№ 01Kanishka
Managing Director & Founder
Seven years building a pay-for-performance digital ads agency that scaled 50+ SaaS, DTC, and service companies to seven and eight figures, with multiple exits along the way.
Performance marketing, aligned
WeYou Win when youwe Win.
We bet our own money on your growth. Five operator-founders, one practice, zero retainers on our lead model. We earn when you grow, not when we show up.
Apply for selection
Two minutes. We accept ~7%.
+0%
avg revenue lift in 6 months
~0%
of applicants accepted
60
days to needle move, or we haven't earned
Founders, not marketers
Operators who built it.
Five times over.
YAMU is run by five operator-founders with combined founder career revenue north of $150M and multiple exits between us. We are not career marketers learning on your account. We built, scaled, and sold companies first. The performance arm is how we put that operator instinct on your P&L.
$150M+
Combined founder career revenue
5
Partners with exits
2018
Operating since
№ 01
№ 02Aaron
Partner
Grew a company from zero to $40M in annual revenue and 200 employees in three years.
№ 03Tyrone
Partner
Built a new consumer product category. Over $30M in sales, ranked 12th fastest-growing consumer brand by INC.
№ 04Alex
Partner
Failed two businesses. Then sold two technology companies for over $20M in four years.
№ 05Dylan
Partner
Six years building go-to-market strategies and brand campaigns across eCommerce, SaaS, and services.
The same five partners run ExitStudio, our operator-investor practice. More on that below.
What founders say
“TimberHut Cabin Company is proud to work with you. The attention to details, process, and outcomes is astounding.”
— Brooks Anderson, Founder & President, TimberHut
“There's nothing quite like an agency that possesses knowledge, embraces innovation, and operates with the agility of a startup.”
— Dolores de Elia, Marketing Manager, Pest Share
“When you get a chance to work with people as capable that understand the lingo, it makes my job as Head of Marketing much better. Yamu clearly gets it.”
— Adam Dicker, Online Marketing Growth Expert
“They share our team values, give beyond what is expected, and every conversation is a real dialogue focused on the next best step to help us scale.”
— Kimberly Bach, Chief People Officer, DailyHuman
The Model
We don't earn
until you grow.
Most agencies charge $5K to $20K a month in retainers before a single dollar of return is proven. We charge zero. We earn a share of the revenue we generate. Terms agreed before we start, in writing, with the math visible to both sides.
Our preferred retainer
$0
Pure performance · we earn everything from the growth we create
Three ways to engage. Every deal structured per business.
01
Pure Performance
Zero retainer. Revenue share only.
25%5%
share range, set per deal
+ one-time onboarding fee
Our lead model. We earn a share of incremental revenue, with the rate stepping down as you scale. The terms — what counts, the baseline, the share at each band — are agreed in writing before we start. Bespoke per deal.
02
Hybrid
Reduced retainer plus performance kicker.
12%5%
share range, plus capped retainer
A predictable cost ceiling with a performance share that still rewards real growth. Founders pick this when they want a baseline relationship in place and a capped variable side.
03
Traditional Retainer
Flat monthly fee. Available on request.
no performance share
We will offer it if you ask. We don't lead with it because the alignment is weaker, but we'll structure one when it's the right fit.
Rates and bands are bespoke per deal. We size the share to your unit economics, your growth trend, and what we have conviction we can actually move. No table. No rate card.
01 / What counts as revenue
Defined per business after the audit. The default is net new revenue from website sales attributed to channels we own. We agree on the exact definition in writing before any contract is signed.
02 / Incrementality
We use your previous 90 days as the baseline, with your existing growth trend already factored in. We only earn from growth above that line. If we can't beat baseline plus trend, we haven't earned anything.
03 / Exit terms
30 days, no cause needed. If we are not earning our keep, fire us. The model only works when both sides are still choosing the partnership.
The alternatives
The four ways to grow.
Three of them have you paying upfront for someone else's risk. We took the other path: align the incentive, eat the risk, charge only on the lift.
01
Traditional Agency
Retainer-first.
- $5K – $20K monthly before any return is proven
- Paid for activity, not outcomes
- Junior team behind a senior pitch
- Account managers, not operators
- Quarterly contracts, slow to fire
02
In-House Team
Hire and hope.
- $400K+ fully loaded for one senior hire
- 12 months to assemble a real pod
- Single-channel knowledge, no cross-pollination
- Career risk if the bet doesn't compound
- You manage the team, not the growth
03
Doing Nothing
The hidden cost.
- Compounding ground lost to competitors monthly
- Customer-acquisition costs creep, unchallenged
- Channel mix drifts as platforms shift
- No baseline to measure future moves against
- Opportunity cost > any retainer you'd ever pay
04
YAMU
Performance partner.
- $0 retainer on the lead model
- Paid only on the revenue we generate
- Senior pod from day one. Five operator-founders.
- 60 days to needle-move, or we haven't earned
- Aligned exit: we win when you win
What we build
We own everything between
the first impression and the transaction.
Demand generation is a creative, data-driven, psychological effort. We build whatever the math requires across paid media, creative, email, attribution, CRO, and the operating layer that ties them together.
№ 01
Demand Generation
Our flagship engagement. A full-stack demand engine built to drive consistent revenue growth. Strategy, technology, and data infrastructure that produce qualified pipeline, qualified transactions, and visible brand.
Read the brief№ 02
Channel Specialists
Top-percentile operators with ten-plus years across creative, ads, CRO, email, funnels, and SEO. Embedded into your account on the same incentive alignment that powers the rest of the practice.
Read the brief№ 03
Six Fundamentals
The strategies we apply across creative, ads, CRO, email, funnels, and SEO regardless of which services you choose. The fundamentals are the foundation; the channel work is the execution.
Read the briefWe do not run long-tail SEO, in-house sales floors, or video camera work. We script, direct, and edit; the founder or talent holds the camera.
How we work
Three weeks to launch.
Sixty days to needle move.
You don't get a single account manager. You get a pod of eight specialists, dedicated to your account, paid more when you grow.
The pod
Eight roles, one team.
№ 01
Lead Strategist
Market awareness, business financials, and overall marketing strategy.
№ 02
Media Buyer
Paid channel expert with comprehensive mastery across Meta, Google, and more.
№ 03
Graphic Designer
Creative assets built for conversion, brand-building, and resonance, not just aesthetics.
№ 04
Video Editor
Scroll-stopping video content for paid and organic performance.
№ 05
Email Marketer
Email campaign management, list segmentation, automation, and performance analysis.
№ 06
CRO Specialist
Website optimization, A/B testing, and user journey analysis.
№ 07
AI Expert
AI tools applied to data analysis, automation, content generation, and insights.
№ 08
UGC Specialist
Sourcing and managing user-generated content for authentic social proof.
Pod incentive alignment
Your pod earns more when you do.
Every operator on your account is substantially bonused on growth. The majority of their compensation comes from growing your brand. Alignment isn't just at the firm level. It's at the individual level.
The 30 / 60 / 90
Day 0–21
Onboarding
Deep audit, financial model, attribution methodology, first campaigns staged.
Day 21–30
First campaigns live
We start executing the strategies aligned during the audit.
Day 30–60
Optimize toward winners
Iterate creative, audiences, and offers. Move the needle.
Day 60–90
Scale the winners
Develop the next offer. Test the next audience. We don't take clients we can't move within 60 days.
Cadence
Slack for asynchronous communication. Weekly call with your strategist and account manager. Monthly call with a partner. Escalation path direct to leadership when needed.
What we need from you
Raw video footage from you or your talent on camera. We script, direct, and post-produce. And a 3-day SLA on creative approvals. Speed to launch and speed to iteration are how performance compounds.
Selection
We take dozens of clients,
not hundreds.
The selectivity isn't a posture. It's a financial necessity of the model. We only earn when our clients earn. So we only take clients we have conviction we can move.
We Take
- DTC e-commerce founders and operators
- Brands doing meaningful revenue with proven unit economics
- Real scalability. Not geographically locked, not niche-capped.
- Founders ready to share control in exchange for shared upside
- Brands with product-market fit already established
We Turn Away
- Pre-PMF brands. The math doesn't work for either party.
- Local or geographically locked businesses with capped scale
- Brands with weak unit economics that can't support growth investment
- Founders who want an order-taker, not a co-founder-level operator
The brands we turn away define us as much as the brands we take.
Operator. Investor.
We don't stop at marketing.
YAMU is the front end of a deeper practice. Performance marketing is how we prove we can grow a brand. When growth surfaces what comes next, operational gaps, capital needs, a fundraise, an exit, our partners step in through ExitStudio at the operator and investor level.
Same five partners. Same operator background. A different point of leverage.
YAMU
Performance marketing
Prove the brand can grow profitably.
EXITSTUDIO
Operator-investor practice
Capital, operations, fundraise, exit.
5
partners with exits
$150M+
combined founder revenue
In their words
Named operators.
Real outcomes.
We post the names of the people we've worked with, not stylized logo bars. Hundreds of companies, six years operating, two and a half years on the pay-for-performance model.
“
The impact you guys have had on me and my team over the years has been vast.
Daniel Schlein, MBA, RICP
Financial Services, Business First 30 Under 30
“
TimberHut Cabin Company is proud to work with you. The attention to details, process, and outcomes is astounding.
Brooks Anderson
Founder & President, TimberHut Cabin Company
“
They share our team values, give beyond what is expected, and every conversation is focused on the next best step to help us scale.
Kimberly Bach
Chief People Officer, DailyHuman
Answers, before you ask
The questions every smart founder asks.
We define qualifying revenue per business during the audit. The default is net new revenue from website sales attributed to channels we own. We agree on the exact definition in writing before any contract is signed. No surprises.
We benchmark against your previous 90 days, with your existing growth trend already factored in. We only earn from growth above that baseline. If we can't beat your baseline plus trend, we haven't earned anything.
On Pure Performance, the downside is your ad spend. We charge zero on the marketing fee side. On Hybrid, the downside is a reduced retainer plus your ad spend; the performance share only fires on net new growth. The model is built so your downside is bounded and visible.
We conflict-check at intake. We take dozens of clients, not hundreds, so the screen is real and tight.
We've operated for six-plus years and run pay-for-performance as our dominant model for two and a half. The partners have exits and capital reserves. We are not a venture-funded startup that disappears in a downturn.
The same five partners run ExitStudio, an operator-investor practice that picks up where YAMU ends. Performance marketing is how we prove we can grow a brand. When growth surfaces operational or capital needs, the bench is already in place.
We take dozens of clients, not hundreds. Slots open and close based on team capacity and current portfolio fit. If you fit the profile and we have a slot, apply now. If not, we'll tell you when we expect capacity to open.
Apply
If we take you on, we commit.
Seven questions. About two minutes. Qualifying answers book a 30-minute Performance Marketing Qualification Call. Disqualifying answers get a real explanation, not a runaround.
Every application is read by a partner.
We accept ~7% of applicants.