Strategies for Agency Growth: Scaling a Digital Agency with JUICE Co-Founders Michael Lisovetsky and Troy Osinoff
Key Takeaways
- Most agencies die off once they exhaust their friends-and-family network. JUICE put the emphasis on the quality of that first work and published case studies to find the next clients.
- JUICE started with paid social and didn't launch a new channel until the team could deliver on it. Michael's line: if you're known for everything, you're known for nothing.
- No white label work from day one, and most of what could have been founder income went into salaries and hiring instead.
- Demand hasn't been the limit. JUICE turns down most inbound business and was looking at acquiring agencies mainly to acquire their talent.
- When something needs fixing, buy the answer from outside first. The two levers an owner has are time and money, and those dictate everything else.
- Media buyers and team members interview candidates alongside the executive team, and talent pipeline updates go out to the whole company once or twice a week.
Michael Lisovetsky and Troy Osinoff are the co-founders of JUICE, a performance marketing agency that started in New York City and had moved to Miami by this recording. Gray MacKenzie hosted. He’d known the two for close to two years (JUICE had worked with ZenPilot, so he’d watched part of this up close) and wanted to know why their agency grew so much faster than most. The conversation covers getting past referral clients, adding one channel at a time, talent as the limit on growth, and how they run hiring.
Most agencies die off when they run out of friends to sell to
Gray put the sales question to Troy first: what had JUICE done that let it grow so quickly?
The issue most people face when starting an agency and growing it out is you have that first group of clients, which are effectively friends within your network. And the issue that happens is once you exhaust your friend network… not being able to go past your friends and family network is where most agencies kind of die off.
JUICE used its network to start, like everyone does. The difference was what they did with those first accounts: a “big, big emphasis on the quality of our work” so those clients could showcase what the team could actually do, then public case studies and building in public to find the next ones.
One channel at a time, and never white label
Gray asked Michael whether starting narrow (paid social, then paid search, then a sister web agency called Peachy, then email) was accidental or intentional. Michael said it was completely intentional, with a few non-negotiables from day one.
We didn’t take on white label work. Troy and I reinvested most of what could be salary or take home income into salaries. We were always trying to hire and move forward. I think the biggest challenge we’ve had is just keeping up with head count and talent.
The sequencing came down to delivery.
We first started with paid social. We wanted to make sure we were delivering there… We weren’t comfortable launching a new channel until we knew that we could deliver on it. There’s also this element where you don’t want to be known for everything, because if you’re known for everything you’re known for nothing, especially as a challenger agency, as a startup agency. You can’t come out of the gate trying to boil the ocean… because that’s a quick way for people to think that you’re a discount shop.
Peachy exists for the same reason. A JUICE partner was taking on web development work and inbound kept coming, so it got its own name (80 to 90% e-commerce, mostly Shopify and BigCommerce) rather than dilute what JUICE was known for.
Talent is the limit, so they turn down most inbound business
Gray asked Troy about growth through acquisition. Troy said they were looking at buying agencies, and the revenue would be nice. The real reason was people.
We turn down most of the business coming in. That’s something else we’ve done since the beginning that Mike and I believed in, is that we won’t take on a client unless we truly believe in them, we truly believe we can have an impact on them. So we have no shortage of clients coming in… but the only limitation on our side is talent to service them, and we will never take on too many clients we can’t properly service.
Michael added that the hardest thing to find in an acquisition target is mindset.
The hardest thing that we’ve had is there’s really been no way to replicate the type of mindset that we were cultivating… A lot of why we’re able to deliver is our clients, everyone, they’re buying into the mindset. They’re buying into the approach. They’re buying into the fact that we take ownership. They’re buying into the fact the team actually cares. So that’s really hard to replicate.
Buy the answer from outside, then bring it in-house
Gray pointed out a pattern he’d watched: when part of the business needed fixing, the founders paid for outside help first (ZenPilot included), then worked to make it native to JUICE. He asked Michael whether that was deliberate.
The priority has always been how do we get to the answer the quickest… Ours has always been growth. If we ask ourselves one question, how do we grow faster? And the faster solution is to buy the answer, to the best of our ability. Money is not always a solution and it doesn’t always solve anything, but… the two primary levers you have as an agency owner, really any business owner: time and money. And then those dictate people, and those dictate everything else.
Troy added that most agency owners take the money on the table as income, while he and Michael kept reinvesting for the long term. Recruiting was the clearest case. Talent had been “historically our biggest bottleneck ever,” and after working with outside recruiters and tiptoeing around a full-time hire, they brought on an in-house recruiter and HR lead two or three months before this recording.
Hiring is everyone’s decision, and everyone sees the pipeline
Gray asked Troy what guidelines he’d laid out for the recruiting role. Troy’s answer was about who interviews.
We have not only the executive team with the company, but media buyers and team people within the different parts of the organization interviewing potential hires… It’s not just the executive team’s decision, it’s everyone’s decision, because they’re gonna be working with them day to day.
The other half is transparency. After six-plus months of trying to hire and over-hire, the founders didn’t want the team to feel strung along, so they started sharing the recruiting picture with everyone.
We actually have, I think it’s once or twice a week, specifically talent pipeline updates that go out to the entire company. The entire company is bought into the recruiting process. I mean, we have referral bonuses that we give our team if they’re able to help us successfully issue a successful offer that turns into a hire.
The last stretch of the episode covers MAGIC Fund, where Troy and Michael had just joined as two of 12 general partners (fund one was $1.5 million, fund two was heading to $30 million, and the thesis is founders backing founders). Watch from 19:15 for that part.