A Little Bit About Us

One Part Technical, One Part Marketing

Ravya Taghavi and Brian Stoffer are the co-founders and chief architects of Pixel & Type. Ravya's years of experience in marketing and financial services and Brian's decade-long career in technology and business consulting drive innovation.

Ravya Taghavi

Early on in her career, Ravya was charged with developing the marketing, recruiting and operations functions for a number of high tech startups in the Silicon Valley during their critical stages of growth. She soon discovered that she had both a talent and a passion for helping fledgling companies grow. Ravya's startup experiences include marketing, operations, and recruiting management functions in high tech, education, and financial services. Pixel & Type was born out of the culmination of these critical 'startup' experiences; Ravya's understanding of the financial services industry led her to focus on helping financial professionals better market themselves to targeted audiences.

Ravya earned her MBA in Marketing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Brian Stoffer

A veteran of the web industry, Brian Stoffer has worked as an independent consultant and as a technology strategist for internationally renowned design firms in the Silicon Valley. His experience includes large-scale web implementations for clients such as Nike, Visa, The Gap, Starwood Hotels, and Toyota. Brian has a unique talent for bridging the gap between business and technology. His firm understanding of the overlap of these two realms allows him to provide simple but elegant technical solutions to business problems. He serves his clients through strategic analysis, information architecture and application development.

Brian earned a Bachelors degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

What Makes
Pixel & Type Stand Out?

We're a little different from the other guys

Pixel & Type got its start from a simple observation: financial advisors, similar to mortgage brokers, attorneys and other solo practitioners frequently operate small practices with a lean staff, and lack the time, resources and expertise to effectively market them.

Consequently a lot of the "home-grown" marketing materials are, frankly, mediocre at best. We got sick and tired of seeing one bad financial services website after another, and as industry insiders we saw an opportunity to help! We started Pixel & Type in response to the specific marketing and design needs of financial advisors.

Here's The Big Secret

The reason we 'get it' is because we're not "just" a marketing company. We're business people with actual work experience in the financial services industry. We have the unique vantage point of having seen your business from the inside!

We Work With Only The Best

Every project we take on is assigned to an experienced team of design, copy-writing, web programming, and photography professionals. We have a strong technical focus -- our sites are built with validated HTML, adhering to all common online accessibility standards. And we apply rigorous quality assurance practices to ensure high quality end results.

Fundamentals + New Ideas

Entrepreneurs Through And Through

Our work is based in the fundamentals of marketing, and fine-tuned through years of experience. We help our clients develop their identity through a combination of personal consultations, branding strategy sessions, and subsequent visual design and message development.

The fact of the matter is, we are entrepreneurs from deep deep down, from the bottom of our hearts. You think we're excited about our business? You bet we are! Do we get excited about your business? Yeah, we do! We're constantly thinking about ways to innovate within our industry and in our business. Sure, we make mistakes with the best of them, but we try to learn or thing or two along the way and pass along the wisdom.

When you choose us, you're not just buying a website, you are gaining a coach and a guide. We'll advise you, we'll challenge you, and hopefully you'll challenge us and we'll both grow from the experience.

Nationwide, And Growing!

We're a nationwide virtual company

What does this mean? Well, for one, it means that we keep things lean - we have little overhead, a whole lot of creative juice and we're flexible. On a day-to-day basis, it means that we tap into a talented workforce that lives and works throughout the country. We're not limited to sourcing our talent from a select geography. For you, the client, this translates into flexibility of workflow and opens up the world from a design perspective.

Imagine if we were held captive to the imagination and creativity of a limited few. All of a sudden we would sound a lot like other agencies, right? When you can only tap into the ideas of a select group of people everything starts looking and feeling the same. It's just the way it is.

We made the conscious decision from the start to not be like the "other guys." It takes good organizational skills and a strong network, but it's well worth the effort. The bonus to being a "virtual" company means that we can live and work wherever we want.

So what kind of cool features have you built into your business plan? Tell us!