Design Business Company: Blending in-house smarts with studio agility

Two years ago, Design Business Company (DBCo) was born from a simple but compelling insight: many agencies don’t truly understand how modern software companies think and work. Founded by Stewart Scott-Curran, Judson Collier, and Jordan Egstad, the studio was built to bridge that gap - blending the strategic depth of in-house teams with the creative agility of an independent practice.

“We found that especially in the startup world, the lifecycle of internal brand teams tended to follow a somewhat predictable cadence,” explains Stewart Scott-Curran. “From growing the team and positioning the brand to executing the rebrand or website refresh and optimising the new brand.

“As we worked through the more strategic phases, we regularly brought on agencies to help. Oftentimes, we found these agencies somewhat out of touch with how fast-growing software companies thought and worked.”

With experience spanning Nike, CNN, Apple, Intercom, Figma, and GitHub, the trio saw an opportunity to apply their deep understanding of in-house brand operations in a way that felt more collaborative than the traditional client-agency model. The result is a studio that moves fast, aligns seamlessly with product and marketing teams, and delivers brand work designed for both velocity and longevity.

Rethinking the client-agency relationship

DBCo has built its reputation on a co-creation-first approach - one that mirrors the iterative, cross-disciplinary processes found in top product teams. “We understand the problems [clients] are trying to solve, the conversations they have, and how we can contribute in a way that feels more like actual co-creation rather than the traditional client/agency relationship, which can sometimes feel more transactional than collaborative,” says Scott-Curran.

This means working as an embedded partner rather than a distant consultant. Instead of highly polished, choreographed design presentations, DBCo prioritises transparency and efficiency. “We’re seeing less desire for the ‘dog and pony show’ presentations that package the work in a laboured way in favour of simple and lightweight presentations. Oftentimes, we simply open up Figma and give a tour of what we’ve been working on,” he explains.

“It keeps everyone close to the work, including speaking to what didn’t work as much as what did.” That efficiency also extends to their structure, as while the three partners form the studio’s core, they collaborate with a fluid network of specialists, bringing in engineering, motion, and strategy talent as needed. This keeps the team nimble, responsive, and free from the constraints of a single-house style.

The Evolution of Brand Strategy in Tech

One of the biggest shifts DBCo has observed in the past two years is a heightened focus on brand strategy. “Companies are, more often than not, hyper-aware of how they sound relative to the competition and how they articulate the benefits of their products to their specific audiences,” says Scott-Curran.

This means clients are asking for more than just a fresh look - they want a brand framework that deeply integrates with their product experience and business goals. “They’re looking for collaborators that intuitively understand the product creation process and how software companies take that to market,” he adds. “They want to ensure that the end-to-end process for new customers is as seamless from a brand perspective as possible. This means deep collaboration across product and engineering teams.”

With this strategic lens, DBCo is selective about the trends it embraces; for example, it is not rushing to incorporate AI-generated design but is taking a more intentional approach. “We use AI in a way that helps inform and support the creative process. We’re not in the business of just generating some images and throwing them in,” says Scott-Curran.

Similarly, brand sprints - a popular, rapid-fire approach to branding - aren’t a fit for their model. “These can be super useful for very early-stage companies, but typically, we like to go deep into business goals and build a relationship over a period of time,” he explains.

What’s Next for DBCo?

As the studio heads into its third year, expansion isn’t the priority - stability is. “We’ve all seen the boom and bust cycles in the industry over the last few years, and we want to avoid that by staying cash-positive, hiring responsibly, and avoiding taking on debt or hiring rashly to scale up to client needs only to lay them off later,” says Scott-Curran.

Instead, they’re doubling down on their strengths: maintaining a senior-led, highly adaptable team, refining their strategic offerings, and exploring how emerging technologies can enhance their own workflow. “We’re making space for building our own products and experiences. We love doing client work, but we also believe in using emerging technologies to enhance the experience of building and running our own company,” he shares.

DBCo also sees 2025 as a year where design and engineering will continue to merge. “We’ve seen the edges between the two blur recently, and we expect that will continue in 2025 and beyond,” Scott-Curran predicts. “We see engineering as part of the creative process, and vice versa, and continuing to design with the end in mind is always going to be incredibly important to us.”

In an industry obsessed with scale, Design Business Company is proving that thoughtful, elastic, and deeply embedded creative partnerships might just be the future of branding for fast-moving companies.