our clients thrive.”
For Christy, entrepreneurship is about more than building a successful business. It’s about creating meaningful impact for clients and her team. “The most rewarding part is seeing the tangible targeted impact,” she said. “We have saved businesses on the verge of bankruptcy and moved others from good to great. But just as meaningful is seeing how Altus CXO impacts our own team members’ lives — giving them fulfilling work, flexibility, and opportunities to fill their passions.”
She also sees her role as an entrepreneur as a way to strengthen rural communities by making executive-level expertise more accessible. “There’s such a tremendous need in rural areas for executive-level expertise — but those roles are hard to recruit for and expensive to maintain full-time,” Christy said. “Fractional firms like ours bridge that gap and make expertise accessible to businesses that need it most.”
When asked what advice she would give to others considering entrepreneurship, Christy’s answer is clear. “Take the leap,” she said. “Build and develop your circle of influence early — then nurture those relationships. Surround yourself with people who are more brilliant than you, be honest about what you don’t know, and get your back office procedures right early on to avoid massive headaches later. Most geniuses, especially those who lead, prosper not by deconstructing intricate complexities but by exploiting unrecognized simplicities. Always keep it simple.”
Learn more about Altus CXO at https://altuscxo.com or by contacting Christy Marchand at christym@altuscxo.com.