CEO Sees ‘New Opportunity’ for Small Businesses During Pride

A few weeks ago, Tanner Graham, co-founder and CEO of creative brand agency General Idea, noticed a glaring development while attending a Pride parade in small-town Pennsylvania: Major corporations that would typically march, from blue-chip banks to insurance, pharmaceutical companies and beyond, were absent.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of General Idea. Tanner Graham.}

 ”It was definitely a very different tone this year,” Graham tells Entrepreneur. “Those Fortune 500 companies that in the past few years have strongly expressed their support for LGBTQ+ initiatives and showed a clear support of Pride initiatives have retracted [that support].”

Related: Here are 4 Proven Strategies to Champion LGBTQIA+ Beyond Pride, All Year Long

Instead, Graham witnessed small and local businesses step in to march and maintain the momentum established in years past.

“It creates a real, new opportunity this year, and probably for the next several years.”

Since the 2018 founding of their full-service, luxury beauty and fashion-focused agency, Graham and General Idea co-founders Ian Schatzberg and Semjon Doenhoff have always centered diversity, equity and inclusion. The five leaders that make up General Idea’s C-suite all identify as LGBTQ+.

Graham sees large companies’ decrease in support for Pride and LGBTQ+ initiatives as a chance for small businesses to increase their own efforts.

“There’s a real opportunity to be leaders,” Graham explains, “because as the bigger companies and especially the publicly traded companies have had to turn down the volume [on their LGBTQ+ initiatives], it creates a real, new opportunity this year, and probably for the next several years to come.”

Related: 3 LGBTQ Entrepreneurs Share How Being Out and Proud Fuels Their Business

Graham calls on small business leaders to concretely and consistently commit to their values.

General Idea is a certified member of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), which includes annual membership fees to support their network of initiatives. The agency has also made donations to the Transgender Law Center for several years and continues to support LGBTQ+ causes in 2025 through donations to Ali Forney Center, which provides life-saving services to LGBTQ+ youths, and SAGE, a national advocacy and services organization that looks out for LGBTQ+ elders.

Graham says leaders should not only communicate company values outwardly but also show their teams and organizations why it’s so important to stand up for their beliefs.

“Diversity [brings] the best ideas, the most forward-thinking ideas.”

As the General Idea co-founders first considered how to develop a modern marketing agency and provide the best service for their clients, they focused on hiring people with skillsets that would complement each other within the current and shifting marketing landscape, Graham says.

“Diversity [brings] the best ideas, the most forward-thinking ideas,” Graham explains. “Ultimately, as marketers, our goal is to speak to a diverse range of customers. We didn’t set out to necessarily create an LGBTQ+ C-suite, but at the same time, it felt like a snowball effect. The people that we got to know and decided to bring into the agency and elevate into running their departments happened to be diverse in that regard, and it’s worked really well for us.”

General Idea has partnered with celebrity brands like Savage X Fenty, Ariana Grande and Swarovski over the years.

In addition to its C-suite, General Idea has about 50 employees. The company prioritizes hiring “exceptional” thinkers and creators who work hard and have a strong appreciation for culture and an ability to tap into current trends and future opportunities, Graham says.

Related: Diversity Is Not the Same to Everyone. Here’s Why That Matters

General Idea hires also must have a knack for finding solutions — because that’s at the heart of the business.

 ”Every client comes to us because they have a problem to solve,” Graham says, “whether they need to sell more products or connect with new audiences, so for us, first and foremost, it’s about understanding what those problems are and getting to the core of that. And a lot of times, it’s not so clear at the beginning.”

Graham notes that General Idea doesn’t bill itself as an advertising agency, though depending on a client’s needs, advertising might be part of a “multi-pronged” solution.

Related: Why Diverse Leadership Is a Competitive Advantage — and How Women Can Lead the Shift

“Our most rewarding projects sometimes are the projects that come in thinking they’re one thing and then end up resulting in a different type of output,” Graham says, “because it means that we’re not taking these briefs and problems at face value, but rather we’re partnering with our clients [and] shepherding them into what we believe will create the best possible result.”

“We really want to create an environment that empowers people to feel safe.”

In a moment when certain companies are being “quieter around what their values are,” Graham and General Idea see their commitment to LGBTQ+ issues and diversity at large as a path forward — and one that will prepare them and their team to keep up with a “rapidly” evolving marketing domain and “completely different world” wrought by AI.

“We really want to create an environment that empowers people to feel safe, [to] feel like they can express their beliefs and be who they are,” Graham says. “We want to create opportunities for people to thrive within those senses of security.”