Micah Gold-Markel, Founder & Technology Director
Micah Gold-Markel has been a business owner in Philadelphia for the last 11 years. After starting avEIGHT as a t-shirt company in 1998, the company’s animated characters and designs began selling to individuals and wholesalers across the country. The company needed an online store to manage orders. As web design was a hobby for him, Micah began teaching himself computer coding, software design and e-solutions. The project turned into a passion as Micah sought to bring his design company into the digital age. Customers were impressed and Micah began to realize that his real career interest was in software and web design.
Now entering its 12th year, avEIGHT has worked for some of the most prominent names in Philadelphia. Micah and his partners designed an e-commerce protocol for Fruit Flowers, a national franchisor with over 300 franchise locations. He designed a search engine campaign that made the Philadelphia Furniture Show the second most searched furniture show on Google. But once his business was in place, Micah’s goal became to work for companies looking to improve the quality of life in his hometown.
As a lifelong Philadelphian, a homeowner and a landlord, Micah has a personal stake in seeing the city of Philadelphia flourish. As a board member of the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association, he approved the new greening and zoning plans for Northern Liberties. As the son of an education researcher, Micah has had a passion for education all his life. He has experience as a web design teacher at Germantown High here in Philadelphia. Currently, he sits on the NLNA education committee, working to increase community involvement in the Philadelphia public school system.
So it should come as no surprise that Micah has lent his talents to influential non-profits and sustainable businesses all across Philadelphia. He led the team in designing a new web site and a massive file-sharing system for educational non-profit group, Research For Action. He designed and led the project team, creating a fully integrated ordering system and web presence for Fair Food. And he updated and managed software systems and networking for the Woman’s Medical Fund.
avEIGHT currently employs a team of six programmers working around the clock to make sure its clients’ needs always come first. For Micah, what started as a way to sell t-shirts has become a lifelong passion for website and web application development as avEIGHT continues on into the next decade.
Sean Kernick, Creative Director
Sean Kernick is a co-founder of avEIGHT Inc. and a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, NY. He has designed a diverse array of materials including, annual reports, trade books, children’s books, magazines, logos, pamphlets, billboards, websites, blogs, interactive CD-ROMs and more. Sean has worked with numerous clients in a wide range of industries.
He is a master illustrator and designer who combines pen, pencil, and watercolors, which he scans and then, augments using various computer programs to produce a unique final product. His work has been featured in many art magazines.
Bryan Purcell, Senior Programmer
A lifelong Philadelphian with a knack for social networks and data-mining software, Senior Programmer Bryan Purcell is the newest member of the avEIGHT team. After graduating Friends Select High School in 2005, Bryan went on to Earlham College where he studied Computer Science. While at Earlham, Brian worked on a variety of green projects, from a computer system to determine and monitor ideal locations for solar and wind power to creating data software for use in utility bill incentive programs.
Before coming to avEIGHT, Brian was in Washington D.C. designing political social networking software that could track not only voters but also politicians, determining ways to target potential voters for campaigns. After graduating Earlham, Bryan started on a project basis for avEIGHT in July and soon came on as our full-time senior programmer in September.
He is an expert at connecting social networks with proper and accurate reporting of data so that you can get the most out of your website. He has been a valued member of our team and we are glad to have him aboard.
