Mumbai: Talented has announced the launch of mktgstack, a new creative shop positioned as an AI-native growth partner for founders and brand operators. With the ambition of lowering customer acquisition costs (CAC) and moving beyond the “campaign-for-every-problem” agency model, mktgstack aims to implement modern marketing systems inspired by internet-native brands.
Founded by former Talented team members Namrata Chawla and Varun Khiatani, mktgstack is built on the belief that not all marketing challenges require traditional advertising campaigns. Instead, the agency will focus on growth levers such as owned distribution, founder-led storytelling, content and IP systems, AI-enabled solutions, and continuous optimisation of existing brand assets and channels.
On why they’re launching, the agency co-founders Namrata Chawla and Varun Khiatani said, “We’re starting-up because we think there’s a genuine white space in the agency business. Most great creative agencies that exist today were built for a different era of marketing, when growth was driven by a few large campaigns planned months in advance. That no longer matches how entire cohorts of audiences consume, engage, convert, and make decisions. For a lot of brands and founders today, growth looks very different. So naturally, their expectations from ‘creative advertising’ are also different. Ad campaigns have their place, but many brands now see stronger results from growth levers like building their own distribution, founder-led storytelling, content & IP systems, AI enabled solutions and continuous optimization of the assets and channels they already own. Our agency’s operating model will be designed for this sweet-spot. If the work doesn’t change behaviour, business outcomes, or momentum, we don’t think it matters how good it looks.”
mktgstack joins Talented’s existing ventures, including creator and culture marketing agency The New Thing and fractional marketing consultancy Early Partners. Together, these entities form the Talented Grid of Companies—an ecosystem of specialised, founder-led agencies designed around different operating models and client needs.
Talented founders Gautam Reghunath and PG Aditiya add, “We’re designing our Grid model as a network of distinct founder-led agencies, each with its own unique operating system. This matters because early-stage startups, established brands, and those in between operate under very different realities, from budget and team size to timelines and tolerance for risk. So, rather than forcing different forms of marketing for different clients that demand different balances & trade-offs into the same structure, The Talented Grid gives our clients the agency model that fits their context. Some of our agencies are optimised for craft, depth and cultural impact. Others, like mktgstack, are built to be lean, fast and highly efficient. As AI introduces a new layer of leverage in how we operate, it’s now possible for leaner, founder-led agencies to deliver high-quality creative execution that previously required much larger teams and traditional agency infrastructure. mktgstack is going to be innately pacy & agile; an agency structured more like a speedboat than a cruise ship.”
