Intro to a New Series I’m 14 years and 4 months into running Barrel, a digital agency that I started with Sei-Wook Kim back in 2006. We’re a team of 30+ full-time employees and dozens of contractors all over the world. We work with a number of brands and organizations to build and optimize their […]| Peter Kang
This episode marks 5 years since I started this series. In 2020, I was looking for a way to write something monthly so I wouldn’t have to keep coming up with new topics. “Why not just write about stuff happening within the agency,” I wondered. And that’s what I did (see Episode 1). Little did […]| Peter Kang
We’ve been using a tool for the past month that we developed internally. It’s called Relationship Digest and it sends an email every weekday morning highlighting 3 contacts from my past that I may want to reach out to. The data comes from my inbox, calendar, and LinkedIn and the combination provides useful context. I found […]| Peter Kang
For our design agency Bolster, we’ve been looking to find our way around the agency version of a “cold start problem”. In tech, a cold start problem (as popularized by Andrew Chen’s book on the topic) is the conundrum that startups face when trying to achieve network effects with their product. For example, for Airbnb, their cold start […]| Peter Kang
We’re officially coming up on 1 year since I moved out of the CEO role at Barrel and handed over the reins to Lucas. Since then, Sei-Wook and I have been focused on building Barrel Holdings. Under Lucas’s leadership, Barrel has had a strong past 12 months, posting high levels of profit and on track […]| Peter Kang
It’s much easier to publicly share and write about business when things are going very well. I almost thought about skipping this month (or perhaps never writing this series again) because frankly, it’s been a very tough period for me as an agency owner. The business has struggled in various ways, and there’s a measure […]| Peter Kang
A professional email inbox that’s been in use for a very long time is an underrated asset. I’ve had my @barrelny.com email for 19+ years. It contains thousands of contacts with people at various points in their careers, some who’ve gone on to found companies or rise up the ranks and become executives. Much like […]| Peter Kang
We’re starting to see companies using more and more AI tools to do some of the heavier lifting that agencies like ours would traditionally handle. For example, we noticed that for Catalog, some clients were leveraging Lovable to create their marketing websites using AI prompts. This was work that we used to do, but instead, […]| Peter Kang
I’m writing this from a family hotel resort in Fort Myers, Florida. I’ve been here the past few days with my wife, our three boys, my parents, and my sister. We’ve shared meals, watched the kids splash endlessly in the pool, gone on short excursions, and enjoyed each other’s company in between sunscreen reapplications and […]| Peter Kang
We’re slowly working through a rebranding for Barrel Holdings. Bolster is helping us with our new look. Currently, it’s just a simple Google font with black text on white background. My presentation decks are made using an out-of-the-box minimalist template. We figured that since we’re always talking to a lot of creative/design-focused agency owners and […]| Peter Kang
Exactly a year ago, I wrote about our work around Barrel’s CPG positioning: This past month was filled with various activities that we believe will pay off in the long run. One angle we are pursuing is to position Barrel as an expert firm that helps CPG food and beverage brands get the most out […]| Peter Kang
I’ve told a few people that these days, working on Barrel Holdings feels a lot like the early years of Barrel (circa 2006 – 19 years ago!), especially the first 2-3 years when it was just myself and Sei-Wook. We were figuring things out and continually excited and drawn to different possibilities. One thing I […]| Peter Kang
This marks my fourth annual review in this format. Check out 2023, 2022, and 2021. I spend hours each month reflecting on my work, usually through the writing of my Agency Journey series. 2024 marked a big change in my career as I, along with my Barrel co-founder Sei-Wook, moved from being day-to-day operators of […] The post 2024: An Annual Review appeared first on Peter Kang.| Peter Kang
I’m a sucker for sports-business analogies. Back in college, I applied to a random summer job and in my cover letter, I referenced Jason Kidd (then a superstar for the Nets) as someone who inspired me to be a good employee. I pointed out Kidd’s traits as a great point guard who made his teammates […]| Peter Kang
Agency Journey is a monthly series that details the happenings at my agency Barrel, founded in 2006. I also share what’s happening at our other agency businesses under the Barrel Holdings umbrella. Below are past episodes along with the topics covered in each. Agency Journey Episode 60 (Y19M3), August 2025 Reflecting on 5 Years of […]| Peter Kang
A quick update on my LinkedIn posting activities in the first 3 months of 2024: I’ve consistently posted every weekday with the help of Deal Bridge, who keep me accountable for writing new posts and also helping to recycle some older posts for when I don’t have new ones ready. This has been going on […]| Peter Kang