One year ago, we started Juliet and, according to our CFO, we had one of the best first years she’s ever seen. Note: She’s based in NYC, used to be the CFO of Mother NYC, so we’re not sure if her enthusiasm has something to do with the exchange rate versus our actual success, but we’ll take the compliment.

That being said, we thought we’d take a moment to try to explain the ‘how’ of it all.

To do that, let’s set a bit of a scene: We’re writing this from Pearson International Airport because we’re flying to Texas today to have lunch with a partner. We’re not spending the night. We’re not doing a day of meetings. We don’t even have a PDF prepared. We’re just going to have lunch. With another human. And we’re going to talk. Like humans. About the work. And, more important, about how the work can help grow their business. Yes, we might touch on the data we’ve tracked. But what really matters is we’re a group of people talking about how to creatively solve problems. We might have a beer. We’ll definitely have some laughs. It’ll be productive.

In our humble opinion, this is the type of productivity that far too many in this industry have walked away from. The holding companies cut these lunches years ago, and our fellow start-ups are often too cautious with their dollars to do it.

But, here’s the thing: Despite all the talk of agency models, every model is about people. So, that’s what we’ve overinvested in across the board. Consequently, we’ve ended up with partners we really like, and partners who really like us. We’ve made amazing work. We’ve had a lot of fun. And we’ve ended up with a Toronto-based agency that has enough growth to give a NYC-based CFO more of a reason to relocate to Toronto. Hi, Susan!  

Okay, we’re going to go and order dessert now.