We turned down a $14K/month retainer last week. Here's why. Three days into the
By Gabriel Caceros · June 4, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
We turned down a $14K/month retainer last week.
Here's why.
Three days into the discovery call, we knew we weren't going to take the engagement.
The brand was real. Revenue was real. The check would have cleared.
But the founder, in casual conversation, mentioned that his last three account managers across two agencies had quit within 90 days.
Three managers. Two agencies. Same outcome.
That's not bad luck. That's a pattern.
When we pressed, the picture got clearer.
→ Slack messages at 11pm expecting same-night response
→ Demanding daily reports that took 4 hours to build, then ignoring them
→ Public criticism of campaign decisions in front of his internal team
→ Renegotiating scope mid-month every month
He wasn't a bad person. He was a stressed founder running a fast-growing business under cash pressure.
But every dollar of that $14K retainer would have come at the cost of someone on our team.
Our culture at INGB has one rule that overrides everything else:
We do not put our team in environments where they can't do their best work.
Not for revenue. Not for marquee logos. Not for "strategic relationships."
Because the moment we do, we lose the people who make INGB worth hiring.
Lucia and I built this company specifically because we'd both worked at agencies where the client relationship dictated team conditions. Account managers worked weekends to chase impossible KPIs. Strategists got pulled off real work to assemble vanity decks. Senior people burned out in 18 months.
That model produces churn. Both client and employee.
We screen for fit on three things now, and the deal closes only if all three are green:
Strategic alignment — does the founder want a partner, or someone to execute orders?
Operational discipline — are decisions made in scheduled meetings, or in 11pm Slack messages?
Team respect — does the founder talk about their team and ours like collaborators, or like resources?
If any of those three are red, we pass.
Sometimes we lose revenue. We've passed on close to $400K in retainers this year using this filter.
But our team retention is 94%. Our client retention is 89%. Our average client tenure is 19 months and climbing.
The brands that win long-term are built by teams that aren't burning out.
That includes us. That includes our clients' internal teams.
Humans first isn't a slogan. It's a screening question.
If you're a founder reading this and any of those three filters made you uncomfortable: it's worth examining why.
The agency that takes you anyway probably isn't the one that's going to do your best work.
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