PBN Leaders & Achievers 2024 Awards
Stephen Rosa | (add)ventures | Founder and CEO
STEPHEN ROSA STARTED his strategic and creative brand agency, (add)ventures, in East Providence 35 years ago with a typewriter and a credit card.
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“I had no clients and no money,” recalled Rosa, the agency’s founder and CEO.
But Rosa recognized that something new – the internet – had the potential to change the industry. His agency embraced technology, a strategy that helped him grow over the years, as business trends evolved from print to video and now virtual production.
Today, Rosa has 100 employees and offices in Miami, New York City, Chicago and Argentina, as well as teams and clients in Brazil and Chile. (add)ventures has 12 clients, including CVS Health Corp.
“We treat every client as the most important one we’re ever going to have,” Rosa said.
Rosa started the business in Boston and moved it a couple of years later to Rhode Island, his home state, to be closer to family – a move that was questioned by some because it is a smaller market.
“We took what other people would look at as a small market and turned it into big possibilities,” Rosa said.
In 2022, (add)ventures debuted a virtual production studio, (add)galaxies – the first of its kind in New England. It incorporates traditional filming techniques with virtual environments and computer graphics.
Rosa challenged his team during the COVID-19 pandemic to discover a way to get the studio back online. Clients, such as those in health care on the front lines, needed to tell their stories, Rosa said.
Rosa and Joseph Kayata, the company’s communications director and former WJAR-TV NBC 10 sports reporter, also have a business podcast, “Brand Slam,” launched last fall, featuring guests from the business, sports and entertainment worlds. The inspiration came after Rosa survived a bout with COVID-19 in 2021 that put him in the hospital for six weeks and nearly killed him.
Rosa credits his strong management team and workplace culture for the company’s success. They also have a philanthropy program called (add)love, in which they donate in-kind services to nonprofits, and also volunteer and donate to organizations.
“If we treat our interns and employees well, it elevates the quality of the work experience and it encourages younger individuals to stay here,” Rosa said.
