Agency Startups

Talking Shrimp is a copywriting agency and online course founded by Laura Belgraine, an award-winning copywriter with over 20 years of experience working with major brands including Bravo, NBC, Disney, and HBO. The business operates on a 50-50 revenue split between copywriting services (bringing in $30,000 in August alone) and The Copy Cure, an evergreen online course created with Marie Forleo that teaches people to write persuasively and authentically to drive sales.

Sparks Entertainment is a creative lighting design and event production agency founded by Gil Wellsford at age 21, now operating across New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. The company generates approximately $1.2M in annual revenue by providing lighting, audio, audio-visual, and staging services for corporate events, tours, and social events. Growth is primarily driven through personal relationships and referrals, with 70-80% profit margins on events before capital equipment purchases.

Harris Media is a digital agency founded by Vincent Harris in his dorm room that provides comprehensive digital communications and strategy services for political campaigns and advocacy organizations. Operating with approximately 35 employees and 25 clients on retainer, the agency generates over $1.2M annually by managing websites, social media, video production, online advertising, and email marketing campaigns. The agency's primary revenue driver is email fundraising, which accounts for 70-90% of online donations for clients like Senator Rand Paul.

Nehal Kazim founded Amplify Corporation, a Toronto-based paid advertising agency, while still in university at age 22. Starting with $250/month retainer clients, he systematically increased prices and improved service quality, growing the agency to $300,000 in revenue in 2015 while managing $30,000-$50,000 in monthly ad spend across clients. The business operates as a cash flow engine to fund his personal development and information products.

Funded Today is a crowdfunding agency co-founded by Zach Smith that has raised over $40 million for 300+ campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The company started when Zach's consulting client proposed paying via revenue share instead of upfront fees, which evolved into a three-tiered service offering paid media, press landing, and cross-collaborations. With 31 remote employees and $8M in 2015 revenue, Funded Today takes a 30-35% percentage of funds raised and operates with a unique due diligence testing phase to predict campaign success.

Franklin Cole is a sales funnel architect and advertising strategist who helps high-revenue entrepreneurs ($10M+) scale their businesses through strategic Facebook advertising and funnel optimization. He generates revenue through monthly retainers plus performance-based compensation, and has driven over $40 million in combined client revenue by spending $3-3.5 million on ad campaigns—demonstrating a 12x+ ROI. His approach focuses on mapping profitability paths before spending any money and optimizing for revenue-per-lead metrics.

Jamie Turner is the CEO of 60 Second Communications, a full-service marketing agency that has helped major brands like Coca-Cola and AT&T with complex marketing problems. He built thought leadership through his blog 60 Second Marketer and speaking engagements, starting with free university gigs 15 years ago and eventually commanding $5,000+ per speaking engagement. Speaking now comprises approximately 25% of his annual revenue, which exceeds $100,000 per year from speaking alone.

Greg Hickman built Mobile Marketing Engine, a done-for-you mobile marketing agency for independent retailers, after leaving his corporate role as head of mobile at Cabela's. He grew the business to $6,000 MRR through a mix of monthly service packages ($350-$750) and a $1,500 discovery audit offering that reduced sales friction. After losing $1,300 in MRR in a single month due to client churn and challenges with the retail SMB segment, he pivoted mid-journey to serve online marketers and solopreneurs using Infusionsoft marketing automation.

Jay Baer built Convince and Convert into a multi-million dollar strategy consulting firm with three equally-sized revenue streams: speaking (approx. $1.2M annually), corporate sponsorships (approx. $500K+ annually from podcasts), and consulting. The company operates a unique sponsorship model where corporate partners pay to host and sponsor content properties including six weekly podcasts, a top marketing blog with 4 million annual visitors, and numerous educational resources.

Vector Media Group is a bootstrapped web development and digital marketing agency founded by Matt Weinberg in high school around 2000, initially as a computer repair service before pivoting to web design and online marketing. Now 32 employees strong and generating $6 million in annual revenue, the company serves enterprise clients including Google, the Associated Press, and Columbia University, offering web development, design, branding, and ad spend management services. The agency has been on the Inc. 5,000 list for three consecutive years and has been profitable every month since inception without taking outside funding.

OutCold is an experiential marketing agency founded by Fritz Heffinger that specializes in creating mobile brand experiences using converted shipping containers and vintage vehicles. The agency did $2.5M in revenue in 2015 and works with major brands like Nordstrom, creating immersive on-the-road campaigns that prioritize authentic consumer interaction over traditional media buying. Fritz aims to scale the agency to $10-15M within 2-3 years as brands shift budgets toward experiential and guerrilla marketing.

Shari Alexander runs Observe Connect Influence, a persuasiveness coaching and speaking business generating $150,000 in annual revenue ($15,000 monthly in January 2016). Her revenue comes from three main streams: one-on-one coaching packages ($5,000-$35,000), speaking engagements ($5,000-$7,500), and online courses. She grew her business primarily through personal referrals and direct outreach to her target market, maintaining a highly engaged 3,500-person email list rather than chasing scale.

Haz Design is a product design agency founded by Tracy Hazard and her husband Tom that has co-designed over 250 consumer products generating over $1 billion in retail sales. Their flagship product, an office chair launched in Costco around 2010, has sold over 1 million units and generated approximately $1 million in combined fees and royalties. The business operates on a retainer-plus-royalty model, with monthly fees ($10,000-$20,000) covering costs and 2-3% royalties on product sales, achieving an 86% success rate for products launched in the last 10 years.

Omelette is a creative agency based in Culver City, LA with 80 employees working with major brands like Red Bull, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Pokemon, and AT&T. The agency specializes in branded video content and social media strategy, with a focus on converting creative content into measurable business results. Ty Stafford, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree at age 27, leads content strategy efforts and works on high six-figure projects like Red Bull's campaign to drive can sales through social content.

John Lincoln founded Ignite Visibility in 2013 after leaving a comfortable six-figure director role at SEO Inc. to start his own digital marketing agency. With just $10,000 in personal investment and leveraging his existing reputation in the industry, he achieved nearly $1 million in first-year revenue (2013), grew to $2 million in 2015, and was on track for $3 million+ in 2016 with 30 employees and 70 clients. His growth was driven primarily through becoming an influencer in the SEO/digital marketing space via content marketing, blogging, public speaking, and publishing his book "Digital Influencer."

RAIN is a digital agency founded by Andrew Halla that operates across three offices (Utah, New York, Nicaragua) with about 100 employees. The agency specializes in strategy, creative, and development, working with major enterprise clients like Beachbody, Campbell Soup Company, Facebook, Walmart, and Puma. In 2015, RAIN generated approximately $14 million in revenue and was projected to reach $17-18 million in 2016, primarily through enterprise retainers ranging from $50-75,000 per month.

Steve Sims is a luxury experience broker who has built an agency connecting high-net-worth entrepreneurs and self-made individuals with exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime experiences (meeting celebrities, private performances, etc.). Operating since at least 2015 with just under 3,000 clients worldwide, the business generated just under $10 million in revenue in 2015, operating with a lean team of 11-12 people. Steve's core differentiator is his credibility chain networking approach—leveraging relationships to gain access to otherwise unreachable people and opportunities.

Graham Williams co-founded Fun Fun Fun Fest in 2006 with Tim Leigh, growing it from a single-day event with 3,000 attendees and a $100k budget to a three-day festival attracting approximately 20,000 people with a $4-5M production budget. He also built Transmission Agency, a year-round booking and promotions company that operates across Texas. The business model generates revenue primarily through ticket sales (approximately $1-2M), sponsorships, and bar/beverage sales.

Khalid Salid founded InVesp in 2006, a conversion optimization consulting agency that helps enterprise clients like eBay, O'Reilly, 3M, and Dish Network increase online revenue. Starting with $15-20K in first year revenue while maintaining a $100K+ corporate salary, the company grew to over $1 million by 2011 through high-touch consulting ($8,000+/month retainers averaging 15-24 months). By 2016, Khalid decided to transition the business into a SaaS platform offering A/B testing, heatmaps, video recording, and analytics to compete in the conversion optimization software space.

Flatiron Communications is a New York City-based PR and digital media agency founded by Peter Himler in 2015 after leaving Burson-Marsteller. The agency helps emerging and established companies capitalize on communication technologies, digital marketing, and content strategies. Operating with a lean team of four contractors paid $100-150/hour, Peter runs the business on retainer fees ranging from $7,500-$12,500 per month with six-month initial contracts, serving clients including AIG Private Client Group, Indiegogo, HSN, and various startups.