The deep dive · Private · Read November 3, 2026

Directive

A founder-led, bootstrapped B2B marketing agency from Orange County, run remote-first, now on pace for $30M a year and adding PR to its paid media and SEO work.

Adweek, Directive Communications launch (fall 2026)
Valuation
None set Never raised outside money, per its CEO, so no investor has priced the company.
Revenue
About $30M pace Company says it is on pace for $30M a year, growing about 8% a month. Not audited.
Raised
$0 Bootstrapped and profitable in 2021, per the CEO. No SEC Form D found.
Watch
New PR arm Directive Communications (PR, social, influencers) launched in spring 2026, with a $25M target for 2027.
AI
Stratos In-house AI platform with assistant agents, launched Feb 2026, clients only. A human reviews every output.
Liquidity
Not applicable No investors and no reported staff equity plan or tender offers.
Hiring
61 → 60 remote listings since Oct 10.
01 · The business

Fees from B2B companies for paid media, SEO, content and now PR.

Directive sells annual retainers to B2B tech and SaaS firms. In 2021 the CEO put the average at $150K+ a year, with fees near 15% of client ad spend. Clutch lists a $250K+ minimum project today. It runs three divisions: Performance, Commerce and Communications. It does not publish a revenue split.

Latka interview with CEO Garrett Mehrguth, Oct 21, 2021; Clutch profile
The moat, in three parts
  1. 1
    A named method sold to SaaS buyers
    Customer Generation, its own methodology, pitches pipeline and SQLs over lead counts; it anchors every service page and job post.
    Directive careers page and job posts
  2. 2
    Data from hundreds of client accounts
    Stratos models channel outcomes with anonymized B2B cohort data from its client base; the homepage cites 700+ brands served.
    Directive blog, Feb 2, 2026
  3. 3
    Strong reviews in a crowded field
    Clutch shows 56 reviews averaging 4.8 of 5. Low switching costs still mean clients can leave at renewal.
    Clutch profile
02 · Funding

How it is funded, and what that means.

Directive is private, so there is no share price. What its investors paid, and on what terms, is the closest thing to one.

$30M
run-rate, as of Nov 3

Company says it is on pace for $30M a year and growing about 8% a month. In 2021 the CEO said it was profitable but run lean.

Adweek, Directive Communications launch (fall 2026); Latka 2021
Round-terms checks
No flags found

Clear: checked, nothing found. Flag: found, with the source. Open: could not be checked.

03 · Footnote flags

What the record says, and what we think it means.

The fact is the source's. The read, in italics, is ours.

  1. 01
    Watch

    directive.com is a different company.

    directive.com belongs to Directive Technology, an IT and web design firm in Oneonta, New York. The agency lives at directiveconsulting.com, and its job board is jobs.ashbyhq.com/directive.

    Easy to mix up when researching. Every listing on its Ashby board describes Directive Consulting, the Irvine agency.

    directive.com, checked Nov 3, 2026
  2. 02
    Watch

    Over half its open postings say Future Opening.

    30 of 55 roles on its Ashby board on Nov 3, 2026 carry "Future Opening" in the title, most posted in US and Canada pairs on Oct 27.

    These look like talent pools for roles it expects to fill when clients sign, not seats open today. Expect a slower or conditional process on those.

    Directive Ashby job board, checked Nov 3, 2026
  3. 03
    Good

    It built a PR division instead of buying one.

    Directive Communications combines PR, organic social, influencer and paid social (moved from sister brand Abe). Leader: Larissa Williams. Named clients include EasyPost, Bitwarden and Anrok.

    New service lines usually mean new senior hiring. The $25M 2027 goal is a company target, not a forecast we can check.

    Adweek, Directive Communications launch (fall 2026)
  4. 04
    Neutral

    An in-house AI platform with agents.

    Stratos, launched Feb 2, 2026, joins CRM, ad and analytics data, runs media mix models built on Google's Meridian method, and uses assistant agents for paid media, SEO and reports.

    It is pitched as a reason to hire the agency, not sold on its own. It may also shrink the hours each account needs.

    Directive blog, Feb 2, 2026
  5. 05
    Neutral

    Its own client and staff counts disagree.

    The homepage says 700+ brands served and 130+ strategists; Adweek cites 420+ B2B clients and the careers page says over 100 employees.

    Probably different cutoffs (all-time vs active, strategists vs all staff). Treat any single figure loosely.

    Directive homepage; Adweek; careers page
  6. 06
    Watch

    It has cut staff before, when demand fell.

    The CEO said headcount peaked around 60 to 75 before COVID, was cut, and growth was about 1% in 2020, before heavy hiring in 2021.

    Agency headcount follows client budgets. A B2B ad-spend slowdown is the main risk to roles here.

    Latka interview with CEO Garrett Mehrguth, Oct 21, 2021
  7. 07
    Good

    A fast grower with a long record.

    Ranked No. 468 on the 2019 Inc. 5000 with 965% three-year revenue growth. Clutch dates the firm to 2013.

    Old data, but it shows the firm has grown without outside money for over a decade.

    Directive blog, Aug 13, 2019
04 · Who gets paid most

Other is paid 22% under market.

Still Remote data, daily since Oct 10
Posted pay against the same level at other remote employers
Compared level by level against 400+ remote employers, then averaged. Number of posted ranges beside each team.
AI and ML listings, Oct 10 to Nov 2
0 → 0no change
Remote listings, same days
61 → 60−2%

We save every company's roles, pay by team and level, AI share and churn every day, so each month this page can say more. Sparklines use their own scale.

05 · Built for the agentic era?

Can AI agents do business with Directive?

We checked the agent payment programs, developer docs and site rules an AI assistant would meet.

Our verdict

AI-friendly site, agents inside. No public way for outside agents to buy or book.

Still Remote read
LiveNot found
  1. An llms.txt for AI tools
    directiveconsulting.com/llms.txt lists its services, methodology, industries and company pages.
    checked Nov 3, 2026
    Yes
  2. Lets AI crawlers read its site
    robots.txt names no AI bots and disallows nothing for any user agent.
    checked Nov 3, 2026
    Yes
  3. An MCP server or agent API
    No MCP file at /.well-known/mcp.json (404) and none announced. Stratos is clients only and not licensed out.
    Directive blog; checked Nov 3, 2026
    Not found
  4. Sells AI search visibility to clients
    An LLM SEO service aims to get clients named in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews answers.
    Directive LLM SEO page
    Yes
  5. Can an agent buy its services?
    Sales start with a booked intro call; no published pricing or self-serve checkout.
    Directive LLM SEO page
    Not found
05 · Inside the company

Where Directive puts AI to work.

AI and ML job titles, share of open remote listings
Directive
0.0%
Every company we track
6.3%
0 of 60 Directive listings on Nov 2. Scale 0% to 10%.
  1. 1
    Assistant agents do first drafts
    Stratos agents write paid media plans, SEO briefs, analyst notes, Gong call reviews and weekly report narratives. A human checks every output before a client sees it.
    Directive blog, Feb 2, 2026
  2. 2
    Automation for routine ad work
    Stratos automates tasks like campaign duplication and pacing within guardrails, work junior strategists often did by hand.
    Directive blog, Feb 2, 2026
06 · What the hiring says

Fewer listings than on Sep 7, most of them in other.

Remote listings on its board, dailyAxis starts at zero
Listings as the board shows them, so a title posted in several places counts each time. Team counts are open roles, repeated titles once.
28 of 55
roles are other
19
marketing roles, the next biggest team
3
countries named in its remote roles, led by Canada
+9
new roles in the last 7 days
06 · From its own channel

What Directive puts on its own channel.

Short videos from Directive's official YouTube channel, played here. We only use a channel that links directiveconsulting.com and carries the company's name.

  • The Invisible CEO Problem #b2b #b2bmarketing #business #marketing #shorts
    73 views
  • How to Track Your Brand in ChatGPT and AI Search (GEO)
    79 views
  • Capability gets you considered. Credibility gets you chosen. #podcast #b2b #marketing #shorts
    13 views
  • Why Your B2B SEO Content Ranks but Doesn’t Drive Pipeline #shorts
    9 views
  • PR Isn't Underfunded. It's Unproven #podcast #pr #publicrelations #shorts #viral
    23 views
  • Positioning Doesn't Matter...Yet #podcast #b2b #b2bmarketing #shorts #viral
    10 views
  • I Was Waiting For The Room To Blow Up #b2b #b2bmarketing #saas #business #shorts
    12 views
From Directive on YouTube. These are the company's own marketing, not a look inside.
08 · Where it looks headed

The signals, and which way they push.

  1. Tailwind
    Growing fast by its own count.

    About 8% a month and on pace for $30M a year, per the company, with a new communications division growing double digits a month.

    Adweek, Directive Communications launch (fall 2026)medium
  2. Tailwind
    Hiring across three countries.

    55 remote postings in the US, Canada and Mexico, including senior finance, creative and programmatic roles.

    Directive Ashby job board, checked Nov 3, 2026high
  3. Headwind
    AI answers cut into search work.

    Directive now sells LLM SEO because buyers find vendors in AI answers. Classic SEO and paid search hours may shrink.

    Directive LLM SEO pagemedium
  4. Headwind
    Tied to B2B tech ad budgets.

    Its clients are mostly SaaS and tech firms; the CEO said 2020 growth was about 1% when budgets froze.

    Latka interview with CEO Garrett Mehrguth, Oct 21, 2021medium
09 · Bold predictions

Where Directive ends up, if we had to bet.

Our calls, not facts. Each one is tied to something that already happened, so you can judge the reasoning.

  1. 1

    Directive is still private and founder-owned in 2031, with no IPO.

    Long shot 16%IPO

    It has never raised outside money and is around $30M of revenue. Agencies this size rarely list.

    Adweek, Directive Communications launch (fall 2026)
  2. 2

    A holding company or private equity buyer owns Directive by 2033.

    Coin flip 50%M&A

    Founder-owned agencies near $30M with fast growth are common targets. No talks have been reported, and the CEO says it builds rather than buys.

    Adweek, Directive Communications launch (fall 2026)
  3. 3

    Communications becomes a quarter or more of Directive revenue.

    Coin flip 50%Products

    The CEO wants a $25M division in 2027 against a company on pace for $30M. That target is aggressive.

    Adweek, Directive Communications launch (fall 2026)
  4. 4

    Directive serves more clients per strategist as Stratos agents take routine work.

    Likely 72%AI

    Its agents already draft plans, briefs and reports, and the new finance director's brief stresses billable utilization and margins.

    Directive job post: Director of Finance and Accounting
  5. 5

    Big holding companies push harder into B2B AI search, squeezing independent specialists.

    Likely 72%Competition

    Listed groups like Stagwell, Omnicom and S4 Capital can bundle AI tools at scale. Directive's edge is B2B focus and its own method.

    Directive homepage

Read by the Still Remote research agent on November 3, 2026 from the sources linked on this page. Facts and scenarios only, not investment advice.