Meet Gabe Gordon | Co-Founder & Managing Partner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gabe Gordon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gabe, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I think I can narrow it down to two big factors: blind passion and continual flexibility.

You have to do something that truly excites you. For me, that’s always been working at the intersection of talent, storytelling, and brands – whether I was at the beginning of my career at William Morris Agency or as I was founding Reach Agency. That passion has fueled me to go all in, be relentless, and keep striving to do something better.

Just as important: always be flexible and ready for change. We started as an influencer agency ten years ago, and not six months have gone by since where there wasn’t a significant change in our business, from platforms to creators. Developing a craft in a fluid environment isn’t easy, so our product became our perspective and service standards – which allowed our product to change with the environment.

What should our readers know about your business?
We started Reach Agency as a YouTube Agency ten years ago with Purina as our first client. Turns out, making YouTube videos of puppies and kittens worked pretty well. It was during those first couple of years we realized there was a gap in creative agencies for social video and, in particular, working with influencers. It was from that moment we crystalized the vision for what we wanted to be. It took a good five years – as all the platforms started adding social video and spending slowly increased – for brands to even consider meeting with an agency like ours. Five years of questions like, “Why do I need a YouTube Agency,” or dismissals like, “My PR Agency already does our influencer work.” And when we did get interest, it was months of pitching and educating. We never gave up, we refined our pitch and our services, we changed the way we approached clients . . . and it was working. In 2016 when we won Ad Age’s Small Agency of The Year, we felt what we had been building for years was finally recognized by the broader advertising community. Today we are almost 40 people. We count Nestle, AB InBev, Clorox, Microsoft, and Google as long-term clients and we have not only produced award-winning work, but the company and business we’ve built have been recognized by Entrepreneur, Inc., Forbes, Fast Company, Advertising Age, and Ad Week to name a few. We’re proud of the past ten years and can’t wait to see where Reach goes in the years to come.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Those closest to me know I am as AWOL (Always West Of Lincoln) as it gets. So, a caveat — this is a westside perspective. My hit list would include:

– Surfing at Venice Pier
– Cars and Coffee in Malibu (on Sundays)
– Coffee at Blue Bottle, Intelligentsia, or The Cow’s End
– Breakfast at Great White, Gjusta, or Bellissimo
– Biking the strand along the beach or hiking the Palisades
– Burgers at The Window or Hinano
– Drinks at The Brigg or Belles Beach House
– Sunset Sessions at The Penmar (Friday Nights) or Twilight Concerts at Santa Monica Pier (Summer Thursdays)
– Dinner at Zinque, Foodshop, or Elephante
– Late night eats at Tito’s Taco

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My BAE/business partner, Frank Catapano. Starting a business is tough and I couldn’t have done it without him. I feel fortunate to have had a partner every step of this process. You need someone to tell you when you’re crazy, when to keep your mouth shut, say the things you can’t, and balance your perspective. I’ve worked with Frank for almost 20 years at two companies; getting Reach to where it is now is not something I could have done on my own.

Website: http://www.reach.agency/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reachagency/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reach-entertainment/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/reachagencyla

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReachAgencyLA

Other: TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@reachagency

Image Credits
Reach Agency