Luca Moretti Executive mandate Growth Leadership Seat · USD 4,600 / month
90-day Head of Growth mandate: Verdaccio
Luca Moretti runs the experiment programme. The monthly spend ceiling is hard and does not roll over.
Verdaccio spends USD 40,000 a month on acquisition and cannot say which half works. There is no experiment record, no holdout and no agreed measure of a good customer. This mandate does not ask for more budget. It caps the existing one and spends it differently.
From 1 March, Luca owns acquisition channels, the experiment programme and creative direction for performance, within a hard ceiling of USD 40,000 a month. The ceiling does not roll over and unspent budget is not banked. Any increase is the CEO's decision and will not be asked for inside the 90 days.
Document control
- Document number
- MAN-VRD-01
- Version
- 1.0
- Effective
- 1 March 2027
- Owner
- Luca Moretti, Fractional Head of Growth
- Approved by
- Giulia Ferrante, CEO
- Next review
- 31 May 2027
- Classification
- Confidential. Leadership team
Why
What the diagnostic found
| Observed | Evidence |
|---|---|
| USD 40,000 a month across five channels | 12 months of spend records |
| No experiment has been recorded | Confirmed. Changes are made and remembered, not documented |
| No holdout group has ever been used | So no channel has a measured incremental effect |
| Creative is changed weekly without a reason | The agency ships new creative on a schedule, not on a result |
| Blended acquisition cost is reported, per channel is not | The blended number moves and nobody can attribute the movement |
| Retention is good | Month 6 retention at 64 percent. The product works |
Retention at 64 percent is the reason this mandate is worth doing. Spending badly on a product people keep is a fixable problem; spending well on a product they leave is not.
Authority
Decision rights
| Luca decides | CEO decides | |
|---|---|---|
| Channel mix within the ceiling | Yes | |
| Stopping any channel | Yes | |
| The experiment programme and what gets tested | Yes | |
| Performance creative direction | Yes | |
| Agency scope and whether to keep them | Yes | |
| Landing pages and the signup flow | Yes, with Product | |
| Monthly spend above USD 40,000 | CEO | |
| Pricing, trial length and offers | CEO | |
| Brand and anything outside performance | CEO | |
| Claims made in advertising | CEO and legal |
Standard
What counts as an experiment here
Most growth functions call every change an experiment. From week two, at Verdaccio, an experiment has five parts and anything without them is just a change.
- A written hypothesis, before the change, saying what is expected and why
- One variable, or an accepted reason why not
- A stated measure agreed before the test starts
- A stated duration and sample, decided before rather than when the result looks good
- A recorded outcome, including the ones that failed, kept where the next person can read them
| Cadence | What |
|---|---|
| Weekly | Experiment review, 45 minutes. What ran, what it showed, what stops |
| Monthly | Channel review against the ceiling, with per-channel cost |
| Monthly | One holdout report, so incrementality is measured rather than assumed |
| Quarterly | Whether the ceiling is the right number, with evidence |
Measures
How this gets judged on 31 May
| Measure | Today | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Experiments recorded to the clause 3 standard | 0 | At least 12 |
| Channels with a measured incremental effect | 0 of 5 | At least 3 |
| Per-channel acquisition cost reported | Never | Monthly |
| Channels stopped | None in 12 months | At least 1, with the evidence |
| Monthly spend | USD 40,000 | USD 40,000 or less |
| Acquisition cost itself | Blended, unreliable | Measured honestly. Not promised to fall |
Acquisition cost is not a target for the first 90 days, because the current number is not trustworthy and a target on an untrustworthy number produces a better-looking untrustworthy number.
Document control
Revision history
| Version | Date | Author | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 20 February 2027 | Luca Moretti | Agreed and signed. Effective 1 March 2027. |
| 0.2 | 16 February 2027 | Luca Moretti | Draft. No-rollover rule added after the CEO asked what would happen to an underspend. |
| 0.1 | 12 February 2027 | Luca Moretti | First draft from the acquisition diagnostic of 8 February. |