Growth systems · Upshot Labs
I'm Trevor Laehy. I help teams diagnose what's blocking growth, fix the acquisition infrastructure, and build the next repeatable growth engine through partners, creators, data, and operators — the same work behind a $295M-exit growth engine, a $5M agency, and startups' first 100k users.
It shows up differently for everyone. Maybe paid stopped scaling. Maybe CAC crept past what the model can carry. Maybe tracking's a mess, or you know there's a channel you should be testing and can't tell which one. Different symptoms, same root: there's no system turning demand into a growth engine you can actually run on repeat.
Most growth channels don't die because the idea was wrong. They die because the system around them was never built. The channel is one line. The system is everything that makes it work.
"Find creators" is one of ten moving parts. Skip the other nine and the channel quietly fails — and it looks like the idea was bad. That whole system is what I build.
I work with founders who have demand but stuck acquisition. We find the real bottleneck, map where the leverage is, build the system the channel needs, and launch a test to get signal — fast. Not a strategy deck. A working growth engine.
Is growth blocked by the channel, the tracking, the offer, the funnel, the product, the team, or the operator stack? We find the actual constraint before spending a dollar on the wrong fix.
Look across every acquisition path — paid, partners, affiliates, creators, communities, app-to-web, referrals, outbound, marketplaces, integrations — and find the one that can actually move your number.
Stand up the infrastructure that makes the channel work: tracking, landing pages, partner terms, operator workflows, the vendor stack, the KPI model, and reporting.
Put it live and read the data. The goal isn't a perfect plan — it's knowing quickly whether this can become a repeatable acquisition engine your team can run.
Operator, co-founder, and head of growth across 10+ companies. No fixed playbook — every situation gets a strategy and system built for its own constraints. The through-line: build the acquisition infrastructure, then the numbers follow.
I helped build the mobile acquisition engine behind Hotspot Shield's scale — the tracking foundation, partner channels, and optimization loops that turned mobile into one of the company's core growth engines. That work contributed to 700M+ downloads and the eventual $295M exit.
Clients wanted new channels with profitable margins. We worked out how to buy mobile traffic into web funnels and pass reliable revenue signals back to the DSPs so their algorithms could optimize — a system that ran across 20+ products and millions of registrations.
The company needed demand proof before launch. I built the waitlist growth strategy, set up tracking, brought in the right operators, and created the early traction behind a $2.5M raise and first 100k users.
Scaled ad spend to $3M/mo and pushed into core markets across 50+ countries — bringing in and retaining the users that gave Facebook's product teams the data to make informed decisions in those regions.
Ran a paid app-ranking strategy and figured out how to hold top ranks for pennies on the dollar — work done during the period leading to the company's $245M acquisition by Adidas.
The same system-building principle, applied in a real-world market: a land acquisition engine that produces 3–5 contracts a month on ~5 hours a week of my time. Proof that the systems I build keep running without me.
For Seed–Series B companies with proven demand but stuck growth. We diagnose the constraint, identify the highest-leverage acquisition path, build the system, and launch the first test — so you leave with signal and a working engine, not a slide deck. Usually 30–90 days, depending on what needs to be built.
Upshot Labs is where I research markets, test channels, and build companies in messy, fast-shifting spaces — from AI distribution to real-world systems like land and real estate. Consulting is how I put that operator's lens to work for founders directly: the same instincts, applied to your growth problem.
Let's talk
Tell me what you're building and where growth has stalled. I'll tell you where I'd start — no pitch, just a straight read on whether there's a system worth building.
Best fit: Seed–Series B teams with proven demand, messy acquisition, and a founder willing to test new systems.
Start the conversation →or email Trevor@upshotlabs.co