Xuan Hu

My Journey as
an Analyst, a Runner, a Creator, and a Father

Data-Driven Growth Leader | Technical Modeler | Professional Problem Solver

My Professional Blueprint

I build the "unbiased version of the truth" — and the systems that make it stick. With 12+ years of progressive experience culminating in VP-level leadership at an analytics consulting firm, I've architected proprietary research frameworks, overhauled performance measurement for enterprises up to $17B, and engineered cross-platform tools from the ground up when off-the-shelf solutions fell short. My approach merges the relentless discipline of a marathoner with the technical depth of a full-stack builder: I don't just solve problems with data — I build the infrastructure that remediates the root cause and makes the answer repeatable. Expertise spans Marketing Mix Modeling, competitor and market intelligence, KPI framework design, and client-facing consulting across marketing, finance, investment, and strategy.

Experience

Independent Development & Family Leadership

2025 – Present

Founder & Lead Developer

Independent App Development | New York, NY

RaceTrak – Social Racing Platform (React / Cross-Platform)
Architected a real-time platform that bridges the gap between the sidelines and the course, letting supporters join the runner's journey as it unfolds.

  • The "Why": Built to solve the isolation of long-distance racing — because while you run the miles, you shouldn't have to run alone.
  • Data Integrity Engineering: Currently developing a proprietary algorithm to eliminate hardware-induced GPS drift and signal inconsistencies, so runners and spectators always see true, high-fidelity performance data — regardless of the device in their pocket.

RunPrep – The Ultimate Pre-Run Flight Check (Swift / iOS)
Think of it as a Swiss army knife for runners — a single dashboard that synthesizes Apple Weather data, gear, and fuel into one clear pre-run decision.

  • Optimal Window Algorithm: A multi-variable engine that reads atmospheric conditions, personal preferences, and historical performance to tell you exactly when to lace up.
  • Exertion Modeling: An analytical system that helps athletes calibrate training intensity in real time, balancing external environmental conditions against desired internal output.

Director of Domestic Troublemakers (Fatherhood)

Full-Time Father | New York, NY

Strategic Resilience: Turns out managing a multi-child household 24/7 is excellent training for high-stakes, low-sleep operational environments. The marathon discipline applies here too.

Rapid Adaptation: First-time fatherhood doesn't come with a playbook — so I built one. Rapidly assimilating research, testing methodologies in real-time, and iterating constantly.

Operational Multitasking: Maintained parallel workstreams across childcare, household logistics, and independent development. Prioritization under pressure is a skill that transfers both ways.

Strategic Experience

Fusion Analytics
2024

VP of Growth & Partnerships

Rebranding & Market Repositioning: Led a data-driven overhaul of the company's identity — new website, repositioned USPs, and a full content rebuild aligned to AI offerings — driving a 250% increase in visits from target-market companies, validated via ZoomInfo IP parsing.

CRM Architecture: Orchestrated the selection and implementation of Salesforce integrated with Asana, replacing legacy referral methods with a systematic sales engine that expanded the qualified pipeline by 200%.

Strategic Partnerships: Established co-marketing alliances with Snowflake, Numerator, and SimilarWeb — co-hosting webinars that drew 400+ viewers per event, quadruple Fusion's previous records, and opened new lead channels.

ABM Campaigns: Ran targeted outreach across 100+ high-potential accounts, achieving a 25% email open rate by leading with data reconciliation — showing prospects exactly where their current measurement was failing them.

2019 – 2023

VP of Client Experience

Account Growth: Grew a key account from $500K to $3M ARR by pioneering a "philosophical CRM" approach — understanding the motivations behind client decisions, not just the requests on the surface.

Media Optimization: Directed a full media budget overhaul for a $3B electronics retailer, reallocating $3M+ in annual spend from underperforming channels (TV, pre-rolls) to in-store media based on deep funnel analysis — achieving a 10% lift in in-store conversion, YoY de-seasonalized.

Enterprise Architecture: Led strategic spending analysis across 100+ business units for a $17B retailer, building unified metric models that gave the C-suite a single, comparable view across an otherwise fragmented portfolio.

The Single Version of Truth: Implemented a unified performance measurement system for a $9B retailer — consolidating 8 sub-brand reporting models into one executive-ready platform that actually got used.

MMM Rearchitecture: Reworked a key client's Marketing Mix Model to measure what actually mattered — brand campaigns against awareness, promotions against incremental trip share — defending marketing budgets during an economic downturn and improving overall ROAS.

Platform Migration: Led the migration from ad-hoc Excel analysis to a standardized Power BI / Snowflake / Python stack, improving insight generation speed by 40% and ending the era of "which version of the spreadsheet is right?"

Team Building: Designed the full people infrastructure for a 20+ person analytics team — onboarding, centralized training, and a 360° review system — reducing turnover by 50% and improving personnel cost efficiency by 30%.

Smarter Hiring: Rebuilt the hiring process around analytical and critical thinking assessments, improving the hire rate from 0.5% to 2% per resume reviewed and cutting time-to-hire by 2 weeks.

2013 – 2018

Senior Consultant / Consultant

Proprietary Metric Engineering: Standard disposable income measures were getting it wrong for a major grocery client — so I rebuilt the metric from scratch. The result: a proprietary discretionary spending model that tracked actual industry performance and drove 25% sales growth over 5 years.

Market Share Engineering: Drove 200% market share expansion for a national general merchandiser in the "young families" segment by identifying untapped gaps (toys, specifically) through competitor analysis and enabling targeted investment reallocation.

Regional Turnaround: Designed and executed a marketing strategy for a client's weakest region — blending quantitative analysis with qualitative research to retool brand messaging — turning it into the fastest-growing region in the company for 3 consecutive years.

Data Infrastructure: Built integrated data structures pulling from 100+ internal and third-party sources (Nielsen, loyalty panels, economic data) using SQL and Python — resolving conflicts and biases to give executives one clean layer of truth to make decisions from.

Investor Relations Framing: Reframed client quarterly investor reports to isolate controllable strategic wins from uncontrollable external noise — giving shareholders a cleaner read on whether management was actually winning.

Delivery at Scale: Increased consulting deliverables by 100% in six months through intuitive dashboarding and process efficiency — because the insight only matters if it gets out the door.

The Business & Finance Foundation

Co-op Experiences
2011

Investment Banking Analyst

BMO Capital Markets

DCF, trading comparables, and industry analysis across multiple $200M–$300M transactions including IPOs and M&A. Where I learned that financial rigor and storytelling have to work together.

2010

Business Analyst

CIBC World Markets

Quantitative analysis for the Fixed-Income and Currencies Distribution desk, plus a macroeconomic dashboard database that actually got adopted.

2009

Systems Analyst

TD Bank Group

Built a SQL risk monitoring database that cut process run-times by 95%. First lesson in what good data infrastructure actually feels like.

Education

University

2007 - 2012

Bachelor of Mathematics, Statistics

University of Waterloo | High Distinction

Bachelor of Business Administration, Finance

Wilfrid Laurier University | High Distinction

Certification

CFA Program

Passed all three levels of the CFA Program.

Skills & Interests

Strategic & Leadership

Strategic Planning Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) Team Leadership Agile/Scrum

Technical & Development

Python SQL R Power BI Tableau Swift/iOS Development Web Development React Econometrics Modelling Statistical Analysis Machine Learning Data Visualization Data Analysis Data Science Data Strategy ARIMA MMM

Athletic

Marathoner (NYC Marathon Finisher – 3:22:01) Mentally resilient Disciplined Trained for the "long game"

Languages

English (Native) Chinese (Professional Working)

Input & Inspiration

The Running Ground

Nicholas Thompson

"Running is a release... a way to step out of the churn of daily life."

The Signal and the Noise

Nate Silver

The art and science of prediction and finding truth in data.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Ben Horowitz

Navigate the real-world challenges of building and leading startups.