The Omnicom IPG merger just got approved. Holding companies are making “strategic restructuring decisions”—corporate speak for your job might be gone, your security vanished, and you’re supposed to quietly update your LinkedIn and hope for the best.
But here’s what the founders of 15 independent agencies want you to know: you are not a line item on a spreadsheet. You are a talented professional with skills, relationships and expertise that have tremendous value. And you have another option.
For the past year, Christian Gani, co-founder at Outerkind in Denver, has been hosting Year One—asking indie agency founders the real questions: How did you start? What were you scared of? What does it actually take? Christian doesn’t let people off easy. He digs into the messy parts, the scary parts, the parts where you’re not sure you’re going to make payroll or if you made the biggest mistake of your life. The answers aren’t polished. They’re honest, messy and instructive because every single person who started their own thing was sitting exactly where you are right now.
The tipping points: When staying became impossible
Flavio Vidigal was at the top of his career in New York—Global Executive Creative Director at a major holding company. “I was on top of the world,” he says. “And I had this epiphany: Man, I don’t want to do this bullshit anymore. I was having panic attacks and mental health problems.”
He quit advertising altogether. Then, he realized a week later he needed to make money. “Advertising is the only thing I know how to navigate my life and support my family,” Flavio explains. “So I decided to go freelance. But I felt like I was still doing the same bullshit, just as an independent creative.”
That’s when he decided to open his own shop. Not an agency—he didn’t want to call it that at first. Just a creative boutique. “A bunch of dudes trying to come up with ideas and pitch our work together.” He used his 20 years in the industry to do what he calls soul searching: carve out everything good he’d learned, separate it from everything bad, and build something from the ground up with only the good parts.
Rachel Carlson was a partner at a hybrid production creative shop when she hit her breaking point. “I was partnered with two older men, and even though I was a business partner, I was still running into conversations like, ‘Hey, in this client meeting, why don’t we let X, Y and Z take the lead? Because people respond better to men in meetings.'”
The advice kept coming: Tone it down. Don’t be yourself. Don’t do this, don’t do that.
“I was so fucking over it,” Rachel says. “The day I realized it wasn’t going to be the right fit, I was like: You know what? Fuck it. If these assholes can start an agency, I can start an agency.” Watch Rachel’s story: 6:06
She sent a text to her two now-business partners. Ninety seconds later, one of them texted back: “Fuck yes, I’m in.” Six weeks later, Foul Mouth launched.
Josh Lane watched his agency get acquired by IPG 22 years ago. “I always thought about: Could I be the next generation of leadership at this agency?” he remembers. “They made a wonderful decision for them and sold to IPG. At that moment, I started to wonder: What is my path?” Watch Josh’s story: 8:41
He trusted his ability to make business decisions. “If I failed, I wanted it to be because of my decisions, not because of somebody else’s.”
The reality check: It’s not just freedom
Rogier Vijverberg and his co-founder were successful at another agency when it got acquired by a bigger group. “We lost a bit of our independence and thought: We can do this ourselves as well. Not really knowing what we were stepping into.”
The freedom fantasy hit reality fast. “One of the things you think when you start your own agency is that you’re going to have a lot of freedom,” Rogier says. “And freedom you have in spirit. But the reality is also: the moment you have your first employee, you are responsible for that person. From that moment onwards, the story changes. It’s not just about yourself and having a good time anymore. It’s making sure that as a team, you’re having a great time and growing and making more impact.”
Will Trowbridge from Saylor puts it directly: “It’s hard. Like—it’s incredibly rewarding, but it is far harder than I ever would have thought.” He’s been running his shop for 12 years and still describes the challenge. “You’re selling something a lot of people don’t understand. You’re creating a business model that’s entirely new to potential clients.” Watch Will’s insights: 21:34
But here’s what makes it worth it: “I just know that I’m doing what I love with people who love what they do. And there’s something about the small size that enables that to happen in a way that bigger agencies can’t.”
The mindset shift: From demographics to purpose
Adam J. Wilson from D/CAL describes his journey as “brick by brick, maybe paper cut by paper cut.” Working at big agencies like McGarry Bowen, he kept asking why. “Walking out of pitch rooms at big agencies and going: Whoa, we are not solving their problems. We are selling them services.”
Later, as a client, he saw it from the other side. “Great agencies, but the agency was like a black box.”
The moments that stuck with him weren’t dramatic. They were operational. Strategic. “Why are we relying so much on demographics? We’re not painting a clear picture of who we’re talking to and what they care about. Do we talk that way at dinner parties? What’s your household income and your gender and where you live? No. We talk about the things we’re interested in.”
It had to be something more meaningful than “Hey, let’s come up with a funny name and stand up a Squarespace site and say we’re agency veterans and we’re smaller and faster.”
Watch Party Land’s purpose: 13:42
Haley Hunter from Party Land describes their purpose simply: “We like to say we democratize creative solutions for everyone. We can be as creative for a local business as we can for a national. That’s what gets us up in the morning.”
Matt Heath, her partner, adds the operational reality: “We don’t just talk the talk. We actually have to do the walk. You’ll see Haley and I editing a blog or filming a video. That’s how we keep overhead low and maximize the budget that goes toward the creative product.”
The skills you already have
Alex Goulart from Fire Kite addresses the doubt directly: “Don’t downplay the skill set you’ve developed. As a creative in an agency, you might feel the idea is undervalued—especially if there are rounds and rounds on a brief, if you’re revisiting a deck for the seventh or eighth time, and you’re wondering about the value of your creative thinking.”
His advice: “It’s a question of where you take that and how you apply it. If you’re good at what you do and you developed a strong skill set, there is a market and opportunity for that in a different context that can be really rewarding. Sometimes it’s not about working harder and grinding harder in the place you’re in. It’s stepping out into a new situation, and then all of a sudden there’s fruit from that in a way you didn’t imagine could be possible.”
Susan Vugts from Superheroes remembers her early enthusiasm: “When we want to pitch something or an idea got approved—these things you kind of take for granted when you’ve been making stuff for a while—it was contagious.”
Brian Anderson, her partner at The Perception, reflects on the grind and the reward: “It’s a grind, but it’s very rewarding when you see it all come together. When you see a younger staff member get to a level, or they work here and have an opportunity to become a partner at another place and go do that. Or your work is running on television. You see that and you’re like: That was just an idea I had, to start an agency. I can’t believe that thing came together to become something that stood for something.”
What they wish they’d known
Alex Goulart from Fire Kite had specific advice about the learning curve: “The hard part is understanding the ins and outs of business: taxes, legal stuff, operating agreements. Those things take time to learn and understand. But the skills that you have in making things and solving problems—that translates immediately.”
The business fundamentals matter. Make sure you have a good accountant. Make sure you have a good lawyer. Make sure you understand how to set up an operating agreement that protects you and your partners.
Watch Uncharted on alignment: 33:48
Laura Jordan Bambach from Uncharted talks about the relationship between partners: “You need to be aligned on what you’re building and why. Not just the creative vision, but the business vision. How big do you want to get? What kind of work do you want to do? What does success look like? Those conversations need to happen early.”
The honest part about money
Will Trowbridge addresses the financial reality: “The first few years, you’re probably not going to make as much money as you did at your agency job. You have to be prepared for that. But what you gain in autonomy and purpose and the ability to build something—that compounds.”
Rachel Carlson adds: “We bootstrapped everything. No investors, no loans. It meant we moved slower at first, but we owned everything. That was important to us. Every decision was ours to make.”
Josh Lane talks about sustainability: “You need a runway. Have six months of expenses saved. Ideally a year. Because it takes time to build momentum, land clients, and establish a rhythm. The money will come, but you need to survive long enough to get there.”
What makes it worth it
Brian Anderson describes the satisfaction: “When you see your work running, or a staff member grow, or you stand for something—that’s when you realize this thing you started became real.”
Alex Goulart talks about satisfaction: “It’s ultimately about what gets you up and what’s thrilling to you. Pride of ownership matters.”
Rogier Vijverberg found his answer in the mission: “We wanted to save the world from boring advertising. That cheekiness, that purpose—it allowed us to work with clients looking for the same thing. It stays interesting for ourselves.”
Flavio Vidigal circles back to the soul searching that started it all: “I carved out everything good I learned in 20 years and separated it from everything bad. Then I built something from the ground up with only the good parts. That’s what you have the power to do.”
What to do if you’re sitting on the sidelines
Haley Hunter has clear advice: “If you’re gonna go for it, make sure you love it. There’s no escaping this. It changes and evolves just like your normal career does, but it’s up to you to be able to do that. You really need to understand what your purpose is. Why are you doing this? Keep that in mind.”
But she also offers another path: “There’s so many great newish independent or evolving shops out there that would probably like to hear from you. If you have that entrepreneurial spirit or if you’ve learned what you don’t want at the big agency, those other agencies a few years in or starting out might have a place for you as well.”
Watch Alex on your skill set: 57:36
Alex Goulart emphasizes the skill set you’ve already built: “Don’t downplay it. If you’re good at what you do and you developed a strong skill set, there is a market and opportunity for that in a different context. Sometimes it’s stepping out into a new situation, and then all of a sudden there’s fruit from that in a way you didn’t imagine could be possible.”
You already have what you need
Every founder featured here started exactly where you are: uncertain, maybe scared, not sure if they had what it takes. Flavio had panic attacks. Rachel was told to let the men lead. Josh watched his agency get acquired. Rogier lost his independence. Adam was tired of selling services instead of solving problems.
And every single one of them will tell you: you already have what you need.
The skills you’ve developed are valuable. The relationships you’ve built matter. The expertise you’ve accumulated translates immediately. The frustration you feel right now? That’s not weakness. That’s clarity about what needs to change.
You are not a line item on a spreadsheet. You are not a casualty of market forces. You are a talented professional who has been building something valuable for years.
The indie agency community is waiting for you.
Your agency starts now.
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Doug Zanger is the founder and editor-in-chief of Indie Agency News. He is also the founder of the Creative Bohemian consultancy, lives in the Pacific Northwest and is insufferable about it.
