Kinnect and 22feet will take on just five new clients in 2026, says CEO Chandni Shah

New Delhi: Chandni Shah, who has stepped into the CEO role at Kinnect and 22feet Tribal, has highlighted how the agencies plan to grow this year. 

“I’m done with serial pitching. This year, we will onboard only five new clients,” Shah wrote in a LinkedIn post, framing the move as a choice to prioritise depth of partnership over volume.

Shah said the approach is rooted in long-term brand building and accountability. “We believe in long-term brand building, and so want to be extremely mindful of who we partner with,” she wrote. “We want to be able to showcase real impact and make sure that creativity becomes a business multiplier.”

The statement lands at a time when agencies across the market have been vocal about rising pitch fatigue, stretched teams and the pressure to show business outcomes, not just awards. 

Shah’s post also set a tone for the kind of growth she wants to defend. “I’ve always believed that how you grow matters more than how fast you grow,” she wrote, adding, “Sometimes discipline is the most ambitious move you can make.”

Shah’s stance carries weight because she has been closely tied to Kinnect’s build journey. She has spent nearly 15 years at the agency and has served as its founder and long-time COO before taking over as CEO. 

She co-founded Kinnect at 22, after early stints in client servicing roles, and has been part of scaling the agency as it expanded its digital and experience capabilities.

In her post, Shah stressed that the five-client cap is not a retreat from ambition. “This isn’t about trading growth. We remain deeply ambitious about what we want to achieve this year. But we’re equally committed to protecting the kind of growth that lasts,” she wrote.

She also positioned the shift as an internal operating choice about how teams show up for clients. “And once we bring them onboard, we go all in. All heart,” she wrote. “I don’t want to add logos to a slide. I want to genuinely move brands forward.”

Shah said the agencies will focus their energies on existing partners as well as a tightly curated set of new ones. “Deliver our best thinking, our best energy, and the very best of Kinnect and 22feet to the brands who trust us, both the ones who’ve built with us, and the five we partner to build next with,” she wrote.