Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer,
Ready State
Kabeer Mamnoon’s motto is: “Question Everything.” This philosophy was developed when he worked for a new technology incubator group at Oracle in the late 1990s. He says, “This blank-slate, constant-experimentation approach got hard wired into me to some extent-- especially during my time at MIT after Oracle-- and I apply it now to Ready State’s business as well as our clients’ challenges.”
Ready State, a San Francisco-based marketing agency, was founded in 2013, already boasts clients like Aribnb, Google and HP. According to Kabeer, “With Ready State, we wanted to bring to life a new marketing approach that’s rooted in finding the authentic brand stories that resonate with people in creative and engaging ways. We work with our clients to help them identify and anticipate their business needs and provide solutions.”
Kabeer describes this process at Ready State: “For us, finding real innovation is the result of exploring all elements of a business problem. We take a journalistic approach to finding a better way to create a difference to a client’s business. It’s not about jumping to the first or most obvious trend. We like to iterate on a thought or idea, at scale, and we believe that innovation comes from curious minds, courageous thinking, and an optimistic outlook. Innovation is a mindset. It’s about having vision beyond the horizon.”
A good example of a new and innovative agency structure is Ready State’s operating model in their engagement with Airbnb. It blends the best of an embedded team with the best of the larger agency, and is managed to deliver the highest quality work at scale and speed-- with unprecedented results. Kabeer elaborates, “The model was something unfamiliar to clients and agencies alike, and took some courage on both sides to build and activate. That courage has paid off handsomely in the kind of bandwidth and throughput of creative excellence we have delivered in partnership with our client.”
Kabeer Mamnoon is always looking for the next opportunity to explore emerging platforms, operating models, technologies. “I’ve taken on the responsibility to make sure that each member of our team at Ready State is encouraged to do the same-- to invest in their passions and curiosities, to tinker with breakthrough technologies. When you prioritize this as a leader, innovations take off in employees’ approach to work and excitement in their roles. We’ve seen our team develop some incredibly forward-thinking marketing strategies for our clients, which I believe are a direct result of this leadership style.”
Kabeer was born Sharjah, UAE—near Dubai. He is Indian, but has never lived in India, and has worked in the US, as well as Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, Dubai, and Canada. He jokes, “To some degree, I have always been something of a nomad – ‘trying on’ diverse cultures and contexts, and taking in the good from each of them.” We’d like to add that he has certainly found a home at Ready State in taking the best of his experience and applying it to creating exceptional thought leadership and innovative marketing solutions.