Silicon Valley has a new cool kid agency and it's behind TBPN's branding

• Day Job is the creative agency behind brands including buzzy tech industry podcast TBPN.
• Known for its CPG clients like Recess, Day Job is working with tech brands to make them less boring.
• Cofounder Rion Harmon spoke about how Day Job approaches its work and why AI needs a rebrand.

How can a new media company make a big splash in the tech world?

One answer: call Day Job, a Los Angeles-headquartered creative agency.

That's what the hosts of the "Technology Business Programming Network" —better known as TBPN — did when they wanted help nailing the podcast's branding and style.

Day Job cofounder Rion Harmon described the vision: a "cacophony of logos" slapped all over the screen (a nod to Formula 1 racecars), a "country club" forest green, and a VHS visual effect.

It'd be somewhere between a news station and a sports-casting channel —hence the rebranding from the "Technology Brothers Podcast" to TBPN.

"They're doing something new," Harmon told me. "It doesn't feel like a stuffy, sort of normal sort of journalism thing. It feels more alive. It feels vibrant. We were trying to capture their energy, right? It's funny to just be overly sponsored."

TBPN has had a big year. The podcast, which launched in 2024, has become a new center stage for a rotation of headline-making Big Tech guests like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Palantir's Alex Karp, and Anduril's Palmer Luckey. Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal profiled the hosts, John Coogan and Jordi Hays, reporting that the media company expects $5 million in revenue this year.

That, in turn, has helped make Day Job a hot commodity in the tech world, as startups and VCs seek to stand out with their branding. The growing attention from Silicon Valley is paying off. Harmon said that this year, Day Job has doubled its revenue and head count.

"With Day Job, what separates them is they will make four or five different brand directions that are all viable and all justifiable in different ways," Hays said.

From CPG brands to tech startups

Founded in 2018 by Harmon and Spen Madsen, Day Job is a bootstrapped and has a team of about 20 split between LA, New York, Portland, and Europe. Since its launch, it has worked with hundreds of brands, such as Millennial-coded pastel CBD Recess drinks and the chili crisp sauce brand Fly By Jing. Harmon had also worked on Coogan's Zyn competitor, Excel.

The firm collaborates with clients on a wide range of projects, from brand ideation at the earliest stages, including coming up with a company name, to fine-tuning product and creative design or running advertising campaigns.

While Day Job's roots are in consumer packaged goods like Recess or recent viral protein bar David — which Day Job helped name and created giant billboards of cod in New York City for —more and more tech clients are flocking to the creative agency.

Patron, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on consumer startups, hired Day Job to rebrand the firm and overhaul its website. Stuut, an Andreessen Horowitz-backed AI startup, also got the Day Job treatment this fall. The agency recently worked on advertising campaigns for customer service startup Bland AI and crypto exchange Gemini, too.

"Tech is in an interesting point where brand is becoming more important to them," Harmon said. "There's so much noise. You have to figure out how to talk to your consumer in a more profound way."

Tech needs better branding

Tech brands often look and feel … the same.

"There's this addiction to homogenous design choices right now," Patron's Amber Atherton said. "Every site has the same font, every interface feels so familiar."

Making a company stand out is hard, especially for AI startups.

"AI just kind of has a branding problem," Harmon said. "The valley adopts it … but there's something sort of ominous about something coming for your job."

Day Job worked with Stuut, which uses AI to process payments, to push against that narrative and presented it as a fun tool.

"This isn't some scary tech thing," Harmon said about Stuut's branding. "It's helping you get your job done so you can go home at five to hang out with your family and can go to your kids' soccer game."

Harmon highlighted how Stuut's mascot, a cartoon inspired by vintage clock-in-clock-out machines, is shown eating invoices, and when scrolling to the bottom of the site, "gives you a little kiss."

"Storytelling is kind of everything," Atherton said. "Whether it's fundraising, or hiring, or IPOing — that is so important."

VCs need branding, too.

Atherton said she came to Day Job after hearing about their work with TBPN. The firm wanted "the most non-VC website possible," she said.

When working with clients, Day Job will act as a sort of therapist, probing founders with existential questions. For instance, when working with Patron, Atherton said Day Job asked the VC firm's founding partners to "talk about each other and why you like working with each other and what makes you a strong partnership."

Day Job's style isn't for everyone.

"You've got to be bold, a little bit, to work with them," Atherton said.

Hays compared the agency's vibe to the hip LA neighborhood of Silver Lake, adding that Day Job's aesthetic is "timeless yet internet native."

Demand for creative minds

"It's never been easier to generate creative assets," Hays said. "Anybody can go on ChatGPT or Nano Banana and say, 'Make me a website.'"

But Hays said that AI is "creating more demand than ever" for creative minds who can "think differently" and "break through the noise."

It's something Harmon is taking solace in as he looks forward to the future of creative agencies like his own.

"No AI is going to tell you to name your protein brand David," he said.

And brands are, meanwhile, learning the hard way that not all AI will help you stay relevant or in favor of consumers.

"We may become more valuable in a way because everything goes to the mean," Harmon said. "AI is good at outputting things that have already happened, but they're not good at figuring out what's next."

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