![[Fully Managed] Brent Feldman from Matchbox Design Group Ep. 110](https://penji.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/BLOG-IMAGE-Brent-Feldman-2.jpg)
Introduction
Shannon Donnelly (SD): All righty. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Fully Managed Podcast Podcast where we discuss marketing and business tips to help assist you on your business journey. I’m your host Shannon Penji’s partnership coordinator, and I’m joined here today with a very special guest, Brent Feldman from Matchbox Design Group. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Brent Feldman (BF): Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on.
Getting to Know Brent
SD: I appreciate that. Could you please start by telling us a little bit about yourself, anything that you think would be relevant for the audience to know, and anything also in your business career leading up to this point that you think would be nice for anyone to know you think is important?
BF: Awesome. Yeah. I am the CEO of Matchbox Design Group. I started this company basically in 2006 with a business partner. We dreamed of having a better agency and a cool one that had a great environment and did cool stuff, and we set out to make that our goal. Over the course of 18 years, which is actually really wild to think about, that it’s been that long.
SD: It’s wild. Yeah. Congratulations.
BF: Thank you. Thank you.
SD: A lot of people look forward to getting to that extent. So that means longevity is super important.
BF: Oh, definitely. It’s been fun and it’s always interesting and we’ve been growing little by little over the years and just had an increase of 20% year over year, which was wonderful for last year.
Services and Growth
BF: So the organization is really built around doing website design and development and search engine optimization. We started doing website design and development as soon as we started the business. That was really a core service that my business partner and I had shared talents in. That’s why we kind of started out with that service. In 2012, we added SEO as a service and have been growing it ever since. It’s a lot of fun. My background that led into this: I went to school for advertising, marketing, and business management. I minored in it and also got a web design and development certificate. So I actually really did everything in school that kind of led me here. I feel like that’s got to be a case study.
SD: It’s so unusual because no one ever does that. Every time I talk to a marketer, they’re like, yeah, I didn’t go to school at all, or I used to be in wrestling.
BF: Yeah, our lead digital strategist has a psychology degree.
SD: That’s very smart actually. That’s a good degree to have for that.
BF: It’s clutch actually. Thinking about human behavior and how people might respond to certain things, it’s incredibly helpful for marketing.
Evolution of Digital Marketing
SD: Since you’ve been around for so long, that’s really cool. You get to give more insight on specific things. What do you think on the digital marketing landscape, what has really evolved in that time that you’ve seen?
BF: From 2006 till now, I think people use the web for a lot more of their lives than they did in 2006. I remember in 2006 when I had a Windows phone, this was pre-iPhone, but it was really cool to be at the forefront of mobile computing then. Watching that ecosystem develop and mobile devices, mobile computing, mobile browsing, all that sort of stuff, has been great for our business. We knew we were on to a market that was going to grow, but never imagined it would be this expansive.
SD: I think one of the cool things about agency work is that it was one of maybe the only professions that Covid didn’t kill, because it was all online or could be online and remote from the get-go.
BF: It was actually wonderful. We grew 5% in 2020. It’s not much, but I’m thankful we didn’t lose revenue. It was a testament to our clients and to just trying to help them navigate uncertain times. The pandemic helped us transition to remote work, and we’ve since been able to hire people in other states and even around the world. I don’t fondly look back on the pandemic, but it helped us work remotely and grow our team.
Communication and Strategy Across Teams
SD: What were the challenges you faced because you both oversee the design team and the SEO team? How do you balance creativity and implementing data-driven strategies?
BF: Having the two sides is really helpful. Digital marketing or SEO helps inform the way we approach website design—thinking about calls to action, user experience, hierarchy. And design/development capabilities strengthen our SEO service. We can actually implement the technical aspects. You can have all the good advice in the world, but if you can’t practically put it in place, it just becomes good advice.
SD: Do you push your teams to interact as much as possible, or is it more relayed communication?
BF: Facilitating contact between our SEO account manager and our support manager is crucial. They meet to talk not only about projects but about strategy and opportunity. We encourage plenty of communication via Slack, but regular meetings are important. New tech like AI has sparked conversations—sharing discoveries leads to adoption across the team.
Adapting to New Technology
SD: How are you able to stay ahead of technologies like AI? What are some things you’ve instilled in your company to stay updated?
BF: We have a Slack channel dedicated to new tools. I also get newsletters like AppSumo, which talks about new apps and tech. Even if some don’t apply, others are incredibly helpful. We share interesting tools internally and encourage exploration. Tools like VO for podcast editing have been great. Sharing those discoveries keeps everyone in the loop.
Accessibility and Development Challenges
SD: You have an emphasis on accessibility. Is that based on your own knowledge or do you work with partners?
BF: A bit of both. We’ve partnered with AccessiBe and Level Access. They provide tools and testing, including actual testers with disabilities. We also do remediation work in-house. Accessibility is something we care about. It’s also SEO-friendly—makes your site easier to read for everyone, including bots.
SD: Is there any big difficulty you run into often in web development?
BF: Estimating scope is tough. From a technical standpoint, we rarely run into something impossible. But forecasting every case when redoing a site is challenging. We’re good at estimating, but every once in a while, we miss something. Transparency is key when communicating delays. We use Asana for project management and get as detailed as possible.
Favorite Projects and Closing Thoughts
SD: What is your favorite project you’ve worked on?
BF: We’ve done a lot, but one that stands out is a UI/UX tool we built for a major communications company. It alerts subscribers in a storm—previously an IT-only tool, now usable by anyone. It’s still in use today. We’ve also done fun things like NFT concepts for major brewers. The obscure ones are always the most fun.
SD: A lot of agencies have a niche, but you seem to enjoy variety. How do you handle that?
BF: We’re exploring narrowing our focus. It’s hard because we love solving different problems, but niching helps with marketing and delivery. You can still take on other projects—you’re just optimizing for a target. I heard the term “ICP-focused but flexible.”
SD: I love that. Thank you so much for joining me today. This was a wonderful time.
BF: Yeah, thank you. It was a fun time.
SD: Thank you everyone for watching. Your participation is just as important as ours. I hope you have a lovely day.
Outro
SD: You’ve been listening to Fully Managed, brought to you by Penji. Check out the show notes to learn more about today’s guest and about Penji, the human-first creative subscription service. Head over to Penji.co. If you’re still listening, it would mean the absolute world to us if you shared this podcast with a friend—and of course, subscribe.
