These two technologists launched a digital agency to meet the intersection of marketing and product development

Nearly two decades after starting their first company together, Justin Mathews and Mike O’Malley are launching a new venture.

The two longtime Philly technologists, who’ve worked most of their careers at the intersection of tech and marketing, recently started digital marketing and product development agency Moxie Labs, .

The duo officially launched the all-remote agency April 1, although plans to have a distributed team came before the coronavirus pandemic forced most businesses to operate this way. Mathews left his role as chief operating officer at 03 World in March, and kickstarted the launch by acquiring O’Malley’s agency Elevation, which made the pair partners.

“We noticed a niche there, especially in Philly. There’s a ton of dev-only shops, or SEO shops, but we don’t really see dev shops that also include marketing,” Mathews told Technical.ly.

The agency isn’t Mathews and O’Malley’s first rodeo together. They started Karizma Media Solutions as Drexel University students back in 2001. With the acquisition of Elevation, the pair brought over some team members and have since grown to about 25 on and offshore employees. Mathews holds the CEO role for the company, while O’Malley is its chief innovation officer.

The distributed team allows for 24-hour access for clients, Mathews said, and the ability to really take on a client from anywhere in the world. Moxie is currently working with eight clients, and is hoping to land a large project that would mean more hiring.

The startup’s specialties include digital marketing, user experience design, web and app product development and data analytics. Moxie Labs doesn’t center on aspects like media buying or copywriting in order to keep its digital focus, Mathews said, and it primarily works with industries like health tech, auto tech and fintech. 

The agency consists of about half and half services and products, Mathews said, and they’re working with a mix of clients from newly-funded startups to $6 billion corporations. The team is also looking to round out its C-suite, with three more partners who will likely be announced in the next few months.

“We know what good tech is, what good marketing is, what good design is,” Mathews said. “It’s helpful that we’re building the products and it’s probably why marketing can fail at other agencies.”