When Erik Huberman started Hawke Media in 2014, he wasn’t trying to replicate the model used by traditional digital marketing agencies. In fact, he was aiming for the opposite. After selling a couple of ecommerce companies and building the marketing strategy for several other businesses, one thing was clear: Marketing agencies were constantly overcomplicating things.
“At the time, there were about 24,000 marketing agencies in the U.S. and about 99% of them were full of shit,” he says bluntly. While most agencies were focused on securing contracts with enterprise organizations, Huberman noticed a major gap. “The few good agencies wanted to work with Fortune 2000 companies—bigger budgets, better margins. What that meant, basically, was that you’re screwed if you run a growth-stage company.”
Instead of shying away from the challenge of working with startups and midsize businesses, Huberman reimagined what marketing support for early-stage businesses should look like. Focusing on transparency, flexibility, and tailored strategy, he started Hawke Media with a team of four people. Now, nearly 12 years later, his 250-person team has supported more than 6,000 brands. “We’ve worked with companies that started with nothing and are now multibillion-dollar organizations,” he says.
“BUSINESSES ONLY FAIL FOR TWO REASONS”
The success of Hawke Media can’t be attributed to one person’s tenacity or lucky timing. For Huberman, the difference between a successful business and one that fails comes down to two things: financial health and the founder’s ability to adapt. The first is simple, “Don’t take on too much financing that you can’t get out from under,” he says.
The second is a bit more nuanced. A founder’s unwillingness to adapt can be fatal. Market conditions move, consumer demands change, and business dynamics shift; the secret to weathering those changes, Huberman says, is to build a business that works the way that you want it to:
“Everyone wants to be a billionaire. But do you really want to put in the work it takes to do that?”
The same questions he asks of himself as an entrepreneur, he asks of his clients. Pushing for more, thinking bigger, and taking risks are foundational to success, and they all underscore the importance of adaptability. “If you want to grow, if you want to build, you’ve got to push,” he says. Getting honest about Hawke Media’s imperfections, Huberman opens up about a time when he felt like his team wasn’t pushing their clients toward growth effectively enough. “You’ve got to be pushing boundaries, taking risks, and making mistakes,” he says. “If the marketing is working, ramp it up. You can’t do the same thing and expect a different result.”
ESTABLISHING A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR MARKETERS
Working with thousands of businesses gave Huberman a close-up look at common marketing pitfalls. In his book, The Hawke Method, he breaks down the three pillars of successful marketing: awareness, nurturing, and trust.
Awareness focuses on grabbing the attention of potential customers and making your brand known. “It’s what most people think of as marketing,” Huberman says. But without going deeper, business leaders close their organizations off from opportunities. Marketing isn’t just about flashy ads and successful PR campaigns, he says. Customer retention and long-term relationships come from nurturing and, eventually, trust.
Huberman notes that many business activities fall under the “nurturing” umbrella. Nurturing is how you show your existing base of customers that they matter. But if a marketing strategy only targets existing relationships, the customer base will begin to shrink. This dynamic underscores the importance of both awareness and nurturing.
The third pillar, trust, is where magic is made. “Roughly 75% of people won’t buy from a company that they don’t inherently trust,” Huberman says. “Things like testimonials, influencer reviews, and other third-party perspectives help build long-term credibility.” These pillars aren’t just theoretical ; they’re now being taught to up-and-coming industry leaders at NYU, Columbia, and other universities.
PRICELESS PERSPECTIVE: THE SUCCESS OF HAWKE VENTURES
It didn’t take long for Huberman to realize that his marketing expertise would translate well into the investing space, but that wasn’t his focus at first. After years of working in volatility, his mindset as an investor was more conservative. “I just wanted to put my money in conservative stuff and watch it grow,” he says.
That mindset began to shift when his friends pushed him to make a small investment in their ecommerce business. Reluctantly, he obliged, keeping his risk exposure limited. That startup became a multibillion-dollar venture, FabFitFun. The experience was a wake-up call. Over the next three years, Huberman backed seven additional startups, all of which performed better than he could have imagined.
With a clearer sense of what worked and how he could make a difference as an investor, Huberman created his own fund: Hawke Ventures. At first, Hawke Ventures focused on marketing technology, an area where his expertise and network provided a natural advantage.
“We saw an opportunity to invest in marketing technology and then onboard our clients and become a market maker for them,” he says.
By merging the worlds of digital marketing services and marketing technologies, Huberman was able to offer his portfolio companies real-world distribution, feedback, and adoption. On the other side of the coin, existing Hawke Media clients gained access to the best marketing tools available. “We actually realized [Hawke Ventures] helped Hawke Media because we became tighter partners with our marketing technology partners and were along for the ride from the very beginning,” he says.
At Hawkefest: Erik Huberman and Oliver Trevena – Hollywood Star, Founder of Caliwater, and Investor in AllSaints, DOGPOUND, and more
DEMOCRATIZING INVESTMENTS WITH HAWKE DEAL NETWORK
As Hawke Ventures evolved, so did Huberman’s approach to investing. In the early years, some consumer-facing brands that caught his eye, and he pursued a few deals in that space. Despite the promise of these startups, they were more volatile, making it difficult to manage investments and financial goals. Huberman, along with his team, decided that Hawke Ventures was better equipped to support portfolio companies operating within marketing technology, tech ecommerce, or tech commerce enablement.
With Huberman Ventures’ second fund almost fully deployed, Huberman began to move his eye back toward consumer brands for the third fund. “We realized with consumer [brands], we like later-stage investments, such as Series A or even B and C,” he says. “But our funds aren’t big enough to invest in a Series C company with a $2 billion valuation.”
Rather than walk away from those opportunities, Huberman built the platform that allows Hawke Media’s limited partners and broader network to take part in investing with the firm. This democratizes investments, providing access to high-quality opportunities that may otherwise be out of reach for smaller investors. It’s a simple solution to a recurring challenge—a problem-solving approach that Huberman has mastered.
REACHING HOUSEHOLD NAME STATUS
In an era where founders and business leaders are constantly talking about ambition and evolution, only some of them are executing at a notable level. Huberman is one of them. His approach to business is grounded in adaptability, thoughtful risk-taking, and financial prowess, and it works.
Many of Hawke Media’s early clients were operating out of garages, spare bedrooms, or scrappy warehouses. Some of those companies are now industry leaders and highly successful “unicorns.” As the person who was at the helm of those journeys, it would be easy for Huberman to dust off his hands and lead from afar. But for entrepreneurs of his caliber, that almost never happens.
“Now, the North Star is, ‘How do we become a household name?’” he says. Eager to get Hawke Media’s name out to more potential clients and add to the list of 6,000 businesses that it supports, Huberman is already strategizing about how his company will evolve.
“If you want to grow, you want to build, you’ve got to push,” Huberman says.
