Will Schroter

I just didn't understand.

I wasn't an agency guy.

I didn't have access to an agency guy.

So I'm selling this stuff so I could get these guys on my resume, my portfolio, but no idea what I should be charging.

At the same time, I don't really know what I should be paying my staff.

And they're all students, so they don't kind of have to work for anything.

But there was no big upside back then of, hey, maybe I'll work for equity and make money.

Back then, people didn't understand equity.

They were just like, you're either going to pay me or you're not.

And so anyway, so we start growing by virtue of getting more portfolio clients, but not really making a lot of money.

A year later, we get connected with a small ad agency called GSW.

GSW had been a Columbus-based agency, traditional agency, for 20 plus years at that point.

And they brought in a new executive, a guy named Blaine Walter, great guy.

His dad had started Cardinal Health, which is one of the largest companies in the world.

And Blaine was really fired up about growing the agency.

And I remember he and I sat down at a restaurant.

I was 22 at the time, he was 26.

And I said, Blaine, hear me out on this.

Imagine for a moment, we combined our powers.

We take my team of like 10 or 12 people, your team of 40 plus, and we can have an agency with over 50 people.