June, 2026.- Koto has grown organically across five global studios, building an iconic portfolio that includes Airbnb, Amazon, Discord, Netflix, Sonos, and Uber Eats. But organic growth eventually demands infrastructure. Not bureaucracy. Not rigidity. Structure. Because structure, Laura Carrick argues, is precisely what allows an agency to preserve its soul while scaling sustainably.
Carrick has joined Koto as the agency’s first dedicated Growth Director in the United States, a newly created role at a pivotal moment. The studio is entering a new phase of maturity and expansion across categories, capabilities, and the kinds of clients it wants to partner with. Growth, she explains, becomes an important bridge between the creative ambition of the studio and the commercial future of the business.
In this interview, Carrick brings a rare perspective shaped by a career that spans creative roles, client-side realities, and education. Her years on the creative side taught her why creativity matters so deeply, and why craft, taste, and attention to detail are often the difference between work that is simply good and work that genuinely resonates. Working client-side gave her empathy for the realities of scaling a business: a million competing priorities, internal pressures, and general chaos all moving at once. Her time in education taught her how to disseminate complex ideas in a way that feels accessible and engaging—a skill essential for growth and relationship-building.
Carrick also discusses Koto’s entrepreneurial spirit. At its core, it means being optimistic. Sometimes the hope or belief that something can work is the thing carrying it forward. It also means being willing to stay scrappy, experimental, and to do things outside of your comfort zone. Compared to larger, more bureaucratic agencies, entrepreneurial cultures preserve creative energy. In bigger structures, creativity can get lost in the churn of repeat processes and layers of approvals. At Koto, it feels like a team sport. Good ideas can come from anywhere.
On structure, Carrick is clear: she sees structure as the foundation that allows everything else to scale sustainably. Without it, cracks appear: teams burn out, workloads become unsustainable, clients stop getting the attention they deserve. The best growth strategy is not about over-optimizing people. It is about creating enough clarity, rhythm, and operational stability that people can actually do their best work.
1. The Newly Created Role: You’ve joined Koto as its first dedicated Growth Director in the U.S., a newly created role. Why has Koto, which has grown organically to this point, decided now is the moment to formalize a growth function in New York?
While I’m thrilled to join Koto as its first official Growth Director, the agency’s growth to this point has been incredibly intentional. Elements of this role have naturally existed across different parts of the business already, driven by a huge amount of strategic thinking and hard work from the founders and executive team around how to sustainably grow across five global studios.
What we’re seeing more broadly across the agency landscape is that growth itself has become a dedicated discipline. Whether you call it growth, business development, or new business, generating and managing opportunities is a full-time job in its own right. While having a strong concentration of inbound interest is a great position to be in for a studio like Koto, once an agency reaches a certain scale, the process of strategically qualifying opportunities, building relationships, shaping positioning, and creating a long-term pipeline requires real focus and infrastructure.
There’s also the reality that Koto was founded in London, and the U.K. and European markets operate very differently from the U.S. and not just culturally, but in terms of how agencies build visibility, reputation, and momentum in an incredibly competitive landscape like New York. It’s becoming increasingly important to have someone on the ground in these locations to own this visibility and community building.
So formalising a growth function here signals something bigger: that Koto is evolving. The studio is entering a new phase of maturity and expansion, across categories, capabilities, and the kinds of clients we want to partner with, and growth becomes an important bridge between the creative ambition of the studio and the commercial future of the business.
2. The Koto Fangirl Factor: You mentioned being a “Koto fangirl for quite some time.” What specifically about Koto’s work, culture, or trajectory made you so excited to join, and how will that genuine enthusiasm shape how you represent the agency to potential clients?
I think we all bring the sum of our experiences into every new role or chapter, whether you’re a native New Yorker or an ex-pat like myself. What my international background and varied career path have given me is perspective. My years on the creative side taught me why creativity matters so deeply, and why craft, taste, and attention to detail are often the difference between work that’s simply good and work that genuinely resonates.
Working client-side gave me a huge amount of empathy for the realities of scaling a business. Inside any company, there are always a million competing priorities, internal pressures, personalities, and just general chaos all moving at once. Those experiences changed the way I think about partnerships and problem-solving.
And honestly, my time in education was almost like going back to school myself. It taught me how to disseminate complex ideas in a way that feels accessible and engaging. In the creative industry, we sometimes assume everyone understands the language we use, when in reality a lot of it can feel quite foreign to clients. Being able to bridge that gap is incredibly important in growth and building relationships.
More broadly, moving countries also forces you to become adaptable, and nothing will motivate the hell out of you like moving to New York. You learn to observe culture more closely, ask more questions and stay open-minded. And on a lighter note, I do think the accent helps a little—there’s some charm to it (so people say, I don’t know if I believe them). Australians also have a reputation for being friendly and curious about the world. That’s probably why we somehow end up everywhere.
4. Diversifying the Client Roster: One of your key goals is “diversifying our client roster” beyond Koto’s impressive existing portfolio (Airbnb, Amazon, Discord, Netflix, Sonos, Uber Eats). What new categories or types of clients are you most excited to pursue, and why?
All agencies are guilty of this to some degree, we get pigeon-holed into certain categories, whether intentionally or not. And honestly, that’s not always a bad thing. I’m a big proponent in knowing what you’re genuinely good at and doing it better than anyone else.
So while the New York studio will always have a strong foundation in building challenger brands alongside founders, particularly in tech and AI, there’s also a real appetite internally to work with clients that push us into slightly different territory and maybe a little out of our comfort zone.
We would love to see more work across hospitality and travel, indie entertainment (Neon, if you’re reading—we’re VERY interested), CPG, and more local arts & community. Categories with strong emotional and cultural nuance, where brand experience really matters.
I think it’s healthy for agencies to diversify their client roster and move across categories, because branding itself is category-agnostic. Some of the most interesting work happens when you bring behaviours, ideas, or creative cues from one industry into another in a way that feels unexpected.
A great example is what’s happened in B2B over the last five years. Historically, B2B branding was incredibly functional and forgettable. Now those brands are behaving far more like consumer brands, and investing in storytelling, identity, community, and emotional connection. B2B became kind of sexy, because everyone deserves good design!
5. The Entrepreneurial Spirit: You noted the “real entrepreneurial spirit that runs through the global studios” strongly resonates with you. How does that entrepreneurial culture influence Koto’s approach to client relationships and business development compared to larger, more bureaucratic agencies?
Koto New York’s heartland over the last 4 years has really lived in founder-led brands, either building them in partnership with client teams from the ground up, or helping evolve them into their next phase of growth.
I think entrepreneurial spirit can mean a lot of different things, but at its core, it means being optimistic. At the end of the day, sometimes the hope or belief that something can work is the thing carrying it forward. It also means being willing to stay a little scrappy, experimental, and to do things outside of your comfort zone.
Koto’s ethos is “We make ambitious ideas for ambitious businesses,” and that ambition exists not only in the clients we partner with, but in the people who work here too. The level of care, curiosity, and drive across the studios is genuinely inspiring. I’ve never smiled so much reading Slack channels in my life.
Compared to larger or more bureaucratic agencies, I think entrepreneurial cultures tend to preserve a certain creative energy. Sometimes in bigger structures, creativity can get lost in the churn of repeat processes, layers of approvals, or the feeling that ideas only come from the top down. What I love about Koto is that it really feels like a team sport. Good ideas can come from anywhere, and everyone is encouraged to bring something to the table. That creates a much more dynamic environment internally, and I think clients feel that energy too.
6. Formalizing Growth at Scale: You’ll be working under Global Chief Growth Officer Melissa Howdle as part of a global growth team now spanning seven people. How do you balance the need for a structured, strategic approach to growth with preserving the “people-first” humanity and “soul” you admire in Koto’s work?
I’m incredibly excited to be working with Melissa and the broader growth and marketing team that Koto is building. Everyone brings a very different perspective and background to the table, and you can tell that diversity of experience has been intentional. I’m really excited to learn from Melissa, and the wider team.
For me, structure is actually what allows an agency to remain people-first and preserve its soul. I think structure is often misunderstood as something rigid, like the antithesis of flexibility or curiosity. But the way I see it, structure is really just the foundation that allows everything else to scale sustainably on top of it, including the creative work itself.
At a certain point, every growing agency reaches a natural crossroads. You can keep operating on instinct and momentum for a while, but eventually the cracks appear: teams burn out, workloads become unsustainable, clients stop getting the attention they deserve. It can be a very fast rise, and an equally fast fall, if the right systems and support aren’t in place. The best growth strategy isn’t about over-optimising people or removing humanity from the process. It’s about creating enough clarity, rhythm, and operational stability that people can actually do their best work.
And slightly more philosophically, because it’s just who I am—we as humans are creatures of habit. We generally respond well to a sense of predictability and trust in our working environments. When that foundation exists, it creates the mental space for creativity, collaboration, and bigger thinking to happen. That’s the spirit you see in Koto’s work—the collaboration of many magical minds.
