Building a Scalable Model for a Fast-Growing Creative Studio
Services delivered
Summary
THEY SAY STUDIOS™ is a remote-first creative and digital studio founded by Amy-Lee Cowey-Small and Jessica Ashman, with deep roots in premium beauty, hospitality, lifestyle and F&B. As the studio scaled quickly through its bespoke Collaborator™ model, Scaled partnered with the founders to prioritise initiatives, sense-check investment decisions and build the structure needed to grow with confidence.
Challenge
Despite strong founder experience and early momentum, the studio faced a familiar ‘high-growth’ tension:
- Too many priorities at once. The founders had a clear vision, but “everything felt important” and needed sequencing.
- Hiring decisions under pressure. They knew they needed to invest in people, but wanted confidence on where to spend first and when to hold off.
- Scaling a non-traditional model. THEY SAY isn’t a typical agency – and needed an advisor who would understand their bespoke, collaborator-led structure rather than force-fit standard agency playbooks.
- Preparing for future exit value early. The ambition wasn’t just to grow – it was to build a business with a long-term endpoint in mind, including the processes that won’t be visible to clients but will matter in a sale process.
“Simon felt like an extension of the team – no question was a stupid question, and he took the time to understand how our model was different, rather than trying to put us in a traditional agency box.”- Jessica Ashman, Co-founder & Chief Creative Officer, They Say Studios
Our Approach
Scaled supported THEY SAY with a structured cadence and outside perspective that made progress repeatable:
- Strategic prioritisation & sequencing: Turning a long list of founder ideas into an ordered plan, breaking big goals into smaller monthly steps.
- Accountability through rhythm: Regular check-ins (more frequent early on) created momentum and accountability – ensuring key actions were completed each month before moving on to the next stage.
- Commercial sense-checking: Reviewing plans and decisions through the lens of hiring timing, budgets and forecasting – including when to pause a project to protect focus.
- Exit-aware planning: Helping the founders connect today’s actions to a longer-term growth path, with an explicit view on what the business needs to look like in 5 years.
- GTM fundamentals without cutting corners: Supporting Ideal Client Profile work, messaging and next-step clarity – ensuring they could go to market as a confident brand (not just through founder networks).
- Website timing & readiness: Deliberately holding off a full website build until ICP, tone of voice and messaging were aligned – avoiding the ‘build it now, redo it later’ trap.
- Growth Consulting
- Sales Development
- Fractional Marketing & Sales
"Scaling a remote-first, collaborator-led studio is intense - you are making big creative calls and big commercial calls at the same time. Simon and Richard, helped us turn that energy into a clear roadmap, so every hire, every risk and every new service is building long-term value in the business, not just getting us through the next quarter."
Amy-Lee Cowey-Small
Co-founder & CEO, They Say Studios
Impact
- Targets achieved: They Say hit and exceeded their targets for the year, growing 280% year-on-year, reducing costs from 81% to 69%, and now forecast to deliver 33% above RF3 target by EOY (c.300% up vs prior year).
- Faster progress through prioritisation: Big ideas were translated into a clear sequence of steps, helping the founders focus on what mattered most each month.
- More confidence in hiring and investment decisions: Key resourcing choices were sense-checked against budgets and forecasting, ensuring the team invested at the right time.
- Stronger accountability and momentum: Regular strategic check-ins created a consistent rhythm of delivery and progress.
- Clearer go-to-market foundations: Ideal Client Profile work and messaging clarity helped They Say formalise how they position themselves – supporting their next phase of growth.
- Operational maturity behind the scenes: A greater focus on process and internal structure is now embedded, ensuring the studio scales without scrambling later.
Why It Matters
THEY SAY’S’s model is built for modern brand work: senior specialists, assembled around the brief, operating remotely, with founders guiding quality rather than doing everything themselves. The work with Scaled helped transform that model into something more scalable and investable – turning ambition into an operating cadence and growth into a plan.
They Say is now well positioned to scale with confidence – building momentum beyond founder networks and strengthening long-term enterprise value.
MORE TESTIMONIALS
What our clients say...
“Working with Scaled fundamentally changed how I think about building a business. They helped us put the right structure, systems, and strategy in place - and that foundation directly led to our growth and eventual sale. It’s rare to find advisors who combine real-world agency experience with practical commercial guidance, but that’s exactly what Scaled delivered.
"Rich’s ongoing counsel throughout this period has been genuinely valuable, helping us navigate decisions with more confidence and keeping us focused on what would move the business forward.I’d recommend Rich to any agency leader looking for a pragmatic, experienced partner who understands how modern agencies need to run and can help turn intent into action."
"The team skilfully manage the conversation around funding AND growth in a real world way, ensuring that plans are realistic and will work.They have been our trusted growth partner since day one, helping us secure funding and also set up & scale our entire marketing and rev ops process. Scaled is integral to our plans & we wouldn't be without them."
Scaling from small agency to medium sized company is something that few start ups and agencies master. Scaled have proven their ability to help companies like ours break through that glass ceiling time and time again. In helping us do this Scaled played a very significant part in the trebling of our top line revenues.
"Scaled is our first port of call when we discover a business ambitious enough to want to exit but not yet enterprise enough to maximise or achieve real value.They are also a trusted partner of some of the most respected PE Houses in Britain as the go-to growth experts in B2B. We don't think twice before recommending their services."
"Rich has given me the reassurance I needed, but he also gave our leadership confidence that what we were doing was right - and now the results are showing. Scaled doesn’t feel like an external consultancy; it feels like having a business mentor embedded in our team."
"The input from the Scaled team has been invaluable!Scaled has added technical brilliance, enabling us to streamline processes and quickly adapt to the market, providing the sales team with new opportunities."
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