I’ve been getting peppered (no pun intended) with phone calls from the local media over today’s news that Wilkes-Barre, PA based web design builder Solid Cactus was acquired by Web.com.

First off, I’d like to congratulate Joe Palko, Scott Sanfilippo, and the entire Solid Cactus team on this great success and opportunity!

I believe this is a perfect fit, especially considering both companies focus on providing e-commerce solutions to the same types of companies – small and medium sized internet businesses. The combo of these two companies means better service to their respective clients.

Solid Cactus has an incredible story – what started out as an idea in the mid 1990’s by Joe and Scott to sell ferret (yeah the animal) supplies online resulted in the creation of a leading pet products website called FerretStore.com – Ferret Store was acquired about 18 months or so ago by Drs. Fosters and Smith. Joe and Scott took a chance on the internet before people even knew that it would change the world. How is that for visionary? Dealing in e-commerce in the mid 90’s – that’s awesome!!!

Along the way Joe (and Scott) realized that there was a need to provide web design services to companies just like his – small to medium sized online retailers – he took that idea, partnered with Yahoo Small Business, started hiring employees from local colleges and universities, acquired a company along the way, and built Solid Cactus from a web design firm building out niche sites for Neeps (the name of Joe and Scott’s pet supplies business) to a nationally known, industry leading web design firm. In fact, within a short few years Joe and Scott took Solid Cactus from a competitive regional web designer to the nation’s leading developer for the Yahoo Store Platform.

All of this happened in Northeastern, Pennsylvania by two locally grown and educated entrepreneurs!

My hat is off today to Joe and Scott – it goes to show you what hard work, persistence, and some willingness to break the rules can get you.

As I mentioned above I believe Web.com and Solid Cactus are a perfect fit. In short, both companies will end up more successful, will employ more employees, and will ultimately make more money as the result of the other. With Solid Cactus you have years upon years of development experience coupled with an extraordinary work force. With Web.com you have a proven company with a focus on the same types of strengths that Solid Cactus offers.

Northeastern, PA is an e-commerce and internet marketing force. I kind of like the sound of…a little bit of Silicon Valley in the Wyoming Valley.

With companies like Web.com, Solid Cactus, Pepperjam, Amazon, igourmet.com, BabyAge, Vintage Tub, Baby Age, Dog.com, and many others calling the greater Wilkes Barre area home…..the future is very bright.

I wish the entire Solid Cactus team the absolute best!

Congrats guys!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, solid cactus, web.com. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.