How I Built A $55K/Month Design Agency

Shantanu Pandey

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Published: November 24th, 2024

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About
Business

Shantanu Pandey

Founder, Tenet

$55K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Tenet

wearetenet.com

from Dubai - United Arab Emirates

started February 2019

$55,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

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Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

Hi guys! I’m Shantanu Pandey, founder of Tenet — a UI/UX design, development, and growth marketing agency headquartered in Dubai, UAE.

I started the company more than 6 years ago with a simple vision: to deliver the finest luxury servicing experience for the top 1% of global brands seeking digital growth. Back then, I was a freelance consultant working with some international D2C brands across EMEA and North America, helping them tackle their unique digital growth challenges.

Those early days taught me invaluable lessons about:

How a business functions and the challenges it faces.
How small nudges can change the direction of an entire company.
How important it is to find the right people and create the right culture that drives both the people and the company forwards.
How important it is for a business to have trustworthy talent for tech, marketing, design, etc.
How even the highest performing business owners can’t do everything by themselves.
The importance of digital strategies & proper execution to ensure the business actually grows, and doesn’t just appear to grow.
Importance of customer focus, and most of all ensuring highest standards of customer servicing.

These are the principles that became the foundation of Tenet.

At the base of every service we deliver, my goal is to create real, tangible impact for each client we work with. We do not chase vanity metrics such as impressions, likes, etc. for evaluating our deliveries; we only focus on the outcomes that truly drive a business forward.

We work with a highly diverse clientele. From executing growth campaigns for the Middle East’s largest genomic sequencing lab, to developing a mobile application that a million+ students learn on - we focus on simplifying the execution so much that the brand can focus on whatever it is that they want to do while confidently leaving the digital part to us.

What began as a one person consulting business is now an agency with 40+ team members and offices in four countries. The delivery teams are in UAE(Dubai) & India(Delhi) helping me in keeping the cost competitive while ensuring highest standards of servicing and delivery.

Our work includes creating digital solutions that influence millions worldwide—whether through websites, mobile apps, software development, brand strategy, or marketing campaigns. Every project we take on reflects our commitment to innovation, impact, and elevating brands to new heights.

How did you come up with your business idea?

When I was working as a consultant for D2C businesses, before starting my own venture, a key part of my job was to create strategies and action plans that were to be followed by marketing agencies, tech agencies, and design agencies.

I came to the realization that 99% of agencies follow a similar business model. They have a few really talented people (let’s call them team alpha). Then some mid-talent people (let’s call them team beta) and then a lot of junior/not-as-much-experience talent (let’s call them team charlie)

At most agency 2-6 team alpha members will train 10-30 team beta members who would then end up training 20-40 team charlie members.

The problem with this model is, only the highest paying clients get team alpha to work on their projects (that too rarely). The next best account gets team beta, and team charlie works on all the other projects that the agency onboards.

Every business owner will relate to the fact that whether they have all the money in the world or they’re running on fumes - no business owner wants mediocre work done by mediocre talent. It is, in fact, one of the reasons that business owners who do not have a lot of funds want-to/end-up doing a lot of work themselves. Because they can’t find or trust the agencies they onboard to do the real hard work required to really create an impact.

I wanted to change this.

I wanted to make sure that I create the Rolls Royce of digital agencies - highest levels of customer servicing excellence delivered by the top 1% design, tech, and marketing talent.

I wanted to ensure after a client pays our prices, they should be nothing but ecstatic with how we grow their business.

I spoke with a lot of business owners in my network, and almost everyone told me the same thing - it is incredibly hard to find an agency for digital growth that they can TRULY bank on.

So I thought, okay, I am a computer sciences engineer with a decent enough experience of growing brands through a strategic mix of strategy, design, technology, and marketing. Let me try creating the best experience possible, while delivering highly result oriented services, for a team/individual seeking to grow their brand.

Every business is unique and so are its challenges. No one can guide you on the exact process you should follow. But, be confident and trust your hard work. Be realistic and optimize continuously. Trust data and take calculated risks. Most of all, if there are only a few things you must do, as one of those things – be delusionally optimistic.

Give us a step-by-step process for how you built the first version of your product.

Since I was already freelancing with 3-4 companies, I had a rough understanding of how the whole agency business works, but I had never done it for myself. I had never hired, never reached out for business, never tackled inbound leads, never done sales, had no CRM, no nurture sequence, no content marketing, no branding, nothing.

I create a plan of the essential things I’d need to do, to get the ball rolling. And I also decided I’d do everything bootstrapped. Till date, we haven’t raised any funds and we’re cash positive and profitable.

I first completed the registration for my business (the company was called KodeGlobe Technology at the time) through a business setup company which charged me around USD 300 to set everything up. The documentations, agreements, certificates, bank accounts, etc. This took about 2 weeks. I financed this through my savings.

I then started with the lowest hanging fruits.

Get the website live, reach out to people and let them know what’s up, and then find clients.

I designed my own website, I hired a developer to develop it who completed the development with a few basic pages. This took about 3 weeks. This cost me around another $300 and was financed from personal savings.

And then I wasted the next 6-7 weeks trying to add the perfect content for the visitors. I’d write one version, delete it, write again, delete it again, and repeat. At one point, I even hired a content writing agency because I had around 21 services that I could offer, and I didn’t want to write all that content on my own.

But (as some business owners would relate) I thought I can write better than these “writing experts”. I thought “they can’t understand how I want to sound”. So I kept focussing (& stressing) on these small details and delayed the launch by almost 8 weeks.

Sidenote: I now understand that I didn’t have a clear guideline for the writers to follow – details such as tone of voice, communication strategy, brand personality, brand archetype, etc. were missing, and no wonder the writers couldn’t write like what I had in my head. Also, now I know that this was me trying to perfect things for the first launch, which is a rabbit hole for any founder/business trying to launch anything.

I hosted the website on Amazon AWS because it had a free tier that could host my website for free. I also installed a free chat bot called Tawk on the website to ensure visitors could reach out immediately if required. Wherever possible I tried to minimize my recurring costs so that it doesn’t become a burden going ahead.

Now, I had a registered business, a website, but then? Crickets…

How did you “launch” the business?

I now needed to find clients for the business, so other than letting my network know about the new venture, I registered my business on multiple agency marketplace platforms where clients would post their requirements, and agencies would share their proposal for the clients to choose who they want to work with.

I started writing proposals and I was bidding day in and day out. The challenge was that I had no portfolio on the platform, and my previous work outside of it didn’t hold much weight. Meanwhile, my competitors had impressive, verified reviews from clients directly on the platform.

For the first 10-15 days my proposals weren’t even getting seen, let alone being replied to or being converted into actual deals.

But, I knew that it is statistically impossible for no one to reply to my proposal over a long enough timeline. Maybe the first 10 won’t respond, or maybe the first 100, or maybe the first 500 hundred, but eventually someone would. So, I kept sending tailored information and strategies in the hope that someone would revert.

30 days went by, then 45 days went by, and then 60 days. Some proposals were getting seen, but no reply, no discussions, and no client so far.

I was getting a little concerned. Maybe I took the wrong call. Maybe I’m missing something. Maybe I was better where I was. Maybe I should get back.

I thought let’s put the worrying aside, and set a timeline. I thought that if, after 90 days of business development across all these platforms, I can’t even generate some leads/clients, maybe the market is too saturated or I need to evaluate my approach.

How did you land your first customers?

Of the 90 days deadline I had set, 80 days had already passed and I still had no clients or hot leads.

I reached out to the previous companies I used to work at, and requested the marketing directors and CXOs to record a short video testimonial of how it was to collaborate with me, what results I brought to the table, and their experience with me other than just my service expertise. I posted that to my profiles across all the marketplace platforms.

On the 88th day, I was asleep and my phone got a notification at 2:00 am (India time). It was a message from a potential client sitting in New York.

I woke up instantly.

The guy had been running a media agency and was looking to outsource some of the projects. I understood his challenges, what he wants, and shared how I can support him. After detailed discussions for the next two hours –he finally awarded the project to me.

On the 88th day of my 90 day deadline. I finally had a project. Even though the cost of the entire project was just $200, I was the happiest I’ve ever been. Pure joy!

From my first $200 project, to now where our average ticket size is $45,000+ – We’ve come a long way.

In hindsight, I can now share that this was all because I stayed consistent and I kept doing the work. If I had quit a week earlier or a day earlier, god knows where I’d be in my life today.

I now understand what Steve Jobs meant when he said “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”

That client gave us 4 more projects, and then he recommended us to more of his network. From 1 client we had 2 more. And then from those 2 we had 2 more. And then 4 more, 8 more, and so on and so forth.

It was a snowball effect. Word of mouth kept the client flowing in, and for the first few months I couldn’t believe it. To be honest, I was so busy ensuring everything was going smoothly I didn’t even have time to sit back and see what’s happening.

You’ll fall, and you’ll fail, and you’ll probably think at some point that everything is going south on you – in that moment, if you keep doing what is required and you keep doing what needs to be done – you’ll come out much stronger in the end.

How have you grown your business?

For approximately the first year and a half, I didn’t draw any salary or funds for myself. Whatever money the business made each month was first used to clear all dues towards our team/vendors. And then, whatever was left I reinvested in the business.

Adding more services, Getting international business licenses, getting international quality control certifications, new phone numbers, hiring virtual assistants, getting more tools for even better service quality, more sponsorships on marketplace platforms for more visibility and ultimately more sales, and so much more.

I invested heavily in building the right teams and systems.

I first went on to hire business development team members. And I kept outsourcing the fulfillment to my trusted and top talent freelancers.

I gradually started hiring the top design, tech, and consulting talent in-house. I then also invested in upskilling the existing team. I purchased the best courses, events, and bootcamps for my team so that they can become the best at what they do.

From there I went on to hire marketing teams for outbound campaigns, search engine optimisation, partnership managers, etc.

I then hired HR specialists who would ensure that each team member is content and feels incredibly motivated, fulfilled, and positive towards the company’s and his/her own growth potential. Happy and motivated individuals from my team have done more for the company than I would’ve ever assumed or asked for.

There were a lot of ups and downs throughout these 6 years.

The company nearly died at 4 different times, due to a lack of adequate pipeline that can support the large team we had built.
At some occasions, employees left at crucial stages leaving the projects open to failure. Me and some other wonderful team members stayed up really late for a few nights so that we wouldn't fail to deliver what the client had to pay for.
At different occasions, some clients failed to pay, leaving a huge gap in the cash flow. We had to build a system to ensure that this doesn’t happen, and in the event this happens what is the fallback or action plan.
I had no idea about building a team, hiring the right people, retaining the hired talent, HR policies, best practices for payment policies and processes, enterprise processes, and so much more.
With some downs, there were so many ups as well. I remember when we got our first physical office in 2020 in Delhi, India. We then moved to a bigger one in Noida, India. We then expanded to the middle east (UAE) and then further west to the UK & USA.
I remember hiring our first team member. He is still with us. The guys had learnt web development entirely on his own, while his father was striving on minimum wage in India as a vegetable seller. We hired him for the mindset, and he continues to be a core part of the team.
I remember when our first big payment from an international company kicked in - one SMS from my bank of USD$ 60,000 being credited to my account. At that moment our avg. ticket size was USD$ 2,500. I didn’t sleep the entire night.
One time we had to make an app live, for an ecommerce store in Kuwait. The deadline was set at the end of the day. 2 team members who were pivotal for the launch met with an accident at the last minute while coming to the office. It was raining heavily in India at that time. Around 5:00 PM, a team of 6 junior developers took onto themselves the task of getting the app live. They took their bikes and drove to my house that evening. All of us worked from my living room till 2:00 AM. The app was live, and later when we shared this with the client – she couldn’t believe that this had happened. Later she called the entire team for an all paid vacation. The junior developers really enjoyed their time in Kuwait.

I think there were so many things that could’ve killed the company, but me and the wonderful team I had built remained positive that we’ll push through no matter what.

Give us a breakdown of your revenue & financials.

Our current avg. monthly revenue is around USD $55,000. Kinda sounds unreal as I am writing this, haha.

The first $200 project seems like yesterday.

I am still running this company bootstrapped. Not a single dollar raised, ever. And the company is profitable!

I am still reinvesting a huge chunk (almost 25% of our annual revenue) to new business development and marketing.

The company has been growing consistently throughout these years. We double our headcount almost every 1.5 years and our revenue metrics continue to improve at a 30% YoY rate.

What does the future look like?

The future seems exciting at Tenet! We’re excited to achieve our ambitious growth projects, and continue to innovate for our clients.

Currently, about 50% of our global clientele are enterprise-level organizations with almost 10,000+ employees each, and we’re set on expanding our footprint for both enterprise and SMB clients.

We are continuing to expand both our expertise and our visibility as we penetrate new markets, globally.

Over the next 12 months, our goal is to increase our marketing initiatives to scale aggressively.

We will be creating highly specialized business verticals in the coming months to provide a seamless, one stop shop experience for our clients. Each vertical shall have edicated teams to meet the specific needs.

For example, we are in the middle of creating an ecommerce department staffed with all essential team members required to scale any ecommerce platform. UI UX designers, merchandisers, photographers, ecommerce brand strategists, developers, PPC experts, data analysts, email marketing experts, copywriters, conversion rate optimization consultants, social media strategists, and many other relevant profiles.

We’re also actively partnering with other global consulting firms, to help them onboard more clients as we fulfill for them as a white-label agency. These partnerships have been pivotal for us in growing our business to where it is right now, by allowing us to extend our reach and serve a broader client base with trusted collaborations.

In the next 5 years, we plan to be in at least 2 more countries with a total headcount of at least 500+

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

We failed a lot. Almost at every step, and often more than once.

Some events and lessons that I can recall:

One of our business development executives once ignored a lead, and it later turned out that the lead was reaching out from Mondelez International, the company that owns Cadbury. Someone had recommended us very highly and they wanted to partner for a project. They didn’t collaborate with us due to a bad first experience. I can’t even put a tag on the thousands of dollars that we have lost in potential revenue from that one mistake by 1 person.
I did not maintain a CRM for a long time. So many clients who were seeking us were never nurtured through the right outreach cadences. So many times, when I randomly reached out to say hi - those previous clients gave us more business. If only I had established systems sooner, to be at the top of our client’s mind when they need assistance with our expertise. Something so simple to set up would’ve brought in so much more revenue throughout the years.
Not actively seeking more business when the pipeline is looking great. Big mistake! I later learnt that no amount of business should stop more business from coming in.
Not having clear direction for the company resulted in a lot of good talent walking away. I always thought vision, mission, are good-to-have and not must-have. I was so wrong. Without a clear ‘why’ & ‘how’ it is incredibly hard to set a common direction, culture, and alignment for the entire team.
Keep a document of important deadlines or set reminders if required. We once almost lost our domain after 4 years of being in the business. We have lost email data of many team members due to failed renewals. A few years back we got fined AED 20,000 (in Dubai) or approximately USD $5,550 for not submitting a compliance document on time.
Not investing in marketing & branding earlier. For the longest time word-of-mouth was our primary source of new clients. While that is good, we can’t control that as a pipeline generation method. We realized we need to be in control of how much business we bring in. We can’t depend on abstract methods to run a business.
Not having clear expectations set up for each member of the team. Confusing or unclear directives for the team, leads to confusing results. Be clear in your directions, to ensure the results are as desired.
Learning the art of delegation is incredibly important and isn’t as easy as it sounds. But, the earlier a founder can start learning, the better their growth will be.
One good habit I cultivated a few years back is to accept that running a business will be exhausting at one point or another. You must not burn yourself. When absolutely required, stop and take a break. A founder must understand that running a business is incredibly hard and it will probably bring you down to your knees at one point or the other. But, the secret lies in getting back up when there’s no sign of success and continuing to do what is required.
Another mental hack I cultivated a few years back is to think of big tasks as super easy. Whenever I come across a super tight deadline, or a big task, I just tell myself ‘f*** this is easy – let’s do this’. It may not reduce the work required, but it certainly makes the task seem easier which reduces mental friction to complete the task.
Learn to love the game. When things get tough, you’ll have 2 options - either to be stressed while doing the work or have fun while doing it. Try doing the latter as it makes things so much easier.

Every business is unique and so are its challenges. No one can guide you on the exact process you should follow. But, be confident and trust your hard work. Be realistic and optimize continuously. Trust data and take calculated risks. Most of all, if there are only a few things you must do, as one of those things – be delusionally optimistic.

You’ll fall, and you’ll fail, and you’ll probably think at some point that everything is going south on you – in that moment, if you keep doing what is required and you keep doing what needs to be done – you’ll come out much stronger in the end. And you’ll reach a level of mental strength which most people around you will never hit in their lifetime. You’ll understand what I am talking about when you’re there.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

I work with a lot of founders everyday. I can tell you with the highest degree of confidence that some common traits between all people I see breaking the ceilings are:

That they reduce the time between thought and actions. I know at least 10 founders running a 1M+ ARR business, who just started it one weekend and then one thing led to another.
Have an idea that you want to test within your community? Start today.
Thinking of getting that brand registered? Start today.
Planning to call your college friend to ask for his help? The worst that can happen is they’ll say no. Start today.
Planning to shoot your video and post on social media? Start today.
First bad version of anything is better than the 50th highly optimized but incredibly late version.
They are often delusionally optimistic with zero guarantee of anything.
They’re not afraid to ask for help. They understand they can’t do everything by themselves. And, you’d be surprised how open are other leaders to actually helping people who just ask.
They don’t get stuck in setbacks. It’s normal to be sad when there’s a certain setback, but it is crucial to remember that this isn’t permanent. Brush it off and dive back in.
Figure out what concerns your buyers have, and try to address them head on. Helps in sales, and if sales are good - business is booming.
Help people genuinely, wherever possible. I never thought of helping people for anything in return, but the amount of help people have offered back just because they feel connected with me, has really been pivotal in growing my business to where it is right now.
Create SOP and systems; document things as much as possible- they’ll be really helpful when you scale your company. You won’t be able to manage everything by yourself.
What to do when a potential client delays an invoice? What is the follow-up cadence schedule? How long before this is escalated to a higher authority or legal action?
What responses can be given to standard customer requests or inquiries.
What hiring processes must be followed to ensure other people can also hire/screen candidates as you want them to.
If your team members know, or can learn, to make decisions independently – your growth would be much faster. Try to teach leadership and ownership in responsibilities, it is better for their career and your company in the longer run.
Understand the principle of delayed gratification and consistency. It is a make or break for most businesses. Things done consistently over a long time yield compounded results which may not be visible on a short enough timeline.
You’ve written 10 blogs over the past 2 months, but not getting the traction you wanted? Be consistent for 10 months and then evaluate.
You’ve been posting on social media every now and then, and now it seems frustrating? Feels like social media isn’t the right platform for your business?(if I had a penny for everytime a founder has said this - I would have more money than I made through my business). Try following a consistent schedule for 10 months and then evaluate again.
You wanted to learn that new skill but can’t seem to get things done? Fix a schedule, be consistent, and then see the magic.

If you had to take only a few pointers away from this entire story I wrote, let them be these:

Be delusionally optimistic.
Fall in love with the game and how it’s played.
Consistency and delayed gratification are the real secret ingredients to success.
If you’re running a business, learn the art of connecting with other people and helping them without any hope or expectation.
Reduce the time between thought & action.

Where can we go to learn more?

Website

If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!

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