How Haris&Co. Built a 100 Crore Business

About this episode

In this episode of The eCom Show, host Shan A Salam sits down with Haris Aboobacker, founder of digital marketing agency Haris&Co. and its training wing HACA. Haris reflects on scaling the organisation from around 50 employees to over 240 members across India and the United Arab Emirates within a single year. He explains how entering the Dubai market proved to be a pivotal milestone, unlocking higher-margin retainers that enabled rapid expansion despite starting with just a single table in a shared workspace. Haris breaks down the transition from founder-driven operations to systemised agency management, detailing his approach to structuring departments as autonomous business units led by mini CEOs. The discussion delves into hiring frameworks, managing team culture, monitoring client churn, maintaining healthy direct-cost-to-revenue ratios, and overcoming cash flow bottlenecks. Haris also discusses why modern brands should maintain internal marketing leads rather than relying entirely on external agencies for strategic growth.

Key takeaways

1. 1In the agency business, companies must generally operate as either very small boutique firms or scale significantly, as middle-tier firms often face intense cash flow pressure.
2. 2Expanding into higher-value international markets like Dubai allows agencies to command multiple-times higher retainers while maintaining optimised operating costs.
3. 3Successful team leadership requires balancing technical domain knowledge with strong people skills, spending time communicating long-term vision alongside operational tasks.
4. 4Structuring agency departments as autonomous units led by accountable leaders with clear financial and operational targets prevents the founder from becoming an operational bottleneck.
5. 5To maintain agency profitability, direct salary costs within any department should ideally be capped at 20 to 25 percent of the revenue generated by that department.
6. 6Hiring specialised business coaches and experienced mentors after crossing key revenue thresholds helps founders navigate operational hurdles and establish scalable systems faster.
7. 7Brands working with agencies achieve better results when they maintain an internal marketing head or point of contact to steer strategy and preserve institutional data.

Chapters

1. 00:00Highlights
2. 02:45Introduction
3. 03:49What Happened in the Last One Year
4. 05:30Haris&Co. and HACA in Dubai
5. 18:39Expanding to the US & Europe?
6. 20:42The Stages of Building a Digital Marketing Agency
7. 23:40Handling People & Building Culture
8. 26:49The Four Types of Employees
9. 31:58How to Run Departments Effectively
10. 40:56Role of a CEO in a Growing Agency
11. 44:05Understanding Cash Flow in Marketing Agencies
12. 46:07Building Systems That Scale
13. 52:59Why Many Agency Founders Think of Quitting
14. 56:03Agency vs In-House Teams
15. 01:03:19Extra Learnings and Closing Notes