Hey, I’m Sam
I’ve spent the past decade helping startups scale from 0 to 8-figures, leading marketing for products that reached 8M+ users. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this:

Most startups don’t have a marketing problem. They have a customer understanding problem.

I’ve seen it happen over and over:

- A startup hits $2M ARR and suddenly, what used to work: founder-led sales, scrappy paid acquisition- stops scaling.
- They try the usual fixes: more ad spend, new channels, hiring an agency - but nothing moves the needle.
- They burn cash testing random tactics without actually knowing what makes customers buy, stay, and refer.

That’s where I come in.

I don’t believe in blind optimizations or playbook strategies.
 
I believe in getting inside your customers’ heads, so we can build a growth system that’s actually designed to work for your unique audience and business.

What Makes Growth Studio different?
Most agencies move too slow.
They hand you off to junior teams who’ve never actually scaled a business.
They build “strategies” in a vacuum - without ever talking to your customers.

That’s not how we operate.

We work directly with founders to get to the root of why their growth has stalled - and move fast to fix it.

✔️ We start by deeply understanding your customers - what they need, what makes them convert, and why they stick around.
✔️ We take full ownership of your paid acquisition & growth strategy - no outsourcing to a junior team.
✔️ We act as an embedded growth partner - not a consultant handing over a deck.

This isn’t about quick wins. It’s about building a scalable acquisition system that compounds over time - so you can grow without the guesswork.

Learn more: https://joingrowthstudio.com

Samantha Leal

Rafael (Eun Suk) Gi

Fractional CMO | Managing Director at Bell Curve (Demand Curve) | Product Marketing, Brand, Creative & Strategy Advisor | Tech, Growth, Startups Consultant

The modern marketing leader needs to speak three languages fluently: Brand, Performance, and Finance.

I’m a DTC Brand Marketing leader and growth operator who has spent the last decade deliberately learning across sectors to master all three. 

I treated my career as a full-stack apprenticeship:

Brand Storytelling (Creative):
Years at top agencies (Rethink, Anomaly, Diamond) taught me how to build brand equity and taste for companies like Spotify, Nike, A&W, and Molson Coors.

Growth Economics (Performance):
Leading strategy at Bell Curve exposed me to the hard math of CAC, LTV, contribution margin, and unit economics across 20+ high-growth startups.

Operational Scale (Finance + Ops):
Leadership roles at DUER, Capilano University, and PressReader taught me P&L thinking, forecasting, merchandising alignment, retail expansion, and omnichannel execution.

Most recently at DUER, I brought these disciplines together to reposition the brand and architect a regional growth strategy that contributed to 30%+ YoY growth and supported four new US/CA market openings.

My work focuses on the intersection of brand architecture and growth systems:

1) Repositioning brands to unlock new demand
2) Aligning brand, performance, and product functions around shared KPIs
3) Building operating models that lower CAC and increase baseline demand

What’s next:
My career so far has been defined by joining companies at key inflection points. Now, with a complete toolkit across brand, tech, performance, and retail, I’m intentionally seeking a long-term role with a lifestyle brand ready for its next stage of scale.

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Samantha Leal

Rafael (Eun Suk) Gi

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