Steffen Rusten

Melbourne, Australia

Defining strategy, analysing data, running marketing campaigns, advising on financing, due diligence, coming up with left-field ideas… whatever the adventure demands.
It's always coffee time somewhere.

Get in touch
Move fast and look after people.
The best teams deliver fast because people feel safe to take risks and make mistakes. The best organisations are the ones people enjoy working for.
Automate boring work.
If a task is repetitive and rule-based, a machine should do it. Protect people’s place in work that requires judgment and creativity.
Know your numbers.
Test. Model. Learn. Success is never down to one factor or person. Attribute performance and credit appropriately. Understand significance, statistically.
“Steffen’s a directed energy weapon.”
A man named Dan

Season Wrapped

Work

Built the first Season Wrapped campaign using on-slope customer data that nobody thought could reach the ESP.

crmdata Read more

Spotted the opportunity from a throwaway comment in a meeting. Built the data infrastructure, designed the badge schema, briefed the SVGs, wrote the Python to generate 100,000+ personalised images, and sent them all. Parents requested kids' versions. Non-subscribers DM'd asking for theirs. Two weeks from concept to send.

Uber Wellington

Work

Started with zero trips per week and no presence. Built driver supply in a hostile regulatory environment.

growthstrategy Read more

Shifted from demand to supply within a week. Ran political campaigns, converted taxi drivers, launched UberIcecream across four cities, two where Uber didn't even operate. 100+ fulfilment staff, hub-and-spoke logistics, ice cream flown nationally. Left at 10,000+ trips per week.

Te Whare Hangahanga

Work

Responded to a Bluesky post and within a day was deep in an investment prospectus for a kaupapa Māori housing organisation.

financestrategycreative Read more

Positioning, financial modelling, risk assessment, projected budgets, the full investment round. $120K+ raised from hundreds of investors on PledgeMe. Still helping develop their business models and organisational strategy.

TAB FIFA World Cup

Work

Conceived and ran a free-to-enter World Cup predictions competition with a $5M prize. Beat sign-up and revenue targets by big margins.

datagrowthcrm Read more

Convinced the business to put up a $5M prize, brokered insurance through to a London underwriter, briefed and managed the agency build, coordinated IT, managed demand at 300% of expected entries. Then built a model across 30,000+ entries to identify who would have profited from their picks and handed it to CRM to deliver an email campaign that exceeded sign-up and betting turnover targets by more than 30%.

Playbasis

Work

Strategy Manager at a gamification startup in Bangkok. Built pricing models and gamification strategies for banks and telcos.

strategyfinance Read more

Flew to San Francisco to pitch a gamification solution to BP executives. Made the shortlist of two. When the company hit financial trouble, proactively offered resignation to free up runway for the team.

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