HAYMAKER Celebrates Becoming a Minority-Owned Business

HAYMAKER, the LA-based agency bringing the strategically creative ruckus, is celebrating its certification as a Minority-Owned Business. 

To mark the occasion, for one night only, founder and chief creative officer Jay Kamath’s mother cooked homemade South Indian food for anyone who wanted to stop by and celebrate. In other words, HAYMAKER transformed into MUKKA, a pop-up South Indian culinary experience. 'Mukka' means 'punch' in Hindi, a callback to the agency’s boxing-inspired name with the festivities inspired by vintage Hindi action movies. 

The HAYMAKER team also developed customised invitations and merchandise for the event, all inspired by the aesthetic of Hindi action movies that Jay grew up on. 

To pay it forward for the rest of the industry, HAYMAKER has developed a video, 'How to Become a MBE' to serve as a guide for other minority-owned businesses looking for certification.

“MUKKA is the culmination of the hard work that goes into  becoming certified as a Minority-Owned Business,” said Jay Kamath, founder and chief creative officer at HAYMAKER. “It was only fitting that we celebrate by transforming into a pop-up restaurant and having my mom cook South Indian food for everyone.”

“At a moment when the 4A’s has reported that we’ve lost ground in terms of representation in advertising agency C-cuites, I feel immense pride that HAYMAKER has joined a thriving community of minority owned businesses,” said Jay Kamath, founder and chief creative officer at HAYMAKER.“Our goal is to show more up-and-coming BIPOC talent the possibilities in our creative industry and help more Minority-Owned Businesses become certified.”

“Becoming a Minority-Owned Business wasn’t the most intuitive of processes and getting started felt a bit intimidating. So, HAYMAKER created the ‘How to Become a Minority-Owned Business’ film to help give an entertaining overview that helps demystify the certification process for any fellow minority business owners interested in pursuing certification,” said Jay Kamath, founder and chief creative officer at HAYMAKER. “It also gave me the opportunity to find my parents’ original Indian passports and marvel at how my dad looked like a private investigator from the 1950s.”