Our Story
Nashville-based Ah So Designs was founded in 2007 by John Housholder, after a three-year stint teaching history and web design in Vienna, Austria. Ah So, meaning "I understand" in German, encapsulates what Ah So is all about: we study the web, understand the needs and behaviors of its users and thus achieve results.
Today the company serves a variety of clients – large and small – in Middle Tennessee and other parts of the country. Our expertise spans the non-profit, restaurant, retail, political and professional services sectors.
Our People
John Housholder
Founder, Leader & Developer
It all started with John Housholder: part entrepreneur, part code nerd. A Memphis guy who has traveled the world, John founded Ah So after living in Austria and then helping grow the account set of two of the fastest INC 500 Companies at Dell. He's also an associate web professor at The Art Institute of Tennessee.
A strategic thinker who'll give it to you straight – John has three great loves: Garth Brooks, the web and his dog, Dunn. He has a master's in Instructional Technology from University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Grant Rosenblatt
Business Development & Sales
Beware of the three P's: professional, polished and personable. That's Grant Rosenblatt out and about trying to connect us with future partners. A seasoned sales and marketing guy, Grant grew up in Memphis but now calls Nashville home. Grant is also known around town to have a passion for Nashville Sports League's kickball.
Laura Pack
Operations, Strategy & Content
A West Virginia native, Laura Pack lived in NYC for a while until her aversion to crowds started to make her cranky. So she left her job at Glamour to join a Nashville publishing firm, where she helped launch more than 100 websites in two years.
She dabbles in writing, websites and other marketing stuff while working on an MBA at night. She has a journalism degree from University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Unofficially, she's a dessert addict who is annoyingly Type A when it comes to details. She also can't cook.
Costas Peppas
SEO & Strategy
Even if he wasn't an SEO know-it-all (we'll get to the accolades here in a second) – Costas Peppas would still show up the rest of us with his super cool name. He owns more than 100 front-page rankings in Google, teaches search engine marketing at the Art Institute of Nashville and is author of the book "Search Engine Domination." On the weekends, you can find him eating at Athens restaurant on 8th Av dreaming of his Athenian homeland.
Joel Norris
Developer
Although occasionally mistaken for Alex Sector at kewl retro parties, he actually hails from deep within the frozen north. Like most Mainahs he has an undying devotion to Phish and a minor in Snowboarding. From an RPG perspective, he's one of those odd multi-class endgame characters. He is a recent graduate of the Art Institute of Tennessee, Nashville with a degree in Web & Interactive Media Design. Web standards are a must and Code is Poetry.
The Ninja Squirrel
Covert Operations, Stealth Acquisitions & Nut Connoisseur
The ninja squirrel is nuts about web marketing for Ah..So..Designs. Before joining Ah So, our esteemed mascot was the head marketer for Squirrel, a Canadian brand of peanut butter. Whatever you do, don't mention his cousin Skippy who you might remember from Anamaniacs. He is now the face of our brand: he powers our emarketing emails, is addicted to Facebook, tweets for us, is a registered Google Webmaster, and once installed WordPress on the first peanut oiled powered AMD server.
Our Mission
Our business is based on the belief that the user/target audience must be the center of the design process for any web tactic to achieve results. Our four-part mission is pretty simple:
- Make websites (and other things web!) better.
- Provide superior service to our partners, community, and co-workers.
- Constantly learn and evolve.
- To design better....in sweaters
