Find what’s stuck. Fix it. Keep it moving.

AAJ diagnoses where growth is stalling, fixes one problem at a time with fixed-scope work, and can lead marketing month to month after that. Every engagement has a written scope. Fees are on the pricing page.

Where should you start?

Something is off and you can’t say what: Growth Audit.
Growth has stalled and the team disagrees on why: Full Diagnostic.
You know which problem needs fixing: a sprint.
You’re launching into a new market or segment: GTM & Pipeline Launch.
You need someone to lead marketing every month: fractional marketing leadership.

Engagements

Diagnose first

When you’re not sure which problem to fix.

Growth Audit (7 days): looks at your funnel, positioning and channel mix, and ends with the three fixes to make first, in a 30-day action plan. Best when you want a second opinion before a bigger commitment.
Full Diagnostic (3 weeks): looks at acquisition, conversion, retention and message, and ends with one binding constraint, named with evidence, and a sequenced plan. Best when growth has stalled and the team disagrees on why.

Sprints

When you know the problem. Each sprint answers one question and ships working deliverables, in 10 business days.

AI Visibility Sprint: how visible you are to AI answer engines and buyer-side agents, scored and baselined, with fixes in cost order.
Positioning & Message Sprint: a pressure-tested positioning statement, proof for every claim, rewritten core copy and a voice standard.
Unit Economics & Retention Sprint: defensible LTV, CAC, payback and retention numbers, a weighted forecast and a verdict on what caps growth.

Larger engagements

When the work runs for weeks and has to be built, not only planned.

GTM & Pipeline Launch (4–8 weeks): a segment plan, launch sequence and pipeline model: take a product or offer to market with the metrics built in.
MMM-Lite Engagement (6 weeks): a working marketing-mix model plus an incrementality test, so you know which channels actually drive pipeline.

Ongoing

When marketing needs a senior lead every month: fractional marketing leadership, monthly after a three-month minimum.

Advisory: strategic direction. Two strategy calls a month, campaign and funnel review, email and Slack access.
Fractional Lite: direction and a hand in the work. A weekly working session, hands-on help on one priority workstream, monthly planning and reporting.
Embedded Growth Partner: a senior lead inside your team. Weekly strategy and working sessions, campaign and content leadership, team training and enablement.

What AAJ works on

Six areas, three layers of one system. Each layer builds on the one before it.

Strategy

Layer 1, the foundation. Decide who you serve and why you win.

Brand strategy: Position, ideal customer profile, value proposition and messaging. Engagement: Positioning & Message Sprint.
Go-to-market planning: Launch plans with segments, milestones, channel priorities and success metrics. Engagement: GTM & Pipeline Launch.

Growth

Layer 2, the engine. Turn the plan into pipeline.

Growth marketing: Experiments, paid media, lifecycle and content as one acquisition system. Engagement: Fractional marketing leadership.
Digital campaigns: Full-funnel campaigns with tracking defined before launch. Engagement: GTM & Pipeline Launch.

Measurement and retention

Layer 3, on top. Know what worked, and keep the customers you won.

Analytics and insights: Dashboards and attribution built for stop, start and scale decisions. Engagement: MMM-Lite Engagement.
Customer experience: Onboarding, retention and renewal: churn you’ve already paid for is the cheapest growth. Engagement: Unit Economics & Retention Sprint.

Ranking on Google is not the same as being cited by AI

A page can rank well and still give an answer engine nothing to cite, or give a buyer’s agent no way to act. The AI Visibility Sprint measures both and lists the fixes in cost order. Get the free readiness scan.

Perplexity cited a source in 40 of 40 answers (100%).
Claude cited a source in 10 of 40 answers (25%).
GPT-4.1 cited a source in 2 of 39 answers (5%).
39% of 295 startup home pages offer no path but a demo or a sales call (Agent Readiness Study 2026).

Source: AI Answer Visibility Index, first edition.

Diagnose, Design, Execute

Each step answers one question and hands something concrete to the next. Every engagement is built around one or more of them.

Diagnose: where is growth actually being lost? Audit channels, spend and analytics; map the funnel and the unit economics under it; pressure-test positioning and the ICP. You leave with the leaks, ranked by impact, and the highest-leverage places to act. Engagements: Growth Audit, Full Diagnostic.
Design: what should change, and in what order? Choose the few channels that fit; shape the funnel and the messaging; set the targets before anything ships. You leave with a 90-day plan you can defend, with success defined up front. Engagements: sprints, MMM-Lite Engagement.
Execute: is it working, and where should the budget go next? Build and launch the channels and tracking; run experiments with pass and fail lines set in advance; review on a fixed cadence and back what works. You leave with a growth system your team can run, measure and improve. Engagements: GTM & Pipeline Launch, fractional leadership.

Measure, learn, repeat. On a retainer, each Execute cycle feeds the next Diagnose. Read the full method.

What every engagement includes

A written scope before anything starts, so you know what you’ll receive and when.
Senior-led, from the first call to the final walkthrough.
Inputs, assumptions and arithmetic shown, so your board can check the working.
Models, copy and fix lists stay with your team when the engagement ends.

Who leads the work

Saroj Jha, PhD, MBA. More than a decade in marketing, from Abbott to early-stage startups, building the systems that tie spend to pipeline. Read the founder profile.

Working with AAJ

Which engagement should I start with?

If you’re not sure what’s broken, start with the Growth Audit. If growth has stalled and the team disagrees on why, the Full Diagnostic goes wider. If you already know the problem, go straight to the sprint that covers it.

What’s the difference between a sprint and the Full Diagnostic?

A sprint goes deep on one area and ships working deliverables: a model, a rewrite, or a fix list an engineer can act on. The Full Diagnostic goes wide across acquisition, conversion, retention and message, and ends in a verdict and a sequenced plan rather than deliverables.

Does AAJ do the work, or only advise?

Both, depending on the engagement. Sprints ship working deliverables. The GTM & Pipeline Launch and the Embedded Growth Partner retainer include hands-on execution. Advisory stays strategic and leaves execution with your team.

How long does an engagement take?

A Growth Audit takes 7 days, each sprint 10 business days, the Full Diagnostic 3 weeks, the MMM-Lite Engagement 6 weeks and the GTM & Pipeline Launch 4–8 weeks. Retainers run for a three-month minimum, then month to month.

Who does AAJ work with?

Founder-led companies from Seed to Series B that want senior marketing leadership without a full-time hire.

Where can I see the fees?

Every fee is published on the pricing page, along with how audit and sprint fees credit toward the next step.

Bring the number you want to move

A free 30-minute strategy call is enough to choose a starting point. You leave with a written next step, whatever you decide. Book a strategy call or start with a Growth Audit.