Metrics for startup boards and teams.
Data platforms built and managed for fast-moving startups.
Data Platforms For Startups
Core Reporting
Reports for your investors. Finance, marketing, revenue, and product team dashboards.
Trusted Metrics
Industry-standard CAC, LTV, churn, retention, ROAS, and more.
Strategic Input
Guidance on growth, metrics, and investor reporting.
Mentorship
Support for your internal analysts and data team.
Built On Proven Infrastructure
Managed Data Stack
No in-house team required. Fully modern setup.
AI-Ready
Clean, ML-compatible data models.
Full Ownership
Bring everything in-house when you're ready.
GDPR-Compliant
Your data stays in your warehouse.
"Quietly rebuilt our data infrastructure and levelled-up everyone's data literacy."
Who It's For
Startups building their first real data stack. You might have one analyst, some messy spreadsheets, and no source of truth. This gives you a structured way to set up a data platform fast without committing to a permanent hire.
Learn more about how we can help your product, marketing, and finance teams, and analyst.
How Founders Actually Use This
- Fundraising: Investor-ready metrics like CAC, LTV, retention
- Marketing: See what's working and how spend converts
- Finance: Clean margin and payback data, no spreadsheets
- Product: Base your roadmap on actual user behavior — not gut feel.
When This Makes Sense
Use our ROI calculator to find out how much time you're spending on reporting and what it costs. Compare this with our pricing to see how our solution stacks up against other options.
We're usually a good fit for seed to Series A companies in these situations:
Common Scenarios
- You need consistent, reliable metrics for board or investor updates
- Teams are duplicating data work or using inconsistent dashboards
- You're consolidating data from multiple tools for reporting and analysis
- Metrics questions are slowing down product, ops, or growth teams
Warning Signs
- Metrics change depending on who calculates them
- Analysts are constantly firefighting ad hoc questions
- You can't track customer journeys across different tools
- Spreadsheets are being passed around instead of dashboards
- Reporting is close, but no-one really trusts it
"Ollie reshaped our data strategy, led a smooth migration off legacy systems, and mentored the team - considerably accelerating our time-to-insight."
Comparing Data Platform Options
| Scale Direction | Full-Time Head of Data | Pure Platform Solution (1) | Independent Consultant (2) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Setup Time | 2-3 months | 4-6 months | 6-8 weeks | 4-6 months |
| Annual Cost | ~£50K | £100-130K + equity | £30-60K | £25-60K |
| Analyst Mentorship | Included | Depends on bandwidth | Not included | Extra cost |
| Strategic Guidance | Included | Full-time | Not included | Extra cost |
| Platform Maintenance | Included | Included | Included | Extra cost |
| Exit Risk | Low (30-day notice) | High (attrition, transitions) | Low | Medium |
| Team Building | Mentorship included | Full responsibility | Not included | Extra cost |
| Customization | Flexible | Full control | Limited | Full control |
| Best For | Startups needing both platform and mentorship | Scale-ups with budget for full team | Companies with existing data team | One-off projects or audits |
(1) Pure Platform Solution refers to services like Fivetran, RudderStack, or Segment that provide data infrastructure but no strategic guidance or team mentorship.
(2) Independent Consultant refers to freelance data leaders who typically work on a project basis.
Scale Direction delivers in 2-3 months what typically takes a freelancer or full-time Head of Data 4-6 months because we bring a structured, productised approach. You get speed, certainty, and investor-grade outcomes, without the cost, risk or delays of building a full in-house team.
Prefer to explore on your own first? Try the ROI calculator or compare detailed pricing.
Technologies We Use
You decide how involved you'd like to be with the technology at any stage.
We set everything up for you and manage the platform, you can take ownership at any time and we'll support you with a full handover.
It's a modern, industry-standard data stack. Fully documented, yours, ready to scale.
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- Airbyte for data ingestion
- BigQuery (GCP) or Redshift (AWS) data warehouse
- dbt for data modelling and testing
- Optionally, add Metabase for dashboards or use your preferred BI tool.
For details of our technology choices and approach, see our modern data stack playbook.
10+ Years, Quietly Embedded
We've built data platforms for venture-backed startups across SaaS, marketplaces, fintech and more. If you've outgrown spreadsheets and dashboards that aren't telling you the right story, this will feel like a turning point.