# Fractionalytics

> Fractionalytics is the solo practice of David Smith, a fractional Chief Data Officer in Coral Gables, Florida. Data strategy, foundations, remediation, and customer analytics for companies moving on AI. He sets the AI strategy with leadership teams, builds the data and systems underneath it, and ships the highest-leverage pieces himself.

The through-line of everything here: companies are rarely stuck on AI itself. They are stuck underneath it, because the systems beneath the AI disagree about something basic, like how many customers the company has. That work has always been needed and rarely funded, because nobody could size it or say what it returned. Both halves of that changed.

David sells no software and takes no vendor commissions.

## Start here

- [The practice](https://fractionalytics.io/): the wall and three anonymized cases with real numbers, then the three engagements. Remediation, when something is already broken, in three parts. Diligence, before you own it. Fractional CDO, when it is not one thing. Then the three shapes the work can be bought in, which systems it touches, and why the economics moved.
- [The Ladder Check](https://fractionalytics.io/diagnostic/): six questions, three minutes, answerable by one person from memory. Ends in one of four named results rather than a score. One of the four is that the company is fine and should spend the money on AI instead.
- [About David Smith](https://fractionalytics.io/about/): roles, engagements, systems, education, and a 2024 podcast interview on data storytelling.

## Writing

Full text of every published piece, reproduced from LinkedIn.

- [The Data Project You Killed Would Pass Today](https://fractionalytics.io/writing/the-data-project-you-killed-would-pass-today/): You're funding one use case with a number attached. The data foundation arrives as a byproduct. (August 25, 2026, 2481 words)
- [Customer Analytics Is Worth Another Look](https://fractionalytics.io/writing/customer-analytics-is-worth-another-look/): The case for customer analytics depends on whether the answers justified the cost of finding them. In two years, both sides of that calculation have changed. (August 17, 2026, 1484 words)
- [How Many Customers Do You Have?](https://fractionalytics.io/writing/how-many-customers-do-you-have/): How far you get before the answers start depending on who you ask is the most useful read on AI readiness I know. (August 10, 2026, 1933 words)
- [The more ambitious you get with AI, the faster you hit a wall](https://fractionalytics.io/writing/the-more-ambitious-you-get-with-ai/): The early pilots work. That is exactly why the next thing does not. (July 7, 2026, 658 words)
- [The Unsexy Data Work That Actually Matters](https://fractionalytics.io/writing/the-unsexy-data-work-that-actually-matters/): How we fixed 300K+ mismatches to unlock marketing automation. Cross-functional data cleanup requires leadership and teamwork. (October 21, 2025, 2310 words)
- [Look at the Stars, Look How They Shine for You](https://fractionalytics.io/writing/look-at-the-stars/): What customer analytics actually is, and why companies should care about it. (May 15, 2024, 2780 words)
- [Smells Like Team Spirit](https://fractionalytics.io/writing/smells-like-team-spirit/): What I learned founding a data team, and recruiting and leading its people. (May 2, 2024, 1873 words)
- [Data Deeds Done Dirt Cheap](https://fractionalytics.io/writing/data-deeds-done-dirt-cheap/): A comprehensive review of the data practice I built at a venture firm, and everything it touched. (May 1, 2024, 3709 words)

## The four results The Ladder Check can return

- **You are in better shape than most**: Answers agree, retrieval is self-serve, you reach rung 4 or higher, and disputes end at a source.
- **Retrieval gap: the numbers are fine, the access is not**: The count and the definition hold. Getting to the number still needs a human in the loop.
- **Definitional drift: you agree on the records, not on what counts**: Everyone is looking at the same rows and counting them differently.
- **Identity drift: you do not agree on who the customers are**: Two systems hold the same company twice and nothing reconciles them, so every number downstream inherits the ambiguity.

## Contact

- Email: david@fractionalytics.io
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dksmith01/
- Location: Coral Gables, Florida. Work across the United States, Latin America and Europe.