Kimp

Senthu Velnayagam's entrepreneurial journey began in 2003 when he started as a solo designer creating web banners, finding clients on early marketing forums. What began as a one-man operation evolved into BannersMall.com, an eCommerce platform that attracted major clients like HostGator and Russell Brunson. By 2007, he partnered with his brother Ven to launch Doto, a design agency handling more complex projects. For years, business thrived—until it didn't. Around 2017, competitors innovated faster on the BannersMall side while Doto became dangerously dependent on a handful of real estate clients. When the real estate market contracted, their budgets evaporated alongside Senthu's revenue. "At what felt like breakneck speed we had to pivot," he recalls. The brothers had considered subscription-based design back in 2015 but had been too spread thin. Now, with everything on the line, they had no choice but to dive in.

Senthu had been impressed by Design Pickle's success turning design into a productized service. The brothers spent months analyzing the subscription-design market, identifying what competitors did well and where gaps existed—all while still servicing existing Doto clients and bleeding money. "We were burning the candle at both ends," Senthu admits. But the crisis created unexpected advantages: several Doto hires became key players in launching Kimp, and the transition opened the door to serving global markets rather than just North America. In February 2019, Kimp launched quietly as a soft launch, with the team reaching out to past clients while simultaneously running social media ad campaigns. The response was immediate and overwhelming. "A couple of our campaigns took off and we saw a huge influx in sign-ups between the end of February and throughout March. So much so that we were often building our workflows as fast as we were breaking them." By April 2019, just two months in, the team had gained enough breathing room to add video design offerings and rebrand their subscription tiers as Kimp Graphics, Kimp Video, and Kimp Graphics + Video.

Kimp's initial traction came through multiple channels working in tandem. The soft launch focused on reaching past clients from BannersMall and Doto—a warm audience with existing trust in the team's design capabilities. Simultaneously, paid advertising proved highly effective. Senthu emphasizes that "a couple of our campaigns took off," driving the significant sign-up spike between late February and March. Within a month of launch, they were already seeing uptake from multiple geographic regions, validating their belief that there was appetite for subscription design services beyond North America.

The major breakthrough was recognizing that pivoting wasn't failure—it was necessary evolution. Senthu notes: "If we hadn't pivoted, Kimp would have never existed. And we would have just lost everything after 15 years of running our design businesses." In terms of growth channels, the combination of social media marketing, affiliate marketing, referral marketing, and particularly Google Ads proved effective, though Senthu acknowledges that "social media marketing can be a bit tricky/unpredictable as algorithms shift." The team leaned heavily on client feedback to identify blind spots and iterate rapidly. One significant mistake was pushing too hard and burning out. "Burnout is tough to bounce back from," Senthu admits, emphasizing the importance of rest alongside customer excellence. On the operational side, Trello became critical infrastructure—fast to implement and intuitive for both clients and teams, buying them time before investing in custom tools.

By the time the pandemic hit, Kimp had been operating for about a year and a half with physical offices in multiple locations. The forced shift to remote work, while initially anxiety-inducing, became a growth catalyst. Senthu's teams are now dispersed across the Asia-Pacific region, North America, and Central and South America. The company has ambitious plans including creating regional employee hubs and launching "Kimp 360"—an internally built project management tool that will give clients a customized dashboard for requesting, organizing, and accessing designs, along with resources for design inspiration and ROI-focused best practices. Internally, Kimp 360 will provide deeper insights into client needs and interactions. Senthu reflects on his journey: "I've always valued my team and their many strengths, but in the past few years, I've come to realize just how powerful it is when we work together. Your team matters so much more than your vision. Because without the first the second is going nowhere."