Waitsburg grads make good in Seattle

WAITSBURG – Friends since first grade, Waitsburg High School grads Colton Townsend and Connor Talbot have built a successful website design business in the Seattle are.

Townsend, son of Mike and Carla Townsend of Waitsburg, graduated from WHS in 2007, as salutatorian, and then attended Washington State University where he earned a degree in international business.

Talbott, son of Becky Huwe and Jon Talbott, graduated a year later, and also headed to WSU where he earned a degree in astrophysics. While in Pullman, Talbott was vice-president and founding father of the Sigma Pi Fraternity chapter at WSU.

Townsend took a full-time job in Pullman, working in manufacturing, but left it in 2014 to take an internship with a digital marketing company in downtown Seattle.

In the meantime, Talbott moved to Des Moines, Wash. to look for a job in physics while working for Fastenal.

"There aren't a lot of astrophysics jobs in Waitsburg," he joked. After applying for several physics jobs, however, Talbott began to question whether or not that was the field for him.

He recalls thinking, "I have this degree and I'm selling nuts and bolts for a living. I need to figure out something else to do here!"

While re-evaluating his work goals, Talbott offered to help a friend's dad build a website for their local business – Jay's Garage, in Dayton. That project never came to fruition, but Talbott's eyes were opened.

"Building a website was a lot more difficult than advertised, but it was kind of fun. I decided to ditch physics and go into visual marketing," Talbott said. "That project fell off the grid on their end but it was a great experience in figuring out how to monetize websites."

Since they were both in the Seattle area, Talbott approached Townsend about going into business together and Tall Town (a compilation of both men's last names) was born.

On March 19, 2015, the highly-organized Townsend made the first entry on Tall Town's corporate timeline: "Connor and Colton are inspired to create a web design company that serves small-town businesses after discovering that Jay's Garage in Dayton, WA could benefit from a professional website."

For the first year, the men kept their day jobs while developing Tall Town. Talbott was first to take the leap of faith, quitting Fastenal in January of 2016. He soon found Tall Town couldn't provide a full-time living, and took a part-time job with a catering business.

"I was working Tall Town during the day and catering on the weekends. It made for extremely long weeks," Talbott said. But the hard work paid off and Talbott was able to drop the catering gigs nearly a year ago.

Townsend's marketing internship had evolved to a full-time position as a project specialist. He saved up his pennies and on Feb. 12, 2016 (his dad's birthday), he left his job to focus on the design business.

The men have found a division of labor that works for them. Talbott specializes in search engine optimization, monetizing websites, and advertising. Townsend is more involved in the visual component of designing and serves as the company business manager.

Both agree that the business is finally at a place that they can call it a success.

"I once computed a metric and determined that we were making about five cents an hour and recall wondering what in the world we were doing," Talbott said. "Now I can't believe how much we're bringing in, so long as the trend continues, and I see no reason it won't."

"Having the sense that I can rely on this business to provide a living came to me in the last six months or so. That was the biggest hump to get over. We should continue growing as we fluctuate with the market. We're very involved in marketing and networking and we provide exceptional service," Townsend said.

Both Townsend and Talbott are on the board of the Seattle Search Network, an industry trade group focusing on best practices, with nearly 1500 members. Townsend is currently the board secretary and Talbott is president. Talbott is also president-elect of the Des Moines and Normandy Park Rotary Club.

"I never thought I'd be on the board of an organization with more members than the population of my hometown," Talbott said. "It's a big learning experience and so much fun."

The men would like to thank family and friends for supporting them in their journey as well as their mentors Robbin Black, Blake Messer, John Schuster, Carl Larson, Alex Kine and the metoring staff at SCORE Seattle.

"So many people shared their insight and advice to help us get where we are and we owe them so many thanks," Talbott said.

Check out Tall Town designs and see their portfolio at https://www.tall.town/.