Marigold·Issue Nº 31·Summer 2026·Growth & Apps, Independently
Section · 02

Essays — the
longer arguments,
the slower thinking.

Long-form arguments about how growth and marketing are changing — and how the standard playbooks are quietly failing. Usually 8 to 18 minutes to read. Always more carefully edited than they look.

Selected essays.

Conversion funnel
Essay · Conversion

Against the funnel: a long argument for a different mental model.

The marketing funnel has been the dominant mental model for a century. It is, in the mobile app context, almost completely wrong.

Maddalena Roth · 16 minRead essay →
Brand sketches
Essay · Brand

The slow, unglamorous return of the brand brief.

Why the document that nobody at a venture-funded app company wrote in 2020 is, in 2026, becoming a competitive advantage.

Asad Bhattacharya · 13 minRead essay →
Newsletter
Essay · Email

The newsletter that quietly out-performs the entire growth stack.

Daria Voicu · 9 minRead essay →
Marketing analytics
Essay · Attribution

What attribution stopped measuring in 2024, and what to do about it.

Maddalena Roth · 11 minRead essay →
Lifecycle
Essay · Lifecycle

A short defence of the customer who leaves and comes back.

Asad Bhattacharya · 8 minRead essay →