Northeast PA’s may not be silicon valley, but nestled in the Jewelcor Center in downtown Wilkes-Barre is one of the area’s fastest growing Internet companies, Solid Cactus.
Founded in 2002 by Internet pioneers Scott Sanfilippo and Joe Palko, Solid Cactus grew out of the duo’s first Internet venture, TheFerretStore.com, an on-line pet supply store. With only four employees, Solid Cactus began designing e-commerce websites for other entrepreneurs using the Yahoo! Store platform. Almost immediately, the company was a success and it continues to grow beyond the founder’s imagination.
Solid Cactus ended the year 2005 with 33 employees, today, the company has 63 and is projecting hiring an additional 250 over the next three years with the average salary being $35,000.00.
The job creation has come from Solid Cactus aggressively launching new and innovative products including Call Center Services, Search Marketing, Affiliate Program Management and the latest, Legal Services for Small Businesses.
“We look at ourselves as a small business incubator. We build your website, we handle your back-end order processing, take your customer service calls and manage your advertising. The only thing the store owner needs to do is ship out orders and keep an eye on the bottom line” according to Scott Sanfilippo.
With growth comes expansion. Solid Cactus is currently working with state and local officials to secure funding for the company’s new corporate headquarters. The new facility will include 35,000 square feet of office space and 50,000 square feet of warehouse space so the company can begin offering order fulfillment to their customer base. The project is expected to be completed in the 4th quarter of 2007.