James StoneOPEN TO CONVERSATIONS
Curriculum Vitae

James Stone, PhD

Growth & Revenue Operations Leader · GTM Engineer

Growth leader who builds revenue engines from zero to one. At Cognassist I own the full growth operation — marketing, outbound, and GTM systems. PhD in applied statistics and an AI-native operator: I build the systems I run, from a bespoke GTM reporting platform to automated prospecting pipelines that replaced agencies, subscriptions, and manual work.

Peer-reviewed — research software published in the Journal of Open Research Software.

By the numbersAt Cognassist · 2023—now
Core-product ARRApr 23 — Now
£2.5M£4.0M
+60%
Core-product ARR growth
£2.5m → £4m
0→1
Growth function built
from scratch
4+
Tier-1 accounts landed
PwC · Dyson · NetApp · Informa
PhD
Applied statistics
Lancaster University
Experience2016 — Now
CognassistHead of Growth Operations · B2B SaaS · EdTech / HR TechApr 2023 — Present

Built and lead the growth operation from zero to one across a dual-product portfolio: marketing, outbound, and GTM systems. Promoted from Organic Acquisition Manager to department head.

  • Revenue: Grew core-product ARR from £2.5m to £4m (+60%) by rebuilding demand generation as one integrated engine across paid, organic, and outbound.
  • Enterprise pipeline: Generated qualified pipeline through account-based marketing (ABM) and outbound for enterprise and education GTM; contributed to closing Tier-1 accounts including PwC, Dyson, Informa Markets, and NetApp. TODO: £[X]m pipeline figure
  • Revenue operations: Unified Sales, Customer Success, and Marketing data and process in Salesforce — a single lead lifecycle, attribution model, and forecast covering the full funnel from first touch to renewal.
  • New-category GTM: Took a category-creating product to market from scratch: defined the data model, positioning, ICP, and lead generation strategy.
CreativeRaceSenior SEO Strategist · Top-25 UK integrated agencyMar 2022 — Apr 2023

Recruited to build the SEO function from the ground up: proposition, operational workflow, and automated analytics and reporting pipelines in Python and R.

  • Clients: Led technical campaigns for Irwin Mitchell, City Lit, and Times Higher Education; legal client repeatedly ranked highest in organic traffic value across the UK legal sector.
JaywingSEO Manager · Data & performance marketing agencyMar 2021 — Mar 2022

Managed accounts with monthly retainers exceeding £50k (HSBC, Euro Car Parts, Irwin Mitchell).

  • HSBC Expat: Delivered a 200% increase in organic traffic via technical overhaul and content strategy.
  • Team: Directed a team of SEO analysts, integrating data science methods into agency performance workflows.
EvolutedSEO Account ManagerDec 2019 — Mar 2021
FractiData ScientistFeb 2019 — Dec 2019
University of LeedsDigital Scientist · Research Fellow · Business School · Dept of PsychologyFeb 2016 — Mar 2019
Systems I designed, built & run in production4 / 4 in prod
Skills
AI & GTM engineering
Claude Code · Cursor · n8n · AI agent workflows · prompt engineering · LLM-assisted development · API integration
Data & analytics
R (expert) · Python · SQL · statistical modelling · attribution · forecasting · GA4 · Looker Studio · Power BI
Revenue operations
Salesforce (advanced) · HubSpot · Pardot / MCAE · lead lifecycle design · pipeline management · Transpond · Capsule
Marketing & growth
Demand generation · ABM · outbound · SEO · Ahrefs · SEMrush · Sistrix · Screaming Frog
Education