Geeks In A Box No Longer a Geek ~ Expands Services and Rebrands as Kalson Media Group in Mount Pleasant

Charleston has grown from a sleepy southern town into a vibrant East Coast city with a flourishing tech scene. The name, Silicon Harbor, as it has been coined, describes the Lowcountry perfectly. Since 1999, one of Charleston’s original web design companies, Geeks In a Box run by CEO Laura Carson, has seen the times change from a four page website with dial-up to 200 page websites with shopping carts. As the company matured and expanded, the geeks have grown up. The staff put away their suspenders and broken glasses with masking tape, and traded in for a sleeker look. Carson is taking it one step further — by revamping the business by rebranding. They’ve ditched the name Geeks in a Box, and are now Kalson Media Group and in order to grow with their expanding business, they have opened an office in I’On in Mount Pleasant. 

“Being a technologically savvy, female web design business owner twenty years ago was rare and did come with its challenges. But now, it’s refreshing to see so many women in the technology sector. I am embracing our new expansion, but deep down, I’ll always be a geek.” says Laura Carson, owner and CEO of Kalson Media. 

One of the first female-owned tech businesses in the Lowcountry, Carson has seen how the Internet and marketing world has expanded. Carson has long been ahead of the tech curve. She built her first website in 1997 for her then thriving retail stores. Long before most Charleston area businesses even knew what the internet was, Carson was already first in line. In 1998, she sold her retail stores and retired to Atlanta. Bored at the ripe old age of 29, she went back to school to hone in what she says was “fun stuff”.  After attending Ogelthorpe University and finishing their Microsoft courses she went to work for the largest web hosting provider in the nation.  There she was in on the ground floor of the world wide web. When Google came calling to the company she worked for, she was put on a beta test team to see if this “Google thing” had a legitimate search algorithm different than the queries you’d find in the current search giants of Yahoo, Excite and Web Crawler. That’s where her love for the search giant was born. She reported back that she thought these new guys were going to be “someone” and that they were onto something. Carson still attends Microsoft and Google sponsored events and seminars in NYC and San Francisco to stay ahead of her competition in an ever changing tech scene.

Before moving back to Charleston to start her new tech company, Carson acquired her first local client, the iconic Hyman’s Seafood. To this day, Hyman’s is still a client for Kalson Media Group, 16 years later.

Kalson Media Group is also a friend to local non-profits. The company offered their services as pro-bono volunteering to build websites for The Charleston Animal Society (then the John Ancrum SPCA)  and Pet Helpers. Carson currently also helps the Center For Women with their web presence.

But what Carson prides herself on the most is that Kalson Media Group seeks to help small businesses. “What separates us from other people is our integrity. I know it sounds cliché, but it’s the truth,” Carson says. “Focusing on truly helping the little guy is what we’re all about." 

Visit them online at KalsonMedia.com or visit their office located at 10 Resolute Ln #206, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. 

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