Birth of the Web Agency

By the late 1990s the Web craze hit the world like Beatle mania. During the Superbowl, the alcoholic beverage industry was overshadowed by dot-com commercials depicting successful e-commerce startups and the idea that everyone could own a successful web business. Someone needed to fulfill the huge influx of web sites that needed to be created and anyone who owned a computer and could learn HTML and create graphics was suddenly a self proclaimed Web expert. Web agencies and designers became common place during this time. Everyone had a sibling, son, cousin, or friend that could build a website for as little as $500. There was no need for formal education, a college degree, or organizational process for building a site. There were very little standards. It was the Wild West and a new urban cowboy was born. By 2002, in the aftermath of the dot-com bubble, order was finally restored to the Web. An overwhelming number of mediocre agencies closed shop – either from lack of work or the inability to adapt to an ever changing technology. Not surprisingly, those agencies that continued success and even thrived through these rough times where spawned from either traditional advertising agencies, or IT consulting firms. By no coincidence, LevelTen is a hybrid of these two industries.