See links in the bio for newsletter and substack content on organic eCommerce growth.

My career began at a startup SEO agency, where I was the first in-house employee and helped scale it to a team of 10 (as much as a graduate can help, that is). The agency expanded its services too rapidly with an undersized team, which led to its decline. I gained exposure to various digital marketing channels, including managing the paid account for our second-largest client.

This agency was sold to another agency. Here, I learned the importance of connecting all elements of SEO into an overall strategy. I also saw firsthand how toxic culture and poor leadership can cause an agency to fail—an experience that shaped my career. The agency's reputation was so damaged that it had to rebrand. However, I met my current business partner, Antonio, during this time (Although we only worked together for about 6–8 months, he stuck around like a pungent smell you can't un-smell). Five years later, this agency's ethics were called into question when they directly copied our NOVOS proposition (I know!).

MADE.com
I moved in-house to MADE.com during its peak growth period. As the sole SEO managing all five markets, I inherited a declining channel after a failed A/B test on a major product category. Over two years, I generated over £20 million in non-brand growth. I also supported MADE through what was, at the time, the largest headless migration in Europe (as far as I’m aware).

Despite this success, I was offered only a £1,500 pay rise. After speaking with all the leading SEO agencies at the time, I knew there was a gap in the SEO market for this niche eCom knowledge.

NOVOS
After a failed attempt at launching a men's accessories website, Antonio and I pivoted to statement.digital. In March 2019 we rebranded to NOVOS and hired our first employee. By the end of this first year, NOVOS had grown to a team of 8. The following year, we doubled to 16, and the year after that, we reached 40.

In early 2022, Antonio and I sold NOVOS to our staff through an Employee Ownership model.

The Living House
In 2023, I invested in The Living House, an interior design studio. I own 20% and support the business's marketing and operations.

NOVOS 2.0
At the beginning of 2024, we launched NOVOS 2.0—a new strategy and direction for the agency. We're still focused on eCommerce but leaning more into our "Organic" expertise. The eCommerce industry is far too focused on short-term paid media for growth, and this is a problem we're aiming to solve with NOVOS 2.0.

If you have made it this far, well done

Samuel Hurley

Tim Richardson

Founder & Host

Fractional Agency Director | Pod, Newsletter and Events | Small time Angel Investor

CEO of ROIROI, a commerce agency built for the AI era. We deliver profitable growth for consumer brands by connecting design, development, marketing, data and AI.

I started my career at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup before moving into consulting and agency leadership. I later helped scale We Make Websites into one of the world’s leading Shopify agencies, working with brands including Pangaia, Toteme, Toast, Jigsaw, Hasbro and Alessi, through to its sale in 2021.

I'm bullish on AI, business, design, cycling, swimming, running and sauna-cold-plunging.

Founder

Reframing the way agency leaders think so they can make better decisions 🌿

Stoked to catch up with the Centra team at their new London HQ. 

We shared cinnamon buns (standard 🇸🇪 ) and discussed the partner ecosystem, AI readiness for consumer brands and why Frizmworks is arguably the best medium-weight coat on the market. 

Max, Lucy, Lizzie, Rikard, Talia, ✨Alexander, Johan, Millie, Joel Reeves 🏴, Jenna, Pontus, Henrik Talia

#commerce #ai #partnerships

CEO & Partner @ ROIROI | a Commerce Agency built for the AI era

ROIROI has a new look and feel. Some insight into how we arrived at it...

Firstly. I'd argue agency positioning might be the most difficult positioning to get right. It is very hard to avoid the inevitable agency bullsh*t. 

'ambitious brands'. 'growth'. 'strategy'. 'unique growth strategies designed to help ambitious brands grow'. 

So, the brief was - make it cool whilst reducing as much fluff as you possibly can AND try and carve out some sort of position with an incredibly crowded market. The slight caveat, we also need to consider Offcuts within our brand universe. 

Making it cool was slightly easier. Lucy Davis and I had already spent a lot of time and effort with Teresa Villar Gross crafting the Factory brand. We thought it was cool so we decided (ostensibly for speed) to simply use as much of the Factory brand experience and port it over to ROIROI. 

Reducing fluff was also slightly easier. We created lists of words we were NOT allowed to use. I'd argue we managed to avoid 99% of them. 

Where it got tricky was the positioning. 

All brand gurus (myself included) will tell you - find a niche and double down on it. We, unfortunately, don't have that luxury as we do multiple things: design & development (Shopify and Centra) + performance marketing. We also do a lot of data & insights, but don't talk about it. And we are very aware that AI is eating the world - Lucy and I spent a lot of time over the last year carving out an Ai first in commerce positioning. So we had to tap into that. 

The answer...

Lean into being a multi-capability agency built for the AI era. 

What does that mean? 

It means that we think it's a compelling argument for an agency to be able to work with a consumer brand across acquisition, conversion & retention whilst enabling them to surface data to make better decisions AND be at the forefront of AI & automation. Our unfair advantage? Offcuts - the place where we get to explore ideas and refine our perspective on the consumer retail market. 

I'm confident there is white space in the market to own the 'multi capability' narrative. 

So that's what we're doing. 


#ai #brand #agency

I want to talk more about our positioning. 

Yes, because it’s something I care deeply about. But also, I think it’s an interesting area for exploration within the context of an AI-consumed world.

First. Using AI in the work itself.

Did I use AI in the positioning work? Yes, definitely. I used it as a strategic sounding board and a copywriter. However, the genesis of the position was based on being in consumer retail services for more than 10 years, reading books like Alex M H Smith's No Bullsh*t Strategy (big props to Oliver for the rec many years ago), talking to people that have crafted their great consulting companies like Luke and generally being obsessed with brand. 

Second. How do we think about AI as a service?

I’d like to argue Lucy and pivoted early into AI. We’ve been banging on about it since 2022. Originally, sceptically. But for the last year, positively. So I think we have permission to continue to own that conversation as it relates to consumer retail advisory. 

Third. The thesis of the positioning. 

In terms of the No Bullsh*t strategy angle. It was hard to weird the normal or normalise the weird. I think we’re kind of the former? The space we’re trying to occupy is super crowded. And there are lots of niche players. So what if we leaned into to the fact we’re not niche? Why not occupy the non-niche agency category? Yes, it does open up the challenge that we spread ourselves too thin. 

My argument back to that: 

1. Full service was a thing like 20 years ago. WPP et al led the way. But the last 10 years, not so much. Niche became the thing. So there is some white space there. If everybody is going niche, let's do the opposite. The full service Renaissance!

2. In an AI world, spreading oneself too thin isn't as applicable. If a service company can be built on a bedrock of AI, then we can be more efficient and add more value while still offering multiple services. 

Final thought.

I do think it’s a compelling proposition to a consumer brand. So many work with different service companies, none of which talk to eachother. So there is a loss of information AND accountability. 

A multi-capability agency (that is, AI-augmented and offers AI services) is the antidote. 

The differentiation? 

Offcuts 

I do think it’s an unfair advantage to have a small media property. It enables us to have deeper / richer conversations that ROIROI can’t. Thus, creating a unique TOFU channel. 

Big shout out to Emma, Johannes, Lizzie, Lucy, Kevin, Louie M. and the rest of  the ROIROI folks for making this a reality. 

#ai #consulting #brandstrategy #agency

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