Engagement
Work With Me
I work with 3 to 4 companies at a time. When those spots are full, they’re full. Not because exclusivity is a marketing tactic, but because depth of attention is what makes this work.
How It Works
Every engagement is a monthly retainer. Not hourly billing. Not project-based. You get consistent, strategic attention from someone who knows your business, not a consultant who disappears between invoices.
Most clients get their first actionable insight within two weeks. Not because we rush, but because we start with the questions your team has been avoiding.
If our first decision memo doesn’t surface at least one finding your team missed, the first month is on us.
What You Get
- A fractional Head of Data who thinks like a product executive
- Weekly decision memos your leadership team will actually read
- Experimentation strategy that tests hypotheses, not hunches
- AI-augmented analysis at a speed traditional firms can’t match
Fit
This is built for you if:
Not every company needs this. Here’s how to know if you’re one that does.
- You're an AI or SaaS company with real usage data but no one who can interpret it strategically.
- Your leadership team is making $1M+ decisions based on intuition because the analytics team is 3 weeks behind.
- You need a Head of Data's judgment but can't justify the $400K salary for a full-time hire.
- You've tried dashboards, BI tools, and maybe even an analytics agency. You still don't trust the numbers.
Common Questions
Before you ask
“Is this expensive?”
A full-time Head of Data costs $350K–$450K per year. An analytics agency gives you junior analysts for $15K–$25K per month. You get senior-level strategic thinking for significantly less than either. The real question is what it's costing you to make decisions without this.
“We already have analysts. Why do we need this?”
Having analysts and having analytics leadership are different things. Your analysts can run queries. What they usually can't do is tell your CEO which three decisions matter most this quarter and what the data says about each one. That's the gap we fill.
“How much of my time does this take?”
One 45-minute strategy call per week. Async the rest. We send you decision memos, not meeting invites. Most clients tell us this is the lowest-overhead engagement they run.
“What if we outgrow this?”
Good. That's the goal. Many engagements naturally evolve into helping you hire and structure a full internal data team. We'll tell you when you're ready. We don't optimize for retention; we optimize for your outcome.
“Can't AI tools do this without a consultant?”
AI tools can run SQL and generate charts. They can't tell you why your Series A retention curve is lying to you, or that your activation metric is measuring the wrong behavior. The hard part was never the analysis. It's knowing which question to ask.
Who You’re Working With
Lester Leong
I’ve spent my career building analytics systems at companies with millions of users. I’ve designed experimentation frameworks that caught six-figure pricing mistakes before they shipped. I’ve built retention models that told product teams exactly which features to kill and which to double down on.
I started Gradient Growth because I kept seeing the same pattern: smart companies with real data making critical decisions on gut feel. Not because they didn’t care about data, but because nobody had built them the system to use it. Now I do the same thing for a small number of AI-era companies.
View LinkedIn Profile30 minutes. No pitch deck. You leave with answers.
Tell me what decisions are stuck and what data you wish you had. You’ll leave with a diagnosis of your analytics gaps and a prioritized list of what to fix first. Even if we never work together.
lester@gradientgrowth.com · Response within 24 hours