A studio for the operators who can't tell where brand ends and commerce begins.
Commence is a brand and commerce studio. We started in 2014, in Reno, with a hunch: most growth-stage brands are losing money at the seams between teams. Eleven years and 350+ engagements later, we still believe the same thing — and we've built the studio to prove it.
Why we exist.
In 2014, we started Commence because the work we kept seeing didn’t make sense. A founder would hire a brand agency, then a Shopify shop, then a marketing agency, then a content team. Six months in, every team was building from a different brief, against a different KPI, and complaining about the others to the founder. The brand drifted. The storefront stalled. The lifecycle channel got blamed.
The problem wasn’t that any one of those teams were bad. The problem was the org chart. The thing being built was a system, but no one was treating it like one.
So we built a studio that does that, with craft. One team, one source of truth, one north-star metric. We brand the storefront we’re shipping. We ship the storefront the brand was made for. We market the system we built. The work compounds because the people doing it are talking to each other.
We don't sell boilerplate solutions. We sell unified craft built for the scale your brand has earned.
— MATT McIVER, FOUNDER
A studio you can measure.
Five principles. We don’t break them.
Transparency is trust.
Get naked quick. We believe in being an open book — coming from a place of vulnerability and humility. That makes room for growth and communication to flourish, so we can solve your biggest problems.
Responsibility is a must.
We make decisions that reflect our empathy for others and Mother Nature. We are responsible for each other's continuous improvement, every day. We have each other's backs.
Collaboration over competition.
We don't compete with you, with each other, or with the agencies that came before. The best work comes from the room where the smartest people leave their ego at the door. We build with you, not at you.
Gracious Guidance.
We tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear — but we do it the right way. Direct, kind, and in service of the work. We've earned the right to be useful, not the right to be careless.
Pursuit of Excellence.
Good enough isn't. Every detail compounds — typography, page-load, the welcome email, the support handoff. Excellence is the floor, not the ceiling, and we're never done finding the next millimeter.
A beauty brand where the shelf and the screen finally tell the same story.
Sorella came to us with a loved product and a site that made it hard to buy. We rebuilt the brand architecture, launched the storefront on Shopify Plus, and connected wholesale, DTC, and subscription into one system.
“They rebuilt the whole engine while we kept selling. The brand finally matches what the product has always been.”
Trusted by clients. Validated by peers.
Awards & certifications
- Shopify Plus Partner Active
- Clutch Top Agency — Branding 2025
- Clutch Top Agency — Shopify Development 2025
- Awwwards Honorable Mention 2024
- Design Rush Top 100 2024
- Google 5.0 / Clutch 5.0 / Shopify 5.0 All-time
Featured in
- Shopify Editions Quarterly 2026
- Inc. Magazine — "Quiet Studios" 2025
- DTC Daily Podcast 2025
- Brand New — Identity Showcase 2024
- Reno Gazette — Top Workplaces 2024
- Klaviyo Partner Spotlight 2023
We hire infrequently. We hire well.
We're a small studio by design. Twelve people, eleven years, no plans to triple in size. When we hire, we hire slowly and we hire for life-of-the-studio. If that sounds like the job you're looking for, it probably isn't. If it does, we'd love to know you.
Currently hiring · 3 open roles
Senior Shopify Developer Brand Designer Affiliate & SEO Manager Send a speculative applicationFive stars, repeatedly.
40+ five-star reviews · Clutch · Shopify · Google“Commence Studio is a smart, thoughtful team. They do a great job of understanding the business and use cases of every project.”
“We felt that the Commence team truly understood what made our brand tick and how we could differentiate our firm.”
“Working with artists like them has been a pleasure — they take their craft as seriously as we do our food.”
“They delivered everything they promised. They were great at understanding what we were trying to communicate and conveyed information in a new way.”
“A team of young professionals delivering high-quality, modern work in a flexible environment. They made it easy to recommend changes as needed.”
“They created something better than what I could have articulated. The graphic art they produce stood out far before I engaged them.”
“They're a cut above other agencies I've seen. I got exactly what I wanted and have recommended them to others.”
“We've gotten really positive feedback — everyone loved it. Branding is like architecture; you shouldn't have to explain it.”
“Communication was clear and concise. Many team members worked together to create a seamless end result.”
Ready to see where your brand and commerce are leaking revenue?
Start with a Shopify Blueprint — a 14-day strategic diagnostic that shows you exactly what to fix, in what order, with numbers attached.
