Bounce

Head of Data

experiMENTAL

B2C marketing frameworks, how-to guides, and stories from 5 years at Uber, 15+ at B2Cs, and interviews with the world's top B2C Marketers.

Author, experiMENTAL Newsletter and Podcast (coming soon)

Self Employed

I help B2C startups & scaleups with their Marketing & Data Science challenges.

This usually takes the form of part-time consulting or rolling up my sleeves and executing alongside the founders in a fractional capacity.

My superpower is that I'm a full funnel Marketing expert having worked on everything from top of funnel brand through product retention with world class data science skills. 

Clients include:
1. Bounce
2. Otrium 
3. Major European Retailer ($XX Bn Revenue in 2023)
4. sofatutor

Growth & Data Science Advisor

Rengage

Advisor

nemo

Otrium

Head of Performance Marketing

We Are Eves

→ Surveyed customers to identify product gaps and increased activation by 15%

Sr. Product Growth Manager

Scenset

→ Launched A/B testing framework and optimized core user flow increasing MRR from $0 to $100K

Director of Growth Experimentation and Analytics

Uber

Built out the new Brand Data Science function measuring $1Bn in Marketing spend. 

→ Hired and managed 15 analysts + 5 contractors located across US, Mexico City, Hyderabad, and Amsterdam

→Delivered $150M of incremental Gross Revenue by partnering with Senior Heads of Marketing for LATAM, EMEA, and APAC to create data driven strategies, measurement  frameworks, and learning agendas

→ Designed a global Covid recovery segmentation framework used cross functionally by Operations and Marketing to target over 20M users with $3M+ in rider discounts

Head of Brand & International Growth Marketing Data Science (Promotion)

Lead Analyst for Growth Marketing across all performance channels including Meta, Snapchat, Twitter, Affiliates, and others. 

→ Optimized customer retention marketing driving 5% increase in incremental trips and 7% in gross bookings

→ Managed career development, priorities, and work load for 3 junior analysts

→ Saved $26M in yearly rider marketing spend by identifying inefficient marketing channels and providing recommendations on budget allocation to senior leadership

US & Canada Growth Marketing Data Science Lead (Promotion)   

First analyst for the DC, Maryland, and Virginia responsible for optimizing demand side of the marketplace. 

→ Managed weekly $500K+ campaign budget targeting high value riders resulting in 10%+ incremental trip growth

→ Increased 3-month driver retention by 3% after analyzing spatiotemporal datasets and improving email communications

Rider Growth Marketing Data Scientist

KIMO

I was early Marketing at Uber spending 5 years building Brand, Performance, and Lifecycle Marketing Data Science teams. I got to work with & learn from world-class marketing, data science, and martech leaders.

Before that I: 
→ helped launch a travel tech go $0 to $100K MRR
→ masqueraded as a developer for 2 years
→ managed $19 Trillion at the US Treasury

Now I help B2C founders & marketers make more informed decisions with my newsletter and podcast (coming soon) where I share frameworks, how-to guides, stories, and interviews with the world's top B2C Marketers.

Outside of work, I love cooking and traveling. Like a lot. My real dream is to own a high end South Indian food restaurant. I’ll get there one day. 

I'm from Philly but now live in Amsterdam with my far-cooler-than-me wife and my far-cuter-than-me 2.5 year old son.

I started every morning at Uber for 5 years doing the same thing:
 
I'd look at a dashboard called Summary. 
 
The dashboard was simple (image below): 
— 8 high level metrics 
— Preset look back windows 
— Drill downs by 1 geo at a time 
— Growth in absolute and % terms 
 
It wasn't complex, fancy, or pretty. 
 
But it was the most effective dashboard ever. 
 
Why? 
 
It was accurate, real time, and source of truth. 
 
We'd spend the better part of Monday chatting about the numbers and running queries before doing anything else. Marketers, ops, sales, finance, and product would also start their weeks looking at it for their markets because there was an expectation that we know our numbers. 
 
Data driven culture creates a necessity for dashboards. 
 
Not the other way around. 
 
I shared a deep dive with 2800+ B2C marketers and data scientist on how to build dashboards that don't collect dust. Check it out ➡: https://lnkd.in/gYuQ55UQ

#uber #datadriven #growthanalytics

Sundar Swaminathan

Talks about #solopreneurship and #experimentation

I write about Marketing Science in Consumer Tech helping Marketers prove their ROI after being the Head of Brand Marketing Science at Uber and more

Today is my last day as the Head of Data at Bounce and sometimes it’s just right place wrong time. 

When I took the role, I was beyond excited to be working at a fast growing consumer marketplace that was working on transforming the physical world, but that all changed overnight when my daughter was born. 

Whether it was because I was physically exhausted or emotionally torn from wanting to prioritize spending time my daughter but also put my best foot forward at work, I was never able to commit my full self and truly show up.

Both my family and colleagues deserved more so we’ve mutually agreed to say bye. 

I want to thank Cody Candee, Guilherme Duarte, and Lara Silva for taking a chance.

And to Eslam S., Nikita Frampton, Marco Kohns, Inês Pinto, Guilherme Correa Pereira, Tiago Brigido, Leonard (Leo) Boey, Pamela Juliana Álvarez Ferreira for teaching me so much in a few short months. 

What’s next for me? 

I'm spending time with my daughter before she goes to daycare and wife (while she's on mat leave) and then we'll see what's next!

Founder / CEO at Bounce

Engineering @ Bounce

Chief of Staff at Bounce

Data @ Bounce | Driving Growth by Transforming Data into Business Impact

Growth @ Bounce

Product Growth | Bounce | Techstars | NOVA | AI Enthusiast

Design @ Bounce

FP&A @ Bounce

Head of Operations @ Bounce

Global Head of Sales & GM, APAC @ Bounce | Ex-Uber, Grab, Momos | Growth Enthusiast

Growth @ Bounce | Co-founder of Ignite

After 10+ years in Marketing Data Science, here's my biggest learning:

I f*cking love Marketing. 

Over time, the "data science" part is something I'm less in love with ( for another post), but the Marketing just keeps getting more and more interesting.

Same problems. New solutions.
Same foundations. New paradigms.

The headlines about AI and CMO tenure sound doom and gloom about Marketing, but I think it's the exact opposite. 

This is about to be Marketing's reemergence.

If the past few decades were about product in Consumer Tech then I think Brand, Marketing, and distribution will be the name of the game this next decade.

Why?

If you can build a product in 5 minutes with 3 prompts then so can everyone else. How do you stand out? How do you build a moat? How will you be remembered?

People are craving authenticity and human connection. They want brands to stand for something (anything really..). I'm just geeking out typing this out because I can't wait to see what the next decade holds.

So if you're still reading this and got to here then just throw a 🙌 in the comments if you're still in love with your job, excited about the future, and enjoying this Friday!

Measured ​> $1Bn in spend as a Head of Brand, Performance, and Lifecycle Marketing Science at Uber (and other scaleups) → writing about Marketing Science in Consumer Tech

My next guest on ExperiMENTAL is someone who mastered marketing to GenZ and their uncanny ability to detect BS. 

Claudia W., VP of Growth at Howbout, joins me on today's episode to chat all things on:

- How Gen Z can detect an ad in seconds
- The carousel post that hit 13M views
- Why authenticity beats storytelling 

If you’ve been trying to understand how to connect with GenZ then you'll love this conversation! 

It’s eye opening and packed with insights for anyone building consumer products today. 

Tune in wherever you get your podcasts (link in comments). 

#GenZMarketing #ProductLedGrowth #ConsumerTech #StartupMarketing #BrandBuilding #ExperimentalPodcast

VP Growth @ Howbout

Howbout

At scale, your biggest growth lever is the team you hire. 

And building the right team means obsessing over culture and hiring just as much as KPIs.

Gopal Nath (Director of Marketing Analytics at Faire, ex-Uber ) shared some real wisdom on how Faire has an insanely high bar:

On hiring:
"If we ask "How do you manage your stakeholders?" And the answer is basically "I ignore them, I'm just gonna do whatever's best" there's no amount of technical knowledge I think that's gonna offset that. "

On culture:
"The core value that resonates the most is that we have one called Seek the Truth and We are Kind. I haven't seen very many other companies just put that out there specifically. "

On scaling teams:
"Org design is an experiment. We co-led a team at Uber and somehow didn’t crash and burn. Most of the time org structure can be a two-way door" 

Culture is how you make decisions, handle egos, and hire people who are culture add and not just fit. 

Growth comes from leveraging that culture to scale headcount without losing your sanity!

#TeamCulture #HiringForGrowth #B2CTech #MarketingLeadership #OrgDesign #GrowthMindset #WorkCulture #ExperimentalPodcast #LeadershipWithHumor

Director - Strategy & Analytics @ Faire || Uber Alum

Faire

My next guest on ExperiMENTAL has survived two marketplaces, countless attribution debates all while balancing 2 kids. 

Gopal Nath, Director of Marketing Analytics & Strategy at Faire and formerly Uber 's go-to Marketing Analytics wizard, joins me on this week’s episode to talk about:

- How to measure marketing when you’re broke
- Why most marketing decisions are two-way doors
- Why marketers love to overspend on branded search 
- How Faire uses kindness as a secret analytics weapon
- What Uber taught him about growth, chaos, and “toe-stepping”

We also talk parenting, co-managing a team (yes, like a work marriage), and why “efficiency” is often just code for please spend less money.

This one’s packed with hot takes, battle scars, and practical advice for marketers and data folks trying to prove their worth without losing their minds.

#MarketingAnalytics #B2CTech #MarketplaceMadness #BrandVsPerformance #ExperimentalPodcast #TwoWayDoorsNotTrapDoors

Here’s my hard earned early career advice for data professionals:

1st 5-7 yrs: Maximize learnings
2nd 5-7: Maximize earnings 
3rd 5-7: Minimize yearnings 

Early in your career you should put yourself out there. Don’t say no to opportunities or new challenges. Explore as much as you can. Big companies. Pre seed. B2c. B2b. 

You will learn more about what you don’t like than what you do. That’s okay. 

In the 2nd 5-7 years try and maximize earnings. Take the things you know you like and make as much money as possible. This is a special period where you have time, skills, and focus. It’s likely before kids (if you want them) and you won’t have to struggle prioritizing as much. 

In the 3rd 5-7 years, minimize yearnings. What I mean hear is try and put yourself in positions where your energy is and you don’t feel the pull of priorities and distraction. Especially with kids it’s really hard to work on things you don’t love. Try to find the things you do. 

After this, I don’t know yet because I’m not there yet but I’m excited to explore.

We turned off conversion ads on Meta, saw no business impact, and saved Uber $35M 💸

This is a story I've been asked to share on 5 podcasts, so here it is: 

In 2018, Uber was 8 years into its journey and I was the Analytics Lead for US & Canada Rider Performance Marketing. I was also responsible for analyzing how saturated Uber was on rider signups in the US. 

Over the first few months of 2018, we kept Performance Marketing spend constant but saw crazy WoW swings in CAC (-20% to +20%). That's rare and didn't make sense. 

Except, it did when combined with results of the saturation analysis.

The analysis suggested Uber had: 
— High market saturation in urban centers
— Entrenched consumer preferences
— Strong brand awareness 

Our hypothesis was that campaigns where rider signups was the conversion goal on Meta were non incremental and that the swings in CAC were due to seasonality. That's a bold POV to share as a growth analytics team, but that's what the data said. 

To test our theory, we ran a 3 month incrementality test for these campaigns where we went completely dark on Meta. 

The result?

No measurable business impact. 

So, we turned off Meta for Rider acquisition in the US.

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 $35𝐌: 
1. Continued US driver acquisition
2. Uber EATS expansion in the US
3. Investments in LATAM, EMEA, APAC
4. US Brand Marketing (Top of funnel ) 

If you want to read more (including details on the analysis I did), check out the full deep dive I shared with 2,845 B2C marketers & data scientist ➡ https://lnkd.in/gqwr2Xhk

I asked Nikhil Kant, India Marketing Lead @ FlixBus how the smartest consumer brands are thinking about growth. His take was great:

“In a world where everything becomes a commodity, your brand is the only lasting moat. The startups that win aren’t just buying customers—they’re building emotional connection.”

And here’s how top brands are insulating themselves in 2025:
Emotion → creating affinity beyond features or pricing
Consistency → showing up in the market the same way, every time
Brand Codes → repeated visuals and language that compound memorability

Performance drives transactions, but brand drives preference. The startups getting this balance right are the ones seeing sustainable growth.

So why do most startups obsess over CAC and ROAS. Is that why they plateau? 

Check out the episode below and share your thoughts in the comments!

Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gcztcAeq
Watch here: https://lnkd.in/gvp5sPEs

I've measured over a $1Bn in Marketing spend in my career and 15 years later the problems with measuring marketing are still the same:

- Poor attribution
- Conflicting signals
- Black box platforms
- Limited experimentation
- Risk of over / under spending

I spend a lot time, through my content, trying to help marketers make smarter decisions but the reality is most problems can’t be solved by a LinkedIn post.

Solving problems need context and they need someone who understands exactly what you're going through to find the shortest path to solving your problem. 

It's why I joined hubble.

Kevin Jurovich and I have been aligned for a long time that knowledge is the biggest accelerator when you're stuck and so I'm joining hubble to help founders and marketers pursue their visions. 

If you've got questions around:
- How to scale B2C Marketing
- How to measure Marketing ROI
- How to leverage data to unlock growth

then grab some time with me now. 

A few slots are open here → https://lnkd.in/g-hDvU7N

hubble

Co-founder, CEO at hubble | lifelong optimist

Cool cool cool... my open rate is in the top 30% of beehiiv newsletters.

Time to get that into the top 10%.

Subscribe to find out why 2,785 B2C Marketers keep opening my emails: https://lnkd.in/gxR5c4Xd

LinkedIn is one of the greatest places to learn IF you follow the right people. Here's who I recommend for #Marketing and #Data Science:

Data Science
Sebastian Hewing 🚀 (data leadership)
Tris J Burns 🔥 (data leadership)
Barbara Galiza (marketing measurement)
Amney Mounir (early career)

Marketing
Tycho Luijten (B2B + awesome videos)
Pranav Piyush (All things Marketing)
Preston 🩳 Rutherford (All things Marketing)
Andrew Tindall (All things Ads)

I might be missing a few more people but this was who was top of mind at the moment scrolling through my feed (thanks new algorithm)!

Building impactful data teams for the AI-age | Data Strategist & Engineer | Advisor to C-Level in VC/PE-backed companies | Solopreneur & Travel Addict (100+ countries & territories) 🌏

★ Strategy & Data Leadership Coach | Helping leaders maximise the potential of their careers!

Marketing measurement consultant | Troubleshooting conversions @ FixMyTracking

Product Analytics @ Meta

CEO @Dapper | We help B2B brands create Marketing Engines that generate pipeline

CEO @ Paramark | Marketing measurement that CFOs & CMOs trust

Cofounder of Chubbies, Loop Returns, & MarathonDataCo.com

The World’s Best Ads & Why They Work | SVP @ System1 | Marketing Effectiveness

How do you measure marketing impact when you have no budget, no sample size, and no time?

Welcome to what Gopal Nath calls the “duct tape and hope” phase of marketing analytics.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

Most teams can’t afford GeoLift studies or perfectly powered A/B tests. But the pressure to prove ROI? Still very real.

So what do you do?

- Use pre-post analysis (yes, the thing everyone loves to hate)
- Get creative with incrementality hacks
- Accept that being directionally correct is better than “we don’t know”
- And most importantly, treat decisions like two-way doors, not cliff jumps

It's less about perfection and more about confidence, communication, and enough data to avoid setting your money on fire.

This is the messy middle of marketing: measuring just enough to move forward… without pretending it’s science fair perfect.

#MarketingMeasurement #Incrementality #B2CMarketing #AnalyticsOnABudget #MarketingStrategy #DataDrivenDecisions #TwoWayDoorThinking

I asked Sunil Subhedar, Anthropic's Growth Marketing Lead how he hires for growth marketing roles and his answer has stuck with me since: 

“The pieces that I look for from when I’m hiring is someone who is curious, someone who is analytical, and someone that thinks from a systems design perspective, which is a little bit different than the typical marketer.”

This is how the best growth leaders are building teams in 2025:
• Curiosity → they experiment by default
• Systems →  they design growth engines
• Analytical → they can cut through the noise

This thinking is becoming the baseline for high-performing B2C Marketing teams, especially when you add AI into the mix.

Most marketers get hired for channel expertise, but what if we’ve been looking at it all wrong?

Check out the episode below and share your thoughts in the comments!

Listen here: https://lnkd.in/g6mNqzDr
Watch here: https://lnkd.in/guC6jNQd

Marketing & Tech Leader | Driving Organizational Growth through Innovation at Scale | Ex-Uber, Canva, Google

Anthropic

4 hard-earned insights from Consumer Tech marketing leaders from companies like Uber, DoorDash, Faire, and Anthropic. 

1️⃣ Sunil Subhedar ( Head of Growth @ Canva, Anthropic):

"Your data’s only as good as your decisions. The real challenge isn’t collecting data…it’s building a culture where people actually use it."

2️⃣ Libby Weissman ( Growth Advisor @ Caviar, DoorDash):

"Early-stage growth is about discovery, not optimization. If you’re A/B testing in a vacuum, you’re probably just validating your own assumptions."

3️⃣ Nikhil Kant ( India Marketing Lead @ Flix, Even) :

"Marketers talk about performance vs. brand like it’s a rivalry. But great brands perform, and great performance needs emotion."

4️⃣ Gopal Nath (Director of Marketing Analytics @ Faire, Uber):

"Perfect measurement is a luxury. Sometimes you need to trade precision for progress and just be directionally right."

Marketing is messy.
Marketing is honest.
Marketing is a bit gutsy.
Marketing is experiMENTAL.

Watch all episodes here: https://lnkd.in/gvv3_mH3
Listen to all episodes here: https://lnkd.in/gFH37Dev

#GrowthMarketing #MarketingMeasurement #BrandStrategy #MarketingLeadership #B2CTech #ExperimentalThinking #MarketingInsights #ExperiMENTALPodcast

Here are the 3 things you should do every morning to increase happiness that are backed by science: 

1. Go through your LinkedIn feed and remove connection / unfollow anyone that posts trash 

2. Go through your DMs and block spam 

3. Hit not interested on bros posting about AI 

In a 2025 study by Swaminathan et all, these actions shows short term increases in a dopamine while also triggering longer term release of seratonin.

In addition, there were many cases of lower levels of cortisol (stress hormone) and adrenaline (anger hormone) when patients saw less AI bro posts. 

Follow Sundar Swaminathan for more tips like this.

What happens when TikTok, your top growth channel, suddenly shuts down?

In this clip, Claudia W. (VP of Growth at Howbout) talks about that experience, authenticity in their marketing, and how they discovered their identity that would resonate their customers. 

Here's a snippet:

“We also had all of our TikTok account blocked... which also blocked all of our ads. So halfway through the summer which is our best performing time ... 100% of our TikTok went down"

If you’re building on rented land, you need backup plans. 

Resilience means finding ways to bring your story to life beyond one platform.

If you don't know how, just listen to the episode with Claudia to future proof your business.

Listen here: https://lnkd.in/g-QnpbUj
Watch here: https://lnkd.in/gVi-fZhh

#GenZMarketing #ConsumerTech #ProductLedGrowth #StartupMarketing #SocialMediaStrategy #BrandBuilding #ExperimentalPodcast

CAC is a terrible Marketing metric, but it’s even more dangerous if you don’t anchor it to the right LTV. 

First, CAC should never be looked at by itself. 

Marketers look at CAC in isolation as if a $20 CAC is "good" and $100 CAC is "bad", but CAC only makes sense with an LTV to pair it with:
- $100 CAC is amazing if the LTV is $1,000.
- $10 CAC is terrible if the LTV is $5.

"Yeah, Sundar, we already knew that"

Okay, fine, but are you using a fixed LTV number? Because LTV isn’t a static metric.

It changes by cohort, geography, channel, and with seasonality.

CAC without LTV is bad and using a fixed LTV for LTV / CAC is dangerous. 

--
Follow Sundar Swaminathan for more on Consumer Tech Marketing

Here's the one thing I'd go back and change about my Marketing career if I could: 

I'd get into Product instead of Marketing. Only those that are a bit masochistic would choose to be a Marketer. 

It reads like a list of excuses, but Marketing has to deal with:

Attribution
Seasonality
Data pipelines
Product errors
Channel biases
Algorithm updates
Campaign changes
Stakeholder opinions
Cross channel impact
Experimentation costs
 
Many of those happen at the same time and so it often feels like analyzing Marketing feels impossible. 

And that's why my latest article is simply called 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞. 

If you're tired of answering the question "Why don’t we understand how our Marketing is doing?", send them my article and say:

"Because I have to deal with all of this.”

Commiserate with 2,700+ fellow B2C Marketers here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gqNagEBr

Amney Mounir thanks for the inspiration and reminder of how complex real life data really is.

Marketing data in real life is crazy messy 🤪 

You have to deal with: 
- Attribution
- Seasonality
- Product errors
- Algorithm updates
- Campaign changes
- Cross channel impact

... and so much more. 

On Tuesday, I'll share why marketing data is 10x harder to analyze than product data with 2,789 B2C marketers, founders, and data scientist. 

Sign up now so you don't miss it: https://lnkd.in/gxR5c4Xd

Amney Mounir thanks for the inspiration and reminder of how complex real life data really is.

Taplio

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