Scaling Smarter
After 17 years, Upstatement’s creative work is taking it to new heights. But what does it take to maintain a company ethos as your business expands?
In the world of creative agencies, growth can be a tricky thing to manage. While striving for expansion, you have to be vigilant about maintaining the very essence of what has made a company special in the first place.
For almost two decades, digital design studio Upstatement has been focusing on authentic growth. “Upstatement is an overnight success — 17 years in the making,” quips CEO Mike Swartz, who founded the agency with Jared Novack and Tito Bottitta (the three met during their time at Syracuse University), on the years of building, learning, and evolving that led it to its current position: working with high-profile clients like Vogue, Harvard University, and Nike.
How do you achieve sustainable growth without sacrificing core values? Upstatement’s journey, as illuminated by Swartz and Chief Design Officer Scott Dasse, is less about unchecked expansion and more about intentional evolution, rooted in ambition, adaptation, and an unwavering commitment to craft.
From Startups to C‑Suite
It sometimes seems that some agencies burst onto the scene with hundreds of employees and major, buzzy projects. For Upstatement, its journey has been one step at a time. Operating at the intersection of storytelling, design, and engineering, its client base in the early days of the business included local Cambridge startups and universities.
Each project was an opportunity for Upstatement to hone its expertise while holding strong to its grand ambitions and overall vision, which were often larger than the clients at its doorstep. “We definitely had to build the company block by block and keep leveling up our skills,” says Swartz.
This included joining GDP and the kyu Collective in late 2022, exposing Upstatement to further opportunities.
In 2024, Upstatement’s work with Vogue served as a major turning point. “It was perfect, because it was editorial and digital product together,” recalls Swartz. Partnering closely with then editor-in-chief of American Vogue and chief content officer of Condé Nast, Anna Wintour as Condé Nast’s digital strategy advisor, Upstatement worked with Vogue to find its community and regain control of its content by building a social app for the Vogue universe.
That success led directly to another superstar client; when Nike was undergoing a change in leadership, executives saw the Vogue work and reached out to see if Upstatement could help reimagine its brand. Upstatement’s initial phase of partnership with Nike centered on resetting global brand standards, elevating the consistency and aesthetic of Nike’s approach across consumer touchpoints.
This influential brand work has since been utilized at the highest levels. “They literally handed it to everyone across the global organization and said, ‘This is what good looks like,’” shares Swartz, who points to the power of exceptional work acting as a key referrer. Upstatement’s long-term commitment to delivering unique and ambitious work is now helping them attract the global opportunities they sought from launch.
Thinking Beyond Size
Many agencies equate scaling with adding bodies and dollars, but Upstatement’s approach is less about increasing headcount and more about increasing ambition. “When I think about scale, I think about scaling our impact through the briefs that we get and the level of taste and craft that’s required to complete them,” says Swartz.
The studio intentionally maintains a relatively small team, which allows for what CDO Dasse calls “a tight-knit team structure that encourages collaboration.” Staying nimble also means leaders like Swartz and Dasse remain connected to the craft, ensuring quality control and constant creative advancement.
Swartz cautions against scaling purely for the sake of growth: “Scale can be a dangerous trap, because you have to grow an org wider to handle more dollars, which creates more pressure, and potentially erosion.” Upstatement prioritizes impact, a choice that has helped the company maintain its identity.
Staying Curious
A core Upstatement value is a genuine love for the “material of the web, and how it works,” says Swartz. Everyone at the studio is innately curious, which is part of what sets Upstatement apart from its competition. Clients aren’t just hiring them for manpower but for their insightful approach and desire to innovate.
Swartz likens Upstatement’s craft to that of a specialist who needs to stay up to date with the latest research: “You can’t exploit the knowledge from medical school for 30 years, because the way we think is different now.” This emphasis on continuous learning keeps them at the cutting edge in an ever-evolving landscape.
For Dasse, “variety of diet” is also important. “If I only worked for Nike, Puma, Adidas, I’d be super bored of sneakers,” he says. Balancing high-profile clients with cause-based or creatively experimental projects keeps the team engaged and inspired. Smaller projects can also act as an “R&D lab” for new ideas that may later be applied to larger clients. While larger organizations sometimes move slowly, working directly with founders can provide opportunities to lean into trial and error.
“You have to keep taking risks and finding clients that are down for that risk. They’re not all going to hit, and that’s fine,” says Swartz. Pushing for diversity of clients and having the courage to try new things are both essential parts of Upstatement’s growth strategy.
On the Same Page
As any company scales, growing pains undoubtedly emerge. How do you provide structure while keeping the heart and soul of an organization alive? Processes exist to formalize work, provide consistency, and keep the workforce sane, and though Swartz acknowledges that, he also believes, “If you’re not breaking a process intentionally, for the right reasons, you can slide into entropy.” Upstatement’s work with Nike, for example, didn’t quite fit with any of its existing processes, and staying flexible allowed it to thrive.
Scaling also brings with it the challenge of maintaining creative alignment. Describing why something is “good” isn’t easy, and even when employing top talent, chances are not everyone will share the same taste. Upstatement’s approach is to identify and empower the right influencers within the company and foster open dialogue to help maintain quality and consistency. Artifacts like Upstatement’s Art Direction Show blog, Are.na channels, and internal Slack channels also serve as visual guides to what is inspiring their work.
Upstatement’s ascent shows that scaling successfully requires a mix of ambition, focus, and a commitment to continuous improvement. A company’s evolution is never finished, but leaning into intentionality makes the climb feel authentic, no matter how high the stakes may get.