Stream Creative doesn't feel like an agency that was built. It feels like one that grew out of friendships, a shared curiosity, and a refusal to run an agency the way everyone else did.
Over 20-plus years, founders Jeff Coon, Brian Brinkman, and Steve James have navigated many challenges, but through it all, they've held on to the same core belief that got them started: do work you're proud of, with people you trust, for clients you actually believe in.
We sat down with the partners to talk about where it all started, what keeps them going, and why they've never been in a hurry to grow for growth's sake.
Before there was Stream Creative, there were three kids who just really liked to make things. The paths that led them to design were winding and wonderfully different — one had a childhood drawing book, one nearly ended up a pharmacist, one had a basketball hoop in the driveway and aspirations of being in the NBA. But somehow, they all ended up in the same place.
Brian: "I knew when I was very, very little, that's what I was gonna do. There was a book around our house that had step-by-step instructions on how to draw different scenes — that's what really hooked me." Fun fact: Brian would go on to win a state competition in high school for an animation he created before animation was easy.
Steve: Steve was on track for pharmacy school — right up until he wasn't. "I decided at the very last minute to pivot and really just do what I had passion for, which was art. That was probably a little bit of a scary thing for my parents."
Jeff: "The things I wanted to be when I grew up were pretty much what most of my buddies wanted to do — we were going to play in the NBA." Jeff found his way to graphic design through a combination of a business mindset and a love of art, though he admits it took an internship to truly confirm it.
The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh wasn't just where the three partners learned design. It's where two of them squeezed into a tiny two-desk office, and where the third was absorbing lessons from a famously no-nonsense professor that still shapes how he gives feedback today.
Steve: "I met Brian first, working side by side in a tiny two-desk office at Reeve Union, designing event collateral for campus. We helped support all their events — any time they had concerts or speakers coming in, we created the collateral. It was a huge opportunity to take actual outside-of-classroom work and build things that got implemented."
Brian: He gives Steve full credit for the connection with Jeff — "Steve made the connection with Jeff. We definitely knew each other, but it was a smaller school, with a smaller graduating class."
Jeff: What he remembers most about Oshkosh is the critique days and the professor who terrified them all into becoming better designers. "She was a straight shooter and pretty blunt. At first, it scared the heck out of all of us. But we learned to develop thick skin, and that's a skill I still think about — it's not a personal attack. You have to be able to separate the feedback from yourself."
Stream Creative existed in name before it existed in practice. The domain was registered. The idea was shared over years of staying in touch. But turning it into an actual company meant being patient, being scrappy, and perhaps most importantly, making sure the partnership could hold before they went all in.
Brian: "We bought the Stream Creative domain shortly after graduating from Oshkosh. We knew the company name way before we started the company — we always knew we wanted to pull it back together."
Steve: "It was a lot of working nights and weekends for friends and family, getting referrals, building almost our own little mini client roster. We'd know when the time was right.”
Jeff: "We all did our separate billing. And then it became pretty obvious that it was time to grow, to get a space, to add people — mainly because of the opportunities that were being presented to us."
Two decades is a long time to stay energized about anything. But ask any of the three partners what still drives them, and the answers come quickly — and it's not about revenue or recognition. They're about relationships, education, and the satisfaction of helping clients meet their goals.
Jeff: "It's just been awesome to be able to find like-minded companies — those we believe in culturally, philosophically, morally. And then to be able to grow with them." He points to clients whose main contacts have moved to new companies and brought Stream Creative with them as one of the most rewarding patterns they've seen.
Steve: "We wanted people to just be able to come to us and get a lot of different services, rather than cobbling them all together with teams that aren't talking." But more than the services, it's the tenure. "In a lot of cases, our team has the longest tenure on a client's marketing team. We know more about their brand history than some of the newer people coming in. That's pretty cool."
Brian: He finds his energy in the education angle. "At the core, we all enjoy teaching people and sharing what we're learning. Whether that's through HubSpot, AI in Milwaukee events, or one-on-one with clients — that's always been a core principle of what we're trying to accomplish."
Numbers can tell part of the story. But the moments that stick (the ones that remind you why you do this), aren't always measured in metrics. Sometimes it's a project that gets personal. Sometimes it's watching someone you brought on early become exactly who you hoped they'd become.
Brian: A personal favorite — a patch series he designed for the Boy Scouts of America's anniversary with the Harley-Davidson Museum. "I bought a book about the history of motorcycles and illustrated each one in a way that would translate to thread. The whole team went to the Harley Museum together. It was one of those projects where the work and the story of the client just aligned perfectly."
Steve: He brings it back to people. "Our first employee was Jason, my brother. To see his growth from designer all the way to creative director — he started at my kitchen table. That kind of thing is what it's all about."
Ask most agencies about their growth strategy and you'll get a polished deck full of projections. Ask the Stream Creative partners and you'll get something more honest: a philosophy they've protected carefully.
Jeff: "I wish I could say I had a big business plan all laid out. But it just kind of grew organically. We got one client. That led to another. And we grew in a way that was safe for our families." For Jeff, organic means client trust compounds. Relationships expand. Nothing is forced.
Brian: For Brian, it means being an anti-agency. "We always tried to grow smart and modestly — not hire and hire and hire, then lose an account and fire and fire and fire. We never wanted to run the company like that."
Steve: "We were very transparent in the early days of hiring — telling people, 'We're not gonna be big. We don't want to be a 50, 80, 100 person agency.' That just is not how we provide the best work for our clients and work best as a team.”
There's a moment in a lot of great partnerships where you all realize, at the same time, that you keep reading articles from the same source. For Stream Creative and HubSpot, that quiet recognition arrived years before anyone in Milwaukee knew what inbound marketing was — and it changed everything.
Jeff: It started with noticing that every great piece of content they were reading came from the same source. "I remember looking at Steve and Brian and saying, 'Who the hell is HubSpot anyway?'" A year later, they were one of the first agencies in the Midwest using the platform — and then co-founder Brian Halligan himself carved out time to meet with them.
Brian: Halligan's advice was direct: get out of flash design, get into inbound. "If I were you, I would get out of the graphic design business and get into the strategic marketing business. We knew leaving the meeting that this was a pivotal moment."
Steve: The HubSpot community turned out to be just as valuable as the software. "We did a mastermind with Pete Caputa — weekly calls with agency owners across the country. We weren't alone in this new marketing space. Having people we could learn from and teach — that became part of who we are."
Ask founders what advice they'd give their younger selves and you usually get one of two answers: I wouldn't change a thing, or I'd change everything.
The Stream Creative partners, in true form, gave a third kind of answer; thoughtful, honest, and grounded in the same philosophy that runs through everything they've built.
Jeff: Jeff noted, he wouldn't change much. "I've always believed in the process of improving. Yes, there were meetings that didn't go well and projects that didn’t work out. But every single time we were challenged, it allowed us to grow in ways we wouldn't have otherwise. Failure is not an option — and that's just a testament to the people we have."
Brian: "Don't get too high or too low. There are times that are tough, and times that things are rolling. You have to be patient, consistent, and trust your people, your processes, and your culture."
Steve: "We always wanted to grow silently and let it evolve organically — and it did work out great. But I think we could've been better at telling our story."
Twenty years in, Stream Creative is still run by the same three people who registered a domain before they had a single client.
They still have a passion for art and design, and now, for helping their clients succeed. And if the last two decades have taught them anything, it's that the best growth — in business and in people — tends to happen when trust, humility, and hard work lead the way.
Over the course of the next year, Stream Creative will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary in true SC style: understated and with a focus on our valued clients and our Midwestern roots. We invite you to follow along on our social channels as we announce our initiatives and we hope you’ll join us as we celebrate this milestone. Cheers to 20 more!