Modern Outbound founder Joel Graber explains his strategic rationale for acquiring agencies rather than building new service lines organically.
0:00 / 0:16exact quote · 17.0s
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“Organic growth is linear. You know, you're pitching one client at a time, which, Is what I've always done and will continue doing for love of the game, I suppose, but you can actually have the geometric growth that you want where you adopt systems, clients, staff in one go.”
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More from Joel Graber
Insight
Graber: Full-Service Agencies Offer Mediocre Work Without Specialization
“Not to knock some great agencies, obviously, but many of them kind of do them mediocrely. If you don't specialize in one thing, it's like really hard to be good at like 10 things.”
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Insight
Graber: Buyers create more value acquiring within their domain expertise
“I think there's more value in like staying in your lane. If you have an expertise, it's much easier to grow from there.”
Joel GraberMar 31, 2026▶ 6:05How One Acquisition Solved a Critical Growth Bottleneck
Opinion
Graber: Hiring Attorneys for Small Acquisitions Often Makes No Sense
“I think if you're doing a deal under a certain size, it doesn't always make sense to bring in an attorney for something like that. It ended up being a very costly venture to do that.”
Joel GraberMar 31, 2026▶ 9:21How One Acquisition Solved a Critical Growth Bottleneck
Insight
Graber: Buyers should build an agency zero-to-one before acquiring one
“If you want to buy a marketing agency, and that's what we're talking about right now, I think you should know what it is to build one zero to one, even on a certain scale. Like, I don't think it's a great idea to go buy a highly volatile asset, which I think m…”
Joel GraberMar 31, 2026▶ 18:16How One Acquisition Solved a Critical Growth Bottleneck
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Graber: AI Disruption Makes Design and Branding More Critical Over Next Decade
“But I think going into 20, 26, just the next five, 10 years with AI, which we could discuss and how that's how that's causing chaos in the agency world, like brand branding, thought leadership, showing up to your audience with something that's like clear and c…”
Joel GraberMar 31, 2026▶ 2:16How One Acquisition Solved a Critical Growth Bottleneck
Insight
Graber: Branding services create downstream demand for go-to-market offerings
“I think if you get a company at the level of branding it cascades down to services that we offer. On the go to market side.”
Joel GraberMar 31, 2026▶ 14:42How One Acquisition Solved a Critical Growth Bottleneck
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