A founder-led agency should hire an MD once the founder can clearly explain:
- What the MD will own.
- What the founder will stop doing.
- What the founder plans to do with the time and space created.
I know this one from the inside.
When Carrie became MD of UNKNOWN, the org chart changed immediately.
My habits took longer.
Founders spend years training everyone to bring them the important decision. We catch problems. We keep client relationships close. We jump into things because we can see the answer and its feels quicker.
Then we hire an MD and tell the same team:
"Carrie's in charge now".
The team looks at the MD.
Then it looks back at the founder.
Because the last six years of behaviour carry more weight than the announcement.
Write the founder's next job first
The MD brief depends on what the founder is becoming.
Maybe the founder wants to focus on new business.
Maybe they're moving into acquisitions.
Maybe their value sits in the work, the profile, or the important external relationships.
Maybe they want to spend more time thinking, which is a perfectly legitimate job despite looking suspiciously horizontal.
Write that role down.
Give it objectives.
Put boundaries around it.
An undefined founder role will spread into every available part of the MD's job.
Make three lists
Before starting the search, write:
- What the founder will keep.
- What the MD will own.
- What the business will stop doing altogether.
Get painfully specific.
Can the MD change the leadership team?
Can they approve a senior hire?
Can they move budget between departments?
Can they walk away from a bad client?
Can they make a decision the founder dislikes?
"Run the business" tells a candidate very little.
"Own the annual plan, the leadership team, our £3m revenue target and every hiring decision below board level" gives them something real to consider.
It also gives the founder something real to hand over.
Decide whether you need an amplifier or a reinventor
Some businesses need an MD who makes a good model work properly.
Better numbers.
Clearer accountability.
Stronger client management.
Meetings that end with an actual decision.
Other businesses need deeper change.
A new structure.
A different offer.
Changes inside the leadership team.
A move into new markets.
Those are different humans.
An excellent operator may protect the current model when you need someone to challenge it.
A restless change-maker may create enormous disruption inside a business that mainly needs discipline.
Agree the amount of change before agreeing the candidate.
Hire what the founder lacks
Chemistry can be misleading.
It's very easy to enjoy spending time with someone who sees the world in roughly the same way you do.
You agree quickly.
They understand the references.
They laugh at the right bits.
Lovely lunch.
The agency may already have plenty of whatever the founder brings.
Look for the missing capability.
My natural energy is ideas, connections, growth, and starting things.
The person running alongside me needs to bring clarity, consistency, and an ability to finish those things after I've become excited about something else.
Another founder may need the exact opposite.
Shared ambition matters.
Complementary ability makes the partnership useful.
Transfer authority through behaviour
Introduce the MD to the clients before a problem occurs.
Move information out of the founder's head.
Let the MD lead the important meetings.
Redirect decisions publicly.
Support their answer when you would have made a different call.
That last one is hard.
It's also where the transfer becomes real.
The team needs to see that the MD can make a decision without waiting for the founder to mark it.
Over time, fewer questions come to the founder.
Clients form their own trust.
The MD starts running the company.
And the founder gets to become useful in an entirely new way.
UNKNOWN hires CEOs, MDs, and leadership teams for founder-led creative businesses. We also help design the role before the search begins, because a brilliantly executed search can still produce a person with an impossible job.
Is your creative agency ready for private equity?
A creative agency is ready for private equity when it can answer six questions clearly:
- What will the capital fund?
- Where will the next £10m of revenue come from?
- How much of the business depends on the founder?
- How predictable is the revenue?
- Who will run the larger company?
- Does the founder genuinely want another build?
PE brings money, experience, a board, and a clock.
That final bit matters.
The deal is one day.
Then everybody comes back to work and starts building the larger company promised in the investment deck.
Where does the money go?
Imagine the investment lands tomorrow.
Where is the first £1m going?
Perhaps you're opening America.
Perhaps you're buying a specialist social agency.
Perhaps you're building technology that turns a service into a product.
Perhaps three senior hires would let the founder step away from delivery and focus on growth.
Write the plan in pounds, people, and dates.
"We'll invest in growth" gives a team nothing to execute and an investor very little to believe.
Capital works well when it speeds up a plan that already makes sense.
Get honest about founder dependency
Creative companies often become successful because the founder is unusually important.
They win the biggest clients.
They protect the standard.
They attract the best people.
They hold the history, relationships, and weird little bits of information that keep everything moving.
That importance starts affecting value when nobody else can perform those functions.
Ask five questions:
- Which decisions wait for the founder?
- Which clients mainly trust the founder?
- What information lives in their head?
- What breaks when they disappear for two weeks?
- Who has authority on the org chart but limited authority in real life?
The answers show you the work required before and after investment.
Investors can cope with gaps.
Surprises are considerably less popular.
Look closely at the revenue
Two agencies can both generate £5m and have completely different levels of risk.
One has 45% of its revenue sitting with a single client and wins work through the founder.
The other has ten long-term relationships, a defined proposition, and a leadership team that creates demand.
The revenue number is identical.
The confidence attached to it is miles apart.
Know:
- The percentage held by your largest three clients.
- The amount that repeats each year.
- The margin by client and service.
- The cost of delivery.
- The route through which each major client was won.
- The likelihood of the relationship surviving a founder's exit.
These numbers help an investor understand the business.
They also help you run it better today.
Build the leadership team early
A larger company creates more management.
Someone has to run the numbers.
Someone has to integrate acquisitions.
Someone has to open the new market.
Someone has to protect the quality while teams and revenue grow.
And someone has to tell the founder when they're being a pain in the arse.
Map the leadership team against the three-year plan.
Which roles already exist?
Who can grow into a larger role?
Where does the business need experience it has never possessed?
The period before investment gives you time to make those decisions carefully.
After the deal, every missing leader becomes attached to a deadline.
Work out whether you want the second mountain
Founder tiredness can make a transaction look incredibly appealing.
A large number hits the bank.
Some personal risk disappears.
People finally recognise the value created.
All good things.
Then comes the next company.
More ambitious targets.
More reporting.
More people.
A new partner involved in major decision.
A meaningful amount of your remaining wealth tied to the outcome.
You need a reason to keep climbing.
Maybe you want to build the global version.
Maybe you can see a group of businesses that should exist together.
Maybe the investor brings capabilities and confidence you couldn't create alone.
That ambition will carry you much further than the excitement of completing the deal.
Preparing for PE improves the company either way.
Clearer revenue.
Stronger leadership.
Less dependency.
A defined growth plan.
You may take investment. You may sell. You may decide to keep the whole thing.
All three options become better when the business is built to thrive beyond one human.
UNKNOWN works with founders and investors across leadership, talent, and M&A in the creative economy. If you're considering investment, we can help you see the people, structures, and acquisitions required for the next stage.
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