What started out as faith leap for two fathers who wanted to be more present to their wives and children has become a globally recognized brand. Adam Grim and Justin Rule wanted to help other entrepreneurs, founders, and small business owners be found online, and what started in 2016 has grown into the highest rated web design company in America.
Not only that, but a significant milestone was just achieved with over 1,100 websites launched online. Curious where that places them in the national picture of websites launched and under management of a private web design company? So are we. The jury is still out.
Sparrow Websites leap of faith
Originally branded as Sparrow Websites on the first launch out of the work-for-someone-else nest, the two dads left a well known digital marketing and local SEO firm in Lancaster, and chose their name for taking their leap-of-faith from a Bible passage in Matthew 6 where Jesus promises to provide for ‘sparrows’ so one need not worry about where provision will come from. What started to evolve between late nights, long shot pitches, early morning prayer meetings, and musical-office-location-hopping was a love for a niche audience with a unique solution to their problem.
“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
– Matthew 6:26-27
The typical web design and build journey costs too much money, takes too long, and requires too much guesswork for a small business owner or entrepreneur if they hire an agency to build a website. The most common options on the table seem to be “free” platforms that you can build on your own time and effort, or overpriced agency approaches that do not return an ROI easily for a new or young business.
But what if there was a better way than picking a random template from Wix, Weebly, Squarespace or GoDaddy or hiring a company to drag you through mood boards and archetype strategies? The idea of creating a high-performing, low-cost, SEO optimized website where actual designers, developers, and writers based in America did the work – for under $1,000 – was a crazy concept.
Well, Sparrow thought they had a solution. Turns out it worked. They called it ‘Launch Kits’.
Website ‘Launch Kits’ are custom made templates designed for specific industries that are based on proven conversion studies, user behavior tracking, and best design practices. That means that business owners don’t have to lean on a whiteboard session to draw some unique look and feel for their brand, but rather they can trust an experienced designer to show them what has been proven to work in their niche industry.
The ‘website kits’ also include other essential elements to building your brand online, like setting up Google Business Profiles, helping select smart domains and marketplace targeting, even putting together logos and guiding entrepreneurs how to build their brands after the launch through free training and ‘bootcamps’.
Using a proven website framework (or template) as a starting point allows a business owner to customize and personalize something that is proven to work, easy to set up and adapt after launch, and takes a fraction of the time and energy from their main thing: serving customers and clients.
Evolving to Launch Kits
Eventually, people began to know Sparrow as ‘Launch Kits’ because that is what they were buying: Launch Kits. In 2020, Justin Rule became the sole owner with launch-partner Adam Grim took another leap to start a brand specifically targeting digital marketing strategy and guides called Bootstrap Local, and he and Justin remain best of friends, each running in their lanes to help small businesses succeed.
Along with the transition to a single owner, the name was changed from Sparrow Websites to Launch Kits. Locals still call them ‘Sparrow’ but most of their clients are hearing about them online, through podcast interviews, word of mouth, and the ‘Launch Kits’ brand is creating a new approach for building a website online.
Justin and his crew of Launch Kits specialists from Columbia, PA design and launch websites, providing hosting and support, while helping small business owners be empowered to grow their business online. When necessary, Launch Kits clients are connected with vetted partners in specific niche services (google paid ads, SEO content creation, social media services, videography and photography etc) as entrepreneurs grow and evolve their businesses.
The journey from Lancaster to Columbia
Checkout the transition fun as we launched from the nonprofit space of Heads Up and Threshold Church in downtown Lancaster, to a renovated pool hall in Columbia (which we quickly outgrew with Joe Byler joining the team!), so we found a printing company warehouse with potential. Nelson Shertzer trusted us to renovate the space so he bought the building and gave us free reign of creative design.
Well, we sure designed it – and had a blast! Well, when we weren’t tearing down moldy ceilings, sanding wax off floors of what was once a pocket bowl bowling alley (which locals remember), and trying to figure out how the electric worked.
Proud to be made in the USA
Launch Kits is fiercely committed to having a team based here in Central PA in the historic river town of Columbia, and although they have clients across the globe (North America, Central America, South America, Canada, Africa, Europe), the team loves using their talents in elevate small towns like Columbia, building relationships face to face over ping-pong, trail running, and enjoying adventures together.
The goal of keeping talent local and based in America is also to more easily resonate and speak to direct experiences with fledgling entrepreneurs about their audiences, services, and proven go-live techniques. Aligning your branding with who you are targeting to serve is a key element in early success. The other element that Launch Kits preaches is to ‘have a cup of coffee (or tea) with your website every week.’ This practice allows small things to be done consistently over time to increase the digital footprint of a local service provider on major search engines.
Launching 1,100 websites milestone
Not only does Launch Kits have the highest number of 5-star review ratings of any private web design company in America (yet to be disproved or discovered), but it recently crossed the 1,100 websites built and launched threshold! The team of writers, designers, and developers may be in a small town but it’s making a big difference in how founders and small businesses launch online.
The mission of Launch Kits is to launch perfect websites for entrepreneurs faster, cheaper, and better than anyone else. As they pursue their vision to be the #1 web design company in the world for value driven entrepreneurs, their hope is to simply launch great service providers, retailers, professional brands, and craftsmen online.
Elevating good and exposing the bad
One unique commitment that Launch Kits makes is to take $50 of every sale of a website launch kit and donate it towards organizations and movements that expose the dark side of the internet. With so many age groups being infected and affected by porn, trafficking, and the dark underbelly of the internet, Launch Kits donates to those who help rescue, restore, reveal, and redeem those who are either part of the problem, seeking to escape the traps online, or fighting to spread the hope of freedom online.
While the internet is just a tool, it can be used for good and evil, so impacting lives for good is part of what it means to do life changing work – not just for the client needing a website to provide for their employees, their own family, and do good in their community – but also helping redeem dark places.
What’s next?
As Launch Kits grows its voice in the entrepreneurial community online, you can expect that it will keep trying to speed up their 5 day launch process, save hard working business owners time and money in the process, and serve people better than anyone else.
If you want to learn more about their unique, historic, revived river town, visit DiscoverColumbia.com
To learn more about what is included in their website launch kits, click here.
