Grenadier_
Agency Founder

In August of 2012, some partners and I founded an advertising agency in Boulder, Colorado called Grenadier. The name was inspired by the specialized, 17th century soldiers who, despite their rank and seniority, fought on the front lines. This reflected the decades of experience my partners and I had, and our commitment to still be directly involved in creating the work every day.

Our business model was slightly different in that we were partially backed by Kansas City-based Barkley, the largest employee-owned ad agency in the country. We started with one client, five partners and no employees. Starting an agency from scratch was an incredible learning experience on many levels, such as creating our own strategic process designed to uncover every client’s reason for being that we called a “Brand Stand”. And learning the nuts and bolts of the “business of the business”.

Over the course of six years, we grew the agency to $5 million in billings and more than twenty employees, working for a range of brands, from local to national, in a variety of categories. In June of 2018, Barkley approached us about buying out my partners and I and turning Grenadier into a Barkley satellite office. We agreed and I stayed through the transition before leaving to join Westerra Credit Union in 2019.