Abhijit Avasthi: From Ogilvy to Sideways
Abhijit Avasthi was one of the leading creative figures at Ogilvy India before co-founding Sideways. His move into independent entrepreneurship reflected a wider shift among senior advertising professionals who wanted to build agencies around their own creative and strategic philosophies.
Sideways positions itself as a business and brand-building partner, working across brand positioning, advertising, design, customer experience and product strategy. This broader model reflects the belief that an agency should help solve business problems rather than simply produce campaigns.
Kawal Shoor and Navin Talreja: The Womb’s Behavioural Approach
The Womb was founded in 2015 by former Ogilvy executives Kawal Shoor and Navin Talreja. The agency built its proposition around behavioural change and measurable business growth.
Its work for brands including Fogg, Saregama Carvaan, Mahindra and Britannia demonstrates an approach that connects cultural observation with business objectives. The agency’s case studies illustrate its emphasis on effectiveness alongside creative originality.
The founders’ decision to create an independent agency allowed them to develop a distinct operating philosophy around integrity, empathy and imagination.
Raj Kamble and Mithila Saraf: Building Famous Innovations
Famous Innovations was founded by Raj Kamble in 2013, with Mithila Saraf joining as a founding partner and CEO. The agency has developed a reputation for ambitious creative work, innovation and campaigns designed to generate cultural conversations.
Kamble’s international experience across advertising networks helped shape the agency’s creative ambitions, while Saraf’s leadership has contributed to its business development and organisational growth.
Famous Innovations’ work across consumer brands, lifestyle businesses and social causes illustrates how independent agencies can compete through creative distinctiveness rather than global network scale alone.
Akshay Gurnani: From Schbang to The Cofoundry
Akshay Gurnani co-founded Schbang and spent a decade helping build it into a large independent marketing and communications business. After exiting the company in 2025, he founded The Cofoundry.
His new venture reflects another stage in the independent-agency movement: building systems that help brands and agencies scale, rather than concentrating solely on campaign execution.
This shift suggests that the next generation of agency founders may compete not only through creative ideas but also through strategy, operating models and closer integration with their clients’ businesses.
Why Independence Matters
Independent agencies often offer founders greater freedom to define their culture, choose clients and develop specialist capabilities. Without the same structures as multinational networks, they can sometimes make decisions faster and build closer relationships with senior client leaders.
But independence brings its own pressures. Founders must manage cash flow, recruitment, client concentration, technology investment and the challenge of maintaining creative quality as the business grows.
The strongest independent agencies therefore combine creative ambition with sound commercial management.
The New Agency Model
The definition of an advertising agency is expanding. Businesses increasingly expect partners to contribute to brand strategy, digital experiences, content, customer acquisition and measurable growth.
Independent founders are responding in different ways. Some build highly creative agencies, others combine advertising with design and technology, while some develop broader consulting and growth capabilities.
The common thread is ownership: founders want to create businesses whose culture, work and client relationships reflect their own convictions.
What Comes Next?
India’s independent advertising sector is likely to remain an important source of experimentation. As brands seek differentiated ideas and more accountable marketing, smaller founder-led businesses can offer a combination of senior attention, specialist expertise and creative flexibility.
Their long-term success, however, will depend on more than winning awards or attracting attention. Agencies must show that their work changes consumer behaviour, strengthens brands and contributes to business performance.
The independent-agency movement is ultimately about more than leaving a large network. It is about building a different kind of business, one where creative freedom, strategic thinking and commercial discipline reinforce one another.
From Sideways and The Womb to Famous Innovations and The Cofoundry, India’s independent founders are demonstrating that the future of advertising may be shaped not only by the size of an agency’s network but also by the strength of its ideas and the clarity of its purpose.
