Many interesting things happened in 2001:
- The Vatican claimed that Pokemon was safe for children
- Pizza Hut paid $1 million to deliver a pizza to the International Space Station
- A SuperBowl ad cost you $2.1 million
- iTunes was first launched
2001 is also the year that DesignHammer opened its doors — even as the technology world was dramatically shifting and the ‘dot-com bubble’ was bursting.
“It’s not like we didn’t know what we were getting into since our prior company had been a victim of the dot-bust, but we had no idea how hard or easy it would be to try it on our own. We were fortunate in the early days to have a number of friends and clients from past business relationships join us at DesignHammer as we were learning how to run a 3-person web design and development shop.”
— Managing Partner David Minton
February 2001 was probably not the best time to start a new technology venture, but co-founders David Minton, Robert Weeks, and Frank Yonnetti had a plan and started by landing the internationally renowned Durham Bulls Baseball Club as their first client. Over the next five years, the three partners picked up additional high-profile clients, including RTI International, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, and the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology. The workload was becoming more than the three partners could handle, so it was time to search for a larger office space in Durham, and hire some staff. (Read more about our journey here).
Twenty years later, even in the midst of a pandemic, a SuperBowl commercial costs you a cool 5.6 million. The International Space Station is almost at the point of overcrowding, making that $1 million pizza that much more valuable. 20 years after launching iTunes as a concept, it is a stalwart among popular download and streaming services with over a billion downloads worldwide.
DesignHammer has now grown into a full-service web agency, serving more than 200 clients and completing over 550 projects. We have done so with a talented and close-knit team of digital experts who use a collaborative development process to deliver specialized services ranging from Web Strategy, Development, and Design, to SEO and digital marketing Consulting. Our diverse set of clients come from a range of industries, including government, higher education, non-profit, IT, and healthcare. DesignHammer aims to provide client organizations with the best return on investment (ROI) by leveraging existing software platforms, custom software frameworks, and third-party software integrations. DesignHammer is active in the free and open source software (FOSS) community and recognized for our commitment to developing and expanding upon PHP platforms like Drupal and WordPress, while developing on most other ‘stacks’ like Scala, Python, Django, Vue, Angular, Electron, Laravel, Typescript, and more.
The Triangle Business Journal has listed DesignHammer as a Top Graphic Design Firm and Top Internet Marketing & Design Firm in the Triangle for the last 19 years. We were also recently named a Top-Performing B2B Company in North Carolina by Clutch, a leading national ratings and reviews platform for IT, marketing, and business service providers. Our exemplary, flexible, and employee-first workplace practices ensure a healthy working environment for our team and we have been recognized as a “When Work Works” award winner since 2012.
We are excited to see what the next 20 years will hold as the company continues to expand, explore new technologies, add new partners and clients, and continue to refine our processes. Thank you to all of our current and past clients for being a part of our journey and growing with us. We are looking forward to the next decade of building smarter websites. If you have an upcoming web project, get in touch to learn more about how DesignHammer can contribute to your success.
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