How Archetype Ascend built an agency division targeted at supporting BIPOC founders

Executive vice president Ulysses King and senior vice president Erica Billups Johnson had spent over 40 combined years as communications professionals, almost all within an agency setting. They had worked with a ton of globally renowned brands in tech and business, including Instagram, Meta, Amazon, Pinterest, HBO, Salesforce.com, and GitHub.

However, almost none of the companies that they had supported were founded, run by, or built to serve people of color. The few clients and projects that they did work on that met these criteria were those that they had to seek proactively or came through their personal networks.

The reason for this is not surprising. Most midsize to large global agencies require a sizable, often five-figure monthly retainer for their services. While these prices may not be prohibitive for multinational tech brands, they keep smaller, BIPOC-led brands - most of whom receive very little VC funding to support their operations - out of the agency ecosystem.

The data is grim. When Archetype Ascend was founded in February 2023, Black founders raised just 0.43% of the nearly $43bn deployed in venture funding in Q3 2022. Latino founders received only 2% of US venture capital funds despite making up ~50% of new SMB growth between 2007 and 2017.

On the venture capital side, things weren't much better. 70% of venture capitalists were white, while just 3% were Black. Only 32% of venture capitalists saw funding “multicultural-founded companies” as a priority, down from 43% the year prior.

As for PR, 84% of all public relations specialists were white, while only 9% were Black, 5% were Asian, and 12% were Latino. 89% of public relations managers were White.

Archetype chief executive Helena Maus and the company’s management team saw the need for change. Ulysses and Erica’s passion for impacting their communities through their communications skills. They came together to discuss how to make the agency’s services more accessible to BIPOC communities, and Archetype Ascend was born.

Archetype, ascending

Archetype Ascend is an independent but interconnected division within Archetype’s global agency dedicated to providing strategic communications and support for BIPOC founders, executives, and VCs. Led by Ulysses King and Erica Billups Johnson, the division leverages the talents of a small but mighty leadership team dedicated to growing and steering the direction of Ascend.

The division has also tapped into enthusiasm and skill from across the agency to further Ascend’s efforts. This is an inclusion initiative that allows anyone with an interest a chance to contribute, whether as an active member of a client team or project, a thought partner for division brainstorms, a developer of social or visual content, or a champion with current clients, media, or partners.

When considering how to bring this effort to life, the team behind Ascend identified three main goals: build a practice area that supports and uplifts Black and Brown communities, set a standard for other agencies looking to achieve an authentic social impact and attract and amplify the capabilities of BIPOC talent internally.

Archetype Ascend works with BIPOC-led startups, established brands looking to extend their DEI efforts, and executives of color who want to build their personal brands. The division offers all of the same services as the larger agency, including media relations and training, messaging and narrative development, design, DEI communications, and personal brand building.

For smaller clients the division provides specialized rates to make these services more attainable. In late 2024, Ascend introduced an “office hours” program, to allow people to buy a prepackaged set of hours that they could use for communications consultation over the course of six months, allowing for greater flexibility and affordability for those with a limited budget.

Change in action

The team behind Ascend had an idea that has since become a very real and successful component of the Archetype agency model. Within the past year, the company has worked with Docusign, support their chief diversity officer Iesha Berry in furthering the company’s DEI and employee experience efforts, developing the company's first ever bi-annual internal DEI report. They also worked with TikTok to support storytelling around creators of color.

Elsewhere, they developed strategy and provided communications support for AI-powered estate planning platform Alix and led personal brand projects with executives from Shopify and Airbnb. They also placed a panel at SXSW in March 2024 focused on an important discussion on the current state of corporate DEI and how practitioners can continue to move this work forward.

Archetype Ascend remains committed to diversifying the PR and comms industry, especially within the agency space, by building a community of BIPOC founders, execs, investors, media, and comms professionals.

Thanks to the work of Archetype Ascend thus far, the company seen an increase in inbound new business requests from BIPOC-led companies. They have also had current employees from across the globe, and potential candidates express how important this division is and ask how they can get involved.

This program is an excellent example of what can happen when passion, resources, management support, and professional capabilities come together to make an impact.

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