The Family will focus on supporting new agency launches from new founders both within the group, and from those across the industry looking to launch their own business. The Family is also looking to invest in micro agencies, typically with a headcount below five, to help them scale

The name reflects The Family’s vision to act as a supportive, helpful partner to enable those looking to start or accelerate the growth of agencies with a range of services and support.

The company’s portfolio currently contains youth marketing agency Hype Collective, launched in 2017, and B2B communications agency Hard Numbers, launched in 2020. This portfolio will expand across 2021 and 2022, with plans to launch or invest in a professional services business, a creative services business, and an events business. In building and launching two successful agencies, the team has built up a unique set of tools, capabilities and services. The Family will harness this, and the cash reserves of its portfolio businesses, to invest in would-be agency founders and principal shareholders at micro-agencies.

The Family will enable new and established businesses access to these resources to manage and scale their operations. It will also provide the practical support founders need to realise their full potential. There are three principal shareholders in The Family, which was previously called The Bermondsey Group: Simon Lucey, Paul Stollery and Darryl Sparey.

Paul Stollery, Co-Founder and Creative Director at Hard Numbers and Hype Collective, commented:

The creative industries are normally a brilliant and supportive place. But when you’re looking to start your own agency, it can be bloody lonely. It’s hard to find good support – both in terms of advice but also investment – unless you know someone who’s done it before. Our goal is to scale The Family’s portfolio from the two businesses it currently owns, to five before the end of 2022, and more beyond. But we want to do this in a way that helps our industry peers launch their own agencies, too. We’ll have an open-door policy for would be founders. Need a mentor? Give us a call. Need financial support? Hit us up. Want to go to the pub and ask us some really basic questions? Absolutely. That’s what family is for.

Simon Lucey, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Hype Collective, added:

You hear of agencies launching with big money deals. But for most agency founders, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Our funding – and my first pay packet – came off the back of our first project win. Had we lost that pitch, who knows where we would have been today. Our goal with The Family is to offer everything we wish we had when we first setup.

Darryl Sparey, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Hard Numbers, commented:

We are founders. We understand the challenges that agency founders face. And believe that we can help would-be founders to navigate the challenges of setting up on their own. We offer tools, software, office space, capital and resources to help people who want to launch their own agencies, so that they can focus on making a success of their business.

The Family wants to hear from any future founder who wants to launch their own agency but doesn’t quite know where to start. Or anyone running a micro-agency with unrealised growth potential.

Find out more about BETA member Hype Collective here