‘Pinch Me’ Moments and Diverse DNA with Dynamic Founders Duo

Founders is a minority-owned, multicultural agency with offices in New York, Miami, Mexico City, Bogotá, Buenos Aires and Kingston. Launched in 2019 by CEO Tanya De Poli and CCO Checha Agost Carreño, the agency has since launched a global content production hub, TooManyMuch, and brought its diverse perspectives and creativity to work for the likes of Heinz, Netflix, Snapchat, Paramount and Lipton.

“Diversity is in our DNA,” says Tanya, speaking with LBB. “Our 65-person team spans 12 countries, blending the backgrounds, expertise and perspectives that power our creative output.”

With a 70% female team and seven out of eight senior leaders being women, the CEO shares that gender diversity is one of the agency’s core strengths. “We have always sought the best talent without bias, organically building one of the most female-forward agencies in the Americas,” she continues.

“Even in creative positions, where gender diversity remains a challenge within our industry, women play a leading role across our team. But the pride in our diversity comes not from the figures, but from our instinctive commitment to building an inclusive organisation without relying on quotas, a dedicated DEI department, or outside consultants.”

Tanya and Checha apply this commitment to their hiring process, focusing on developing the next generation of Founders through a partnership with the Miami Ad School. They give younger talent the confidence to follow their intuition and make mistakes, while paying attention to their needs - a reflection of the duo’s dynamic when Checha was Tanya’s mentor at Ogilvy.

The two first met at Ogilvy Miami during a disillusioned time for Tanya, in which she almost quit the industry entirely. Having previously spent time in TV production, working on ‘Saturday Night Live’ among others, she had grown bored of agency life – that is, until Checha took her under his wing.

“I was told, ‘Hey, we want you to work on a pitch for a fun brand with one of our global CCOs. It will be different from everything you’ve done so far’. In comes Checha, one of the most creative people I know, who basically tells me, ‘Everything you’ve done at Ogilvy till now was not advertising. Give me a chance to show you what this industry is really about’.”

The pair began working as a team and Tanya fell in love with advertising. In less than a year, she became the youngest GM in Ogilvy’s history. “That day was a turning point for both of us…” says Checha. “Today, we function very naturally as a creative dynamic duo.”

On paper, this partnership is a combination of Tanya’s ‘business brain’ and Checha’s ‘creative brain’ - though in practice, the co-founders aren’t so siloed. “Tanya loves creativity more than many creatives in this industry, and I was CEO for many years, so I got used to managing numbers,” explains Checha. “That’s why we share those responsibilities for most projects.”

While Checha introduced a “creativity reigns overall mentality” to the partnership, he’s more than comfortable with interviewing business people and headhunting talent; and Tanya is equally happy with fulfilling creative duties. But at the intersection of these disciplines is where they succeed most. “We like to propose creative solutions to business problems, so our sweet spot is turning around a brand with disruptive creative, then building a business case around it,” says Tanya.

At the end of 2024, Founders shook up its global leadership team to help grow two of its business arms – production and product development. Among others, the promotions saw Delfina Lamino assume the CEO role for the agency’s production hub, TooManyMuch. With this team, they aim to continue diversifying and expanding, while remaining independent.

“Because we’ve grown very quickly in the past five years, we are a different company now,” reflects Checha. “Either way, our priority is protecting our culture, remaining close to our whole team, even when the day-to-day rush makes that feel impossible.” Needless to say, this transition from being the two people running every square inch of the business to less hands-on leaders has been a challenge.

^{Above: 'Ratvertising' for WE♥️NYC}

“As much effort as we are putting into it, it’s still really fucking hard, because we love what we do so much,” he continues. “We never feel like we are doing everything, but we always feel that we can do more. That’s why it was a good idea to create new management, so we could learn to delegate better. Now we see that it is possible!”

“Although we have grown, we have kept our promise to clients to remain a business that is closely tended to by its owners,” adds Tanya. “Regardless of our clients’ size, they still get our day-to-day attention. We remain closely involved in things like meetings and shoots, not because we have to be, but because we are genuinely passionate about what we do and still enjoy doing it every day.”

Now over five years in, Tanya says that the pair still have a lot of ‘pinch me’ moments – one of these being the continued success of TooManyMuch – “the best business decision we have made since launching Founders”, according to Tanya.

Now the fastest growing department at the company, led by Delfina Lamino, TooManyMuch exports production assets to over 40 markets around the world, from 3D DOOH activations to the 15,000 uniforms they created for the launch of ‘Squid Game 2’ for Netflix. The duo believes that clients like Netflix and Spotify appreciate that Founders has become a one-point contact solution for their production needs.

^{Above: 'La Tierra Del Corrido' for Spotify}

“For most clients, the fewer hands involved in their project, the better,” says Checha. “Being an end-to-end agency has allowed us to maintain control over the project, from strategy to the final production of assets. This way, the process is faster, leaner, more agile and more cost-efficient. We deliver crafty solutions at the speed of the culture.”

“We recently filmed a huge project in Times Square, in the rain, using drones, cranes and more than 150 dancers,” adds Tanya. “We took over every major screen in this iconic location. When it was finished, Delfina, Checha and I had a group hug in the rain, just taking the moment to appreciate how far we have come.”

But no matter how big Founders grows, or how ambitious the projects become, Tanya and Checha maintain a joint responsibility for curating a positive culture at the company. It’s a sentiment they’ve shared since their Ogilvy Mexico days, where Checha would spend the first part of his day greeting hundreds of employees, checking in on their families, personal lives and work – a practice that rubbed off on Tanya.

“One thing that I love about her is how she cares about each of the 65 Founders,” says Checha. “She personally takes care of every birthday gift and every cake. I’ve never seen anything like that before. She is the best HR Manager we could ask for.”

^{Above: 'Can Daddy' for Lipton}

A culmination of the supportive atmosphere they nurture day-to-day, Founders takes its team to a different city around the world each year for a retreat. In 2024, they went to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and after the final dinner, each colleague was invited to express their feelings. “It made me very emotional to hear what they had to say, not just about the trip but about Founders and our colleagues, how happy they are to share time with people they consider family. I couldn’t be prouder about that,” says Tanya.

“The whole journey makes us proud. We were born in 2019, a few months before the global pandemic. At the time, we weren’t sure how we would survive that. But jumping into that abyss, leaving our comfort zones, not knowing what was on the other side, and the adrenaline of not knowing what was going to come next made us stronger as a team.

“Today, that is what makes us proudest when looking at our team. Just to see the amazing talent that has embarked on this journey with us is the perfect reflection of what we have always wanted to achieve with Founders. And we are working for brands that surpass our wildest dreams, like Netflix, Spotify, Heinz, Lipton and the City of New York. We still celebrate each win like we did the first one. Our essence has not changed, and I love that about us.”