SWAT
Richard Kirshenbaum originally brought me in to help assess and refine SWAT's business model. The engagement was initially structured as a short-term consulting assignment, but within days it became clear we were building something much larger.
As President & Partner, I helped evolve SWAT from a founder-focused creative agency into a broader strategic platform serving founders, emerging brands, and innovation-led businesses navigating growth, transformation, and opportunity. While many agencies focused primarily on marketing communications, I approached client engagements more like their interim Chief Brand Officer, connecting business strategy, customer experience, operations, partnerships, digital ecosystems, and brand positioning into one integrated system.
“SWAT operated less like a traditional agency and more like a strategic portfolio of businesses in motion.”
Venus Williams designed and wore ELEVEN at the highest levels of global tennis matches
1 Hotels merged sustainable hospitality with modern luxury positioning.
THE MODEL EVOLVED
As the business gained momentum, my role expanded well beyond individual client engagements into helping evolve how SWAT itself operated.
I looked at the agency through the same lens we applied to clients: team structure, collaboration, decision-making, client experience, operating rhythm, and the way ideas moved through the business. Energy mattered. The right people solving the right problems together created smarter work, stronger client relationships, and ultimately better business outcomes.
The goal was never to become a bigger agency. It was to become a smarter one.
While many agencies focused primarily on marketing and brand communications, I approached client engagements more like an interim President or Chief Brand Officer, connecting business strategy, customer experience, operations, partnerships, digital ecosystems, and brand positioning into one integrated system.
That evolution allowed us to support founders, private equity firms, and innovation-led businesses across hospitality, finance, aviation, wellness, beauty, consumer products, and luxury lifestyle, including Marcus by Goldman Sachs, Wheels Up, ELEVEN by Venus Williams, 1 Hotels, Baccarat Hotel, ZEEL, Furtuna Skin, Greg Norman, and many others.
The work helped reposition private aviation around membership, accessibility, and modern lifestyle, contributing to Wheels Up’s eventual IPO.
FROM BRAND WORK TO BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION
Richard had already built SWAT around a fundamentally different philosophy.
Rather than simply producing campaigns, the agency partnered directly with founders and executive teams during periods of growth, reinvention, and transformation. Clients could engage us through a traditional consulting model or, when the opportunity made sense, through a reduced-fee partnership combined with equity participation. We wanted to share in the upside when we believed in the businesses we were helping build.
That philosophy immediately resonated with me.
Having worked on both the agency and client sides, I understood how executives made decisions, how organizations actually operated, and where momentum often slowed inside traditional agency structures. I naturally found myself helping clients connect leadership priorities, operational realities, customer experience, and brand strategy into one integrated conversation.
Instead of waiting for creative briefs, we often helped define the business priorities first, then built strategic and creative systems around them.
The engagement helped define the strategic positioning that contributed to the eventual launch of Apple Card.
The line combined Sicilian provenance with modern packaged goods positioning.
BUILT TO MOVE FAST
We intentionally kept SWAT lean.
Every client worked directly with Richard, me, and the other partners from day one. Rather than layering account management between strategy and execution, we stayed deeply involved ourselves, assembling the right mix of strategists, creatives, producers, developers, and specialists around each engagement based on the business, not a fixed agency structure.
SWAT operated less like a traditional agency and more like a strategic portfolio of businesses in motion.
Rather than thinking in terms of accounts, I thought in terms of businesses. Every client deserved the same level of strategic rigor, operational thinking, and founder-like ownership, whether they were an early-stage startup or a global enterprise.
Having worked on both the agency and client sides, I knew how easily great ideas could lose momentum as they moved through layers of process and communication. We intentionally built SWAT to eliminate that friction. Small teams. Direct communication. Deep founder involvement. Fast decisions.
That operating model allowed me to naturally step into many engagements as an interim President & Chief Brand Officer, connecting business strategy, customer experience, operations, partnerships, digital ecosystems, and brand positioning into one integrated system.
As the model matured, the business grew primarily through referrals and word of mouth as founders introduced us to other founders navigating similar moments of growth and transformation.
“The conversations with clients often start with branding, but the real opportunity mostly sits deeper inside the business itself.”
The 30 E. 31 brand vision brought a modern deco sensibility to Nomad, balancing architectural elegance with contemporary residential living.
The work for BR Guest Restaurants focused heavily on executive alignment, strategic storytelling, and consumer visualization, which led to a major transaction.
The engagement started with brand strategy and resulted in a business initiative that ultimately led to a major transaction.
The launch of SWAT Equity formalized an approach already deeply embedded in the business: partnering with founders, emerging brands, and growth-stage ventures.
RESULTS BEYOND THE BRIEF
Over an 18-month period, agency revenue increased more than 425% as the business evolved into a broader strategic platform. The work expanded well beyond campaigns into larger transformation initiatives that included e-commerce ecosystems, retail strategy, venture positioning, hospitality branding, acquisition preparation, customer segmentation, and integrated growth planning.
That momentum ultimately led to the creation of SWAT Equity, a venture fund built around the same philosophy: business strategy and brand strategy are most powerful when they evolve together.
FROM SWAT TO SWAT EQUITY
As Managing Director & Partner of SWAT Equity, I helped lead brand-focused diligence, positioning, and portfolio strategy for investments including Supergoop!, Banza, HATCH, NAADAM, Powerful Foods, Zeel, and other founder-led businesses.
The investment model reflected the same philosophy that shaped SWAT from the beginning: helping founders build stronger businesses by aligning strategy, operations, and brand from the earliest stages of growth.
Re-shaping the brand strategy helped extend Baccarat’s legacy beyond crystal into a fully realized luxury hospitality brand, poised for major growth.
TAKEAWAY
SWAT became one of the clearest expressions of how I believe modern businesses should operate.
The strongest growth systems are built when strategy, operations, customer experience, leadership, and brand positioning move together as one integrated model.
I was never interested in simply marketing businesses. I wanted to help build better ones.