Michael Stoopack has a rule. If he wants to do something at TiNY, he asks the other two partners. If one says yes — that’s democracy. The idea moves. The LinkedIn post goes up. The RFP gets answered. The pro bono project gets greenlit.
“As long as somebody gets one vote, we do it,” Stoopack says. Tom Christmann adds: “We can never have an even number of partners. That would destroy our whole business plan.”
Three years into it, that model — moving fast, making things and having a great time doing it — has attracted clients like American Century Investments and PetIQ, repeat business from every client they’ve ever worked with and a deep freelance bench assembled from decades at JWT, BPO and Vayner. The three founders run on roughly $10,000 a year in overhead, which means every dime goes to talent and production.
They don’t have a corner office or a lobby with awards on the wall. But they sprung for a yard of nachos once, and they know where all the good stadiums are.
3 guys, 0 overhead and the OHO framework
Mike Rovner rattles off the core strengths with the confidence of someone who just named them: openness, humanity, over-delivery. OHO. “We just made that up,” Christmann says. “That’s our new thing.”
Openness means welcoming — to people who work with them and to clients who need something outside the usual agency process. Over-delivery starts before the brief. “When we meet a new client for the first time, we usually bring ideas just in that initial meeting,” Rovner says. That penchant for showing up with work isn’t a sales tactic — it’s instinct.
And humanity? “That’s our biggest asset,” Christmann says. “And the perfect thing to have right now, because everything is AI on rails. We like to meet people and talk to them about things and hear those things.”
What TiNY is known for: caring more than the brief requires
TiNY is best known for speed, creative quality and the fact that its three founders are — by all accounts — a great hang. “That sounds stupid,” Christmann says. “But it’s what you want. Would you want to spend three hours on a plane with this person? A lot of agencies don’t have that.”
Every client who started with TiNY has come back. Stoopack attributes it to how they treat people: “They believe in us as human beings.” Almost all of them knew the founders from their big-agency days and saw what they could deliver even inside the chaos.
Independence isn’t the brand — the work is
Rovner makes a surprising statement: “We don’t really care about TiNY.” Not in a nihilistic way — in a strategic one. The agency exists to serve clients, not to build the TiNY brand. No office to fill. No acquisition strategy. No cheerleading posts from a corporate comms team.
“We see what happens to people who aren’t indie,” Christmann says. “They can’t even talk on LinkedIn. All of their posts seem to be just cheerleading.” TiNY’s founders want to be real — and independence is the only way to guarantee that.
The zero-overhead model helps. “Clients who don’t care about pre-made sandwiches in a conference room and just want to see all of their dollars working hard — that’s attractive,” Rovner says.
Why brands keep coming back (it’s the humans)
The client repeat rate is 100%. Stoopack doesn’t think it’s the independence that keeps them — it’s the trust. Clients know what they’re getting: great ideas, great value, great relationship, all the extras.
The agency also learned that skills they take for granted are valuable to clients in unexpected ways. American Century Investments asked them to teach a class to their in-house agency — showing how TiNY thinks on its feet when a brief comes in. Both Mike and Mike teach advertising classes in New York — Rovner at HOUSE NYC and Stoopack at the BIC program at City College. “Everything in these three noggins is useful to our clients,” Christmann says.
Why freelancers become partners the minute they say yes
TiNY’s freelancer model is radically transparent. Scopes are built together. Pay is visible. “The minute they say yes, they’re now partners,” Rovner says. Nobody works for TiNY. They work with TiNY.
There are no fixed lanes. A strategist with a great creative idea? Welcome. A creative who wants to get into production? Jump in. “We let people explore their full capability,” Stoopack says. “And these two guys let me write stuff. So there it is in real time.”
Christmann puts the industry’s talent model in perspective: “The same 50 people write all the ads. Every big agency has the same 50 freelancers. They call it perma-lance. We are those people. We know those people. We hang out with those people.”
Underdogs who desperately tried to fit in
Every guest on the show gets the same question: are you a weirdo, a misfit or an underdog? All three pick underdog — and back it up with origin stories. Rovner started as an account person and had to prove his way into the creative department. Someone told him he was “an account executive in drag.” He proved them wrong.
Christmann started in direct marketing. Ad legend Richard Kirshenbaum told him he’d never be in brand marketing. Two years later, Christmann had a Cannes Lion.
Stoopack started at a small agency in DC, ran an intern group and followed them to New York. “We’ve all had to prove ourselves along the way,” he says. “That drives us to this day.”
Why not misfits? “Because we desperately tried to fit in at all those places,” Rovner says. “And I think we did a fairly good job — which is why we have a deep Rolodex.”
Dear Jason Cherian, Wiley Kane and the World of Hurt guys: cheers
Rovner shouts out Jason Cherian, CMO at PetIQ, hired by CEO Camilo Pane. “He trusted us after meeting us just one time and giving us a chance on his two biggest launches,” Rovner says. “And I don’t think we failed him. Yet.”
Stoopack’s pick is Wiley Kane at American Century Investments — their first client, known since 2015 from E-Trade days. “She is the best client I’ve ever had.”
Christmann gives the nod to John Real and Jeff Labovitz at World of Hurt — a product launch where TiNY came in as an equity partner. “They’re launching something amazing. We can’t say more. Coming soon.”
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