Mara Delgado

Mara co-founded Digital Squad in 2016 after eight years client-side, most recently running growth for a retail group where she hired — and fired — four agencies in three years. That experience shaped most of how the company operates.

She owns the practices that cost the company money on purpose: scoping every quote from a real brief instead of a rate card, 90-day terms rather than annual lock-ins, client-owned accounts, and turning down roughly one enquiry in four. Her argument has always been that the retention rate pays for the lost inbound, and so far the numbers have agreed.

She sits in on the first audit call for every new engagement, which is the main reason the strategist who pitches an account is the one who runs it.