Yes, we really are brothers

Diving Right In

Adam and Devon decide to partner on a business focused exclusively on SEO. Adam joins a West Coast agency while Devon quits his job and goes all in, while training from Adam on everything he knows about SEO.

They register Cognatio Media as an Ontario partnership on June 1. Their first concept (Flip Marketing: build digital properties, rank them, sell them) doesn't pan out. They pivot hard to client work.

Becoming SEO Brothers

Cognatio Media slowly adds small business clients in the Kitchener-Waterloo area and takes on overflow work from Adam's West Coast agency.

Cognatio Media then gets a friendlier name. SEO Brothers launches with Adam contributing the content (limited by his non-compete) and Devon still working on finding clients and delivering the work.

The first real white-label partner

An agency looking for a new vendor finds SEO Brothers when searching for "Waterloo SEO". Many meetings later they sign a multi-location HVAC dealer co-op campaign.

This is when they decide to start marketing to agencies instead of businesses.

Adam full-time

A timely client in the cannabis space frees enough revenue for Adam to join SEO Brothers full-time.

Brother Peter Bate joins

With another revenue milestone for many multi-location contracts, Peter comes on as an SEO specialist late 2019 to help with the increased volume of work. After some growing pains Peter's attention to detail was needed to keep quality standards in check. Today he runs fulfillment for every campaign that ships.

Building a real business

COVID changes everything. Initial requests of "we need to pause" cause a set back. It's a rebuilding time to overhaul internal process and training and focus on delivering high quality white label work. After the first few months of feeling the pinch, a trend emerges. Agencies lay off in-house SEO staff and lean harder on subcontractors. "White label SEO" demand explodes, and SEO Brothers is at the top of the list already ranking for it.

It's time to go all in on white label SEO.

Demo call after demo call leads to another season of rapid growth. The time spent on systems pays off and the team starts hiring more senior roles to support the increased demands.

Technology-first with brother Colin Bate

AI is here and not just a toy anymore. The past few years saw a shift from "this better not be AI" to "I hope you're taking advantage of AI" and the entire industry shifts. Not just the search landscape but how to run an efficient white label agency.

This leads to a push for a ground-up rebuild of the Partner Portal and internal tooling, led by Colin Bate, who joins as CTO after 17 years building internal software for a Bermuda-based mutual fund company.

SEO Brothers is rapidly becoming a technology-first SEO partner, making partnerships and collaboration easier with radical transparency and constant communication.