RWL246 Scaling Creativity In A Remote Agency

Hello everyone, it's Alex Wilson Campbell again here. Welcome back to the Remote Workcraft Podcast, the show where we explore the people, ideas, and companies shaping the future of work. Today we're talking about animals, a fully remote content agency that's become quite a powerhouse in B2B SaaS marketing. What's fascinating about animals isn't just the quality of their work, it's how they've managed to scale a creative, knowledge-driven business to more than 100 people across the world, all while keeping that sense of focus and craft that usually gets lost as agencies grow. Animals was founded to solve a simple but stubborn problem that most B2B content is well dull. The founders believed that great content marketing should feel more like journalism than advertising. They started small with just three people, producing long-form articles for SaaS brands that needed thoughtful, credible writing. Fast forward a few years, Animals has grown into one of the most respected names in the content space, working with clients like Notion, Intercom, Airtable, and Wistia, to name a few. Their team now numbers around 130 fully remote professionals. That might be more, it might be less. Writers, strategists, and editors spread across multiple time zones. What's really impressive is their internal structure. They built an agency that thrives on asynchronous communication, strong documentation, and trust. Meetings are rare, deliverables are precise, and the culture rewards independent thought. They're proof that you can scale creativity if you build the right systems. Now, what really stands out about animals is how they've managed to productize something as subjective as content. They've developed frameworks for strategy, research, and editing that keep quality consistent regardless of who's writing. That's incredibly hard to do remotely because you don't have people sitting together in an office reviewing copy or bouncing ideas off each other over coffee. Instead, animals built an internal knowledge base that's almost like a living textbook on how to write great SaaS content. Every process is documented from tone, calibration to source attribution to editorial flow. That's what allows them to hire globally and onboard quickly. You could be a former journalist in Portugal or a marketing strategist in Kenya, and within weeks, you're working at the same standard as somebody who's been in the company for years. Culturally, they've done something rare for agencies. They've kept burnout in check. Remote agencies often fall into the trap of always on work. But Animals has embraced a calm work philosophy, asynchronous updates, generous flexibility, and a focus on deep work rather than reactive hustle. And I think that's part of why their growth from a handful of freelancers to 11.5 million in revenue feels sustainable and not forced. From my own experience interviewing remote founders, the ones who thrive long term are those who find rhythm. That balance between autonomy and connection. And I think animals might have nailed that quite early on. Now it's not perfect. Some employees have noted challenges with scaling communication or maintaining consistency across teams, but in an industry that's notorious for churn, animals has created something genuinely durable and incredible. So what can we learn from animals? First, that creativity scales when systems support it. They didn't try to manage writers like factory workers. They gave them frameworks that enhanced their freedom. Second, that remote work doesn't have to mean isolation. When you embed transparency and knowledge sharing into your culture, you replace proximity with clarity. And third, that an agency doesn't have to chase constant growth to be successful. Animals has stayed profitable, respected, and lean by focusing on mastery rather than volume. For any founders listening, especially those building remote service businesses, there's a big takeaway here. Your systems are your culture. If you design your processes with care, you don't need to control every minute of your team's day. You just need to trust the team and trust the people that you hire. Make sure that they have what they need to do their best work. And as somebody who's built a career around remote work, that resonates really deeply with me. Because when remote is done right, it gives you time back. Time to create, time to think, and time to live. That's the freedom that drew me to remote work in the first place. Listen out for the next episode of the Remote Work Live Podcast.