From Kitchen Table to Award-Winning Agency: The Rise of Blake Renda and Julie Koester

Renda and Koester, now co-CEOs of Dragon Horse, built their company on resilience and innovation, overcoming many obstacles and doubters, while delivering a client-first ethos that inspires entrepreneurs far beyond their headquarters.

From Hollywood to Wall Street: A Unique Foundation

Blake Renda’s winding early career gave him an unusually broad toolkit for entrepreneurship. A Los Angeles native and University of Southern California graduate, he spent five exhilarating years in television production at NBC Studios in the 1990s before making an unlikely leap to the legal profession which led to high finance. In a move that surprised his colleagues, Renda quit a steady legal job to start from the bottom as an intern at investment firm J.&W. Seligman & Co. The gamble paid off: within a few years he was rising through Wall Street ranks, and by his early 30s Institutional Investor magazine had ranked him among the “Best of the Buy Side” institutional investors. He went on to help manage a multi-billion-dollar technology portfolio (over $16 billion under his direct purview) at American Express Asset Management, cementing his reputation as a savvy analyst and leader in the finance world.

Like many finance executives bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Renda eventually left the corporate investing realm to launch his own boutique firm. The timing, however, was rough—partner disputes and the 2008 recession derailed that venture. By 2011, he had relocated to Naples, Florida, and jumped into a struggling regional skincare startup, eager to prove his leadership in a hands-on way. Renda did it all in that role, from rebranding products to personally delivering orders in the company van on weekends. Under his gritty operational leadership as COO & EVP of Business Development, the little local business exploded from two storefronts to 12 (including a joint venture in Japan) and sustained over 45% annual revenue growth. After laying this groundwork – even earning Florida’s Retailer of the Year award in 2015 – Renda stepped away once the company was thriving (it eventually went public via a SPAC in 2022). He was ready to take all those lessons in growth and apply them to his next big idea.

Founding Dragon Horse: A Vision Born from Frustration

That next big idea was Dragon Horse Agency. Renda’s years as an executive had left a clear impression: he was continually frustrated as a client of traditional marketing agencies, sparking his desire to create something better. “I had extensive experience working with marketing agencies and found those experiences frustrating. These experiences stayed with me and were the spark that lit my next endeavors,” he says, explaining the drive behind founding his own firm. In 2015, he envisioned a new kind of agency – “a one-stop shop” uniting comprehensive business strategy with a full suite of marketing services under one roof.

To bring this vision to life, Renda knew he needed a partner with complementary strengths. He soon recruited Julie W. Koester, a seasoned entrepreneur and researcher, as co-founder and president. Koester’s credentials meshed perfectly with the mission. She had led the creation of a world-class children’s museum in Naples—helping raise roughly $35–40million to launch the project—and had also pursued doctoral work in public health at Columbia University. Equally important, she shared Renda’s excitement for his twin start-up plan. Alongside the agency, the duo would also launch a high-end wellness and skincare venture (now known as Moxie Creed) as part of their parent company, Veedor Holdings. Koester was all-in on both fronts, eager to build a firm that fused strategy and creativity and a brand that reflected their passion for healthy living.

Early Days: Bootstrapping and Breakthroughs

Launching the company from scratch required grit – and a sense of humor. For the first 18 months, Renda and Koester literally worked out of Koester’s kitchen, self-funding their new business and forgoing any salary. By July 2017 they could finally upgrade to a tiny office (which the co-founders initially had to share), and in 2018 to a slightly larger space that at last provided two separate desks. The cramped early days even produced an inside joke: with constant activity in close quarters, the team instituted a “stop talking” card that anyone could play once a day to grab a moment of quiet. All joking aside, the co-founders were steadily building momentum. As Renda notes, their “disruptive agency model rapidly took hold”, and it quickly became apparent that Dragon Horse was not just another marketing shop.

An early turning point was landing their first major client in late 2016 – a local nonprofit arts organization. Renda and Koester already knew and loved the client’s mission, which made them especially enthusiastic about helping reposition its brand. That personal passion paid off with successful outcomes and a three-year agency contract. The anecdote became proof of concept for Dragon Horse’s approach: by deeply understanding and believing in a client’s cause, they delivered results that far exceeded a one-size-fits-all campaign. More referrals and projects soon followed, and the young agency’s reputation for blending business savvy with heart began to spread.

Pioneering an Integrated Model and Scaling Up

Today, Dragon Horse Agency has grown into an international firm serving clients ranging from local startups to global enterprises. It has earned multiple industry awards and is known for a forward-thinking model that fuses business consulting with creative marketing in one offering. Under Renda and Koester’s co-leadership, the agency pioneered a “one-stop-shop” philosophy years before bigger consultancies such as Accenture, Deloitte, PwC, etc. began adopting this model. Industry observers have taken note. For example, O’Dwyer’s PR Magazine recently hailed Dragon Horse as “one of the first global ad agencies to identify the value of an integrated business and marketing strategy” – praise that underscores how ahead of the curve the firm’s approach has been.

Fueling this success is a leadership style that marries analytical rigor with creative flair. Renda, who serves as Dragon Horse’s Chief Strategy Officer, applies the same disciplined due diligence and vetting he honed in finance to guiding client strategy and campaigns. “We approach our clients in a similar discipline as I did back in my investing days regarding extensive due diligence, vetting, and analysis,” he notes, describing the analytical backbone behind the agency’s bold ideas. At the same time, he balances that seriousness with enthusiasm. “Strategizing with our clients and implementing actionable objectives is enjoyable and truly exciting for me,” Renda shared, conveying the genuine passion he brings to helping businesses grow. It’s a blend of strategy and excitement that has clearly resonated with clients and contributed to Dragon Horse’s rapid rise.

In 2022, the company expanded its footprint to Los Angeles, opening a branch in Santa Monica’s iconic 100 Wilshire building. Renda calls L.A. the “epicenter of the creative world,” and the move was a strategic push to be closer to entertainment and media clients on the West Coast. The bi-coastal presence (Florida and California) not only mirrors Renda’s personal roots, but also positions Dragon Horse at the intersection of diverse markets. Next up, the co-founders have set their sights on Europe with plans for an outpost in Milan, Italy – extending Dragon Horse’s international reach even further.

A Partnership of Complementary Strengths

In leading Dragon Horse, Koester and Renda have carved out distinct but harmonious roles. Koester, as co-CEO and managing partner, is the creative and strategic driving force behind the agency’s array of services. With over two decades of experience as a professional researcher and copywriter and a background in psychology, she brings extraordinary insight into how people think and what motivates consumer behavior. This allows her to craft marketing strategies that truly resonate with target audiences. Clients have noted Koester’s emphasis on deep discovery and empathy – praising the Dragon Horse team for wanting to “understand where you are and put a strategic plan together” rather than imposing a canned formula. In fact, Koester helped develop Dragon Horse’s signature DragonONE process, which integrates thorough up-front business consulting (examining everything from a client’s operations to its culture) with creative marketing execution to deliver tailored solutions.

Koester’s leadership style is often described as purpose-driven and relationship-centric. She leads with heart and conviction, choosing projects and partnerships she genuinely believes in. That passion is palpable. “They do extraordinary things, and we love them and wanted to work with them,” Koester says about one organization the agency took on, revealing how personally invested she becomes in her clients’ missions. Colleagues credit this mindset as a key ingredient in Dragon Horse’s ability to form long-term client relationships built on trust and shared vision.

Not surprisingly, Koester’s impact as a business leader has earned external recognition. In 2022, Industry Era Women Leaders magazine named her one of its Top 10 Admired Women Leaders, highlighting the “mighty transformations” she’s driven in business. The following year, she won a Great Companies Women Entrepreneur Award (2023) for her achievements, with judges noting how she overcame challenges to achieve “soaring” success for clients. She was also honored as a “Remarkable Businesswoman” in Gulfshore Business Magazine’s 2023 Women in Business issue. These accolades reflect not only Koester’s savvy and tenacity, but also her role as a rising role model for women in leadership.

Beyond the Agency: New Ventures and Community Impact

Bucking the idea of focusing on just one venture, Renda and Koester have launched several parallel initiatives under their Veedor Holdings umbrella. One is Moxie Creed, a luxury wellness and skincare line born from the duo’s shared passion for a healthy, active lifestyle. Another is Dragon Horse Publishing, established in 2018, which released an award-winning children’s book as its first title of a seven-book series. Dragon Horse Publishing has partnered with a Hollywood production studio to explore a development deal bringing Toofer & The Giblet to the little and big screen everywhere, too. (The debut book, Toofer and The Giblet, not only won accolades in children’s literature but is now being developed for potential film/TV adaptation – a nod to Renda’s flair for storytelling and media.) These side ventures showcase the co-founders’ creativity and willingness to explore new industries, all while running a growing agency.

Through it all, Renda and Koester remain grounded in community and values. Renda continues to volunteer, sit on boards, and support numerous causes. Koester, for her part, spent a decade spearheading the creation of the Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples, helping guide it from a mere idea to a beloved institution with a $30 million facility. Within their own company, the duo fosters a tight-knit, mission-driven culture. They often refer to their team as a family of “Dragons,” and invoke the African philosophy of Ubuntu (“I am because we are”) as a guiding principle – emphasizing shared humanity, team unity, and the notion that the success of each individual is intertwined with the success of the whole. This commitment to service and solidarity underpins how Dragon Horse Agency does business, ensuring that growth never comes at the expense of integrity or compassion.

In an era of constant change, the story of Dragon Horse Agency’s rise – fueled by frustration turned into innovation, a partnership built on complementary strengths, and an unwavering focus on client success – offers a potent dose of inspiration. “Success is not final; failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts,” Winston Churchill famously said, and Renda and Koester exemplify that credo. From a humble kitchen table to a global stage, their journey shows what’s possible when visionary entrepreneurs combine courage, creativity and heart in pursuit of a dream.

‍