Sam Owles - GTM engineer

Hi, I’m Sam, I run growth like a co-founder, not an agency.

I build agentic AI operators, custom attribution, and paid acquisition engines, and I run them in verticals where most marketers get banned.

Auckland, New Zealand · US-remote with full US timezone overlap · W-8BEN

Profile

Most growth marketers can’t build the system. Most engineers have never run one. I do both.

10+ years and $10M+ of managed spend across cannabis, GLP-1 telemedicine, supplements, and DTC. Industries where the default answer from every ad platform is no, which meant building my own infrastructure the whole way - custom attribution when iOS 14 broke tracking, compliance frameworks that kept accounts alive, automation wherever it earned its keep.

The current version of that is full agentic AI systems that run a brand’s growth on their own, with a human setting strategy on top.

GTM engineering

· Agentic AI systems in production - skills, subagents, hooks, MCP (one runs a 7-figure brand today) · Python pipelines into Shopify, Klaviyo, Meta, Google Ads, and PostHog · Custom attribution, built since iOS 14 broke the platform numbers · Write-gated automation - validation, approval gates, and audit logs on anything that touches spend · Metric governance - UTM taxonomy, naming conventions, codified kill criteria

Growth operations

· $10M+ of paid spend managed across Meta, Google, TikTok, Reddit, and X · Accounts kept alive for years in cannabis, GLP-1, and supplements · Hired and led marketing teams at three companies · Lifecycle and email - Klaviyo flows, segmentation, revenue per recipient · CRO - quiz funnels, A/B tests, landing pages · 0-to-1 launches, plus the decks and research behind a 7-figure SAFE

Recently

Peak revenue weeks at Ironclad, run by software A 7-figure SAFE closed at River This site - one file, no trackers

An AI operator, running growth for a 7-figure cookware brand.

The brief

Ironclad Pan Co. - premium hand-poured cast iron cookware from New Zealand - needed to grow fast without hiring a full marketing team. So I built one out of software, and I run it.

How it works

The founders set strategy with me. The system does the labour - reporting, campaign builds, email, creative. It can’t overspend or misfire, because every ad-platform write passes validation and human approval first, and every action lands in an append-only audit log.

Data - Python connectors to Shopify, Klaviyo, Google & Meta Ads, and PostHog give the system ground-truth numbers instead of platform-reported ones

Guardrails - hard metric floors coded in, schema validation and approval gates on every write, daily jobs watching every live ad against kill criteria

Execution - specialised agents for media buying, email, creative, and reporting (launch-ready ad decks generated and checked by code, not copy-pasted)

The results

+67% weekly revenue increase, baseline to peak week, inside six months

5.0+ blended MER held across the engagement

Every channel above its efficiency target

The specific numbers stay between me and the client - that’s the deal every client gets. Full case study available on request.

Ironclad Pan Co. · Fractional co-CMO · 2026-

Built and run the AI operator system above. Weekly revenue up 67% baseline-to-peak inside six months, MER held 5.0+.

River · Marketing Director · 2025-

Consumer data-ownership platform. Lead the GTM team. Built the research, brand refresh, site, and pitch decks used in the round that closed a 7-figure SAFE; organic social did 1M+ impressions at $0.

NuggMD · Head of Growth · 2021-2025

Medical cannabis telehealth, 2M+ patients served. Led marketing across three brands, ran ~$3M in contribution-margin-positive spend, and built a custom attribution system after iOS 14 broke tracking.

Losewell · GLP-1 telemedicine · 0-to-1

Launched from zero on Meta in a heavily regulated space. Sub-$100 CAC against an industry norm of $600+.

Nugg Club · Cannabis subscription

Ran a true-THC retail subscription box profitably on Meta and TikTok - one of very few operators keeping THC ads live on either platform at $1M+ spend.

No Ugly Wellness · Consultant · DTC tonics

Self-built chatbot campaign keyed to codes under bottle caps: +1,361% eCommerce sales and an Axis Award nomination. Geofence automation added 1,000+ retail stores; $556k revenue on $81k Meta spend (6.9x ROAS).

Vitally Vitamins · Consultant · DTC subscriptions

Rebuilt the full stack - quiz funnel, ads, HubSpot lifecycle. Frontend ROAS 0.18 to 2.03, retention extended from 3 to 5 months.

Three ways to work together.

Fractional GTM engineer

Ongoing, part-time. Own the growth stack end-to-end: systems + media buying + lifecycle. DTC, B2C, and early-stage teams.

System builds

Project-based. Attribution pipelines, agentic ops, reporting & governance layers. Handed over documented, with guardrails.

Full-time

GTM Engineer / Head of Growth / Marketing Director. US-remote, full US timezone overlap. W-8BEN in place.

Currently open to fractional, contract, and full-time work. Email for the full Ironclad case study - detailed metrics shared on request, with client permission.

Sam Owles
sam@owles.works