Growth strategy Zest

Private client  ·  2026  ·  Growth strategy

GTM strategy for a VC-backed advisory with broken unit economics

A VC fund launching an advisory arm for founders who couldn't raise. Structurally good market: fund managers encounter thousands of qualified rejections. Problem was structural, not demand. Brought in to diagnose, identify levers, build a sequenced roadmap, and deliver a live financial model.

Role: Fractional growth strategist. Full diagnosis, persona and channel analysis, product strategy, revenue modelling, roadmap with costs and sequencing. Model stays live with every assumption as a toggle.

The diagnosis

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 didn't convert. No standardised product meant quality depended on which associate answered. No trust infrastructure meant every conversion relied on personal relationships that don't scale.

The fix is not switching channels. It is fixing LTV by productizing the IP, then making the channel economics work.

Four levers identified

  • Productize the IP into a repeatable framework (Evidence Library, Scoring Rubric, Report Generator). Removes associate variability, unlocks higher LTV, enables automation.
  • Build website authority around demonstrable expertise, not generic advisory copy.
  • Automated application and scoring form built on the productized framework. Filters bad leads, signals value before the call, converts VC rejection traffic.
  • Minimal thought leadership tier for inbound signal and trust compounding.

What was delivered

A structured diagnosis document, segmented by lead intent (funding seekers vs. advisory-ready) and by stage (pre-seed through Series A personas with distinct price sensitivity and urgency profiles). A five-step sequenced roadmap with scoped costs and durations: productize IP ($3K), website authority ($5K), scoring form ($4K), tracking handoff (gifted), fractional growth officer ($2-3K/mo ongoing). Total build approximately three months before all three levers are live.

A live financial model covering all four levers across 18 configurations. Every variable a toggle: LTV config, content tier, outreach spend, VC rejection capture rate, Owen's engagement level. The model stays interactive, not a fixed snapshot.

Optimised scenario (model projection, not realised)

With website authority on, application form on, product at Config 5 ($1,100 LTV), signal-only content tier, and fractional growth officer at $2K/mo: 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 & conversion, a case study

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.

Role: Freelance content strategist and copywriter. Full ownership of the content cluster, from keyword analysis to tool development to conversion tracking. All tools built independently using HTML/CSS/JS.
1,100+ Sessions from content
232 Demos reserved
27% Lead capture rate
6m 9s Avg. time on tool page

What was done

Inherited a pillar article ranking at position 12. Diagnosed the conversion gap: the CTA (reserve a demo) was too strong for the reader stage. Rebuilt the funnel from the reader's perspective.

Built a custom HTML tool that generates free social climate surveys based on company goals, currently pulling 7% CTR from the pillar article. The tool page captures leads at a 27% rate. Then extended the content cluster with a budget-allocation article featuring an independently-built ROI calculator, the first of its kind for this niche, which has since passed expert scrutiny.

View pillar article ↗

Pillar performance

Pillar article performance

Position 12 to 4, climbing

Pillar article moved from position 12 to 4, with 7% CTR to the survey generator tool.

View survey generator ↗

ROI calculator tool

ROI calculator

6m 9s average time on page

Independently built a calculation formula for the ROI of social climate measurement, a sector-first. Average time on page: 6 minutes and 9 seconds.

View ROI calculator ↗