Work AI Tooling / Agency transformation · Frequence → MadHive
From a house in Mountain View to acquisition. How I built a creative department from four freelancers to forty, designed the brand that carried a startup into the big leagues, and created the systems that made us one of the most respected creative shops in adtech.
The startup ride, the brand, and the systems — in one place.
The challenge
In 2015, Frequence was a scrappy adtech startup running out of a house in Mountain View — with a "creative team" of four freelancers who rarely spoke to each other. No brand consistency, no shared workflow, no career path. Just designers cranking out whatever sales needed that day.
By the time Frequence combined with MadHive, that function was a 40-person international creative department that had become genuinely indispensable to the business. This is the story of how it got there.
The build — from 4 freelancers to 40 people
The hardest part wasn't hiring. It was building a culture where designers could do their best work while moving fast enough to keep pace with a rocket-ship startup. I knew we needed four things:
The systems
As we scaled, I built systems that freed designers to focus on what matters: the work itself.
Cut animated banner production from 4 hours to 90 minutes with a browser-native system that eliminated Photoshop exports and standardized naming.
Custom Adobe scripts and AI tools that automated repetitive tasks, so designers spent more time on creative decisions and less on mechanical work.
A tiered client-service model giving high-spend clients dedicated creative attention while holding quality across thousands of smaller accounts.
The brand — built for people, driven by intelligence
Alongside the team, I built the brand that let a startup stand next to the biggest media companies in the country. "Built for people, driven by intelligence" became the through-line — carried across the marketing site, social presence, trade-show identity, and every piece of brand communication as the company scaled and its positioning matured.
The proof
As the brand and product matured, the recognition followed — the outside world catching up to what the team had built.
The impact
But the numbers only tell part of the story. The real impact was the team — designers who felt supported, challenged, and trusted; people who stayed because they were growing, not just working. We held one of the lowest attrition rates in the company through the acquisition and every restructure that followed.
What I learned
Scale doesn't have to kill craft — but comfort will. Smart systems protect craft by freeing designers from the grind. The best creative directors are player-coaches who never stop making things — that's where you earn trust and stay sharp. And your team's talent isn't hiding; you just have to be curious enough to find it, then get out of the way.
Go deeper
Three deep dives into the pieces of this build: