They intentionally avoid the bloated overhead of legacy firms—no office leases, big support structures, or layers of middle management. “The idea is not to take funding,” said Riley. “When you start to take funding, you start to compromise your principles. I’d rather earn very little and keep that independence.”

Proving the model

Shophouse began informally when Riley approached P&G, his longtime client at Huge, with a new way of working. After securing approval from the brand, the trio took on major SK-II assignments, including brand repositioning, content libraries, and premium work across China.

“They threw everything at us,” Riley said. “They knew what they wanted us to do, they knew how to use us, they liked the model, and they’ve kept working with us since then. We’ve never had a day off from SK-II.”

The agency soon added Coach and Kate Spade to its roster. “Coach repositioned for Gen Z,” Douglas said, “and we were really able to take that repositioning and create new experiences for them.”

Shophouse also recently rebranded consulting firm Cprime as an “AI-native” brand and is currently building its new digital experience. Douglas said that Shophouse is built to be flexible.

“As marketing changes—channels, consumers, expectations—we’re in a position to flex and grow,” she said. “This model lets us do that.”

The three founders live on three continents: Riley in Singapore, Connelly in Spain, and Douglas in New York. Their teams are spread across the U.S., Europe and Asia. Their first credentials deck included a photo of a desk clock set to three time zones.

“We called ourselves the world’s smallest global agency,” said Riley. “And we’ve grown with that attitude.”

As for what’s next, the team is clear-eyed. “I would be happy if big brands bring us real problems,” said Riley. “And you build a reputation of being the agency people go to if something is big, if something’s going to be breakthrough—or if it’s broken.”