Inspired by Peter Thiel’s book “Zero to One”, I founded a performance marketing agency in October 2019 and named the company after the book, “Z21 Studio”. When working at a direct to consumer brand, I partnered with multiple agencies on different areas of the business- media buying, design, web development, etc. There is one common problem - most lacked e-commerce specialization and expertise. As a firm believer in being *hyper-focused*, I did not want to build a company that provides all services to all companies.

The day-one mission was to dominate a small niche - to be the best-performing and known Facebook ad growth agency for fashion e-commerce brands. This strategy worked really well, acquiring a number of big fashion brands based in Malaysia within the first 9 months, including Bonia, Braun Buffel, Oxwhite, and SPAO.

Still a one-man agency in March 2020, the first person I decided to hire was a web developer. Since I took great care of the “Traffic” pillar through paid advertising, I wanted to build in-house capability to design and develop e-commerce stores with great conversion rates. That was the start of our relationship with Shopify, as one of the first Shopify Partners in the region. Fast forward to the end of 2020, the company grew to 5 people - 3 in performance marketing, 1 in web development, and 1 in email marketing. Though not clearly defined at the time, these 3 pillars served strong synergies as ‘Traffic’, ‘Conversion’, and ‘Retention’ are the most important levers to grow any brands digitally. Today, built on these 3 pillars, we have grown to become a highly capable e-commerce growth agency.

In 2021, Jonas joined Z21 as a partner. We were both allergic to the traditional churn-and-burn model of building an agency - we still are. We believed in building long-term client relationships that have allowed us to focus on deepening on our capabilities, rather than worry about acquiring new clients all the time. There is only 1 person in charge of sales in Z21 at the end of 2024, out of a total head count of 34. This ratio is unusually low in the agency industry.

We turned 5 recently. The first few years of building Z21 have been incredibly rewarding — seeing some young graduates who started their career with us and grew so quickly in hard and soft skills, seeing brands with shared values who have not just grown with us but made sure we grow as well, and me personally learning how to lead a company. We have made much progress compared to day one - but in this fast-moving industry we remind ourselves constantly that the moment we get complacent is when we lose relevance.

Jonas and I share a goal that cascades to the team - to do great work for great clients, with great people. How will you be involved in our journey?