Case Study: SOFT x Nowthen
From Automation to Transformation -
How Nowthen 10x'd Their Brand Strategy Quality with SOFT
We are SOFT.
The Challenge:
Speed vs. Depth
Nowthen's clients, being fast-moving startups, require brand identities ready to launch in a matter of weeks. While Nowthen was already fast, this pace often forced them to compromise on the crucial strategic foundation.
Nowthen knew they needed a more thorough way to integrate technology. Their initial bold question to SOFT was: Could brand strategy be automated to gain speed without compromising quality?
Having spent over a decade in the agency world, I’ve seen how incredibly rewarding it is to collaborate with talented people —but also how difficult it can be to scale a creative business sustainably. The economics of running an agency have become increasingly tough, making it harder to stay profitable while maintaining a thriving culture. A flawed business model takes its toll — not just on margins but on creativity, morale, and long-term success.
My mission with SOFT is to empower agencies, consultancies, and in-house teams to transform their business — leveraging AI co-workers to build highly profitable, fulfilling work environments where teams can unlock their full creative potential.
Boris Jitsukata
Founder, SOFT
“We work with early-stage startups that need to have a ready to launch identity in a couple of weeks and you cannot spend weeks on the brand strategy part. We would just skip it. We would wing it to meet the target.”
“We work with early-stage startups that need to have a ready to launch identity in a couple of weeks and you cannot spend weeks on the brand strategy part. We would just skip it. We would wing it to meet the target.”
Apolline, Co-founder at Nowthen
Client Spotlight: Nowthen
Client Spotlight: Nowthen
Client Spotlight: Nowthen
Nowthen is a Tokyo-based boutique design studio specializing in branding and product design for high-growth, early-stage startups (Seed to Series A). Their mission is to help these scaling companies move beyond the MVP phase by delivering high-quality brand upgrades at startup speed.
Nowthen is a Tokyo-based boutique design studio specializing in branding and product design for high-growth, early-stage startups (Seed to Series A). Their mission is to help these scaling companies move beyond the MVP phase by delivering high-quality brand upgrades at startup speed.
The SOFT Solution: A Proprietary Autonomous Agent Flow
SOFT collaborated with Nowthen not just to automate, but to formalize and amplify their unique design philosophy. The project resulted in the design and build of a six-step autonomous agent workflow.
Having spent over a decade in the agency world, I’ve seen how incredibly rewarding it is to collaborate with talented people —but also how difficult it can be to scale a creative business sustainably. The economics of running an agency have become increasingly tough, making it harder to stay profitable while maintaining a thriving culture. A flawed business model takes its toll — not just on margins but on creativity, morale, and long-term success.
My mission with SOFT is to empower agencies, consultancies, and in-house teams to transform their business — leveraging AI co-workers to build highly profitable, fulfilling work environments where teams can unlock their full creative potential.
Boris Jitsukata
Founder, SOFT
“Once we put on paper exactly how we do things... and we come up with a framework, then we are armed to teach it to the AI and then it produces outstanding results.”
“Once we put on paper exactly how we do things... and we come up with a framework, then we are armed to teach it to the AI and then it produces outstanding results.”
Raphael, Co-founder at Nowthen
The "Secret Sauce": The Magnetic Idea
The agent was built upon Nowthen’s proprietary framework, which they call the "Magnetic Idea". Unlike methods for established brands, their framework is tailor-made for startups, who primarily struggle with being understood and trusted.
The core of the strategy is the belief that a powerful startup brand must fulfill a human aspiration—it must enable the target audience to get closer to their aspirational self. The agent's workflow ensures this level of depth by conducting holistic research on:
Target audience personas
Industry, ecosystem, and competitors
Current trends and zeitgeist
Having spent over a decade in the agency world, I’ve seen how incredibly rewarding it is to collaborate with talented people —but also how difficult it can be to scale a creative business sustainably. The economics of running an agency have become increasingly tough, making it harder to stay profitable while maintaining a thriving culture. A flawed business model takes its toll — not just on margins but on creativity, morale, and long-term success.
My mission with SOFT is to empower agencies, consultancies, and in-house teams to transform their business — leveraging AI co-workers to build highly profitable, fulfilling work environments where teams can unlock their full creative potential.
Boris Jitsukata
Founder, SOFT
5
Autonomous Agents in 1 Flow
Autonomous Agents in 1 Flow
10x
10x
Strategy Depth, Every Time
Strategy Depth, Every Time
400+
400+
Hours of Strategic Output
Could you introduce Nowthen and what kind of work you do?
Having spent over a decade in the agency world, I’ve seen how incredibly rewarding it is to collaborate with talented people —but also how difficult it can be to scale a creative business sustainably. The economics of running an agency have become increasingly tough, making it harder to stay profitable while maintaining a thriving culture. A flawed business model takes its toll — not just on margins but on creativity, morale, and long-term success.
My mission with SOFT is to empower agencies, consultancies, and in-house teams to transform their business — leveraging AI co-workers to build highly profitable, fulfilling work environments where teams can unlock their full creative potential.
Boris Jitsukata
Founder, SOFT
Raphael: Nowthen is a design studio and we work mostly with startups that are ready to scale. And who in order to do so need to upgrade their brand, or their product. That’s mostly what we do and it's the two of us, plus a really cool team of, well, it's fluctuating, but I would say around eight people that are mostly based around Japan, but also, a little bit across the world.
Boris: When did you start the company?
Apolline: We started in 2023, so it's been two years and a half now.
Boris: What are you focused on right now?
Apolline: We focus on balancing speed and quality as the startups we're serving are funded early stage startups, so from Seed to Series A. We help them to go beyond the early stage to scale acquisition. So they need a certain level of quality that's drastically different from what they had before. We are not in the MVP phase anymore, but at the same time, they still need to move at a startuppy pace. And for us it's really important to have all these processes in place So, that we can deliver something quickly. But still qualitative and as good as something that you would do if you are at a much later stage.
Raphael: In addition I think we're also quite focused on growing our own business, So in, uh, ourselves actually recruiting more customers and also more people to work with, like. growing our team so we can serve more startups.
Read the full interview here (coming soon)
Having spent over a decade in the agency world, I’ve seen how incredibly rewarding it is to collaborate with talented people —but also how difficult it can be to scale a creative business sustainably. The economics of running an agency have become increasingly tough, making it harder to stay profitable while maintaining a thriving culture. A flawed business model takes its toll — not just on margins but on creativity, morale, and long-term success.
My mission with SOFT is to empower agencies, consultancies, and in-house teams to transform their business — leveraging AI co-workers to build highly profitable, fulfilling work environments where teams can unlock their full creative potential.
Boris Jitsukata
Founder, SOFT
Ready to Automate and Transform Your Business?
Ready to Automate and Transform Your Business?
Then let’s start with a 30-minute free online session to identify your AI potential.
Book your appointment here.
Then let’s start with a
30-minute free online session
to identify your AI potential.
Book your appointment here.
Illustrations by
Pablo Stanley
SOFT
Minami-Aoyama 2-2-15
Minato-ku, 107-0062
Tokyo, Japan
Automate
Innovation.
Illustrations by
Pablo Stanley
SOFT
Minami-Aoyama 2-2-15
Minato-ku, 107-0062
Tokyo, Japan
Automate
Innovation.