Growth strategy
Data journalism & content
Fundraising support
Owen Mulhern
Analyst and communicator with formal scientific training, data journalism and business growth experience.
Analyst and communicator with formal scientific training, data journalism and business growth experience.
"One of those growth marketers who's just as comfortable in a strategy conversation as he is deep in a spreadsheet."
— Beatus Hoang · Sr. Growth Manager, Semrush · managed Owen directly
Private client · 2026
VC fund launching an advisory arm with an inverted CAC:LTV and an unfiltered funnel. Diagnosed four structural problems, built a sequenced roadmap and a live 18-configuration model.
Revenue modelling · GTM strategy · Fractional growth
Zest · 2024–2026
Rebuilt the SEO funnel around a high-intent pillar article. Built a custom survey generator and an ROI calculator from scratch. 232 demos reserved, 27% lead capture on the tool page.
SEO · Content strategy · HTML/CSS/JS tool development
Earth.org
Original projections on Central Valley aquifer depletion, built on USGS satellite data and peer-reviewed hydrological modelling.
Python · QGIS · Illustrator
Earth.org
Data visualisations showing six major coastal cities under projected 2100 sea level scenarios. Cited by US law reviews and university research.
Python · QGIS · Illustrator
Earth.org
Long-form data journalism series on wet-bulb temperature thresholds and habitability limits across Latin America and the Middle East.
Python · R · Illustrator
Earth.org
Dataviz translating London's toxic air into cigarette equivalents — making an invisible public health crisis viscerally legible.
Python · QGIS · Illustrator
Earth.org
Hexagonal mapping of 91,000 aging US dams against extreme temperature projections under 2°C and 4°C warming scenarios.
Python · QGIS · Illustrator
Earth.org
Why each generation accepts a degraded climate as the new normal — shown through 60 years of German hot days and frost days data.
Python · Illustrator
Semrush
Original AIO content framework built from Semrush proprietary research data — not consensus opinion. A measurable structure for AI-era search, developed when most practitioners were still guessing.
Semrush / The Growth Bulletin
Part of a content programme that doubled click volume. Edited for Semrush's Growth Bulletin — practical AI applications structured to drive direct traffic, written for a senior marketing audience.
Semrush / The Growth Bulletin
A tactical guide on mapping content directly to enterprise revenue pipelines. Written from the perspective of someone who has audited and restructured attribution for acquired media assets end-to-end.
Services
01
GTM strategy, revenue modelling, go-to-market diagnosis. I quantify what's broken, identify the levers, build the model. Then stay on to run it as a fractional growth officer.
02
Original research and content strategy that compounds. I produce data-led work that gets cited, and content funnels, attribution infrastructure, and email programmes you can track to revenue.
03
Growth infrastructure for funds and advisory services operating in the fundraising ecosystem. GTM strategy, LTV:CAC modelling, and post-acquisition programme management.
References
"Owen is one of those growth marketers who's just as comfortable in a strategy conversation as he is deep in a spreadsheet debugging GA4 tracking issues. He reported to me while running Semrush's acquired email assets, The Growth Bulletin and The Early Checkout. He didn't just keep the lights on. He completely overhauled our email program… Whether he was tracking down data discrepancies or running content experiments that doubled our click volume, he owned it completely. He never made excuses and was fully transparent when things didn't work. He's calm under pressure, manages contractors and budgets well, and treats whatever channel he's running like it's his own business. I highly recommend Owen for any growth role."
Sr. Growth Manager, Semrush · managed Owen directly · Feb 2026
"J'ai eu le plaisir de collaborer avec Owen et je le recommande sans hésitation. Owen dispose d'une excellente capacité d'analyse et saisit rapidement les enjeux d'un projet. Il sait transformer ses analyses en plans d'action concrets et efficaces, parfaitement adaptés aux objectifs. Au-delà de ses compétences techniques, Owen apporte une vraie valeur par sa collaboration naturelle. C'est un professionnel sur qui on peut compter. Owen réunit toutes les qualités d'un excellent growth marketer : rigueur analytique, pragmatisme et intelligence relationnelle. Je le recommande les yeux fermés."
Head of Marketing, Zest · client · ongoing
Get in touch
Growth strategy, data journalism & content, or fundraising support engagements.
owen@getmulhern.comPrivate client · 2026 · Growth strategy
A VC fund launching an advisory arm for founders who could not raise. Structurally good market. Broken economics. Brought in to diagnose, identify levers, build a sequenced roadmap, and deliver a live financial model.
Four structural problems, not one. Cold outbound is the right channel for high-value advisory. Running it against a $300 LTV product is not. Associates were absorbing unfiltered inbound and burning time on calls that did not convert. No standardised product meant quality depended on which associate answered. No trust infrastructure meant every conversion relied on personal relationships that do not scale.
Productize the IP into a repeatable framework. Build website authority around demonstrable expertise. Automated application and scoring form to filter bad leads and signal value before the call. A minimal thought leadership tier for inbound signal and trust compounding.
A structured diagnosis document segmented by lead intent and stage. A five-step sequenced roadmap with scoped costs and durations. A live financial model covering all four levers across 18 configurations: LTV config, content tier, outreach spend, VC rejection capture rate, fractional engagement level. Every variable a toggle, not a fixed snapshot.
Optimised scenario: blended CAC $284, blended LTV $1,100, LTV:CAC 3.87x, breakeven at month 7 before overhead. Cash position at month 24: +$43,657 before overhead. VC rejection capture is likely underestimated in the model and could be the difference-maker.
Zest · 2024–2026 · Content strategy
Zest is a French HR SaaS company specialising in employee engagement and social climate measurement. Brought in to improve SEO performance and build a conversion funnel around their core pillar content. Built original tools and content from scratch in a domain I had no prior expertise in.
Inherited a pillar article ranking at position 12. The CTA was too aggressive for the reader stage: book a demo, directly from a content page. The conversion gap between article traffic and the product was structural, not copy-level. The funnel needed rebuilding from the reader's perspective.
A custom HTML survey generator that creates free social climate surveys based on company goals. A free-value offer timed to reader intent, pulling 7% CTR from the pillar article and capturing leads at 27% on the tool page. Then extended the cluster with a budget-allocation article featuring an independently built ROI calculator, the first of its kind in this niche.
1,100+ sessions from the content cluster. 232 demos reserved. 27% lead capture rate on the tool page. Average time on the ROI calculator: 6 minutes and 9 seconds.
Earth.org
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The headline figure, 250 years of viable extraction remaining, is an original calculation built on depletion rate projections from Scanlon et al. (2012) and CVHM2 hydrological basin modeling. Satellite GRACE data provides the empirical depletion curve that anchors the projection to observed drawdown since the 1960s.
Built using Python, QGIS, and Adobe Illustrator.
Earth.org
Dataviz series modelling six major coastal cities, Ho Chi Minh City, Miami, Vancouver, Brazil, Kuwait City, and the Persian Gulf, under projected 2100 sea level rise scenarios. Built using peer-reviewed IPCC projections and city-level elevation data. Cited in US law reviews and university research on climate adaptation.
Built using Python, QGIS, and Adobe Illustrator.
View on Earth.org ↗
Earth.org
Long-form data journalism series examining wet-bulb temperature thresholds and the physical limits of human habitability. Covered Mexico, Colombia, and the broader Latin American and Middle Eastern regions, combining climate modelling with on-the-ground reporting context.
Built using Python, R, and Adobe Illustrator.
View on Earth.org ↗
Earth.org
A dataviz piece translating London's ambient air pollution into cigarette equivalents — reframing an invisible public health crisis into something viscerally understandable. The approach of converting abstract µg/m³ readings into a relatable metric made the data land with a general audience and drove significant organic shares.
Built using Python, QGIS, and Adobe Illustrator.
View on Earth.org ↗
Earth.org
Of the 91,000 dams in the United States — averaging 57 years old — 15,500 were classified as extremely hazardous in 2018. This piece maps Texan dams against extreme temperature projections from the Max Planck Institute climate model, showing which structures could face 45°C+ heat events under 2°C warming, and 50°C+ under 4°C. The rehabilitation bill: over $65 billion.
Built using Python, QGIS, and Adobe Illustrator.
View on Earth.org ↗
Earth.org
Each generation inherits a degraded environment as its baseline, erasing the memory of what came before. Using 60 years of German weather data, this piece shows how average hot days rose from 4 per year for Baby Boomers to 9 for Gen Z, while frost days fell by 16 across the same period — a generational amnesia that slows the collective response to climate change.
Built using Python and Adobe Illustrator.
View on Earth.org ↗
Semrush
An original AI Optimisation framework built from Semrush proprietary research data — not a summary of existing guidance. FACTS gives content teams a measurable structure for performing in AI-generated search results, developed at a time when most practitioners were still guessing. Built with the same rigour as the Earth.org research pieces: source-first, methodology-transparent, and independently verifiable.
Read the FACTS Framework ↗
Semrush / The Growth Bulletin
Edited for The Growth Bulletin, a Semrush-owned media property. Part of the content experiment programme that doubled click volume over the engagement period. Brief: drive brand PR, AI presence, and direct traffic to Semrush — practical and opinionated, written for senior marketing audiences.
Read on The Growth Bulletin ↗
Semrush / The Growth Bulletin
Long-form tactical guide written for The Growth Bulletin, a Semrush-acquired newsletter asset. Covers funnel architecture, content-to-revenue attribution, and distribution — written from the perspective of someone who has audited GA4 data discrepancies, restructured content attribution, and scaled acquired email assets. The framework directly addresses how to track content impact on LTV:CAC from first touch to close.
Read on Substack ↗