I founded a digital agency in 2001, acquired a competitor, and won a stack of awards — including Europe's largest B2B marketing award for best digital campaign, andSmall Business of the Year. We punched a long way above our size: British Heart Foundation. The Greater London Authority. Crown Relocations. Ipswich Town FC. Browne Jacobson. Charity, government, sport, corporate, law, and so many more — all inside thirteen years.

I exited to my business partner. The agency is still running, twenty-five years on.

Then fifteen years running a technology company for fifteen years. Took it on with $4m of debt and near-zero revenue, rebuilt it to eighty people, built the brands behind Sfax, DocBookMD, XDOC and FaxAgent — and sold all of them to three acquirers.

Most recently, I co-built a premium padel business from nothing: brand, website, digital platform, systems, and multiple club openings. Plus Tennisletics and Workarma, which are mine.

‍Which is the difference. Most agency principals have never run or sold a company. Hundreds of brands over thirty years, and seven transactions — so we know what it costs to build, and I know what a buyer pays for.

There's no bench to feed. ske_la isn't a classic agency. No office, no bench, nobody to keep busy.

It's me, plus a small group of people I've worked with for years — designers, developers, writers, strategists. After Assess, I know what the job actually needs, and I bring in the right people for it. No more, no fewer.

Which means you get senior people on your project, not senior people in the pitch. An agency has to staff what it has hired for. We staff what you need.

Building value and capturing it are different jobs. ske_la builds brands that multiply what a business is worth. SKELA prepares founders to sell, and counters the tactics experienced buyers use to drive the price down. Seven transactions — three as the buyer, four as the seller. Most clients only ever need one. Some need both, years apart.