Stephen Brown has spent 23 years building Fuse Create into one of Canada's leading independent agencies — doubling the business in five years, expanding into the US market, and walking away from two serious acquisition conversations.
In this episode, Doug Baxter sits down with Stephen to explore the strategy behind that growth: why he sold Fuse Health to sharpen the core business, how a buy-to-build approach is driving the next phase, what he looks for when evaluating acquisitions, and why he turned down offers that most founders would have taken.
This is a candid conversation with the founder of Fuse Create on independence, leadership, creative positioning, and what it actually means to build something worth being proud of. Topics covered: agency growth strategy, buy-to-build, US market expansion, building a leadership team, AI and creativity, agency acquisitions, founder mindset.
Agency Principals is a podcast from Agency Futures — conversations on building and realising agency value.
00:00 Introduction
01:17 Why Stephen sold Fuse Health — and what it unlocked
03:40 Doubling down on creative: the Turn Heads strategy 0
5:46 Why organic growth alone isn't enough
07:26 Expanding into the US market 10:41 What independent agencies should focus on
13:25 Building a leadership team that runs without you
15:19 Two acquisition conversations — and why he said no 18:51 What Stephen looks for when acquiring or investing
21:08 AI and creativity: threat or tool?
23:09 What success looks like in five years
26:13 The spirit of independence
27:11 What he'd do differently
