15 Years of 19 Ideas

“It’s not personal. It’s business.” That’s a phrase I’ve heard repeatedly since starting this agency in 2011. I understand the sentiment. But after 15 years of owning a business, I can tell you that, for me, it has never been true. 19 Ideas is one of the most personal things I’ve ever done in my life.

At the same time, 19 Ideas has never been about one person. What started with a leap of blind faith 15 years ago has grown into a team, a body of work, longstanding client relationships, and a way of working shaped by every person who has been part of it.

This milestone is also a reason to reflect on how we got here, what we’ve learned, and what has stayed true every step of the way.

It Started With Possibility

When I started 19 Ideas in 2011, I knew I didn’t want to name the company after myself. Beyond the practical reality that “Krawczyk” isn’t exactly easy to spell, I wanted to build something bigger and more meaningful than any one person.

That idea of possibility has been part of 19 Ideas from the beginning. What if? Why? Why not? How can we?

Our name reflects this. While 19 happens to be a lucky number for me and Dan (OK, mostly Dan), it’s meant to invoke something arbitrary in a way — why 19? Why not 19? Coupled with ideas, you have a name that was intentionally built around possibility — if somewhat subliminally so.

In the beginning, there was a lot of saying yes, working hard, and figuring things out. One of our first clients was Five Star Urgent Care. What began with helping open a single location in rural Upstate New York blossomed into a deep relationship that lasted nearly a decade as the organization — later becoming WellNow Urgent Care — grew across the country. We secured national and global media coverage for 43North in its earliest days, helping put new eyes on Buffalo that resulted in a direct and tangible impact on our community. Our mantra, Work With Purpose, was born.

Then our team grew. We hired our first employee in 2012. Originally contractors, Dan became my partner and Amber officially joined as our Creative Director in early 2014. We added new disciplines and expertise to round out the skill set between the three of us and started building an integrated marketing agency. I always believed the most impactful and informed marketing is done across disciplines, working in unison toward common business goals for our clients. That philosophy has served us well and still holds true today.

In 2015, we moved into our home on Essex Street, where we’ve happily spent 11 of our 15 years.

With every new person, client, and opportunity, the agency continued to take shape.

Growth Looks Different After 15 Years

When you start a business, growth can feel like the obvious goal.

More clients. More employees. More revenue. More everything.

I still have plenty of ambition, but 15 years of experience and lessons have given me a different sense of what meaningful growth looks like for a business.

Growth can mean understanding the work you’re best equipped to do and where you can make the greatest impact. It can mean deepening your expertise, strengthening your processes, and getting clearer about how you work best. It can mean building stronger relationships with your clients and becoming a true extension of their teams.

Over 15 years, we’ve also had to navigate plenty of change. In 2020, a global pandemic upended how and where we worked. Client needs shifted. Costs increased. Expectations around work changed.

One thing that period reinforced for me is that businesses, like people, go through seasons. There will be times when everything seems to click and times when you’re forced to adapt. That experience taught me to appreciate the good seasons and trust our ability to navigate the difficult ones.

Today, I feel like we’ve come full circle in the best possible way.

So much of what we’re doing now is what we were trying to build from the beginning. We just understand it better.

We’ve experimented, evolved, and sharpened our expertise. But the fundamentals have remained the same: understand the business problem, put the right people around it, stay curious, think strategically, and hold ourselves to a high standard — in our work, our service, and how we treat people.

Fifteen years later, we’re clearer than ever about who we are, how we work, and the kind of agency we are. We aren’t the biggest agency, nor do we want to be. We want to do meaningful work, be appreciated and valued by our clients and each other, and have enjoyment and enrichment in our lives.

The People Make the Place

Every once in a while, I’ll be sitting in our main conference room (or “The Barn”) at our Essex Street office and think about everything that has happened in that room.

So many different people have sat around that table. There have been brilliant ideas, big decisions, difficult conversations, and moments that pushed us to be better. There have also been Thanksgiving dinners, celebrations, a lot of laughter, and friendships.

That’s what 15 years of 19 Ideas looks like to me.

It’s the clients who trusted us when we were new and the ones who trust us as a seasoned agency today. It’s every employee who has brought their perspective and talent to our work. It’s the partners and friends who have opened doors, challenged our thinking, and cheered us on.

For years, we’ve talked about “happy team, happy clients.” It sounds simple, but there’s a lot behind it. This is a demanding industry, and agency life is not easy. We hold ourselves to a high standard, but we also work hard to create an environment rooted in mutual honesty, trust, transparency, and respect. We care about the quality of our work and our relationships.

We are in the business of people. And it’s the people who have made this journey what it is.

The Ideas Ahead

When I started 19 Ideas, I wanted to build an agency that could become something beyond me.

Today, I’m proud of the expertise we’ve built, the standards we hold ourselves to, the relationships we’ve formed, and the impact our work has had on our clients and the communities we touch.

And we’re still asking the same questions that started all of this:

What if?

Why?

Why not?

How can we?

I couldn’t have predicted everything the past 15 years would bring, and I don’t know exactly what the next 15 will look like. But I know what I want us to keep working toward: being the agency our clients choose because they trust our thinking and our people; being a place where talented people can do work they’re proud of; and being a partner that holds itself accountable to a high bar in our craft, our service, and the way we treat one another.

To everyone who has been part of 19 Ideas along the way: thank you for trusting us, challenging us, growing with us, and believing in what’s possible.