Key Takeaways

• Kyle and his co-founder launched their business as affiliate marketers using credit cards, eventually scaling into a 175-person agency.
• Early success came from landing page arbitrage and optimizing conversion rates by upgrading server speed.
• Pilot House is now split into four business units: the core agency, the DTC newsletter/media platform, Labs (product incubation), and Warp Drive (their tech stack).
• Warp Drive builds optimized shopping funnels and is now evolving into a modular app builder layered on top of Shopify.
• AI is being explored in different parts of the agency, though implementation at scale has been slow due to size and complexity.
• Kyle emphasizes the importance of a team-first mindset, fostering internal entrepreneurship and enabling the business to run independently of the founders.
• The agency scaled quickly, hiring 100 people in 8 months, using a structured, culture-first screening process.
• One of the biggest lessons learned: address toxicity in your organization early—delays have widespread cultural consequences.
• Kyle attributes a lot of Pilot House’s success to timing, rapid decision-making, and having a bold, strategic mindset during uncertain periods like COVID.

Where We Can Find the Guest

• Website: pilothouse.co
• LinkedIn: Kyle Hitchcox

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Sean’s Links:

🔗 Sean Lang on LinkedIn
🌐 Agency Uplift Skool Group
🛒 Social Commerce Club