Blackbird Podcast: Growing together without losing ourselves

Our story begins with RCA, a creative agency founded in 1977 in Limburg. It grew from strong roots in design and creativity. Later, an entrepreneurial shift brought fresh momentum and direction. Over time, a small group of internal key players took the lead. They shaped the agency from within, gradually evolving it from a craft-driven studio into a broader, more entrepreneurial organisation. The team expanded its expertise and prepared RCA for what came next.

In 2019, RCA entered a new chapter. The agency reset its structure, welcomed a strengthened board and Tom stepped into the role of CEO. This shift brought a shared ambition to support both expertise and creativity with more focus, clarity and space to grow.

And it showed. The agency expanded its client base and project scope. It evolved in how it thinks and how it acts. With a vision of the future that may not be crystal clear, but clear enough to know which way to walk, and confident enough to keep moving.

A few years later, a lunch meeting set something in motion. Tom met with Jo and Elly, the co-CEOs of Glowi. Jo had served on RCA’s board for some years, and both had long-standing ties with the agency. Their collaboration dated back to Het Poetsbureau, their first and still largest company. The lunch wasn’t just a friendly catch-up : Jo and Elly brought a clear idea to the table. Not to fold RCA into something bigger, but to build something new together. A shared platform for expert-led agencies, starting with RCA and HeadOffice.

That was the seed for what would eventually become Friends of Cartel, a people-driven, expertise-focused agency collective. A structure built for growth, in both scale and substance. One that encourages ownership, welcomes new expertise without flattening identity, and keeps people and craft at the centre of everything.

Thank you to Andy Coomans for the kind invitation and the open conversation. The episode touches on everything from agency culture, pancakes and ping-pong tables to how the team that cleans our office became part of our ownership structure.

Listen to the full conversation on Spotify or watch it on YouTube, where Tom and Andy explore the journey behind RCA, the ideas that shaped Friends of Cartel, and what it means to grow an agency.