---
title: "Case Study: Building Tornado's Growth Engine"
section: posts
description: "Growth engineering at Tornado: analytics, experimentation, and personalization systems behind major gains in customers, revenue, and engagement."
tags: ["growth-engineering", "data-analytics", "marketing", "customer-engagement", "a-b-testing", "fintech", "scalability"]
created: 2023-02-01T09:31:00Z
updated: 2026-07-16T14:56:28Z
cid: bafkreibjmw3m6ljnv4bntjbxa2zogaa5fdvakop4mu7atgp4bqbwfru7um
html: https://iammatthias.com/posts/1675271943000-case-study-tornado
---

# Case Study: Building Tornado's Growth Engine

I was the Growth Engineer at [Tornado](https://tornado.com/). The job sat between marketing, product, and data: build the systems the growth team needed, then read the results.

## Data and analytics infrastructure

Built the pipelines and analytics layer the growth team ran on. Customer count grew 390%, revenue 800%, engagement rates 400%. CAC payback dropped to under 9 months. Paid ROAS up 1,732%. Deposits up 1,025%.

## A/B/N testing framework

Built in-house from scratch. Page conversion rates went up 200% once we could test features and design changes properly.

## Campaign personalization

Wrote propensity-score models for marketing personalization. Month-over-month in-app engagement and DAU climbed 60-110%. DAU/MAU ratio doubled. 3-month retention up 745%.

## Learn & Earn

Led the technical build. App DAU/MAU pushed past 30%, and the feature delivered over a million educational lessons.

## Scaling and efficiency

Trading volume grew 1,400% while behavior shifted toward ETFs, ESGs, and diversified portfolios. Deposit CAC dropped 80%+. User base up 150%, engagement up 1,000%. Monthly spend scaled to $1M with 1-year payback efficiency intact. Overall CAC fell 90%.

The analytics infrastructure won Amplitude's 2022 Pioneer Award for Product Innovation.

---

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