Agency Startups

Design Online Right is a web development agency founded by Rob Riggs in 2004 that builds technical, functional websites for small businesses and nonprofits. The agency grew from $5,000 in first-year revenue to $1.2M in 2015 with a 30% net margin, driven almost entirely by referrals and relationship-based sales targeting small to mid-market clients and marketing agencies needing technical implementation.

Brian Baderra founded Amplify Relations (originally Grassroots 2.0) in 2009 at age 19 after being laid off from a political ad agency, bootstrapping the startup on student loans with his first client being a former employer client offering a few hundred dollars monthly. The company grew to 13 full-time employees and nearly $2 million in revenue by 2015, specializing in high-margin political campaigns, robocalls, and mass-market advertising for political entities, corporations, and startups. Their differentiation came from licensing a robocall system from Canada that yielded 90% margins on certain projects, while positioning themselves as a full-service agency of record.

TWT Group is a managed IT services agency founded by Sean Freeman in 2011 that provides IT solutions to small and medium businesses (10-100 employees) across Western Canada. Starting from $75K in first-year revenue, the company grew to $2M in 2015 with a 30% net margin and $200K monthly revenue, driven almost entirely by referrals from existing clients. With 10 employees serving 150 clients, Freeman maintains a lean, process-driven operation focused on relationship-building and staying within their SMB niche.

Verbal Plus Visual is a digital agency founded by Anshay Bhatia in 2009 that specializes in e-commerce strategy, design, development, and optimization for innovative brands. The company grew from $150k in first-year revenue to low seven figures by 2015 with a healthy 20% net margin, and has become a premier Shopify partner. Their growth is driven primarily through strategic partnerships with complementary agencies and inbound leads from their strong portfolio.

Beth Milligan runs a virtual assistant and online business strategy agency, Milligan Strategies, serving women entrepreneurs and small business owners. She works with seven retainer clients billing $800-$1,200 monthly, using FreshBooks for time tracking and invoicing to streamline operations. Her business model focuses on helping clients reclaim time while she handles administrative tasks, and she's recently expanded into strategy workbooks for clients.

Vincent Dignan runs Magnific, a growth hacking and consulting agency that helps startups and companies get traffic and customers. He has a small number of high-value clients paying $5,000-$10,000 per month for personalized growth consulting, and is expanding his reach through a book called "The Growth Hacking Playbook" on Kickstarter, speaking engagements, and content marketing. His growth hacking talk was voted best workshop at South by Southwest, and he has established himself as a thought leader by teaching specific, actionable tactics for finding customers and driving traffic.

Web Four is a creative and digital marketing agency founded in 2009 by Kevin Getch that went from $30,000 in first-year revenue to $1.3 million in 2015 with consistent 30-50% year-over-year growth. The agency serves 50-70 customers with a mix of project-based web design ($10,000 average) and recurring retainer marketing services ($2,000-$5,000 monthly), operating with a team of 14 full-time employees based in Vancouver, Washington.

John Ruland is the #1 distributor among 1.5 million for Cutco Cutlery. Starting as a 20-year-old intern, he built a corporate gifting and consulting business around 'radical generosity'—helping executives strengthen relationships through high-end gifts. His company works with Fortune 500 brands and pro sports teams (25+ clients), creating custom gifts like Bluetooth speakers from Wrigley Field's historic wood, generating hundreds of dollars per gift in revenue.

Ad Quadrant is a performance marketing agency founded by serial entrepreneur Warren Jolly in April 2014. The company specializes in managing social advertising campaigns for brands, taking a percentage of ad spend (typically 20%) or fixed payout per action. In its first year (2014), Ad Quadrant generated $4 million in revenue through careful pre-planning and leveraging Warren's existing network, growing to $15 million in 2015 with 35+ customers and 33 employees.

Outbound Creative is a Denver-based agency founded by Jake Jorgerman in July 2015 that helps consulting firms and agencies win high-value clients through personalized outreach campaigns combining physical mail, email, and personalized video. The company charges monthly retainers of $2,000-$4,000 plus commission, currently generating $11,500 MRR from 5 retainer clients and aiming for $500,000 in annual revenue in 2016.

James Turner is a conversion rate optimization consultant and copywriter who started Turner Creative in 2014 after his instructional design job relocated. By June 2016, he was running a solo consultancy generating around $45,000 annually, working with 2-3 clients on $10,000 three-month retainers. He was simultaneously launching Snap Copy, a conversion-focused copywriting agency with partner Leanna Patch.

Nick Cullen launched Second Flight Consultancy in 2014 after leaving a six-figure financial services job at age 22 where he felt unfulfilled. Starting with just $12k in first-year revenue (2014), he grew the agency to $175k in 2015 and was on track for $1.3M in 2016 with $60-100k monthly recurring revenue from ~20-30 agency clients. He achieved this growth through an AI-powered LinkedIn sales robot, strategic remote team of 10, and a complementary coaching academy generating 30% of revenue.

Cameron Harald is a business growth consultant who coaches high-level CEOs and executives to scale their companies. Starting with a $80,000 annual retainer as his baseline fee (doubling for larger clients like Sprint's second-in-command), he has helped companies like Justix grow from $80 million to $250 million in revenue over four years. He also generates income through book royalties (50,000 copies of "Meeting Suck" sold in the first year), speaking fees ($30,000 per engagement, up from $7,500), and equity stakes in portfolio companies.

Turnkey Podcast Company provides end-to-end podcast production services, from concept and launch through ongoing monthly episode production. Founded by Doug Sandler about six months before this interview (roughly early 2018), the company charges $5-10k for setup and $75-350 per episode for production. With a dozen clients producing roughly 50 episodes monthly across about 10 customers, the company aims to hit $500k in annual revenue by 2018, with a goal of collecting $100k in revenue in the remaining ~3 months of the year from the interview date.

Badis Kalfalahi launched LeadGuru.io in September 2016 as a side hustle while attending Achèse Paris business school, building a service that outsources cold-email campaigns for B2B companies. The company reached $19,000 MRR with 24 customers paying an average of $800/month through a subscription model, generating approximately $45,000 in revenue over eight months. After his CTO departed, Badis pivoted to partnering with Reply.io instead of building proprietary tech, focusing on the service and sales aspects of the business.

Victor Richie founded TrendPie in April 2015, an influencer marketing agency that connects brands (primarily app developers) with mid-tier influencers on Twitter and Instagram. Instead of paying influencers to post, TrendPie pays them per share at a CPM of $25 per 100,000 impressions, significantly reducing costs. The company grew from $330K in 2015 to $900K in 2016 while bootstrapping entirely from revenue, working with 75+ clients and ~1,000 influencers, with 50% client retention.

Anise Onyando founded Green Room Creative, a digital growth agency serving early-stage and mid-sized companies. The agency grew from $700k in revenue last year to a projected $1.5M+ this year by synthesizing creative production, paid media strategy, and consulting to drive conversions rather than impressions. Anise survived end-stage kidney failure at 24 (receiving a transplant from his father) and has built the agency while maintaining 5-6 hours of sleep nightly and full energy.

Blue Fish is a luxury concierge service founded by Steve Sims that creates bespoke, high-end experiences for corporate executives, celebrities, and professional athletes. Starting from a Hong Kong nightclub password in 1993, the company evolved into a legitimate business by securing major contracts with New York Fashion Week, the Kentucky Derby, and the Grammys. In 2016, Blue Fish generated nearly $9 million in revenue through curating exclusive, bucket-list experiences tailored to ultra-high-net-worth clientele.

Elizabeth Ozder runs a 10-year-old consulting firm (The Ozder Group) specializing in media strategy and digital transformation, while also serving as head of revenue at LaCona, a content management platform powering 150 million unique monthly users across 60% of local markets. She advises legacy media brands and publishers on navigating the shift from scale-based ad models to subscription and engaged audience models, with clients including AOL, Univision, Associated Press, and others.

Vandex is a blockchain consulting agency founded in 2013 by Kevin Hobbs and Lisa Chang that helps companies build blockchain solutions and conduct token sales. The company has grown to 42 full-time employees and generated $3.2M in revenue over the past 12 months from dozens of clients including Fortune 100/500 companies, government institutions, and banks. They're expanding into SaaS with Ether Party, a no-code smart contract platform, which has 4,000 people on its waitlist and is planning to launch a securitized token offering as their first equity product.