Matt Katz on the Energy, the Enthusiasm, the Authenticity, and Showmanship of Sales

In an interview for LBB’s The New New Business series, Fantasy’s head of growth Matt Katz explains what wins agency pitches today. His answer is to show clients what working together feels like: demos, quick prototypes and live design systems in place of polished decks, a steady stream of useful ideas after the first presentation, and AI tools such as Claude and ChatGPT used for research and a first pass, never as the finished pitch.

Katz joined Fantasy after nearly six years leading strategic growth at Instrument and a decade in journalism, including as a news editor at TIME.

• Show the work. Clients want to see what they are buying, so bring them into the actual practice: tool demos, quick prototypes and the design system in Figma.
• Bring energy to every room. Katz follows a mentor’s advice to bring “a little bit of jazz hands” to every presentation, remote ones included.
• Get paid for real pitch work. If a pitch needs real creative concepts, significant design work or code, the agency should be paid for it.
• Close by being additive. Stay responsive after the first presentation, bring proactive ideas and partner on scope, so the pitch already feels like the partnership.
• Use AI as a first pass. AI tools speed up client research and pitch thinking. The final deliverable still needs a human point of view.