We’re Not Your Typical Firm, Agency, or Recruiter — By Design
We’ve been seeing the growing headlines. Creative agencies and management consulting firms like the “big four” are facing rapid disruption and instability on multiple fronts:
A post-COVID world focused on leaner teams, restricted budgets, and accelerated execution timelines
Inflexibility to adapt to new systems, processes, and ways of working
Economic shifts reducing spending on external consulting and creative services
Artificial intelligence (AI) making it easier for companies to bring skills in-house
Leaders organizing whisper networks of freelancers to cut costs and layers of bureaucracy
Talent burnout and retention challenges among limited career growth and autonomy
A movement toward fractional leadership roles making it easier for consultants to find autonomy
Shifting client expectations around agility, speed, and direct access to experts
Increased competition with boutique, niche, gig, and freelance platforms
Ethical scrutiny from a lack of transparency around pricing models, fees, and conflicts of interest
There’s a lot of content floating around saying that the traditional agency and firm models are crumbling under their own weight. They’ve seen loss of market share, reduced corporate spending, and layoffs.
We’ve seen from the inside how things like utilization and growth targets drive adverse behaviors, which ultimately yield negative client impacts:
The formulation of proprietary solutions that use ”new language” to sell the same ideas
Pushing what they do best, not what the clients actually need
Promising unrealistic outcomes to win work
Overscoping or inflating project scope to meet revenue targets
Proposals that keep consultants billing full time rather than estimating the hours for the actual work
Identifying available, in-region talent rather than the best person for the problem
Utilizing junior staff for work that commands senior-level rates
Billing projects with little value delivery to the work or client
And, clients have caught on.
Prospective clients will tell us, “Our team doesn’t really like agencies.” Or, “I already have a group of freelancers I work with directly.” Or, “We really want to work with a single freelancer and their network.”
We can see why. The industry and profession is due for a transformation.
We will proudly tell you that we are not your typical firm, agency, or recruiter — and that’s on purpose. There are several key things we do differently:
We are client-centric, not solution-centric.
We don’t want to push our pre-defined processes, solutions, models, frameworks, or practices. Instead, we want to listen to the challenges you face, develop an approach that allows us to co-create solutions together, and leverage the appropriate out-of-the-box solution from decades of experience.
We are sensemakers and storytellers.
We don’t just want to analyze your data points. Instead, we want to weave it into a cohesive narrative that drives strategy, operations, experiences, marketing, thought leadership, and engagement. Our aim is to translate complex information into clear stories that resonate in a way that’s human, emotional, logical, connected, and compelling.
We empathize with teams.
We don’t feel bound to a single vertical or expertise. Instead, we’ve sat in just about every seat of a business – strategy, operations, process, technology, design, marketing, change, program, sales, buying, and leadership. We can empathize with the experience of each of those roles and functions to imagine their needs, speak their language, and guide recommendations. Our team has diverse skillsets, which helps us be flexible to see the big picture and execute on specific areas.
We bring a lived experience.
We haven’t spent our entire careers consulting. Instead, we’ve seen business transformation and growth from the inside and outside everywhere from the solo entrepreneur launching an idea, to the midsize business looking to become an enterprise, to corporate giants turning around a ship. When we talk about needing to market to the consumer, drive transformational change, or launch a new technology program, we’ve lived it. We have hard-earned stories to tell that have led to learning and growth that we can now share with clients.
We develop practical, actionable solutions.
We don’t want to design solutions that become shelfware. Instead, we meet teams where they are so that solutions can be adopted with ease. If you’ve already invested in a brand redesign, we don’t want to rework it – unless that’s what you’re really looking for. Rather, we want to pick up where you left off, drive immediate value, and iterate over time based on real data points on the performance of our solutions. We want practical ways to take action rooted in current realities and not academic theories.
We adapt to client readiness.
We don’t want to bring an enterprise solution to a small team — or a small team solution to an enterprise. Instead, we identify where a leader or team is at in their unique growth cycle to help identify key steps to take to incrementally move up the ladder or maturity curve. We want solutions to be a best-practice tailored to a business’ readiness to absorb the new idea, process, or technology.
We iterate and go.
We don’t get hung up on perfectionism. Instead, we try to embrace that human is imperfect and getting ideas into the wild helps us gather data and insights that informs what wins over time. We don’t want to spend weeks and months perfecting something only to find out it doesn’t land. Instead, we want to get feedback early to refine solutions that stick.
We are a network-based team.
We don’t have a big bench of people on payroll vying to bill your project. Instead, we right-size the talent. If you need a single consultant or freelancer, we can be that. If you need a team, we can bring that. We’re the sweet spot in between. We’ve built networks of talent over the course of 15+ years and are skilled at organizing expertise to serve a client's needs. We aim to align client needs with the lives our consultants want to live in terms of hours, availability, location, and challenges.
We focus on future AI-adapted skills.
We don’t resist the use of AI in our business and creative processes. Instead, we welcome finding efficiencies that help us focus our time on higher-value skills and tasks that will be in high demand in 2030 such as creative thinking, technology literacy, resilience and agility, analytical thinking, leadership and influence, systems thinking, and more.
We run nimble operations.
We don’t hold swanky offices or big office parties that clients ultimately pay for. Instead, we strive to keep our overhead low with fewer layers, processes, leases, payrolls, and expenses. Without sacrificing our market value or client experience, we can often pass these economic efficiencies on to our customers who benefit. We strive to always find creative ways to serve clients with speed, agility, and lean operations.
We flatten the hierarchy.
We don’t have layers of bureaucracy to manage when delivering a project. Instead, it’s just a few smart people coming together to solve problems to create meaningful impact. We honor everyone in our Co.llab as a business owner, and every client as a leader. We are self-organizing, reflective, and feedback-driven around the needs of clients and our market.
We build trust, not just transactions.
We don't operate on a model that prioritizes billable hours or short-term gains over long-term partnership. Instead, we invest in deep, authentic relationships with our clients and our network. We believe that true impact comes from mutual respect, open communication, and a shared commitment to success. Our goal isn't just to complete a project; it's to become a trusted advisor you can rely on for years to come.
So, if you’re tired of the typical firm or agency experience, we’re with you.
We’re demonstrating that a new approach – one built on empathy, lived experience, tailored solutions, and true collaboration – can deliver results with speed and fun.
If you need different, we’re different.
