Ride Shotgun
UK, US, Bulgaria, Portugal, Sri Lanka
Website: Ride Shotgun
Founder: Mark Mallinder (CEO)
Year founded: 2022
UK headcount: <50
Offices: UK, US, Bulgaria, Portugal, Sri Lanka
Quite often, agency founders get stuck because they’re too much into the day-to-day of the business that they don’t focus on growing the business.
Profile
Since riding on to the scene in 2022, Ride Shotgun has been gunning for growth. Born from the merger of Cry Havoc and Born + Raised, Ride Shotgun has since gone on to become one of the fastest-growing creative content agencies in the UK.
Its name is a reference to the bodyguards who used to ride alongside stagecoach drivers in the Wild West. In today’s media world, Ride Shotgun sees itself as the bodyguard protecting its clients and client value.
At the helm of this UK-based scale-up is CEO Mark Mallinder, who currently oversees 200 staff in nine offices across five different countries. With a raft of global clients including HSBC, Diageo and PepsiCo, Ride Shotgun has more than tripled its revenue since launch and is chasing £18m by the end of 2025.
Acquisitions have played a major role in growth to-date, opening up opportunities to expand into new markets and sectors. 2024 was a particularly dynamic year, with the acquisition of two US agencies, Volume Group and CGI specialists Pix-US, bolstering its tech capabilities and expanding its presence on the East and West coasts. Ride Shotgun finished the year with the launch of an in-house integrated PR and social media offering.
The way the agency is structured has played an important role in its ability to scale so quickly; whilst Mark has an agency background, his primary focus as CEO has been on scaling the business.
“Quite often, agency founders get stuck because they’re too much into the day-to-day of the business that they don’t focus on growing the business...My job is to keep driving growth.”
Having come this far without any external investment, Ride Shotgun is now at the point where it needs some “proper firepower” to reach that next stage of growth. The agency is actively looking for an investment partner to help build its acquisition pipeline and scale the new PR offering. With the right investment and acquisitions, Ride Shotgun believes it has both the people and ambition needed to become a £50/60m agency.