Are They Buying You or the Company You Built? | Cat How

Are clients buying you, or the company you built? Every founder's taste is part of what the first clients buy. Cat How does not pretend otherwise. What she is working out is whether HOW+HOW needs her there, or only prefers it. Cat founded HOW+HOW with her husband Roger in 2020, after building and selling an e-commerce business for designer makers and running a set of coworking spaces for creatives. The agency now has a team of about 25 across studios in London and Los Angeles. It is a certified B Corp, it publishes every salary tier to the whole team, and it will not take work from oil and gas companies. Before any of it, Cat was a design critic for a national newspaper. She has since served as jury president for D&AD. In this conversation, we explore the difference between a founder-centric company and a founder-dependent one, the questions Cat asks herself to tell which she is running, what happened when she and Roger proposed taking their own name off the company, and the habit her creative directors keep asking her to drop. In this conversation, we explore: "Is my point of view written down anywhere, or does it only exist in my head?" The questions Cat asks herself about her own company Why "it isn't how present you are, it's whether my presence is required or just preferred" What happened when the founders wanted their name gone and the team said no Why an agency built on its founder's taste is proud not to have a house style The interview question about a mistake that hurt someone, and what it reveals about ego Why every salary tier at HOW+HOW is pinned in the company Slack "Are clients buying you, or the company you built?" is not only a question for agency founders. It's also a question for anyone whose expertise is what the client thinks they are paying for, in a consultancy, a practice or a firm with their name on the door. And it's worth asking if your team has ever waited a day for you to look at something they could have decided themselves. If you're building a company you hope will outlast you, this conversation is about the line between a company that carries your point of view and one that cannot move without it. CHAPTERS 00:00:00 Are They Buying You or the Company You Built? 00:02:57 Who Are You to Judge Someone Else's Work? 00:09:12 Would You Publish Everyone's Salary? 00:12:25 How Much of You Should Be in the Brand? 00:18:53 Would Clients Still Buy If You Weren't Making the Sale? 00:20:35 Is Your Presence Required… or Just Preferred? 00:24:52 Would You Take Your Own Name Off the Company? 00:28:45 How Does Your Taste Reach Your Newest Hire? 00:31:31 Would You Hire Without Reading a CV? 00:37:17 Is It Ego… or Do They Just Care? 00:42:24 Could Someone Else Do What You Do? 00:45:31 What's the First Thing You'd Let Go Of? 00:48:44 What Would Your Future CEO Wish You Had Done? 00:52:50 What Does Nobody See From the Outside? 00:59:08 What Keeps You Grounded When Everything Moves? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Episode Show Notes and Deep Dive 📚 Deep Dive, Show Notes and Reference Reading: https://www.awayre.com/founder-centri... Connect with Cat How 🔗 Linkedin:   / cat-how-0499b9149   🌐 HOW+HOW: https://how.studio/ Connect with Bhavesh Naik 🔗 Linkedin:   / bhaveshnaik   🌐 Website: https://www.awayre.com/ 🎞 YouTube Channel:    / @business.philosopher   The Business Philosopher Within You Podcast 🎬🎙️📖 Website: https://www.awayre.com/business-philo... 🦸‍♀️Be a Guest: https://www.awayre.com/business-philo... 🎧 Podcast: The Business Philosopher Within You Podcast 🗓️ Published: 2nd & 4th Wednesdays 📇 Episode: 51 📜 Format: Full Episode 📅 Date: October 14, 2026 👨‍💼 Guest: Cat How, Founder & CEO, HOW+HOW 🎙️ Host: Bhavesh Naik, Founder, Awayre, LLC Explore how self-awareness can help your build a self-sustaining organization that outlives you: 🧙‍♂️ https://www.awayre.com/hire-a-fool/ Take Founder Dependency Snapshot 📸 https://www.awayre.com/founder-depend... Music by Yrii Semchyshyn (Thank You!):   / yuriisemchyshyn