Why Huge?
Josh: One way of thinking about the future of our industry is the value of talent. When I met people from Huge (having known the brand from afar for many years), it was clear that great talent is what drives great work and real outcomes for clients. Large holding companies will promise scale, but scale can be a trap. It’s challenging at that size to authentically claim being centered on nurturing and enabling the highest level of talent, when it’s really only about scaling mediocrity.
As I thought about what I wanted next in my career, I was looking for a place where I could have an impact—for clients and for the industry—by investing in great talent. What I saw in Huge was the opportunity to resurface what our industry has always been about: using creativity and deep thinking to solve business problems.
Having the very best 900 or 1,000 people focused on doing that is a powerful thing. Five years down the road, that’s what will win; scaling mediocrity will not. That belief—and the chance to be part of an independent company—was a big reason I came to Huge.
Lauren: Huge loomed large in my head starting from my early days in advertising. I worked at an agency that specialized in hospitality and they sold cheap websites to get retained marketing contracts. So the opposite of what we do! And one year, every single one of my clients called me and said, “We need that Four Seasons website!” It was the most beautiful website on the Internet at the time and I thought, “What is Huge doing?”
For me, aside from the opportunity to reunite with Josh, there were a couple very concrete things I was looking for when I came to Huge. I didn’t want to go someplace that was media-led. (Media is incredibly important to our clients, but I didn’t want to be confined to a plan that was set in place in a different business context.) Being somewhere where we have the possibility of impacting the business with the work that we do is very important to me. I also wanted to go someplace where it didn’t feel like the ceiling was right above my head—and that’s less for me and more for our clients.
I think there is a sense at Huge that we can do anything (within reason). Everybody loves constraints and we know why we’re here—to make clients successful and to make our company successful—but there’s not really an asterisk there: the goal is success for everyone.
Being in a privately held company that’s built on two pillars—design and technology—creates a very clear box to live in with a lot of space to play.
Josh: Our new offerings are intentionally simpler, not because the work is simple but because clarity matters. We’re not trying to be everything to everyone, but we’re connecting what we do directly to clients’ outcomes. Clients are under enormous pressure—from boards, shareholders and executive teams—to deliver results. Increasingly they care less about how many hours something takes and more about the outcome. Being a partner who is genuinely invested in a shared outcome is essential.
Our independence affords us the freedom to invest in that kind of model, in ways large public companies simply can’t.
Navigating difficulties.
Josh: We were recently talking about the toughest moments in our relationship working together, and it’s interesting that I don’t think we’ve ever had a knock-down, drag-out fight. I think it’d be fun to see, in certain ways.
Lauren:We’re both really scrappy!
Josh: It would be a dirty fight, to be clear! But I think, ultimately, we have a lot of respect for each other’s roles. I think, depending on the context, we have a respect for who’s accountable for making the decision, and whatever the outcome may be from that.
I think there have been times in Lauren’s role where she’s come to me with something she wants to do and I’ve said, “Look, it’s your decision. Go for it.” I may not agree. I'll say why I don’t agree, but you have to be able to authentically own accountability. And I think there have been times I’ve had to make decisions where Lauren has voiced a perspective and I’ve made a different decision, and she’s shown great respect for the decision, and said, “I will only tell you ‘I told you so’ once I see it does not work out!” I think that level of respect is important and has enabled us to work very well together professionally, while also allowing us to have a friendship that has survived all matters of change and wildness that has occurred in the industry and within organizations.
Lauren: I agree with everything you said. I think there is such a trust between us and I think our values are very similar and generally aligned to doing the right thing. I know that can sound quite nebulous: the right thing can be different based on the day and based on the context. I’m not making ourselves to be moral superheroes, but I think generally our angle is: What’s the right thing for clients, company culture, talent, growth? Some combination of that is usually the thing we both want.
We’re both people who like to solicit a lot of inputs, and that’s actually good because we’re not myopically only talking to each other in this little echo chamber. We’re both very social people who are curious how other people react to things, particularly when there are decisions we haven’t made before.
Josh: She likes to say we’re both very social. I think Lauren is very social and projects that onto me, which I appreciate. But I think it’s true that we bring the opinions we hear from others into the discussion and decisions that are getting made. So that they’re not made in a vacuum.
And I would also say it’s important to note that when we talk about making what’s right, like you said, it’s not a moral judgment: it’s about what’s right in the context and in the moment. Hopefully, they are all also morally aligned and valid decisions. But this is a for-profit business. We have to achieve growth. Growth enables us to do the right thing even more often; it enables us to invest in our people the way we want to. And it enables us to do great work. I think we both have a fundamental understanding of that.
