10/17/2025
When I was working at Capital One, I sat next to a web developer fellow named Joe. Joe and I were doing several freelance projects together at the time â I would design the custom sites and Joe would build them on Wordpress for me. We had had some success with these projects, but the accounting and the tax reporting were starting to get more complicated. I thought it would be best to get things âaboveboardâ and register an LLC. âMight be timeâ I said to Joe.
Joe paused, thought for a moment, and then said, âyes! We should totally start a business!â
And ten years ago, on this day, we registered Pixelstrike Creative with the SCC, got our Henrico business license, and the rest is history.
We met weekly at the public library every Saturday, to talk about business development, our goals, and our plans for growth â finding clients, building a presenceâŚall of the things!
A year or so later, after a couple of stumbles and probably rookie mistakes, we hired Louise. I had met Louise a few years prior, when she first moved to Richmond and was working her first job out of college. At Pixelstrike, she helped us create and foster a social media presence â she wrote and edited copy (both for us and our clients), helped with strategy development, and wore a few other hats (as one does when one works for a burgeoning business).
Eventually Joe left his position at Capital One to work on our business full time. We found an office space to sub-lease from one of our favorite new clients, the Virginia College of Emergency Physicians. Then-director Bob Ramsey offered us a single room office in their space off Broad and Glenside. We crammed three sit-stand desks into that room, along with a bright orange mini fridge (on brand, of course). It was real cozy.
Iâm a little hazy on which happened first, but at one point Joeâs wife became pregnant with their first â leading to him returning to full time hours with reliable pay & benefits at Capital One; and another point we decided to give Louise some ownership in the company. She had, after all, worked like it was her own as much as it was ours and this was not unnoticed nor unappreciated. She was a part of it now.
(Pro tip for employee retention â donât let the good ones get away, just give them ownership or equity in the business that they provide so much value for! Then they CANâT leave you hahaha)
Over the years, Pixelstrike grew, evolved, changed. Eventually Louise and myself were the majority owners and Joe took a backseat to be a silent partner, supporting us heartily from his exotic new home in Seattle. We brought in a developer based in CT to assist with building our creations and bringing them to life on the web, Mike, who has also shaped a huge part of who we are now.
Weâve learned many lessons, some the hard way and some the less-hard way.
Weâve worked with many amazing people â making a lot of wonderful friends along the way.
Weâve made difficult decisions and tried to stay resilient through all the ups and downs.
And here we are, today, after 10 wonderful years together.
We know our strengths, we know this work, we know our clients and we are solidified in our values: Integrity, excellence, honesty, creativity, people, innovation, social responsibility. We are grateful to be a part of the Richmond community, where we have the privilege of working with businesses great and small to help them be the best versions of themselves that they can be, too.
To our friends, our clients, our colleagues, our partners and supporters: Thank you always for your kindness, your support, and your friendship.
Joe, Louise, I love you both. Thank you for a wonderful decade together. I took forward to seeing how our little Pixelstrike team will continue to evolve as we enter this next chapter together.
Happy Anniversary, yâall.
