There’s no longer a dependable status quo. Seismic shifts are ongoing across technology, government, climate, and the other interconnected systems that underpin society.

You can’t assume that your growth models will “just work” in a changing macro environment.

It’s critical to ask the right questions before framing your communications and messaging— to acknowledge that we may not have all the answers before forming our judgments. We started Astoundly to connect you with the precise data-driven methods to strengthen, validate, and level-up the decisions of even the best expert decision-makers.

Astoundly was co-founded by two data scientists: one who took the professional path of strategic communications and the other who became a technical systems architect, epidemiologist, and data engineer. We both got our starts during the early years of data science before it was called “data science.”

Across our experiences, each of us consistently received feedback that we brought a unique way of synthesizing information into insights that provided added-value, less-than-obvious perspectives. Our approach has continuously organizations With this capability being more in demand than ever—with a proliferation of tools to utilize—we co-founded Astoundly.

We are driven by a strong sense of purpose, committed to addressing the cycle of short-termism in the commercial world. We have been in business for more than 10 years and gone through multiple evolutions to adapt to shifting markets.

We are based out of San Francisco (California) and Vancouver (British Columbia), with a team dispersed around the globe. In addition to our core team, we’ve established a network of highly skilled writers, information designers, experienced communication leaders, media relations professionals, and AI-systems builders.

Through a lens of curiosity, our outside-in perspective helps organizations expand their field of view.

Our AI systems advantage

We are committed to advancing R&D at the intersection of engineering and strategic communications.

We are the inventors of Listening, a GenAI-assisted Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithm that uses neural networks to detect patterns. Listening conducts qualitative analysis to understand how people make decisions. It uses LLMs to synthesizes hours of open-ended interviews into structured insights—a process that was not feasible to implement in most businesses, in the past, due to requiring teams of PhD level researchers.

We have also developed an extensive messaging template library, built on years of collaboration with strategic communications leaders at top organizations. We often use the pattern recognition capabilities of GenAI to excavate trends that empower our customers with toolkits for faster execution.

Team

  • Ritika is the person you’ll interface most at Astoundly.

    She’s a writer, data scientist, and self-taught information designer, with graduate-level training in advanced statistical methods and information systems.

    Astoundly, she helps strategic communications teams translate complex ideas into compelling narratives, leveraging data to drive insight, impact, and influence. Her work spans industries, including finance, healthcare, technology, and public policy, supporting executives, investors, nonprofit leaders, and government decision-makers.

    With a background in demographic analysis and literature, Ritika combines analytical depth with narrative clarity. She holds an M.A. in Demographic and Social Analysis from the University of California, Irvine, and a B.A. in Literature from Claremont McKenna College.

    A lifelong learner and systems thinker, she has lived and worked across Silicon Valley, India, and Canada.

    Select writing: 

  • Justin Strauss is a sociologist and self-taught programmer by whose career has spanned the areas of technical architecture development, epidemiology, market research, and data engineering.

    At Astoundly, he builds technology infrastructure to support the organization’s data analytics capabilities. He also provides hands-on leadership.

    He is the creator of SCENT, a natural language processing (NLP) algorithm used to detect breast cancer recurrence rates in patient records. SCENT was published in The Journal of Medical Informatics (JAMIA) in 2012. He is also the inventor of the Expansively Qualitative Listening Algorithm.

    His technology philosophy is to build for societal value.

    At Astoundly, Justin is responsible for building the company’s technical foundation, in addition to steering product and partnership direction. He holds a M.A. in demographic and social analysis, as well as a B.A. in Sociology (minor Management)  from the University of California at Irvine. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, spent considerable time living and working in Silicon Valley, and currently lives in Canada.

    Select inventions:

  • Rohan comes to Astoundly as a strategic advisor, with experience scaling technical, financial, and operational infrastructure for a fast scaling business in the real-estate space.

    Rohan helped his team translate the mechanics of a conceptual model into a platform with real-world application. He rapidly grew from an intern at his organization to a c-level executive: first as interim chief investment officer and then as chief analytics officer with a purview spanning multiple organizational functions.

    Rohan is sought-after in the private equity space for his fundraising expertise and supported a multi-billion dollar sale of the startup that his team built to a private equity acquirer.

    Rohan is employed full-time and consults for Astoundly on an as-needed, advisory basis.

    He earned his B.A. in computer science and economics from the University of Chicago.

What people say…

Brad Young, marketing executive at Prudential Financial and others:

“A good quality test for a partner lies in the answer to a simple question: When you move companies or roles, do you make sure to bring the partner into your new place? That was a no-brainer with Astoundly. 

Astoundly dives into understanding us, our business, our audiences, our style... And on a personal level, I just like working with good people. Life is too short to depend on jerks.”