Spencer Gerrol

WASHINGTON, D.C. – SPARK Experience Design, a user experience web and mobile app design company founded in 2009 by West Hartford native Spencer Gerrol, has been named to the 2012 Empact100 list. The list recognizes the top 100 U.S. companies started by young entrepreneurs age 30 and under.
Geroll accepted the Empact100 award at a special ceremony held at the White House on Sept. 28.
Based in Washington, D.C., SPARK is the classic story of “The Little Company That Could,” doubling in size and revenue—a hearty $2 million last year—every year since it was founded.
The secret to SPARK’s success has been what Gerrol — newly accepted into the Young Entrepreneurs Council (YEC) and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper since 2011 — calls “smart, controlled growth,” hiring leaders in the field, from designers and developers to a Fulbright Scholar with a Ph.D. in psychology.
“We were founded at the peak of the national recession, and we’ve been recognized along the way because we were the opposite of the norm, hiring aggressively throughout the economic crisis,” says the 30-year old Gerrol. “When others were outsourcing and utilizing lower quality staff to save costs, we focused on creating the best team we possibly could. And it’s turned out to be a winning strategy.”
The grandson of a holocaust survivor and a graduate of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford, Gerrol has always been committed to giving back to those less fortunate, donating 10% of his salary to charity, and recently pledging $50,000 in pro bono SPARK design services to non-profits.
SPARK clients include big-name corporations (Pepsi, Fossil, AAA), high-profile non-profits (Elizabeth Edwards Foundation, Columbia University), and government agencies (NIH, Voice of America).
Now in its second year, the Empact100 list was finalized by the 2012 Empact Academy. Among the nation’s leading entrepreneurs, members of the Empact Academy include the founders of Living Social, Chuck E. Cheese, Priceline.com, Redbox, Endeavor, and Open Table.