Agency or independent studio? What deeptech founders should ask
Should a deeptech founder hire a branding agency or an independent studio? Ask who will actually do the work, how you reach them and whether they will understand your science well enough to explain it simply. An independent studio gives you one person who hears the whole story and builds it, which is what complex science needs.
Most deeptech founders hire a branding partner the same way they would hire a lab supplier. They look at the portfolio, compare the price and pick the one that looks the most established. Bigger feels safer.
The problem is that your company is hard to explain. That is the whole reason you need help. The science is excellent, but your website probably reads like a methods section, which is what I call The Academic Trap. Getting out of it depends on one thing more than anything else: someone has to understand what you have built well enough to say it simply.
That understanding is fragile. It comes from long conversations, awkward questions and a lot of listening. And the more people it passes through, the more of it gets lost.
The questions that actually matter
I run an independent studio, so I am biased. But these are the questions I would ask in your position, whoever you end up hiring.
Who will actually do the work? At a big agency, the people in the pitch are often not the people on your project. Ask to meet the designer who will build your brand and website. If you can't, that tells you something.
How do I reach them? A weekly status call through an account manager is fine for a logo refresh. It is not fine the night before an investor meeting when a slide is wrong. Ask what happens when something can't wait.
Will they understand my science? Nobody needs to be a scientist to brand your company. I'm not one. But they do need to stay with it until they can explain your company back to you in plain words. Ask how they get there.
What happens after launch? Your story changes as you raise, hire and publish. Ask whether they will still pick up the phone in a year.
Why I work one-to-one
When you work with Marshall Studio, you work with me. I'm the person on the first call, the person who writes the positioning, designs the identity and builds the Webflow site. There is no account team and no hand-off. You can message me on WhatsApp when something comes up, and you get me.
I do it this way because being heard is the part that gets lost most easily. An agency process is built to move a brief through a machine. Mine is built around one conversation that keeps going until the story is right.
What founders say about it
Rather than describe it myself, I'd point you to real video testimonials. Ken Kleinberg, owner of Mastery Weight Loss, talks about the work in his own words. I've supported Ken since he launched the business, with calls a couple of times a year. Richard King of King Copywriting and Bobby Kaura, founder and CEO of Pathway Bio have recorded theirs too, as has Mohammad Aghaamoo, co-founder of Cellecho Biotech.
Ron Shigeta, co-founder of IndieBio, put it in writing after I built the iAccelerate brand and website:
"I had a short term deadline to get live on the web and Nathan was instrumental to meeting my goals. He worked hard to put the site up and didn't cut any corners. The result has successfully launched my business and was even announced on the web press!"
Ron Shigeta PhD, Owner of iAccelerate & Co-Founder of IndieBio
Why I flew to San Francisco
Ron and I worked together for years without ever being in the same room. In May 2026 I flew to San Francisco to meet him in person for the first time. There was no pitch and no project on the table. I went because the people I work with matter to me.
An agency can't really do that. It has too many clients and too many people between you and the work. I can, because I keep the studio small on purpose.
When an agency is the right call
To be fair, an agency makes sense if you need a large team working in parallel across many markets, or round-the-clock production on campaigns. Most pre-seed to Series A deeptech founders need something else: one clear story, told well, across a brand, a website and a deck. That is a job for someone who has listened to all of it.
FAQ
Is an independent studio riskier than an agency? The real risk is your story getting lost. Ask who does the work and how you reach them, then judge the portfolio and the references.
Can one person do brand, website and pitch deck? Yes, and it helps. Your deck and your website are one document, so it makes sense for one person to hold the whole story.
How do I reach you during a project? Calls when we need them, shared files for comments and WhatsApp for everything in between.
Do you work with founders outside the UK? Yes. I'm based in Birmingham and work with founders in the UK, the US and the Gulf. You can see some of that work on the case studies page.
If you are weighing up who should tell your company's story, I'm always happy to talk it through, even if the answer is that you need someone else.
Ready to tell your story
Let's build a narrative that moves people and drives results