In the June-August 2026 issue of NZ Marketing magazine, we asked agency founders to tell us the story behind why they started their agency, their favourite thing, what they’ve learned and their best advice.
Seed Studio
- Founders: Dave and Jenny Williams
- Year founded: 2026
Tell us the story behind founding your agency.
Seed Studio has been over 30 years in the making.
Dave, affectionately known as The Geek, and I (Jenny) met at work in Auckland in the 90s, and we’ve been collaborating in life and in business ever since.
We built and ran one of Auckland’s largest web development companies, then sold it, simplified and asked ourselves what we actually wanted next. The answer had always been the same: leave Auckland. My one condition was that we waited until our two children had left home. When that moment came, we headed for the Bay of Plenty, and Seed Studio started germinating.
Seed came from a simple realisation: we are stronger together than as separate parts. I bring the creative direction. Dave brings the technical architecture. Jumbo and The Geek. A perfect match, and finally, exactly where we want to be.
Dave and Jenny Williams officially started Seed Studio in 2026 (but it had been brewing for a long time).
What’s your favourite thing about running your own agency?
Working alongside each other every day, as corny as that sounds. And, working alongside the brilliant creatives we get to collaborate with. Photographers, copywriters, strategists, marketers. There’s something genuinely energising about being surrounded by people who care about their craft.
And the work itself. The feeling of bringing a brand to life, watching an idea become something a client is truly proud of never gets old. Not once in all these years.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned?
Technology will always change, and you have to move with it, that’s a given in this industry.
But the most personal thing we’ve learned, and probably the most hard-won, is not to take things personally. In business, and in life, things don’t always go the way you planned. Clients change direction. Projects get complicated. Industries shift overnight. Learning to hold those moments without internalising them as failure has made us better at what we do and better partners to our clients.
It’s also made us more resilient as a team. When you’re building a business with your life partner, the lines between work and personal can blur easily. Learning to separate the two, and to approach challenges with curiosity rather than defensiveness has been the steadiest foundation we’ve built on.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received or given out?
Be curious. Keep learning. And always be kind.
Kindness sounds soft until you realise how rare it is in business. Seed Studio is equity-based at its core, we believe every business deserves access to great design and smart systems, not just the ones with big budgets.
A little kindness in how you price, communicate and show up for clients goes an extraordinarily long way. It’s also just the right way to do business.
Anything else we should know?
We’re a husband-and-wife team running a full-service design and web studio from Te Puke.
We’ve been doing this, in one form or another, for over three decades. We’re not a big agency. We’re not trying to be. What we are is rare: a studio where the creative director and the lead developer are genuine partners, in work and in life, who have spent years learning how to make design and technology speak the same language.
Most studios hand off between the two. We never have to. We bring with us a network of talented collaborators, photographers, copywriters, strategists and the kind of deep client relationships that only come from genuinely caring about outcomes, not just deliverables.
This story comes from NZ Marketing magazine issue 87, June-August 2026. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.
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