Alex Melen co-founded SmartSites in 2011 with his brother Michael and grew it, without outside capital, to more than 400 employees and 1,000 clients and ten consecutive years on the Inc. 5000. He speaks to founders and agency owners about the unglamorous decisions behind that growth (hiring, pricing, retention, reputation and making yourself replaceable) and about how a 400-person agency actually uses generative AI day to day: where it saves hours, where it fails, and how to roll it out without wrecking quality.
The unglamorous decisions behind growing SmartSites from two brothers to 400+ people: hiring, pricing, retention, reputation, and what still works when everyone else is chasing the next channel.
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By keeping retention and reputation ahead of new-business volume, hiring ahead of demand in the roles that compound, and reinvesting profit rather than raising capital; Alex covers the specific decisions, including the ones that failed, in the 0 to $35M talk.
Start with the repetitive work (briefs, first drafts, QA, reporting), measure hours saved, keep a human owner on anything client-facing, and write down where the tools fail so the team stops re-discovering it.
Alex builds every session for the room. Send the event, audience and dates and he will come back with a proposed talk.