case studynow in betaHow Fame runs on the tools that became Forge.
Fame is the small podcast production agency that built Forge. Every preset in the catalog exists because we needed it ourselves first - a client portal because ten clients' files were scattered across Drive folders, a status page because we couldn't write another Friday report, a team hub because the team kept asking the same questions in Slack. Then we realised every small agency has the same problems. Here's exactly how Fame uses Forge today: what we built, why, and what it changed.
no code · we run the infrastructure · flat monthly pricingEvery Forge preset exists because Fame needed it first.
The problems every small agency has
Fame had the problems every small podcast agency has, and they're the same problems every small *anything* agency has. Files scattered across Drive folders nobody could find at 5pm on a Friday. Status updates assembled by hand for every show, then never sent during a busy week. Time logged inconsistently, so we couldn't tell which shows were actually profitable. New starters asking the same fifteen questions on day one. And the founder, predictably, in the middle of all of it.
We tried the usual stack first - Notion for ops, a generic time tracker, weekly PDF reports, a shared Drive. It worked the way it always works: fine at four clients, painful at ten, broken at twenty. The tools weren't bad; they just weren't shaped to how we worked. Every workflow needed a custom layer on top of a generic tool, and that custom layer lived in someone's head.
So we started building the tools we needed. Not because we wanted to be a software company - we wanted to be a podcast agency that ran like one. Forge is that toolkit, productised.
How Fame uses each Forge tool
Client portal: one branded home per show
Each podcast client logs into a branded portal where every episode lives - the brief, the asset, the transcript, the show notes, sign-off status. The Drive-folder hunt stopped the week we shipped it.
learn more →Status page: episode pipeline at a glance
Per client, a live page showing every episode and where it is - recorded, in edit, awaiting sign-off, scheduled. We retired the Friday status email; clients check the link before they message.
learn more →Time tracking: shaped to shows, not stopwatches
Logs time against the right episode and the right phase of production - so we can see which shows actually earn their margin. We use the same data to price the next retainer.
learn more →Team hub: the operations manual that's actually used
The single place SOPs live - editing checklists, sign-off rules, the AI usage policy, the new-starter walkthrough. Linked from the project tool so the team opens it at the moment of work.
learn more →Chrome extension: guest research in one click
Captures a guest's profile from any site into the show's brief - the kind of small workflow our team does fifty times a week. Removing the copy-paste saves more time than any productivity app we tried.
learn more →What it's like to run the agency now
The honest summary: the agency runs more like a product company and less like a craft business. Onboarding a new client is a known sequence with the same portal at the end of it, not a fortnight of scattered emails. Status is something clients check, not something we send. New starters are productive in days because the SOPs they need are linked from the work itself, not buried in a wiki. And the founder isn't the only person who knows how anything gets done.
Nothing here is magic. It's the result of doing the unglamorous thing - writing down how the work happens and giving each piece a tool shaped to its job. The compounding effect is what makes it powerful: every documented workflow saves time every time it runs, and the savings stack across the year. The reason most small agencies don't do this isn't that they can't - it's that the tooling to do it without an engineering team didn't exist. So we built it.
Why we made the toolkit available
Once Fame was running on the tools, the same conversation kept happening with other small-agency founders we knew. The portals problem. The status-page problem. The time-tracking problem. The team-hub problem. The same problems, in marketing agencies, design studios, dev shops, SEO agencies. We weren't unique - we just happened to be a podcast agency with an engineering muscle.
Forge is what happens when you turn that toolkit outward. The presets are the same ones we run Fame on; the build engine is the way we describe what we want; the design system is the brand we put on our own work. Every change we make to Forge lands at Fame first - we're our own most demanding customer, and that's the only sustainable way to keep the product honest.
Frequently asked questions
What is Fame?
Fame is a small podcast production agency - we do strategy, production, editing and distribution for B2B podcasts. We're the team behind Forge, and Forge is the toolkit we built to run Fame.
Why did Fame build Forge?
Because the generic tools we tried (Notion, a generic time tracker, a project-management app) weren't shaped to how a small agency actually works - and the custom layer on top kept living in the founder's head. We wanted a toolkit shaped to the work; nothing on the shelf was, so we built one.
Do you really use Forge at Fame?
Yes - every preset on the catalog is one we use at Fame, and every product change lands at Fame first. It's the only way to keep the product honest. Most of the workflows we describe in the blog are ones our team uses.
Can I see Fame's actual portal?
Not the live one - it's our clients' data. But the portal you'd build with Forge follows the same shape as the one we use; the catalog walks the exact tools.
Will Forge work for an agency that isn't a podcast agency?
Yes - that's why we made it available. The patterns (portal, status page, time tracking, team hub, browser extension) are universal across small agencies; the shape of each tool adapts to your work, not ours.
Guides & playbooks
In-depth guides on getting the most from AI and internal tools in your agency.