#87: Bulletproof’s Gush Mundae on choosing relevance over growth
Oct 19, 2026 · 29 min · 14 segments
**Welcome to Agency Business.** This week Gush Mundae, founder of independent brand agency…
Oct 19, 2026 · 29 min · 14 segments
**Welcome to Agency Business.** This week Gush Mundae, founder of independent brand agency…
Brian WieserHost
Olivia MorleyHost
MNY, DY Global buying R&R Partners, Billion Dollar Boy buying Creator Authority.
Last week, we had Chemistry buying Colossus, MSQ, January Digital, Sammy buying GetEngaged.
I mean, that's just five significant transactions in the independent agency world creating more roll-ups of sorts.
First of all, Olivia, just what are your thoughts about all this activity, these mini holding companies getting created?
Post Omnicom IPG, there were a lot of shops that were in that middle section that needed to make a decision about scale and where they belonged in the market.
There's also something to be said about specialty, like a number of those shops that you referenced are specialty shops, like January Digital, for example, is like a great media shop.
And so maybe people are thinking about bolt-ons or thinking about how to expand their offering in a way that is more consolidated and looks a little bit more like the Holdco's offerings.
I mean, even in the world of being focused on what you're focused on, is there a world where the notion of a holding company where there's not really any attempt to create synergy except on the back office stuff, the stuff that maybe doesn't matter.
Is there a world where that makes sense for you or no, you really need, it's too much of a distraction to have adjacent businesses.
We put policies in place that I don't think would work in more corporate institutions or networks.
MNY, DY Global buying R&R Partners, Billion Dollar Boy buying Creator Authority.
Last week, we had Chemistry buying Colossus, MSQ, January Digital, Sammy buying GetEngaged.
I mean, that's just five significant transactions in the independent agency world creating more roll-ups of sorts.
First of all, Olivia, just what are your thoughts about all this activity, these mini holding companies getting created?
Post Omnicom IPG, there were a lot of shops that were in that middle section that needed to make a decision about scale and where they belonged in the market.
There's also something to be said about specialty, like a number of those shops that you referenced are specialty shops, like January Digital, for example, is like a great media shop.
And so maybe people are thinking about bolt-ons or thinking about how to expand their offering in a way that is more consolidated and looks a little bit more like the Holdco's offerings.
I mean, even in the world of being focused on what you're focused on, is there a world where the notion of a holding company where there's not really any attempt to create synergy except on the back office stuff, the stuff that maybe doesn't matter.
Is there a world where that makes sense for you or no, you really need, it's too much of a distraction to have adjacent businesses.
We put policies in place that I don't think would work in more corporate institutions or networks.
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