Year seven: a look back, and where we go next

Why seven

Seven is the number of introspection. Philosophy, numerology and spiritual traditions all tie it to the inner life, and to asking why rather than how.

After six years of heads-down building Harvey, Simon and I stopped to question it.

If I'm honest, some years felt like surviving, not thriving. We were so bogged down by the pressure that we barely stopped to notice what we'd built. Meanwhile, the world had shifted, and so had we. We started Harvey pre-kids, pre-COVID and pre-mortgage, with a healthy dose of optimistic naivety. We wanted to be sure we were still building the right thing, for the right people, in a way that fits the lives we have now.

Where we've been

Harvey started in 2019 with no team, just Simon and me and a belief that business could be a force for good. We wrote it down as our purpose: to unlock the potential of the new economy to leave behind a better world. Seven years on, that line hasn't changed. Almost everything else has.

The short version of the journey:

• 2019: No team. Two founders, a laptop each and a lot of conviction.
• 2020–2021: A small generalist team doing strategy for small clients.
• 2022–2023: Design capability. We became the marketing team and the website partner for small-to-medium businesses.
• 2024–2025: Real tech capability. Design, web and eCom, with work spanning a much wider range of impact and scale.
• 2026: Boutique execution for systems changers.

Along the way we became a Certified B Corp and a Social Traders certified social enterprise. We've given $1.5m in discounted rates to impactful clients, $100k in pro bono work, $84k in donations to Greening Australia and Beyond Zero Emissions, and $20k invested in impact businesses.

The work is what I'm proudest of.

We gave CPSN a clearer, stronger voice that celebrates people with cerebral palsy, and it brought them better leads and revenue growth. We've spent three years building and optimising Merry People's Shopify platform as they expand globally. We rebuilt RIAA's digital ecosystem to help move capital toward a healthier economy. We designed for Common Ground's First Nations storytellers, and built for Bank Australia, Hara, The Sociable Weaver and many more.

We also built things of our own. Good Native and Bloom, our Shopify app, came from seeing the same problems again and again in client work and deciding to solve them properly.

The parts that don't make the case studies

A timeline makes it look tidy. It wasn't.

Founders love to talk about freedom: the flexibility, the autonomy, the ability to work from anywhere. But that freedom comes with weight. When you are the business, you never really switch off.

We started a family while building Harvey, and balancing a business with a young family is its own kind of chaos. Deadlines between daycare pick-ups. Client calls from the car. Late nights catching up once the house is finally quiet. Some weeks it feels impossible to give both enough. Simon and I are partners in life and in business, so there's rarely a clean line between the two.

There was financial pressure, too. Growing a team means someone is counting on you every fortnight. Meeting payroll is the job nobody puts in their LinkedIn bio, but every business owner knows the feeling of watching the bank balance and the pipeline at the same time. Add a shaky economy, rising costs and clients tightening budgets, and some months felt like a balancing act on a moving floor.

And being the owner is heavy. You carry the decisions, the risk and the people. When things go well it's the team's win. When they don't, it lands on you.

Sometimes I catch myself wondering: what if I just took a job? But even then, I know I couldn't. Or maybe I could, or should?

Running a business gives me something I can't trade: the freedom to live my values through my work, and to build something alongside good, talented people who inspire me every day.

There are moments that remind me why we built it this way. Recently our son had an accident that landed us in emergency and then surgery. Every parent's nightmare. In that moment I could drop everything, and know our team and our clients would understand and have our backs. That kind of trust is something we've worked hard to build, and I don't take it for granted.

Freedom in business isn't about working less. It's about designing a business that gives you choice.

The questions we asked

A few weeks ago, the Harvey team stepped away from client work for two days to take a proper look at ourselves. We were feeling snowed under by the changing landscape: AI, design and tech converging faster than ever, a noisier world, rising client expectations and a shifting role for agencies.

We needed some clarity on where we stand in all of it.

We also had to admit that how we described ourselves hadn't kept up. We'd grown from two people doing strategy, to marketing and websites, to a team of designers and developers taking brands from research and strategy through to design, web and eCom. We'd been so busy doing this for clients that we forgot to do it for us. (Thanks to Pete from Merry People, and Gerard & Yonnas from Webflow for the push.)

So we asked ourselves:

1. What kind of place do we want to work at? Our answer: impactful work, with rad people who are kicking goals, from a strong financial position.
2. What does the world need from an agency now? People are overwhelmed by information, slop, hacks and everything AI. They'll use tools to optimise some things, but they'll lean on trust and on humans more than ever. That means brands and experiences that are authentic, transparent, simple and clear.
3. Where is the bar heading? Up. The best businesses keep improving, which raises what customers expect from everyone. You either keep up or race to the bottom.
4. How do we stay steady if the market wobbles? Work with well-run, like-minded organisations who are ready to adapt, and avoid the hype.

The biggest realisation was about ourselves. For years our work was nice, and it had impact. We want it to be epic, and have impact. That takes more confidence, stronger messaging, bolder design and fewer compromises.

Two weeks later we had a new website, a brand refresh and sharper positioning that reflects Harvey today.

It's pretty great what you can achieve when you finally make something a priority.

The best part: the people

When I look back over seven years, the highlight isn't a project or a number. It's the people.

Our team are legends. Simon, Celine, Alex, Abdelrahman and Elliott are talented, kind and fiercely good at what they do. Building this with them is one of the best parts of my job. Harvey is also shaped by everyone who joined us along the way, for long stints and short ones.

I have to call out Sarah O'Terra, who played a core role in our first six years and is an absolute gem of a human! And who I miss daily.

And our clients are the same kind of people: founders and teams who are purpose-driven, ambitious and good company. Many of them have been with us for years, and some have become friends.

That matters more now than it ever has. In a time of AI, when anyone can generate a logo, a landing page or a thousand words in seconds, the thing that can't be automated is human connection. Understanding what a customer needs. Honest disagreement. The confidence to back a strong idea. Trust built over years. That's where great work comes from, and it's what we want to double down on.

Where we're going

In the end, it came back to purpose. That part stays. What's changing is how clearly we say what we do and who we do it for.

Harvey is design and technology for ambitious brands.

We're strategists, designers and developers working side by side. We build brands, websites and eCom for businesses that want to lead, and are great for their customers and a little better for the world.

In practice, that means four things:

• Brand & marketing: clear strategy, honest words and an identity that carries what you stand for.
• Websites: considered sites that are easy to use, easy to run and built to last.
• eCom: Shopify stores that sell well, from the first visit to the next order.
• Research: we listen to your customers and read the numbers, so decisions rest on evidence.

And the type of work we want more of:

• Bigger, meatier projects where brand and digital are designed together, not handed off between agencies.
• Long-term partnerships. Our best work has come from relationships that run for years, like Merry People and CPSN.
• Brands we believe in. Ambitious consumer brands with craft and quality at their core, and organisations changing systems in climate, finance, inclusion and First Nations communities.

What we're keeping: impactful work, discounted rates and support for high-impact clients, and long relationships.

What we're adding: bigger budgets, more retainers and more selectivity. Fewer compromises means more capacity to do exceptional work.

That's the next chapter. Seven years of asking why. Now we get on with it.

If it's not clear I'm on the look out for the next one or two ambitious clients for Harvey.

We're looking for one or two new medium to large long-term partners this year. Businesses that care about craft, want a team that feels like an extension of their own, and are building something that matters.

You'll deal with the do-ers. No middle managers, no hand-offs. Just a senior team that cares what the work says about you and where it takes the business.

Let's talk, or email us at [email protected].

AI usage in this article: This article was drafted by Claude from my notes, our planning slides, credentials deck and LinkedIn posts, then edited by me and the team.