From Slack Rants to a Real Business: How We Accidentally Built Shape & Scale

Shape & Scale didn’t begin with a pitch deck. Or a vision board, or even some grand, strategic session with whiteboards and too much coffee. Shape & Scale started as a Slack thread. It was two people who were burned out, disillusioned, and venting about how broken the agency model had become.

We started asking: What if we did it differently?

At first, it was mostly jokes. If we ever ran our own thing, we’d do it differently. We’d keep it lean, stay close to the work as strategic partners, and we wouldn’t make clients pay top dollar for a revolving door of account managers. We wouldn’t sell a senior team and then disappear. We wouldn’t bury good ideas under layers of process. We wouldn’t make decisions based on elusive “growth,” forgetting what was best for the employees. We didn’t know exactly what we would do, but we were getting clearer on what we wouldn’t.

Then the joking turned into research. And the research turned into spreadsheets. And the spreadsheets turned into a name, a bank account, and a website. Somehow, Shape & Scale became real.

When Staying Is Scarier Than Leaving

The truth is, we weren’t desperate to be entrepreneurs. If anything, we were terrified of it. There’s this slow, creeping panic that sets in after you leave the safety of a steady job. We didn’t doubt our skills specifically, but it’s hard not to wonder if your brain, without the backing of a big agency and team, is really enough for someone to pay for. A steady, competitive salary with benefits is incredibly enticing as you get into your thirties, forties, and beyond.

But ultimately, for both of us, staying started to feel harder than leaving. It meant more years of navigating politics, being pulled in one (more like seven) different directions, and leading teams without the right support. We were watching great people burn out or move on—and trying to convince ourselves it was the “cost of doing business” when it didn’t feel wholly authentic.

We hit a point where going internal was possible, but not sparking major creative juices, and moving up just meant moving further from the work we actually loved. And doing it our way suddenly felt less like a risk and more like a necessity.

Why We Took the Leap Together

When Shape & Scale came together, our skill sets just happened to complement one another perfectly. One of us knew how to get clients in the door, the other knew the logistics behind setting up a business. We had already been doing the work for years. We led teams, owned relationships, built strategies, and saw real success. But now we had to do it without the name of a big company behind us.

We spent those early months studying two-person consultancies. We wanted to understand how small teams were positioning themselves, what they were charging, how they were standing out, and what they were offering and what they weren’t. That’s when the concept started to solidify into something real.

Our value proposition became the opposite of what most agencies are today: A tightly knit, high-seniority, low-bloat team. No unnecessary layers, no turnover — just two people who have the experience and actually do the work.

That alone ended up being a selling point. You get two, very senior professionals, and you don’t ever have to worry about losing them as a part of your team.

Choosing a Different Path

We get asked a lot if we’re going to scale and either hire a team or build our own agency. The answer (at least for now) is a hard no.

It’s not because we’re scared to grow. It’s because what we love most is the work itself. We love serving clients directly, and we want to use our brains, not manage other people’s. We don’t want to worry about culture, professional development, or performance reviews. We’ve done that before, and we were good at it, but it took us away from the actual work where we’re using our brains strategically to service clients with real output.

So we stripped it all down, built a model that felt honest, and started helping companies tell better stories and build stronger programs that get meaningful results.

It’s Worth It

We won’t claim that this is a blueprint. But if you’re in that place — burned out, under-inspired, wondering if you could do it differently — we get it.

There’s fear in stepping out on your own, especially if you don’t have a safety net. But if you have the skills, the conviction, and the perseverance, that might be enough to start. It was for us.

We didn’t launch Shape & Scale to build another agency. We launched it to do great work without the bloat. To serve clients directly, and to stay intentional with what we do.

This model might not be for everyone. But for us, it’s been real, it’s been energizing, and it’s been a life-changing ride.

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