A digital marketing agency for startups that sell to people.
Underboss Media is a digital marketing agency for startups that sell to consumers: apps, ecommerce and DTC brands, games, marketplaces and pre-launch products. It builds short-form video formats on the startup's own Instagram, TikTok and YouTube accounts, puts paid budget only behind pieces that already worked organically, and trains the startup's team. B2B and SaaS startups are not taken.
Want a second opinion on your startup's marketing before you sign with any agency?
This is for startups that sell to consumers, and for nobody else. You get short-form video formats on your own accounts, judged on whether more people search your startup's name. Paid budget goes behind the pieces that worked, on your ad account. A written playbook and training for your team run alongside, over twelve months, month to month. You can cancel in any month and keep everything. SEO, standalone ad management, email, web design and branding are not sold here. Your way in is a free written teardown, sent in three days, with no call.
Show me what you would doFour ways a startup's first agency spends the runway.
Hiring a startup marketing agency feels like progress, because something is finally being done about growth. But most first contracts follow one script, and the script suits the agency more than it suits you. Even very large advertisers find it hard to tell which sales their ads caused. One of them tested it on its own name.
“A startup does not need every channel. It needs one that works, on an account it owns.”
Two things your startup keeps, whoever runs them next.
Both sit inside your own accounts from the first week.
The Engine
A small set of short-form video formats built around your product and posted from your own Instagram, TikTok and YouTube accounts. A format is a repeatable shape: the same kind of opening, the same length, one ask at the end. Each one is judged on a single question. Did more people search for your startup by name? Formats that pass stay, and the rest are dropped. Once a piece has worked for free, paid budget goes behind it on your own ad account. You hold every login from the start.
The Playbook
The method, written down while it is being built. It records how a topic is chosen, what the first seconds of a video must do, how a piece is filmed and edited, and when a format is retired. Someone on your team learns one part at a time, and each piece is reviewed before it goes out. By the end of the year your startup can run its own marketing. A new hire can learn it from the page.
What one startup's own channels did. Names withheld.
The closest record to a young consumer company is a Series A gaming marketplace. In a five-month engagement in 2025 it reached 50M+ organic views across YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Instagram Reels, at $0 paid ad spend. Branded search queries rose 900% during the work and held at roughly twice the old level after it ended. The YouTube channel gained 17.9K subscribers along the way. Across portfolio engagements, the average cost of acquiring a customer fell 35%, and clients have stayed 14 months or more on average. Names are withheld under NDA.
“I write every teardown myself and my name is on it. If your startup is too early for an agency, or needs a kind of marketing I do not sell, the teardown will say so and tell you where the money is better spent.”
Verify on LinkedIn →One channel working first. Your own team running it by the end of the year.
- Month 1
Measure first, then post
Before the first video, you get a count of how many people search your startup's name each week. That is your baseline. After that, the first formats are shot and go out from your accounts. One KPI is named in writing, and every later result is checked against where you started.
Output: Baseline recorded, first formats live
- Months 2 to 9
Keep what works and fund it
Each format is kept or dropped on what it did to branded search. A piece that worked for free gets paid budget on your ad account, and nothing else is advertised. The person you pick on your team takes on the filming, then the edit, then the planning, with a review at each step.
Output: Winning formats funded, playbook filling up
- Months 10 to 12
Your startup runs it
Your team picks the topics, films and posts. The numbers are reviewed with you each week, and help is there when you ask for it. You can stop in any month before this and keep every format, every file and the playbook.
Output: Marketing run in house
A typical startup marketing agency vs one channel you own
Updated November 2026- Who they take
A typical startup agencyAny startup with a budget.
You, with usConsumer startups only. B2B and SaaS are a no.
- The first month
A typical startup agencyAn ad account and a channel list.
You, with usA search baseline and formats on your accounts.
- What gets measured
A typical startup agencyClicks, leads and ad platform reports.
You, with usHow many people search your startup by name.
- If you stop
A typical startup agencyThe ads stop and the files stay with them.
You, with usYou keep the accounts, the formats and the playbook.
| Dimension | A typical startup agency | You, with us |
|---|---|---|
| Who they take | Any startup with a budget. | Consumer startups only. B2B and SaaS are a no. |
| The first month | An ad account and a channel list. | A search baseline and formats on your accounts. |
| What gets measured | Clicks, leads and ad platform reports. | How many people search your startup by name. |
| If you stop | The ads stop and the files stay with them. | You keep the accounts, the formats and the playbook. |
Before you ask.
Most sell a bundle: ads, search, social posts, email and a website, each for a few hours a month. This one does a single job for consumer startups. It builds short-form video formats on your own accounts, puts paid behind the ones that worked, and teaches your team to run them. You keep all of it, whatever happens next.
Consumer only. If your customer is a company, a team or a buying committee, this is the wrong service for you, and you will be told so on day one. The work is built for products one person chooses for themselves: apps, ecommerce and DTC brands, games, marketplaces and products still in pre-launch.
Yes, and that is a normal place to start. You do not need followers or a history of posting. You need a product a person can understand in a short video, and someone on your side with a few hours a week. If you have not launched, the same work builds your waitlist first.
SEO, standalone ad management, app store optimisation, email, web design, branding and blog writing are not sold here. Paid only appears behind videos that already did well, on your ad account. If one of those other jobs is your real gap, your teardown names it so you can hire the right specialist.
Typical agencies bill a monthly retainer or a share of ad spend. No price is published here. If your teardown shows a fit, a written quote follows for a twelve-month build. It is billed month to month, you can cancel in any month, and no share of your ad spend is taken.
In your first month one KPI is named in writing, usually branded search for your startup's name. If the KPI we name is not climbing by month six, the next month is free. You can also walk away in any month, and the accounts, formats and playbook stay with you.
Nothing. Send a link to your product and to any accounts you post from. Within three days you get a written read on where your customers come from today and the first formats worth building. No call is needed and there is nothing to pay. You keep the document whether or not you hire anyone.
- Organic growth strategies for startups: 5 moves at $0 ad spend →The organic growth strategies for startups that build on each other: 5 moves, $0 ad spend, and what makes them stick. Built to be owned, not rented.
- How startups get distribution without an ad budget →How startups get distribution without an ad budget: channels that build on themselves, the metric that proves it, and 50M+ organic views in 5 months at $0 paid.
Organic growth, or the next month is free.
We name one KPI we control for your company in your first month. If the KPI we name is not climbing by month six, the next month is free.
One KPI, named in month one.Picked for your company once there is a baseline and written into the contract, so there is one number to hold us to.
You read it off your own numbers.Your analytics and the platforms' own reporting. Nothing of ours in the middle.
Send the startup. Get a straight answer in three days.
Send one link to your product and one to the accounts you post from. You get back a written teardown: what brings you customers now, what to build first, and whether an agency makes sense for you yet. It is free, and it is yours to keep.
Two minutes. No call. No numbers.