Jon Franko, 27, co-founder and co-owner of Gorilla76, an advertising, Web development and brand elevation agency with offices at 408 North Euclid Avenue in the Central West End.

BIOGRAPHICAL DATA

FAMILY • Single with dog, a 5-year-old yellow Lab named Deuce. Only child of Ed Franko and Jane York. Ed owns Bass and Baskets, a bed and breakfast at the Lake of the Ozarks; Jane is a fifth-grade schoolteacher in Granite City.

EDUCATION • Granite City High School, 2001; University of Missouri, B.S., journalism, 2005.

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What made you decide to go into the advertising field?

I was a journalism major in college because I love to write. I did an internship between junior and senior year at Zipatoni (a local ad agency known for its creativity and loose style, which has merged with Chicago-based Rivet) and I figured out that I loved advertising.

Do you still write?

Yes, that's what I do. I write copy.

What does your partner, Joe Sullivan, do?

He's the designer. He's got a BFA from Wash U. I think I have a good eye for design but Joe's great.

What does the name of your company mean?

Gorilla is sort of a play on guerilla, which would have been too obvious if we'd spelled it that way. And 76 is because we founded it in July of '06.

So you've been open for four years. You were only 23 when you guys went into business. What were you thinking?

Our ultimate thing was just to overall increase the quality of our lives. We just want to have fun and keep getting the kind of work that inspires us to get out of bed in the morning.

How many people do you employ?

We just hired our first employee, Dan Rashid. He's a programmer.

Are you or your company involved in local charities or are you on boards?

I was on the young friends board of Gilda's Club, and then the local chapter of the club sort of disbanded and we wanted to move the young friends to another organization that fights cancer. We created Launch St. Louis, which is an incubator for young friends groups. I'm the marketing chair of the group. We're involved with Friends of Kids with Cancer. I'm also a marketing committee member with Operation Brightside.

What sort of clients do you have?

We have a variety — Korte Construction, Red Brick Management, the Sauce Tool and Recycling Consultants are a few of them.

Do you have a niche?

I'm not sure yet but if we were to develop one it would be working for the gritty, non-sexy companies — guy stuff — that we could give a personality and a face to their products.

What sort of company would that be?

St. Croix rods, that would be a dream client.

Why?

I love to fish and I love St. Croix rods. I guess that about sums it up.

Are you an outdoorsman?

I love to fish and hunt, so I guess I am sort of an outdoorsman.

Are you athletic?

I was an athlete in high school — I lettered in football, basketball and baseball but nothing serious sports wise in college. I was too short.

Did someone influence your athletic development?

Yes, my grandfather, Keith Parker, my mother's father. I was very close to him growing up. He was a football star at Mizzou, which was one reason I wanted to go to school there, and he played with the Baltimore Colts in the NFL. He's in the National High School Sports Hall of Fame for refereeing. He died in 2007.

Did you do outdoors stuff with your grandfather?

More with my dad. He's my fishing buddy. We just got back from Canada, where we go fishing once a year with a group of mostly family members. We also go ice fishing once a year in Wisconsin.

What kind of hunting do you do?

Ducks, geese, deer. Mainly birds.

Do you feel constrained living and working in the urban St. Louis environment?

No, I love it here. I just bought a house in south St. Louis that I'm rehabbing. It's funny though that people in St. Louis think that if you grew up in Granite City you're a hayseed or lived on a farm. It's so close but people here don't know what it's like.

What do you drive?

A 2005 GMC Canyon. Nothing fancy.