My agency growth system has three channels: outbound, partnerships, and founder-led content. Each draws on the agency’s specialist expertise, with a common rule: provide more value than you ask for.
Originally shared in March 2026. Revenue figures, growth targets, and channel plans reflect that point in time.
The three pillars
Last year, I grew my agency portfolio from $1M to $5M in ARR. This year, I'm targeting $5M to $10M. Here are the 3 pillars driving that growth. They support the specialist-agency model: each agency needs a clear reason for its customers to choose it.
1. Outbound
We use a combination of cold email and DMs to reach a well-researched, enriched, qualified list of prospective buyers.
The volume is significant, 20,000 to 50,000 emails/messages per month per agency.
The technical deliverability is critical but so is the creative. Start with an offer a buyer can understand in one sentence. The philosophy behind it is simple: always provide more than you ask for. Every outbound message, follow up, lead magnet and call provides asymmetric value to the prospect.
2. Partnerships
Partnerships are crushing right now. They work because we have highly credible founders and high NPS scores. Great partners feel great about sending us referrals because they know (even if they don’t convert) they’ll be taken care of.
Our partners fall into two buckets. The first is institutional partners (other agencies, VC, PE, trade groups, networking organizations). Their motivation is primarily strategic: they have clients/portcos with specific needs and want to make sure they’re in good hands.
The second is individual partners (solopreneurs, consultants, fractional CXO’s). Referral fees can become a material part of their annual earnings, which creates a real incentive to send us business consistently.
There's nothing wrong with either motivation, understanding the difference just lets us tailor the program to each group.
3. Content Marketing
Each CEO creates content around their specific area of expertise. LinkedIn is our home base, but we cross-post on X and are actively ramping up short form video across consumer social platforms.
We produce a combination of short form written content, long form written content, and short form video, all sourced from bi-weekly content interviews, podcast appearances, and internal strategy calls.
IMO, these are the channels that represent the most alpha opportunity for founder-led service businesses in 2026.
About this article
Lightly edited from “Last year, I grew my agency portfolio from $1M to $5M in ARR.” on LinkedIn ↗, originally shared by John Ghiorso on . The Journal edition was first published on September 8, 2026.
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