Riley Chen

• Age: 31
• Location: London, UK (Peckham)
• Occupation: Growth Marketer
• Income: 85000
• Education: Master's (Digital Anthropology, UCL)
• Company size: Series A B2B SaaS startup (~40 employees)
• Years in role: 2

“I don't want to build a billion-dollar company. I want to build a hundred thousand dollar business that gives me my life back, and then help a hundred other people do the same.”

Riley Chen grew up in Singapore, the child of a logistics manager and a teacher. They moved to London at 22 for a Master's in Digital Anthropology at UCL, a degree that taught them to question systems rather than just optimize them. After graduating, they fell into marketing almost by accident—a startup needed someone who could write and run Facebook ads. They spent three years at a digital agency, burning out on client work and learning the hard way that 'growth hacking' is usually just 'hard work with a better story.' The agency experience gave them a thick skin and a deep skepticism of anyone selling a silver bullet. Now 31, Riley is a Growth Marketer at a Series A B2B SaaS company. They live in a two-bed flat in Peckham with their partner, a product designer, and a rescue cat named Mochi. Their days are a blur of experiments: testing ad copy, tweaking pricing pages, building email sequences in Intercom, and arguing with the sales team about lead definitions. They use Superhuman for email, Linear for project management, and Claude and ChatGPT daily for drafting and analysis. They are currently learning to code in Python, not because they want to be an engineer, but because they want to build their own micro-SaaS without needing a co-founder. Riley's relationship with money is pragmatic but anxious. They earn £65k, which is comfortable but feels precarious in London. They save diligently for a deposit that keeps moving further away. They spend freely on travel, good food, and tools that save time. Status is a complicated thing for them. They want to be seen as a builder, not just a marketer. They admire indie founders like Pieter Levels and Marc Lou, and they secretly measure their own success by how much control they have over their calendar. Recently, Riley decided to stop freelancing to focus entirely on one side project: a simple SaaS tool for pricing experiments aimed at early-stage founders. They are terrified and excited. They know the odds are against them, but the act of building feels more honest than the act of optimizing someone else's funnel. They are deeply influenced by the honesty of their peers in private Discord servers and WhatsApp groups, where the hype dies and the real work gets discussed. They avoid the term 'influencer' and hate the word 'synergy.' They believe the best marketing is a product that doesn't need much marketing, and they are trying to build one to prove it. The biggest constraint is time—juggling a demanding day job, a side project, learning to code, and maintaining a relationship and social life means something always has to give. Usually, it's sleep.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Wakes up at 7:00, no phone for the first 30 mins. Run or yoga. Coffee and scan HN, Twitter, Substack. Starts work at 9:00. First hour is deep work on copy or analyzing yesterday's ad spend. 10:30 standup. Mid-morning is meetings (campaign planning, sales feedback). Lunch is a walk to a local cafe. Afternoon is execution: building emails in Intercom, tweaking landing pages in Webflow, reviewing designer mockups. Usually hits a wall around 3:30, switches to a podcast or music. Wraps up at 6:00. Evening is cooking dinner, maybe an hour on the side project, reading, or seeing friends. Bed by 11:30.

Lifestyle

Lives in a two-bed flat in Peckham with their partner and a rescue cat named Mochi. Mornings start with a run or yoga, a strong pour-over coffee, and scanning Hacker News. They love cooking elaborate weekend meals and exploring local markets. Social life is a mix of pub quizzes, dinner parties with startup friends, and the occasional tech meetup. They try to save but spend freely on travel and good food. Financially comfortable, but the dream of buying a flat in London feels increasingly out of reach, creating a low-level hum of anxiety about the future.

Work life

Riley is a Growth Marketer at a Series A B2B SaaS company. Their days are a mix of running paid acquisition experiments, writing landing page copy, briefing freelancers, and deep-diving into analytics. They use HubSpot, Intercom, Figma, and Superhuman daily. They report to a stretched-thin CMO. The main pressures are hitting MQL targets, proving attribution in a long sales cycle, and the constant feeling of doing more with less. They spend a lot of time aligning with sales on lead quality, which is often the most draining part of the week.

Relationships

Partner is a product designer at a fintech. Close-knit group of friends from university and previous startups. Parents are in Singapore, video calls every Sunday. Influenced by a former manager who taught them to question every metric. Looks up to indie founders like Pieter Levels and Marc Lou. Trusts the opinions of a small group of peers in private Discord servers over public reviews.

How they decide

Research-heavy but ultimately gut-driven. Will read five Substack posts and compare pricing pages for hours, but once they feel 80% confident, they pull the trigger. Hates making decisions based on hype or sales pressure. Seeks social proof from trusted peers in private channels rather than public reviews. They are cautious with money but impulsive with time.

How they sound

Speaks in a mix of direct British English and startup jargon ('let's circle back', 'what's the delta', 'that's a banger'). Tries to avoid buzzwords but slips up. Cadence is fast, enthusiastic, often interrupts with ideas. Avoids talking about money directly but is obsessed with pricing models. Uses 'honestly' and 'actually' a lot. Swears moderately.