Why an agency should stay small

We wrote a founding note in 2016 that said we would stay small on purpose. People assumed it was what you say before you grow. Nine years later we are still a handful of people, and we have turned down the two obvious ways to become thirty. This is why, and what it means if you hire us.

Every layer costs the client

An agency grows by adding layers: account managers to talk to clients, project managers to talk to account managers, juniors to do the work, seniors to check it, a sales floor to keep everyone fed. Each layer is reasonable. Together they mean the person who understands your business is three steps away from the person building your site, and the price includes all three steps.

In a small studio the person you brief is the person who builds. Nothing is lost in translation because there is no translation.

Small says no

A large agency has payroll, so it says yes. Yes to the brief that does not make sense, yes to the feature nobody needs, yes to the timeline that guarantees a bad launch. A small studio can afford to say "you don't need that yet", or "we are not the right people for this", or simply "no". Saying no is most of what good advice is.

Small stays fast

Ten years of the web have taught us that speed — of the site, of the reply, of the decision — is the feature everyone notices and nobody asks for. Small studios reply the same day because there is no queue. They fix things in an hour because there is no ticket system. They ship in weeks because there is no committee.

Small can be strange

The galaxy on our homepage, a browser game with its own engine, an ordering system with a kitchen console — none of that survives a large agency's approval process, because none of it fits a template of what an agency sells. Small can build the odd thing when the odd thing is right. It is why our work looks like nobody else's.

What small is not

Small is not cheap. We charge what the work is worth, and it is worth more because fewer people are being paid to stand between you and it. Small is not limited: we have shipped sites, brands, products and worlds for businesses in four countries. And small is not a stage. It is the model.

What it means for you

You get us. The people whose names are on the site, on the phone, in the code. You get an opinion when you need one and a fixed price when you ask. And you get a partner who will still be the same partner in five years, because there is nothing to sell and nobody to be acquired by.

That is the whole pitch. It fit in 2016 and it fits now.