It’s been a busy 2025, in work and life. Despite moving to Vancouver late last year, I’ve spent most of this one back here in NYC. I’d love to say it’s for fun or business, but it’s neither. It’s been a good reminder that life doesn’t stop, and it also inevitably changes. I’m learning to accept and adjust to new normals, and new limits. I’m grateful for my people and my co-founders—to not be doing any of this alone—and for the schedule and location flexibility that running our own business affords me.
In spite of it all, we still had our biggest month ever. We signed six figures worth of deals, a mix of: returning clients, partner referrals, and deals we’ve been working on for months. Notably, our personal networks played a much smaller role this cohort, which we hope is a positive signal for our growing reputation as a studio.
While we know this moment is fleeting—and not something we’re likely to replicate this month or even next—it feels like a milestone. It’s been a steady climb, and numbers that seemed impossible a year ago now feel within reach.
Lately, we’ve been reflecting on the key investments that got us here and continue to pay off. By investments, I mean in people and relationships, and running our studio in a way that is both human and good for our business.
We invest in our team
We set a high bar, hire great talent, and retain them by fostering a supportive and collaborative environment.
Our bar: We only work with senior-level operators who can hit the ground running. They must be highly accountable and committed to service and quality. Our designers work directly with clients, embedding with their teams and acting as both designers and advisors—top-notch communication and facilitation skills are a must (no pixel-pushers, and native-level english speakers only). Our team also lives and works in US timezones, from PT to ET, to ensure a high level of collaboration and responsiveness.
We’re highly selective. To date, we’ve onboarded and worked with only ~15 seasoned design professionals with specialties across UX/product, brand, motion, and content. Some are long-time collaborators from our personal networks before Rally, others are referrals from people we trust or handpicked from an applicant pool of 1000+. Finding great designers—the needles in a very big haystack—is our superpower.
Over time, a group of talented individuals brought together to achieve a shared goal becomes a team. That’s what we’ve built, and continue to invest in: a team of senior experts with diverse skills, a shared approach, and strong rapport—a team our clients can easily plug into and rely on to meet their goals. This is the core of our business. If we choose to work with you, it’s because we see a long-term relationship and we’ll prioritize you whenever there’s a right-fit project. You’ll have our trust, the autonomy to lead, and a team that has your back.
Right now, there is so much exceptional creative talent actively carving their own path towards independence, but still hungry to work with others. We’re proud that Rally can be a place for them to do work they enjoy, alongside likeminded professionals who share their high bar for quality and love for design.
We invest in our clients and partners
As with our close team of designers, we prioritize clients and partners we already know, like, and trust. Even during “in-between” seasons when there isn’t opportunity to work together, we nurture these relationships and help where we can.
When a client project isn’t a fit for us, we’ll recommend a trusted partner studio. Sometimes a client doesn’t have a project per se, but they have a need and aren’t sure how to address it—we’ll help them form an approach.
When things are busy, it’s easy to let relationships fade when a project ends. We make time to actively nurture long-term relationships, so they don’t become transactional short-term ones. You can grow, while continuing to take care of the people that got you to where you are, and we’ve actually found that to be the best growth strategy.
We invest in each other
Josh, Dan, and I aren’t just co-founders who work together daily—we’re long-time friends who know each other well on a personal level. We know what motivates or drains the other, and what each of us can, can’t, or won’t do. We also have a shared reason for starting Rally: to work with each other, build a business we’re proud of, do more of what we like and less of what we don’t, and truly enjoy how we’re spending our days, more than we ever did working for someone else.
With that in mind, we’ve been intentional about aligning our roles with the needs of the business, our strengths, and what excites us most. We let each other pursue whatever “center of gravity” is. Motivation amplifies capability—so if Josh enjoys sales, and he’s good at it, we let Josh run.
And Josh has indeed been running sales, and killing it. With a background in product management and agency leadership, he’s a master negotiator with finesse to handle the most delicate situations, and the charm and host energy that you want in a salesperson. Dan, a career freelancer, is great with clients and upholds the highest quality standards for our studio’s work. And as a natural connector with expertise in building design teams, I focus on building and nurturing relationships with clients and designers who are the right fit for Rally.
When deciding to become partners, there was some consideration to how we might complement each other in a business context, and—while we’ve certainly had to work at shaping our roles over time—we’ve been fortunate in how our different strengths have come together to build the business we have today.
I’ve previously shared what’s been working well for us, but looking back, these are the things we’re most grateful we invested in: a high-performing team that works well together, strong client and partner relationships built on trust over time, and a business aligned with what we do best and enjoy most.
