How Todd has kept the web agency Four Kitchens thriving for 19 years

Most agency founders start in one of two ways: They’ve worked at an agency and decide to start their own, or they’re freelancers or consultants who generated too much business. Todd Nienkerk, co-founder of Four Kitchens, falls into the latter category. He had no agency experience. In fact, he barely had any real-world work experience at all.

Starting his web development agency with three co-founders meant learning everything from scratch: pricing, project and client management, and even how to create an invoice. Nearly 20 years later, his biggest lesson is simple: Established systems work; you don’t have to invent a new process every time.

Here’s how Todd co-founded and has sustained Four Kitchens, an agency that’s worked with Stanford, Columbia, and NBC, for so long. 

Learning to price, invoice, and select clients

“The hardest things to figure out back then are still the hardest things to figure out now—pricing, staying competitive, etc.,” Todd says. After 19 years, you’d think the hard parts would change, but they don’t. The fundamentals still matter. And with Four Kitchens, they had to learn those fundamentals on their own because they didn’t actually intend to be an agency. 

Todd and his co-founders launched an alt-weekly in Austin called That Other Paper. They built the website on Drupal, an open-source content management system (CMS), and did such a clean job that other media companies who were also adopting Drupal started calling, asking if Four Kitchens could build their sites, too.

So they pivoted to web development. The challenges came fast:

• How do we price a project?
• What does a proper invoice look like? (Cue furious Googling)
• How do we choose which clients to work with?
• How do we manage our clients and projects?
• How can we diversify our client base to reduce reliance on a few key clients?

Todd admits they misallocated energy at first. He once spent days designing a stylized invoice, complete with a dotted line guiding the reader from a question mark (“What is this invoice for?”) past the line items to an exclamation point at the total amount due—all because he wanted every single client touchpoint to reflect their creativity.

“I put all my energy into these tiny things that very few people would see or even really care about,” Todd says. “Until one of my business partners finally said, ‘Stop doing that.  This is very creative and clever, but redirect your energy toward something more fruitful.’”

They also adopted agile methodologies to manage projects more effectively, breaking work into phases such as discovery, implementation, and delivery, with regular check-ins and clear timelines. Later, they implemented Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a framework that helped them clarify roles, document internal processes, and create accountability across the team.

Multiple times in the past, they lost a significant portion of their revenue when just a few clients left. It’s called client concentration risk—too much revenue tied to too few clients—and to solve this problem, they established internal risk thresholds for each client. Decide your risk threshold, whether 20% or 30% of revenue, and don’t let a client cross that threshold. 

To grow, you have to say no to certain clients

In the beginning, Four Kitchens worked with almost anyone who needed a Drupal website. At the time, Drupal was relatively new, demand was high, and few agencies specialized in it, so getting clients was “more of a question of picking the projects you wanted,” says Todd.

As the market matured and more competitors entered the space, it became harder to get clients. To stay competitive, Four Kitchens narrowed its focus to sectors where it had experience: media companies, nonprofits, and higher education.

That approach worked for a while. But in trying to serve all three sectors, their messaging became too broad and, counterintuitively, less effective. It didn’t speak clearly to any one group. Meanwhile, new agencies were entering the market with more focused positioning.

In 2023, they tried to fix that by rebranding around “mission-driven organizations.” But their largest client group—higher education—didn’t relate to the term. “We thought we were speaking to both nonprofits and universities with that phrase,” Todd explained. “But higher ed doesn’t identify with that phrase at all.”

That insight prompted the team to reconsider their positioning. They looked at their active accounts and where most of their revenue was coming from. It was higher ed, so they changed their website copy and all marketing materials to appeal to that group.  

Today, their homepage spells it out directly: AI, content management & web platforms for higher ed.

That decision shaped everything else, from how they talk about their services to how they market themselves and how they decide which projects to take on. It has made their target audience more likely to work with them.

Todd’s experience is a useful reminder that you can start with a broad offering, but eventually to grow, you need to focus and reject certain clients. Specializing makes it easier to deliver consistent work, build repeatable systems, and train your team. It also helps your agency stand out in a crowded market.

Don’t hire on hope, and don’t wait too long to lay off

Four Kitchens’ first full-time hire was a developer, and at the time, they had enough work for the person.

As demand grew, they gradually added more staff to keep up. But eventually, like many growing agencies, they made a common mistake: They hired full-time employees in anticipation of growth. But the work didn’t always come, and when the market changed, they were left with more employees than they needed or could sustain.

Then came the second mistake: They waited too long to downsize.

“There were multiple times in our history when we should have downsized, or downsized sooner and we didn’t,” Todd says. “Most agencies wait too long. And the longer you wait, the worse it gets. You often have to let even more people go.”

Their hesitation came from a good place. They cared deeply about the team and wanted to protect jobs. But good intentions don’t change financial reality. When revenue slows and payroll stays the same, inaction creates larger problems.

Two lessons from this. First, only hire when you’re sure it’s a sustained and permanent need, not based on projected growth. Second, be honest with yourself about your numbers, and don’t let guilt delay hard calls. Acting early can often preserve more jobs and protect the long-term health of the business.

How to get clients in 2025

How are agencies getting clients in 2025? At Four Kitchens, inbound leads used to come easily. In the early days, clients would reach out after seeing their own Drupal site. But that’s no longer the case. The market is more competitive, budgets are tighter, and clients are taking longer to make decisions. So the team has had to become more proactive.

Today, they create a lot of content to attract and convert leads. For instance, they publish blog posts on AI and web development topics, share case studies on YouTube, and host webinars to increase their visibility and reach. 

They’ve hired a full-time account manager to focus on expanding existing relationships. That means identifying new opportunities within current client accounts and asking for warm introductions to other teams or organizations. For example, the account manager works closely with points of contact to explore new projects and introduce them to other departments or other schools that they're friendly with.

They’ve also found other ways to make money aside from client work. More than 55% of Four Kitchens’ income now comes from recurring revenue, specifically subscription-based website support and strategic staff augmentation. That means they only need to close about 45% of their revenue from new project work each year. You could also employ this tactic by offering training programs, internal workshops, or digital products based on your expertise.

Acquiring an agency is more accessible than you think

Mergers and acquisitions are a smart way to enter new markets, grow recurring revenue, or reduce costs. But many agency founders see acquisition as out of reach and something only the bigger companies can afford.

Todd used to think the same until another agency owner called to say she was retiring and asked if he’d ever considered buying her firm. “I told her I couldn’t afford it,” Todd recalls. “Then she explained how the deal could work without a large upfront payment. I never would’ve thought it was possible.”

That conversation led to Four Kitchens acquiring Advomatic, a small but experienced team with a strong portfolio that, according to Todd, has helped sustain the agency through the past few years.

Later, they acquired Manatí, a Costa Rica-based agency that gave them access to top-tier engineering talent and significantly reduced labor costs, which was especially important when U.S. tech salaries skyrocketed in 2022.

“If it wasn’t for that, I don’t think we could have remained competitive in terms of rates and wages,” Todd says. “It’s not something an early-stage agency can do, but at the mid-to-late stage, it’s surprisingly accessible once you dig into it.” 

Once your agency has consistent clients and steady revenue, consider acquiring another agency to scale further. You don’t always need a large upfront payment to do it. Many deals use seller financing, equity swaps, or deferred payments spread over several years. A fractional CFO or M&A advisor can help structure an arrangement that works for both sides.

Don’t invent a new process unless you have to

You don’t need to build everything from scratch. Many systems—like Agile or EOS—exist because they work. Todd learned that trying to be different for the sake of it only slows you down. Use what’s proven, and focus your creativity where it matters most.

Need help running the back office? Pilot gives you accurate books and CFO support, so you can make smarter decisions without reinventing anything.

Talk to an expert today.