Realness: What Sets Vail Apart From the Rest
In my past roles, I sometimes found myself doing something I hated: lying to clients.
Not outright fiction, but the kind of slippery half-truths that make you sick to your stomach. I’d assure someone that our product could address their concerns, even when I knew it couldn’t. I’d soften my lies with overcommunication, or spin shortcomings into “features.” Sometimes I’d even gaslightingly admit fault in a way that made it seem like I was taking responsibility, when in truth, I was just covering over deeper gaps.
It’s a part of working on bleeding-edge tech that almost everyone experiences – being part of teams that are so eager to sell the vision that they forget the reality. The same thing happened in the late 90s and the early 00s as the internet came into prominence. Ultimately, many of these engineers and tech advocates are using a tried-and-true playbook to capitalize on investors' and customers’ lack of expertise, selling dreams while the product is still in development. No matter how common it has been, it always felt slimy to me.
On Both Sides of the Table
I’ve been on both sides of this problem. I’ve been a client who was misled by overzealous vendors, sold a vision that never materialized. I’ve also been a team member inside those vendors, pressured to deliver promises I knew we couldn’t keep.
Both of these experiences taught me how dangerous hype can be when it outpaces reality. It also gave me a unique perspective: I know how it feels to be let down, and I know how those empty promises get made in the first place.
Why Vail Creatives is Different
This is the experience we bring to Vail Creatives; it’s why our service is so valuable, and why we make it a point to be selective with the companies we work with, prioritizing teams that are open and willing to solve problems collaboratively and sustainably.
Here, we don’t treat you like a “client.” We treat you like a partner. That means we don’t make promises we can’t keep. If we don’t believe in a solution, we’ll tell you, and then we’ll work with you to find the right one for your team.
We embed ourselves in your operations to solve the problems that matter. We also make sure you’re not being taken advantage of – by us, by a vendor, or by a flashy piece of tech that looks good in a demo but won’t hold up under pressure.
Unlike traditional firms that design engagements to keep you coming back, our mission is to empower you with the skills, clarity, and systems you need to keep growing long after we’ve stepped away.
We Have Partners, not Customers
At Vail Creatives, we’ve built the firm we always wished we could hire. A team of people who have lived on both sides of the table and carry those lessons forward.
We believe that honesty is the real innovation. That partnership means telling the truth, even when it’s not glamorous. The measure of our success isn’t how many projects we sell, but how capable and confident your team feels when we’re gone.
