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New Engen
New Engen operates under the thesis that marketing scales when creative and media amplify each other rather than acting as separate line items.
New Engen
New Engen operates under the thesis that marketing scales when creative and media amplify each other rather than acting as separate line items. Hayashi founded the agency with experience forged during Zulily's rapid e-commerce ascent. President Jon White brings a parallel track from Honey, where he built the marketing function leading up to its $4B acquisition by PayPal. The firm has since expanded from its Seattle headquarters to offices in Northwest Arkansas, Brooklyn, and Manhattan Beach. The agency structures client engagements as a single connected spine—strategy, performance media, influencer curation, and affiliate program management run together. Its work spans paid media campaigns with reported spend surpassing $1B and a creator network that SVP Caroline Levere scaled to over 700 performers. Selected results sit on the firm's own ledger: a $1B+ activewear brand cut its cost-per-acquisition by 56% year-over-year, SeatGeek lifted affiliate channel ROAS by 113%, and a multi-billion-dollar gifting company saw Meta revenue from users aged 35 and under jump 792% year-over-year. The leadership bench mixes operator scars from exited unicorns with luxury-brand pedigree. Chief Creative Officer Alice Woo ran strategy at Prada and Louis Vuitton before building a user-generated content agency; Managing Partner Brian Kim led growth at Honey, PayPal, and Venmo following Dollar Shave Club's $1B sale. SVP Kevin Goodwin oversees strategy after managing $1B-plus in paid media elsewhere. The firm names 18 senior leaders on its site—from people and finance to affiliate technology—reflecting a deliberate post-IPO operational build rather than a founder-led services shop. New Engen's structural distinctiveness rests on treating creative production as depreciable infrastructure. It maintains in-house studio space in Brooklyn and Manhattan Beach for scalable content generation, coupling it with attribution measurement that the firm argues isolates causal marketing impact rather than proxy metrics. That architecture makes it a hybrid: part advertising agency, part martech operator, and part growth consultancy for mid-market and enterprise consumer brands that need a single team across the funnel.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Seattle
Corporate office
Seattle, WA, United States
Additional offices
Northwest Arkansas · Brooklyn, NY · Manhattan Beach, CA
Principals
Justin Hayashi
CEO
Jon White
President
Alice Woo
Chief Creative Officer
Caroline Levere
SVP of Performance Creator
Kevin Goodwin
SVP of Strategy & Growth
Brian Kim
Managing Partner, Disruptors
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at New Engen?
New Engen is not an investment firm; it operates as a digital marketing agency. Strategic business and client decisions sit with CEO Justin Hayashi and President Jon White. Brian Kim, the Managing Partner for Disruptors, oversees the firm's growth and venture-oriented initiatives, but the firm does not manage external capital.
How does New Engen's 'Creative-Led Growth System' differ from a standard agency media plan?
The system positions creative as depreciable infrastructure that must be refreshed continuously rather than treated as a one-time deliverable. Media and strategy teams sit under the same operating rhythm, measuring causal business impact rather than platform-reported impressions. The firm cites Cotopaxi's 20% marketing efficiency lift and a multi-billion dollar gifting company's 792% Meta revenue jump as output of that closed-loop measurement.
What is New Engen's relationship with PayPal and Honey?
President Jon White and Managing Partner Brian Kim both held senior growth and marketing roles at Honey prior to its $4B acquisition by PayPal. Kim subsequently led growth at PayPal and Venmo. The two executives carry that operator experience into New Engen's strategy, but the agency has no disclosed ongoing structural or ownership tie to PayPal or Honey.
Does New Engen report any institutional backing or external capital?
No public disclosures indicate external institutional capital, funding rounds, or a parent entity. The firm presents as an independent, privately held marketing agency with a senior leadership team whose wealth was generated through prior exits at companies like Honey and Dollar Shave Club.
Which sectors does New Engen explicitly target?
The firm's disclosed client roster concentrates on consumer brands with e-commerce exposure—packaged food and beverage (Coca-Cola, OREO), activewear, live entertainment (SeatGeek), and gifting platforms. While its leadership backgrounds include luxury (Prada, Louis Vuitton) and tech, the public-facing sector focus remains mass-consumer brands pursuing full-funnel digital growth.
What is New Engen's known posture on using creator and influencer marketing?
Creator and influencer marketing is treated as a core integrated function, not a bolt-on. SVP Caroline Levere built a 700-plus creator network after founding a performance-creative agency. The firm lists affiliate and brand-partnership VPs alongside media buyers, indicating that influencer spending is tied directly to measured performance outcomes rather than separate brand-awareness budgets.
Where does the leadership's underlying wealth and operating experience come from?
The c-suite's wealth and credibility derive from prior operator exits in e-commerce and adtech. CEO Justin Hayashi helped take Zulily public. President Jon White built Honey's marketing to a $4B exit. Chief Creative Officer Alice Woo worked at LVMH brands before her own agency exit. Managing Partner Brian Kim was at Dollar Shave Club during its $1B sale.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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