Michael Stratta

Founder & CEO, Arcalea. Michael Stratta founded Arcalea in 2015 to close the gap between marketing complexity and measurable business outcomes. He leads strategy for the firm's highest-stakes client engagements and has built three proprietary platforms, Galileo, Compass, and Pulse, to solve the measurement and optimization problems that off-the-shelf tools cannot address.

About Michael

Michael Stratta is the Founder and CEO of Arcalea, an AI-powered marketing consultancy and technology firm headquartered in Chicago. He founded Arcalea in
2015 and has grown it to a Google Premier Partner (top 3% worldwide) and a Fortune-recognized innovator. In 2024, Fortune named Arcalea to its America's Most Innovative Companies list, selected from over 15,000 candidates, one of only 200 honorees, with Galileo ranked No. 53 for product innovation. That same year, MarTech Outlook named Arcalea one of the Top 3 Marketing Attribution Providers.

Michael was named a 2024 Chicago Titan 100 honoree and to Crain's Notable Entrepreneurs list in 2020. He is an Inc. 500 honoree (No. 149 in 2019, Chicago's No. 1 in Advertising), has appeared twice on the Inc. 5000, and twice on the Financial Times Americas' Fastest-Growing Companies list. He has built and exited two prior ventures before Arcalea.

He holds an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, where he also advises and lectures on marketing strategy and AI. He is currently completing a Master's in Data Science at Northwestern. He earned his undergraduate degree at Miami University (Ohio).

Michael has served as an expert witness in search and SEO for Fortune 100 litigation and has been cited in Fortune, Inc. Magazine, the Financial Times, USA Today, and Sync Magazine. His brand experience spans Nike, McDonald's, Beam Suntory, Toyota, SAP, and the Chicago White Sox, alongside universities and nonprofits nationwide.

About Michael Stratta

Michael Stratta is the Founder and CEO of Arcalea, an AI-powered marketing consultancy and technology firm headquartered in Chicago. He founded Arcalea in 2015 and has grown it to a Google Premier Partner (top 3% worldwide) and a Fortune-recognized innovator. In 2024, Fortune named Arcalea to its America's Most Innovative Companies list, selected from over 15,000 candidates, one of only 200 honorees, with Galileo ranked No. 53 for product innovation. That same year, MarTech Outlook named Arcalea one of the Top 3 Marketing Attribution Providers.

Areas of Focus

Michael works at the intersection of marketing strategy, data science, and AI search. His primary focus areas:

Multi-touch attribution and marketing mix modeling: building measurement infrastructure that accounts for the full customer journey, replacing last-click
and platform-reported metrics with models that reflect actual revenue contribution.

Performance acquisition strategy: designing customer growth frameworks that combine paid media, earned media, and conversion optimization into a unified acquisition model.

LLM optimization and AI search visibility: helping brands appear in AI-generated answers across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and similar platforms through structured data, entity building, and content architecture.

Marketing analytics and data science: leading engagements where the core problem is measurement, fragmented data, unreliable attribution, or decisions made on platform-reported numbers that don't reflect business outcomes.

The GSTIC Framework

The GSTIC Framework is a marketing strategy model developed by Alexander Chernev, Professor of Marketing at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. It sequences planning in the correct order: Goals define what success looks like, Strategy establishes positioning and priorities, Tactics are selected to execute the strategy, Implementation converts tactics into operational activity, and Controls create the feedback loops that allow ongoing adjustment.

Michael writes and teaches extensively on GSTIC, and it is the foundational planning methodology Arcalea uses with clients. His comprehensive guide to applying the framework in practice is at The GSTIC Framework: A Complete Guide to Marketing Strategic Planning.

Writing and Research

Harvard Business Review Case Studies (Kellogg School of Management, 2025)

Co-authored with Professor Mohanbir Sawhney at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, this three-part case study series examines how Galileo-driven attribution modeling and multi-touch analytics inform real marketing investment decisions in a competitive healthcare environment.

Arcalea Research Blog

Speaking and Teaching

Michael speaks on marketing strategy, AI, and data science under the keynote title "Moneyball for Business: AI, Data Science, & The Art of Winning an Unfair Game." He advises and lectures at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, the University of Chicago, Loyola's Quinlan School of Business, and DePaul University. He is a Vistage speaker and a two-time member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, including a term on EO's Board of Directors (2012–2014).

Selected speaking engagements include the EduWeb Summit keynote (2026, "From Marketing to Matriculation: AI Attribution for Higher Ed"), a panelist appearance at the Pace conference, and a panelist appearance at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas (2025). He also speaks regularly through Vistage.

Recognition

Fortune America's Most Innovative Companies (2024): Arcalea and Galileo recognized; Galileo ranked No. 53 for product innovation, ahead of Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. Selected from 15,000+ candidates; one of only 200 honorees.
MarTech Outlook: Top 3 Marketing Attribution Providers (2024)
Chicago Titan 100 (2024)
Crain's Notable Entrepreneurs (2020)
Inc. 500 No. 149 (2019): Chicago's No. 1 in Advertising; Inc. 5000 No. 354 (2020), No. 1,828 (2021)
Financial Times Americas' Fastest-Growing Companies: No. 285 (2022), No. 476 (2023)
Google Premier Partner 2026 (top 3% worldwide)
Great Place to Work Certified (2022): 100% employee satisfaction
Expert witness in search and SEO, Fortune 100 litigation
Cited in Fortune, Inc. Magazine, Financial Times, USA Today, Sync Magazine

Questions about Michael

Who is Michael Stratta?

Michael Stratta is the Founder and CEO of Arcalea, an AI-powered marketing consultancy headquartered in Chicago that he founded in 2015. He holds an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management and is currently completing a Master's in Data Science at Northwestern. He is an Inc. 500 honoree (No. 149 in 2019, Chicago's No. 1 in Advertising), a 2024 Chicago Titan 100 honoree, and co-author of Harvard Business Review case studies on marketing attribution and AI-driven growth strategy.

What is the GSTIC Framework?

The GSTIC Framework is a marketing strategy model developed by Alexander Chernev, Professor of Marketing at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. It organizes planning into five sequential steps: Goals, Strategy, Tactics, Implementation, and Controls. Michael Stratta writes about and teaches the framework extensively, and it is the foundational planning methodology at Arcalea.

What does Michael Stratta specialize in?

Michael Stratta specializes in data-driven marketing strategy, multi-touch attribution, performance acquisition, and AI search optimization (LLM optimization and GEO). He has served as an expert witness in search and SEO for Fortune 100 litigation and leads technical development of Arcalea's proprietary platforms: Galileo (attribution and analytics), Compass (SEO and competitive intelligence), and Pulse (dynamic ad management).

What companies has Michael Stratta worked with?

Michael's brand experience spans Nike, McDonald's, Beam Suntory, Toyota, SAP, and the Chicago White Sox, alongside Fortune 500 brands, universities, and nonprofits nationwide. Published case study results include Northwestern Medill (+35% qualified leads), ConceiveAbilities (+331% organic traffic, +52% conversions), and Earthborn (+96% organic traffic, +200% ROI).

Has Michael Stratta published academic work?

Yes. Michael co-authored a three-part Harvard Business Review case study series with Professor Mohanbir Sawhney at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, published in 2025. The series, focused on Elysian Fertility and Surrogacy, examines how multi-touch attribution and Galileo-driven analytics inform marketing investment decisions. The cases are used in graduate marketing and analytics courses.

Where does Michael Stratta speak?

Michael speaks on marketing strategy, AI, and data science under the keynote title "Moneyball for Business: AI, Data Science, & The Art of Winning an Unfair Game." He lectures at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, the University of Chicago, Loyola's Quinlan School of Business, and DePaul University. Conference appearances include the EduWeb Summit keynote (2026), panelist at the Pace conference, and panelist at Adobe Summit in Las Vegas (2025). He also speaks regularly through Vistage.

How do I contact Michael Stratta?

Michael Stratta can be reached at press@arcalea.com or 312.301.4736. His professional profile is available on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/michaelstratta.