Introduction

Spend some time in any web design community and one question keeps coming up: how do you make the jump from freelancer to agency owner? To find out, I spoke with someone who has made that jump successfully.

Chris Lettner is the co-founder and co-CEO of The Weather, a web design agency he started in 2020 with his childhood friend Dominic. In just a few years, The Weather has grown into a fully remote team of more than 15 people, based mainly in Berlin and Prague. It builds websites for clients around the world, including some major international brands. Projects range from around €5,000 to large-scale builds with complex technical requirements.

We talked about finding the first clients, how AI is reshaping the industry, running a distributed team and the financial realities of agency life. You can watch the full conversation below. The rest of this article summarises the key lessons for anyone thinking about starting their own web design agency.

Build on what you already have

The Weather did not begin as a carefully planned venture. It was a plan B. Chris had worked as a freelance web designer and developer for years, and many of his clients were in tourism. In early 2020, he launched two tourism businesses of his own. Within two months, the first Covid lockdown had brought both of them to a halt.

Rather than start from zero, Chris and Dominic combined their freelance portfolios and built a single agency brand around them. It’s a useful reminder: if you’ve been freelancing, you already have the foundation of an agency. Your existing projects, skills and client relationships are your starting point.

Timing played a part too. While many businesses struggled during the pandemic, others suddenly had time to tackle projects they had long put off, such as replacing an outdated website. Looking back, Chris believes getting started was easier than it seemed at the time.

Say yes before you feel ready

One habit set The Weather apart in its early years: the team regularly accepted projects they didn’t yet know how to deliver, then did whatever it took to deliver them. It wasn’t always comfortable, but it built skills and confidence faster than any amount of preparation could.

We often suffered a lot to make it happen, but that’s how learning happens.

Choose a niche early

Asked what he would do differently if he were starting today, Chris was clear: commit to a well-defined niche much sooner.

The smaller the niche, the easier it is to get started, because you’ll be seen as the expert.

Specialisation lets a young agency compete with a far smaller portfolio. A boutique hotel looking for a new website will usually trust a studio with three hotel projects over a generalist with thirty unrelated ones.

Use agency directories to get discovered

With no marketing budget, The Weather won its first clients through agency directories, the websites that list and rank service providers by category and location. The team treated these listings as a core channel and today maintains profiles on around 150 of them, including:

• Clutch
• Sortlist
• DesignRush

Not every directory is equally reputable, but each listing adds to your visibility, and the effort required is minimal.

Share your work publicly

Directories aren’t the only low-cost route. One of Chris’s friends built his client base by creating design showcases and posting them on Reddit. Several subreddits actively invite designers to share their work and receive feedback. An account with some history helps, but the barrier to entry is low and anyone can start immediately.

Be visible in AI search

One of the most striking points in the interview: a significant share of The Weather’s new inquiries now comes through AI search. Prospective clients who once searched Google for “web agency Germany” now ask ChatGPT or Claude instead, and The Weather appears in the answers, even for large brands.

This doesn’t happen by chance. AI tools recommend The Weather because the agency has been operating for several years and is mentioned widely online. It also works best for specific queries, such as those filtered by location or by a type of work the agency is known for, rather than broad worldwide searches. The lesson for new agencies: a clear niche and a consistent presence across directories and other websites make you far easier for AI tools to find and recommend.

Sell outcomes, not just websites

AI has changed the economics of web design. It takes care of much of the routine work and makes teams significantly faster, but it has also lowered the perceived value of development. Custom software is now cheaper and quicker to build, so premium prices are harder to justify. Some technically minded clients have stopped outsourcing development altogether.

What clients still need is strategic guidance. They need someone who understands how a website fits into the wider business: how it connects to the CRM, supports marketing campaigns, tracks performance and delivers measurable results. As The Weather’s projects have grown, more of its work has shifted towards discovery: defining goals, deciding what to measure and optimising over time.

In the end, it’s not about building a pretty website. It’s about building something that works within the client’s business model and pays off.

Even when clients could build a website themselves, serious businesses still want expert advice on what to build, and a human partner to build it with.

Turn disruption into a service

Rather than treating AI purely as a threat, The Weather has built a business line around it. Its AI development service helps companies bring AI into their websites and internal workflows. The agency has also become a founding partner of Oylo, an AI tool that generates live visuals for events, brand activations and VJ performances. Oylo is currently in closed beta.

Plan for recurring revenue from day one

Chris was candid about the biggest structural challenge in the agency model. Most revenue arrives around a website’s launch, perhaps followed by a modest service contract. With little recurring income, agencies are under constant pressure to win new clients every month just to stay stable.

Fixed-budget projects add another problem: client expectations often continue after the budget has been spent. The Weather’s response has been to position itself as a long-term partner, offering ongoing services after launch:

• search and AI visibility
• digital marketing support
• tracking, analytics and reporting
• continuous improvement of the website and marketing setup

For new agencies, the takeaway is to design your recurring offer before you sign your first client, not after a few lean months between projects.

Build a remote team, then bring it together

The Weather has no offices. Its team is spread across Europe and beyond. Remote work was a founding principle, born from Chris and Dominic’s own wish to work from anywhere.

The main benefit is access to talent: the agency can hire the best person for each role, rather than the best person within commuting distance. The trade-off is that building culture and a shared identity takes deliberate effort. To bridge the distance, the whole team meets for a week-long offsite every year, so far in Morocco, Tbilisi and Greece. According to Chris, the effect on how people work and connect with each other is remarkable.

Don’t build everything from scratch

The interview ended with a story I didn’t expect. Years ago, when Chris was first building websites with WordPress, I introduced him to a simple idea: working from a solid theme is far faster than building everything from scratch. Chris credits that moment as, in some ways, the start of everything that followed.

The principle still holds. When you’re launching an agency, time is your most valuable resource. Spend it on clients, strategy and design, not on rebuilding the same foundations for every project. That’s the thinking behind Minimalio: a clean, flexible WordPress theme designed to be a dependable starting point for client websites.

Key takeaways

• Start with your existing work. Your freelance portfolio is your first agency portfolio.
• Take on stretch projects. Committing before you feel ready is how you grow.
• Specialise early. A narrow niche makes you the obvious expert.
• Get listed widely. Agency directories are a free and proven source of leads.
• Show your work. Communities like Reddit offer visibility and feedback.
• Optimise for AI search. A broad online presence helps AI tools recommend you.
• Sell outcomes. Clients pay for business results, not just attractive design.
• Build recurring revenue. Plan ongoing services from the start.
• Work smarter. Don’t rebuild from scratch what a good foundation already gives you.

Many thanks to Chris for sharing his experience so openly. If you’re considering starting your own web design agency, watch the full interview for the complete conversation.