Inside Unusual Group: The Scale-to-Sale Model for Ambitious Agencies

Running an agency can feel like sprinting on a treadmill that never slows down. Founders live in feast-or-famine cycles, managing pipelines one day, HR crises the next, and finance fires the day after. The reality? Most agencies never break free from that treadmill. They grow revenue, hire people, and look successful on the outside, but margins flatline, systems lag, and the founder ends up doing two jobs: CEO and firefighter-in-chief.

The brutal statistic: only 4% of agencies ever sell. And of those that do, the multiples are rarely life-changing. Buyers know the risks: messy financials, low predictability, client concentration, and founder dependency. Most founders sell tired, not strong, and the market punishes them with low offers, tough earn-outs, or no deal at all.

Unusual Group exists to change that. Built by agency founders who’ve lived the grind, scaled to eight figures, and sold, it’s a founder-friendly model designed to:

• Remove bottlenecks.
  
  
• Build institutional discipline.
  
  
• Compound agency value.
  
  

Align incentives so everyone wins only when the founder wins.

Unlike private equity, we don’t take control. Unlike consultants, we don’t sit on the sidelines billing hours. We take a 5% equity stake and deliver the infrastructure, expertise, and leverage that founders often struggle to acquire on their own.

Here’s what that looks like:

Institutional-Grade Back Office

Founders don’t lose deals because of sales scripts. They lose value because their back office isn’t investor-grade. Buyers care about one thing: can they trust the numbers?

Unusual Group standardises and professionalises the essentials:

• Finance: CFO-level forecasting, management accounts, EBITDA clarity, and valuation modelling.
  
  
• Legal & HR: standardised contracts, clean employee documentation, compliant processes.
  
  
• IT & Compliance: modern tooling, risk mitigation, and scalability built in.
  
  
• Capital Access: Introductions and structures for Buyouts, Acquisitions, or Growth Funding.
  
  

It sounds dry, but it’s the single most significant difference between selling at 3x EBITDA and selling at 10x.

Agencies are at risk in the AI era. Many will get commoditised; some will vanish. However, the winners will be those who leverage AI to enhance efficiency and profitability, while maintaining a focus on human creativity at the core.

Unusual embeds AI in the places it matters most:

• Briefing: automated validation of inputs before projects begin.
  
  
• Delivery QA: compliance and tone checks before work leaves the building.
  
  
• Reporting: First drafts are auto-generated; humans add narrative.
  
  
• Knowledge Retrieval: past case studies, SOWs, and precedents at your fingertips.
  
  
• Revenue Ops: AI assistants triaging tasks, nudging follow-ups, and updating CRMs.
  
  

We’re also developing an Agency OS, a shared operating system that will be used across all Unusual agencies. This creates efficiency, shared IP, and ultimately increases group valuation. Private equity buyers love it: human service + tech leverage = premium multiple.

Agency founders often feel like they’re on an island. Big networks and events are noisy; small masterminds fizzle out. What’s missing is a curated peer group with skin in the game.

At Unusual, every member agency is invested in the outcome. We run:

• Monthly workshops with operators who’ve scaled and sold.
  
  
• Quarterly masterminds featuring external experts.
  
  
• Always-on peer community for deal flow, partnership, and support.
  
  

The result: you don’t just learn from your own mistakes; you shortcut by learning from others’ wins.

Here’s where the magic compounds. Individually, most agencies will sell at 3–5x EBITDA. Together, with shared systems, professional back office, and collective AI/IP, we roll up into a package private equity buyers or IPO markets will pay 10–15x for.

Imagine your £200k EBITDA agency valued at £600k alone…
…or at £2–3m inside the group.

That’s the multiplier effect of Unusual.

Most founders plan growth as if it’s endless. But smart founders start with the exit in mind.

At Unusual, we begin by asking:

• What does a “good exit” look like for you?
  
  
• How much wealth do you want to create?
  
  
• What role do you want after?
  
  
• What’s your ideal timeline?
  
  

Then we reverse-engineer your 12–36 month roadmap:

• Finance hygiene: rolling cashflows, clear EBITDA, forecast accuracy.
  
  
• Commercial discipline: pricing guardrails, margin gates, offer clarity.
  
  
• Revenue mix: shift from project-heavy to recurring retainers.
  
  
• Succession planning: reduce dependency on you.
  
  

The clarity this creates is powerful. Every decision, from hiring to pricing and client selection, all align with the exit outcome.

Hiring more people without fixing the system is a recipe for flat margins. Unusual helps you scale the process before payroll:

• Standardise delivery.
  
  
• Enforce CRM discipline.
  
  
• Implement utilisation targets.
  
  
• Create sales playbooks.
  
  
• Document SOPs.
  
  

This isn’t busywork. It’s what lets your revenue rise faster than cost, the definition of true scale.

We don’t preach “AI will replace you.” Instead, AI frees humans to do the work only humans can do.

In practice, that means:

• Less time wasted on admin.
  
  
• More time for strategy, relationships, and leadership.
  
  
• Happier clients, because insights replace dashboards.
  
  
• Higher margins, as output rises without a proportional increase in headcount.
  

The endgame isn’t just money. It’s freedom:

• Freedom from firefighting.
  
  
• Freedom from sleepless cashflow nights.
  
  
• Freedom from being the bottleneck in every deal.
  
  

By reducing your dependency and creating succession pathways, Unusual helps you become the architect, not the operator, of your agency.

Every founder’s situation is unique. That’s why Unusual gives options:

1. Scale-to-Sale Path → Stay 2–3 years, compound value, exit at premium multiples as part of the roll-up.
   
   
2. Independent Sale with Support → Use our included M&A capability to sell sooner but with better positioning and diligence.
   
   
3. Capital Partnership → Use our growth capital to buy out a co-founder, de-risk personally, or invest in acquisitions.
   
   

You choose the route. We provide the infrastructure.

Do you take control of my business?
No. You run day-to-day. We bring back office, capital, AI, and cohort leverage.

Why 5% equity?
It aligns us with your outcome. We only win if you do. And the uplift in valuation typically dwarfs that 5% many times over.

What if I want to sell in 12 months?
We’ll still help. Membership includes M&A advisory. You’ll go to market with cleaner numbers, a stronger story, and group backing.

Ready to scale your agency and sell for more?

Join Unusual Group. Bring your ambition; we’ll bring the infrastructure, AI leverage, and cohort power to turn it into a life-changing exit.