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The Internet is full of sparkly pop-up ads, embedded videos and rich graphics. But there was a time when it wasn’t the colorful, easy-access browser of today.
“When I met Mia in 1992, she had a computer and, I mean, by today’s standards, it was a Windows machine, but she was able to do things with it. We got e-mail,” Tracy Levesque said of her wife and co-owner of the custom Web design company, YIKES.
The duo from Third and Carpenter streets, who officially started their homegrown company in ’96, worked to provide access to the World Wide Web for all.
“At WHYY, I saw the first Web-based browser, Mosaic. It was the precursor to Netscape. It was the first graphical browser,” Tracy said. “The nice thing about us is we’ve really grown with the Web. We got into it really early and experienced all of the incarnations and new features as they happened.”
Their precocious nature, along with being formerly of the IT department at the University of Pennsylvania, gave them the drive they needed to set up a business that has adhered to the same principles since its inception.
“It is people, planet, profits, in that order,” Mia Levesque said.
This philosophy recently got the members of the Philadelphia Sustainable Business Network named one of three finalists in the 2009 National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce’s Wells Fargo Business Owner of the Year Award.
The distinction, which showcases lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered business owners making advances in their fields, brought three trailblazers from around the nation to Washington, D.C.
“It was very fancy,” the Levesques said of the Building Museum fete and dinner held Nov. 6, during which the women lost out to retirement communities RainbowVision Properties-owner Joy Silver.
“I think it is great that we can show other businesses that you can get recognition for doing these [sustainable] practices that are fundamentally important,” Mia said. “I was really happy about that, in our getting the runner-up honors.”
“We recycle, we compost here in the office and it’s taken away by bicycle,” Tracy said. “We try and be all green, we print on all recycled paper and we use 100-percent renewable energy.”
Along with keeping their planet in high spirits, the Levesques make sure their eight employees are looked after.
“When I was in high school, I told myself I would make a commitment to the environment … and when we started our company, there wasn’t a name for it then, but this is what we were committing to,” Tracy said. “We wanted to create the world that we wanted to see.”
Moving to Queen Village in ’90, Mia, a Connecticut native, walked into her local video store at Fourth and South streets and met Tracy in ’92.
“After I graduated Temple [University] at age 18 in ’88, I worked at TLA Video, that’s also where I met Mia. She was a customer,” Tracy said. “That’s also why it’s so sad that it closed recently.”
Tracy, with a radio, television and film bachelor’s degree, and Mia, a UConn grad with a degree in French, bonded over a shared interest in the fledgling World Wide Web.
“I think our motivation was to bring the Internet and e-mail to people,” Mia, 44, said. “[The Internet] was an amazing thing. I don’t think we knew where it was heading, we didn’t have that kind of foresight, but we knew it was amazing and people should be able to use it.”
Soon after they met, the couple and a co-founder, who has since moved back to Switzerland, laid the groundwork for the still-strong Web design company that has weathered the Internet bubble and the current recession with flying colors.
“I think one of the main reasons we have run our high-tech business so long is because we have run it on a solid, proven business model, letting the business grow organically and building our client base through word-of-mouth,” Mia, who is a technical project manager, said. “We are heading into our 14th year … and in this business that is difficult and I think that says something about us.”
Operations began out of their Third-and-Carpenter home, the space they have lived in for more than 15 years, and where they intend to nest for a long time coming.
“We live next to a community garden and we have lots of block parties and I couldn’t be happier,” Tracy, 39, said. “I think I live in the best place in the world.”
Community is important to both parents, who are raising daughter Josephine, 3, in the city.
“We live on a really good block and the kids all play in the garden … We love taking her to the farmers market at Headhouse Square,” Tracy said.
Staying active in their community is a strong part of the Levesques’ lives. When the two learned their beloved Bodine Street Garden, 914 S. Bodine St., was at risk for closure, they quickly took to action creating savethegarden.com.
“It was a five-year battle, but we saved our garden,” Tracy, the plot’s unofficial organizer, said.
Their community-minded practices seep into their homestyle business, where they focus on dealing locally as much as possible and tapping into the Sustainable Business Network as much as possible.
“When it comes to services we’ll look in ‘The Freedom Pages’ and we look to LGBT companies,” Tracy, YIKES’ Web designer, said.
“[Giving to the community] might mean that we volunteer as a business or we donate services, advertising locally when we can in a film festival or that sort of thing,” Mia said. “We are trying to leave a small footprint and recycle and being mindful of our energy consumption and those things. Hopefully, then, you make the profits.”
Though they are aware of their environmentally conscious ways, it is not so much a decision as a way of life. For their recent distinction, it took a nudge from a friend, Bread & Roses Executive Director Casey Cook, for them to submit their application to the NGLCC.
“As a small business you get a lot of solicitation calls that are not relevant to anything. So when we got the call [about being finalists] I was like, ‘Is that for real?’” Mia said of the October notification. “It’s a national recognition, which is a pretty big deal for a small business like ours.
Though the $5,000 first-place prize didn’t fall into their hands, the YIKES team is excited about the future with plans for expansion percolating — though not too much.
“I’d like to remain a small business. It gives us the opportunity to work with our clients closely and stay true to our goals and mission,” Mia said.
And, although seven years ago the company outgrew its home workspace and the headquarters moved to Northern Liberties, that is the only move they are planning to make.
“We love our neighborhood. We love our house. We love our block,” Mia said. “I would never want to leave this neighborhood.”
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