Shannon Jones and Yadira Harrison co-founded verb after years of running the Airbnb account together at a previous agency — traveling together, living together on the road and learning each other’s rhythms at close range. Joining Christian Gani, co-founder of Øuterkind, on the Year One show, the two opened up about what it took to leave on a Friday and start verb the following Monday. No pre-sold clients. No pipeline. Just goodbye notes sent to their network. The phone rang immediately. Within days they had three clients and were off and running. “We’re known for making shit happen,” Shannon says. “Verb felt like the right way to capture that.” The experiential agency has since won at Cannes and earned agency-of-the-year honors — by referral only until this past January.
Lightning in a bottle
The partnership clicked on the Airbnb account. Living together on the road turned professional respect into something deeper. “We felt this lightning in a bottle,” Yadira says. “A yin and yang dynamic in how we approached projects, built teams, supported people.” Shannon frames the foundation differently: “Find someone with the same work ethic. We will stay up till midnight working on a deck, but we will also stay out till midnight going to see a concert.”
The scary conversation before day one
Shannon had freelanced before. Yadira hadn’t. So there was a conversation that needed to happen. “There is no paycheck coming on the first and the 15th,” Shannon told her. It was the kind of reality check that makes you commit or run. They committed — pooled savings and credit cards, gave themselves 100 days and left their old agency on a Friday. Yadira’s mom was visiting LA that weekend heading to a funeral. “I remember thinking about rebirth,” Yadira says. “It wasn’t about death — it was about starting something new.”
Goodbye notes became the business plan
They made a list of everyone they knew — people with budget authority and decision-making power — and sent goodbye notes. The response was immediate. People didn’t just wish them well. They asked to hire them. “Can’t hire us, but you can hire verb” became the refrain. Three clients materialized in days. The momentum never stopped. They stayed referral only until January because the network Shannon had been building for years kept delivering.
The verb effect
A recent rebrand forced Shannon and Yadira to play client with their own creative team — and develop empathy for the vague feedback they’d been giving for years. The result was “the verb effect,” a framework for capturing what their work does to people, culture and business. Experiential marketing has always struggled to quantify impact. The verb effect is their attempt to make the intangible measurable — beyond the food porn, cheese raves and Airbnb up houses that go viral.
Why experience wins the AI era
Yadira sees AI as an operational tool — not a replacement for what verb builds. “People are going to be looking for connection,” she says. As content gets harder to trust, the demand for lived experience grows. Verb’s philosophy is that every experience should make people feel seen, valued and connected to the brand. That human truth doesn’t automate. Shannon’s advice for anyone on the sidelines: “Build your network before you have an ask.” Yadira’s: “Ebbs and flows are real. The mistake people make is quitting during the ebb.”
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