About digital marketers Gorilla 76
Why and how we created Gorilla 76
In July of 2006, Joe Sullivan and Jon Franko created Gorilla 76 to satisfy an intense itch of entrepreneurship. Both partners had an upbringing that taught them the fundamentals of leadership and a desire to embark on their own – so really, the scratch came quite natural.
Jon and Joe covertly operated the business on lunch breaks, in the evenings, during “doctor’s appointments”, etc. Kidding on that last point. But to that point, the one with the “ ”, they worked whenever they could to get the work done for their day job and for their side venture.
The two eventually landed an account in 2008 that could pay them for three months. So they activated their business plan and quit their day jobs.
The first year was spent working wherever they could pick up free Wi-Fi. The second found them renting space in St. Louis’ Central West End – a neighborhood the two had had in their sights since they launched the company. In the third year, they hired Dan Rashid, thinker and coder extraordinaire.
The team has been working together in said building ever since.
Joe Sullivan
thinker & designer
Joe, a dual-degreed graduate (business and art) of Washington University in St. Louis, is a designer and proprietor at Gorilla 76. Passions include cooking, eating other people’s cooking, the Green Bay Packers, organizing, craft-beering and spending time with his best friend and wife – Julie.
A founder and board member of Launch St. Louis, Joe is an active volunteer in the community.
Joe’s creativity has been recognized with awards for not-for-profit and out-of-home advertising. Joe was named as one of St. Louis’ “Top Young Entrepreneurs” by the Small Business Monthly.
Jon Franko
thinker & writer
Jon, a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, is a writer and proprietor at Gorilla 76. Likes include music, football, reading, food and adventure (fishing and hunting). Dislikes include bad music, bad football, bad reading, bad food and bad adventures (bad fishing and bad hunting).
Jon is active in the nonprofit world. He’s on the board of Launch St. Louis, a 501(c)3 he helped build, and is the marketing chairperson of Brightside St. Louis.
Jon was named to the 2010 St. Louis Business Journal’s “30 Under 30” class and was named as one of St. Louis’ “Top Young Entrepreneurs” by the Small Business Monthly.
Dan Rashid
thinker & coder
Dan is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and carries a degree from the art school. His career path has taken him from design to copywriting to coding – making Dan the perfect pocketknife in today’s web-driven space.
Dan’s been writing HTML since 1998, developing database-driven sites since 2003 and has been working with Gorilla since 2007. His first site was on Geocities and featured the Men in Black theme looping in the background.
Mr. Rashid’s loyalties lie with the Red Wings, Feraro’s pizza, Wolverine football, tropical Tuesdays and his bitching Mustang.