Haley Kelly Built Yeco to End the Bad Agency Hire

Brands lose months and entire budgets to a single decision gone wrong: the wrong agency hire. Haley Kelly watched it happen from both sides of the table, first inside agencies, then as the marketing leader doing the hiring. She built Yeco so brands would not have to guess anymore.

Haley Kelly is the co-founder and president of Yeco, the strategic bridge between high-growth brands and the elite agencies they need to scale. A member of the Entreprenista League, she leads a team of 7 and speaks with 75 to 100 brands every month. The whole model rests on one deliberate choice, brands never pay for the match. "Our mission is to replace guesswork with data-driven intuition to ensure every match is built for long-term growth."

Haley learned the industry from the inside before she set out to fix it.

Both sides of the table

Haley grew up in an entrepreneurial family, surrounded by parents and siblings who built businesses of their own. She spent years on the agency side working with brands like Gymshark, Orgain, Territory Foods, Nature Made, and Veronica Beard, learning how agencies really operate, from team structure to pricing and profitability.

Then she moved to the brand side as director of marketing at VICI, where she hired and fired agencies. Later, while consulting for both brands and agencies, she kept seeing the same gap.

The friction she couldn't ignore

Agencies were getting inbound leads they did not have the structure to support, and Haley was often asked to help close those deals. At the same time, brands were choosing partners based on a quick Google search or a referral from a company with completely different needs. "My co-founder and I experienced this friction firsthand and knew there had to be a better way."

A model built on giving value first

Because brands never pay for matchmaking, Yeco can speak with 75 to 100 of them every month. Haley calls it a compounding effect, and it has fueled the company’s growth from day one. She set out to become a strategic resource rather than another vendor, and every conversation deepens Yeco’s understanding of what brands need, making each match stronger.

The wins that prove the model

By Haley's account, Yeco has driven more than $1.5 million in agency fees to a single partner firm this year. The company has placed brands including Perelel Health, Halara, Joah Brown, Studs, TelyRX, Credit Acceptance, and Danone with specialists across PR, connected TV, and performance marketing.

Numbers aside, the accomplishment she names first is the team of 7 she has built. She remembers exactly what she loved and hated inside other companies, and she works every day to build a people-first organization. "Seeing my team grow and thrive in a culture I built from the ground up is my greatest achievement," she says.

What's next

Haley wants Yeco to become the global gold standard for how brands find their experts. She is investing in platform innovation built on data-backed transparency, bringing on more senior hires, and placing bigger brands into the network, all while staying obsessed with the quality of every match.

You can connect with Haley on LinkedIn and learn more about Yeco at yeco.co.

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If Haley's people-first approach to building resonates, the Entreprenista League is a community of women founders who value connection, shared experience, and practical business insight as they grow. Learn more about the Entreprenista League right here.