From Agency Owner to Product Founder: 6 Years of White-Label Partnership with a New Zealand Agency

The Agency

Greg Southcombe runs Digimark, a marketing consultancy based in Motueka, New Zealand. He’s a specialist in digital strategy, Meta ad campaigns, email marketing, and WordPress websites. Greg is sharp on the strategy and social media side, but like most small agency owners, he was doing everything himself, including the dev work.

What Was Breaking

Greg didn’t have a dev problem because he was bad at it. He had a dev problem because he was too good at everything else. Every hour spent inside a WordPress build was an hour not spent on strategy, ads, or growing his client base. He was the bottleneck in his own business, and the more clients he landed, the less time he had to actually serve them well.

There was no team. No freelancer pipeline. Just Greg, doing it all.

What We Took Over

We connected through a Facebook group for Pro Theme by Themeco, both deep in the same WordPress ecosystem. What started as project-based dev work quickly became a full partnership. Over 6+ years, Agon Studios became Digimark’s dedicated technical team:

• WordPress development: custom builds, themes, and complex functionality
• Ongoing maintenance: 10 sites currently under active care
• SEO: technical and on-page optimisation for Greg’s clients
• Design: UX/UI support when projects require it

60+ projects delivered together and counting.

How We Work Together

No complicated tools, no bloated processes. We run on Google Chat for daily communication and Google Workspace for project files and specs. We hop on regular WIP calls to review active projects across both Digimark and Bypass.

The timezone gap between New Zealand and Dhaka is only 4 hours, so there’s real overlap in the working day. But more importantly, both of us stay flexible. When something’s urgent, we make it work. That’s what 6 years of trust looks like.

What We’ve Built Together

• 60+ client projects delivered across 6+ years
• 10 websites currently maintained across Digimark and Bypass Direct
• WordPress development, SEO, maintenance, and design, all under one partnership
• A working relationship built on weekly calls, daily chat, and zero ego

In His Words

“I have had the pleasure of working with Kazi now for over 4 years. He’s my go-to developer and first choice for all WordPress website development. He delivers on projects, without exception, on time, and on budget. It’s fair to say we’ve become friends as well as colleagues and I have grown to trust his judgment and often look for his advice, especially in all things WordPress. I am very pleased to be able to consider Kazi as an integral member of my small team.”
Greg Southcombe, Founder at Digimark & Bypass Direct

What It Freed Him To Do

This is the part that matters.

With Agon Studios handling every build and maintaining his entire client portfolio, Greg stopped being an agency owner who builds websites. He became a strategist who builds businesses.

He launched Bypass Direct, a productized service helping short-term rental property owners across New Zealand get found online and book guests directly, bypassing Airbnb and Booking.com commissions. Three pricing tiers, custom WordPress websites, booking system integrations with Stripe and Wise, social media setup. 10+ properties onboarded in the first year. All built by Agon Studios.

He stepped into a senior digital strategy role for one of his clients, a company generating $2M+ in annual revenue, where he now oversees the entire digital landscape. That’s not freelancer work. That’s executive-level trust.

Greg went from a one-man agency doing dev work between client calls to a founder running two businesses and advising at the executive level, because his white-label partner gave him the capacity to think bigger.

That’s not a vendor relationship. That’s what a real partnership builds.