What Actually Happens After You Successfully Sell the Agency? With Ryan Vong

Ryan Vong sold Digital Pi to Merkle, stepped away from the business, and tried to enjoy life after the exit. But after the travel, the downtime, and the attempt to unplug completely, he realized something important: he wasn’t done building. In this episode, Peter sits down with Ryan to talk about what life after an agency exit actually feels like, why some founders come back into the game, and how building the second company feels different from the first. They also get into Ryan’s new company, Helix, his early pivot from data unification into AI-enabled RevOps work, why he chose to acquihire Dragon Studios, and how he thinks about creating wealth-building opportunities for the people helping him build. This is a conversation about second-time founders, startup M&A, employee ownership, AI, acquisition as a talent strategy, and what changes when you build again with more clarity, more capital, and more scar tissue. Chapters 0:00 — Introduction to Ryan Vong’s second chapter 0:58 — What life after the exit actually felt like 5:21 — Investor seat vs. operator seat 8:37 — Starting again with more experience 11:26 — Why former teammates wanted to build with Ryan again 12:41 — Equity, incentives, and creating upside for employees 17:00 — Delegating faster the second time around 18:20 — The Dragon Studios acquihire 20:36 — Helix, the first pivot, and learning from customer pain 27:03 — Why this acquisition moved faster than the first one 30:51 — How the deal looked from the acquired founder’s perspective 33:16 — What angel investing taught Ryan about founders 34:50 — AI, transformation, and solving specific customer pain 37:22 — The challenge of being a second-time founder 39:47 — Building for value, team upside, and what comes next 42:06 — How to connect with Ryan Please subscribe and hit the like button. It means a lot, and I'm putting out videos every week! If you have any questions at all, fire away. If you think you or someone you know should be on our show, or you just have a question, email us at ⁠info@agencyacquisitionsandexits.com⁠. Follow Peter on Instagram: ⁠⁠/ peterlang⁠⁠ Follow Peter on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠/ peterclang⁠⁠ Follow Ryan on Linkedin: /ryanvong Free 21-day Programmatic M&A Training: ⁠⁠https://digitalagencybusiness.com/⁠ ⁠