Hugo Veiga and Diego Machado – former global chief creative officers of AKQA – spent two decades building brands at some of the most prestigious creative agencies in advertising. The next bet: agencies that want to be paid not only in cash, but in the part of the business they help build.
Veiga and Machado exclusively told CMO Insider this week that they have opened !F Creative Capital, a new agency that combines conventional commissions with business partnerships and revenue sharing arrangements linked to client sales.
Rather than charging its own upfront fee, !F Creative Capital offers creative consulting in exchange for equity in a company it believes can grow. For example, it took a stake in Superfoods brand Authentic Fruits in a deal that included three years of creative engagement, a share of sales, and additional equity tied to sales performance. It has equity in CheckMy.Music, an AI platform that scans songs for plagiarism, and an equity partnership in a new project led by former Chelsea FC and Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti.
A long-standing complaint on Madison Avenue is that agency holding companies are prioritizing businesses like media buying — and, increasingly, data, technology, and AI services — because they’re easier to package, measure, and sell over and over again than commissioned creative work. Veiga and Machado say that !F Creative Capital was born out of a desire to create a model that more effectively links the value of creative ideas to business results.
“In many creative industries, everyone is busy doing the deck, making the point, and losing touch with the final thing,” says Machado.
!F Creative Capital has also launched its own brands, including SNIFF, a pet company that lets dogs smell food before their owners buy it, and Baitts, a toothpick brand.
Elsewhere, the company is co-creating a feature film to be released next year, and is preparing to launch an eight-week “Creative Entrepreneurship School” to help people turn their ideas into businesses.
While !F Creative Capital has done commission-based creative work for brands including Corona’s Globe Sports Awards and Cristiano Ronaldo, Veiga and Machado say they’re reinvesting that money into the equity-focused side of the business and in-house projects. !F Creative Capital is self-funded and has a team of around 15 people in seven countries, along with a wider network of contributors.
‘You have an idea, and you give it away for free’
Veiga said the long-term vision is for !F Creative Capital to become independent from commission work as it builds its own brand and effectively becomes its own client. The result may seem like a holding company for a brand rather than a creative agency where the duo made their name.
“A lot of times you have an idea, and you give it away for free, or you force it without having it,” Machado said of the agency business.
Creative agency Adland has explored equity-focused business models in the past. Unusually, the London-based studio in which Havas acquired a majority stake in 2023, took equity in compost coffee pod company Halo and finance app Communion. In 2010, former Deutsch executive Mike Duda founded the hybrid early-stage venture firm and creative agency that later became Bullish. Anomali, now owned by Stagwell, began incubating and acquiring a stake in the brand in the 2000s.
Brian Wieser, CEO of advisory and consulting firm Madison and Wall, said that while the equity model still exists in the agency industry, the practice is uncommon and typically involves individuals running the firm because their skill sets are different.
“Most people who can do business with a focus on venture capital,” Wieser said. “But the right person with the right relationship can make it happen.”