Luke Lintz is an entrepreneur who knows how to pivot. Lintz is the founder and CEO of HighKey Agency, a digital public relations firm that has collaborated with Khloé Kardashian, Nicki Minaj, Kevin Hart, Snoop Dogg, and primarily works with clinic owners.
The agency generated $20 million in revenue from 2020 to 2023, but this success was not without challenges and a few forward-looking decisions.
An Unusual Origin Story
HighKey didn’t start out as a Public Relations firm primarily working with clinic owners; originally, it was an e-commerce business based around a meme page.
In 2016, 16-year-old Luke Lintz and his older brother pooled their savings, bought wireless headphones from China, and resold them online. Instead of creating ads for the product, Lintz made popular memes that included smaller ads for the headphones in the captions.
By 2018, HighKey was generating over $600,000 in annual revenue. The fledgling business seemed poised for long-term success, but soon, Lintz and HighKey hit a stumbling block. The company had overbought inventory and soon fell into significant debt with this poor business decision.
Making a Pivot
When faced with new challenges, true entrepreneurs rise to the occasion — often with creative solutions. Because HighKey was an e-commerce company, one might expect that Lintz would solve the debt issue by expanding company offerings or doubling down on marketing.
Instead, he made a drastic pivot. Lintz knew he was a born brand-builder (after all, he built the popular meme page that sold HighKey’s inventory to hundreds of thousands of followers organically). He decided to move away from the product-based business and into serving other businesses. Before the end of 2018, HighKey had transformed from a headphone e-commerce operation to a PR firm.
Beyond Social Media
After HighKey’s rebrand, Lintz found himself working with doctors, real estate investors, fashion designers, wellness gurus, and other professionals.
Most of the company’s brand-building power was still rooted in growing social media profiles, but HighKey did more than social media management. The company forged valuable relationships with press outlets, podcasters, TV programs, and even celebrity collaborations to elevate its client’s digital brands.
Every public relations specialist wants to raise their clients’ public profiles. However, a PR strategy based on clickbait headlines and fluff pieces is not destined for long-term success. One of Lintz’s most remarkable achievements in the PR space was striking the right balance between attracting audience attention and delivering meaningful content.
A New Vision
Any entrepreneur can tell you the PR space is a crowded one, and one of the best ways to ensure longevity in a crowded market is to carve out a niche. That’s exactly what Lintz did when he made yet another pivot.
This pivot was much less drastic than the first. HighKey didn’t move from one business to another. Instead, the company narrowed its focus to one particular type of client: clinic owners. Lintz is now using his expertise to help plastic surgeons and owners of wellness and aesthetic clinics build strong, cohesive brand identities, promote their services and themselves, and ultimately bring in new patients.
For clinic owners who may not have the time or technological skills to promote themselves online, HighKey’s services have been a game changer. Lintz and his team have been opening doors and brightening futures, one practitioner at a time.
