Emily Heyward

Emily Heyward is an American branding executive and the co-founder and chief brand officer of Red Antler, a Brooklyn-based brand strategy and design firm she co-founded in 2007.^[1] Red Antler is known for creating the brand identities of category-defining consumer companies including Casper, Allbirds, Hinge, and Birchbox, and was named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Marketing and Advertising in 2018.^[2]

Before founding Red Antler, Heyward spent six years as a strategic planner at global advertising agencies including D'Arcy, Saatchi & Saatchi, and JWT.^[1] She is the author of Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One, published by Portfolio/Penguin in 2020,^[3] and a founding partner of Habitat Partners, a $31 million early-stage venture fund launched in 2022.^[4]

Heyward was born and raised in New York City.^[8] She attended Harvard University, where she studied postmodern theory and consumer culture, graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 2001.^[4][7] Her undergraduate focus on the intersection of pop culture, ethical philosophy, and consumer behavior provided the intellectual foundation for her later career in brand strategy.^[8]

D'Arcy (2001–2003)

After graduating from Harvard, Heyward joined D'Arcy as a strategic planner, working on national campaigns for established consumer brands.^[1][7] D'Arcy was acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2002 and subsequently dissolved; Heyward departed around 2003.^[7]

Saatchi & Saatchi (2003–2005)

Heyward moved to Saatchi & Saatchi as a strategic planner, where she worked on campaigns for clients including Procter & Gamble and General Mills.^[1][7] It was at Saatchi & Saatchi that she first met JB Osborne, who would become her co-founder at Red Antler.^[8]

JWT (J. Walter Thompson) (2005–2006)

Heyward continued her agency career at JWT as a strategic planner, working on accounts for major consumer brands.^[7] By this point in her career, she had grown frustrated with the constraints of traditional advertising. She later described the tension: "I absolutely loved the process of figuring out what makes people tick — what problems are they dealing with in their everyday lives and how do we best connect with them and reach them. But I got really frustrated trying to think of new things to say about stuff that people didn't necessarily want or need."^[1]

Consortium (2006–2007)

Heyward joined Consortium, the New York office of a New Zealand-based agency, as director of strategy.^[7] She reunited there with Osborne, and the two found common ground in wanting to work with smaller, newer brands rather than the large established clients the agency pursued. When Consortium declined to shift its focus, Heyward, Osborne, and a third colleague, Simon Endres, left to start their own firm.^[8]

Red Antler (2007–present)

Heyward co-founded Red Antler in 2007 with JB Osborne and Simon Endres.^[1][8] The firm launched just before the 2008 financial crisis, which Heyward has credited as a formative factor — cash-strapped startups needed strategic branding partners, and the recession created demand for the kind of scrappy, founder-oriented work Red Antler offered.^[8] In its earliest days, the agency was a two-person operation without its own office space, working out of a client's facility.^[2] The firm's name was inspired by a Wikipedia discovery that antlers contain the fastest-growing cells in the animal kingdom — a metaphor for the growth-stage companies the agency intended to serve.^[8]

Red Antler's model centered on embedding brand strategy from a company's inception, often working with founders before they had a name, product, or funding.^[8] Approximately half of the firm's business has come from pre-launch clients.^[8] The agency created the brand identity for Casper, the mattress company that generated $20 million in revenue in its first year and later went public.^[10][10] Other notable clients have included Allbirds, Hinge (for which Red Antler developed the "Designed to be Deleted" campaign), Birchbox, Away, Ramp, AllTrails, and Chime.^[2][10][10]

By 2018, the firm had grown to approximately 85 employees.^[2] Fast Company named Red Antler one of its Most Innovative Companies in Marketing and Advertising that year, calling the agency "the cult brand whisperer behind Casper, Allbirds, and Birchbox."^[2] By 2019, the team had grown to approximately 100 full-time employees.^[8] In April 2024, Red Antler acquired a majority stake in Fat Earth, an Austin-based creative performance marketing agency, and formalized a holding structure called Red Antler Group encompassing Red Antler, Fat Earth, and a presentation design practice called Wild Fruit.^[12]

Habitat Partners (2022–present)

In 2022, Heyward and Osborne launched Habitat Partners as a separate legal entity from Red Antler, formalizing angel investing activity that had begun around 2019 through a family office partnership.^[4] The early-stage venture fund raised $31 million for its initial vehicle and invests in consumer brands and B2B software companies serving the startup and retail ecosystem, with average check sizes of $250,000 to $750,000.^[4] As of 2024, the fund had deployed capital across more than 49 portfolio companies, including PopUp Bagels and Black Crow AI.^[4][4] Heyward has described her role at Habitat as bringing consumer empathy to the investing process, evaluating founders through the lens of brand resonance and asking whether a company genuinely needs to exist in the world.^[8]

Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One (2020)

Heyward's debut book, Obsessed, was published by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Random House, on June 9, 2020.^[3] The 240-page book draws on more than twelve years of Red Antler's work launching brands including Casper, Hinge, and Away, arguing that brand strategy should be embedded from a company's founding rather than added after product-market fit.^[3][17] Publishers Weekly called it "a zesty debut" and "a breezy, insightful guide."^[3] The book won the 2020 Porchlight Marketing & Sales Book of the Year award.^[4]

Heyward lives in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, with her wife and son.^[8][17] She has appeared on the LGBTQ+-focused podcast The Out Entrepreneur discussing her identity alongside her business philosophy.^[17]