From Classmates to Co-Founders: The LeBow Alumni Behind 215 Marketing

215 Marketing originally took its name from the Philadelphia area code, but make no mistake: It’s a national company now, with clients around the world and employees from coast to coast.

The company’s Philadelphia roots are an essential part of its story, though. Garrett Gillin, MBA marketing ’14, and Jon Vogel, MBA innovation management and entrepreneurship ’14, launched it while earning their MBAs at the Bennett S. LeBow College of Business. Their startup took root in the Laurence A. Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship — an incubator providing mentorship, business competitions, legal resources and seed funding to student businesses that is also responsible for successfully incubating delivery giant GoPuff and the college-scholarship app Scholly.

Gillin and Vogel met on the first day of orientation for their MBA program in 2012. With small businesses in their family backgrounds, jumping in headfirst on a new venture came naturally to both.

“I think, to some degree, we both thought we might go into entrepreneurship,” Vogel says. “I didn’t think I was going to meet someone in our MBA program and start a company with them.”

The two started building their portfolio early on, landing clients at happy hours and networking events and establishing themselves as young, hungry guys who’d pull all-nighters just to secure a deal or launch a website.

While the company still handles basic marketing functions like websites and billboard ads, its employees advise on much more sophisticated business functions these days. “Now, we get into sales and CRM and analytics, and we’re consulting on retention and pricing strategies,” Gillin says.

Last year was a big one for Vogel and Gillin, with 215 Marketing earning awards from local and national outlets including Entrepreneur, Adweek and the Philadelphia Business Journal, which named it one of the fastest-growing companies in the Delaware Valley.

The numbers back it up — nearly $8 million in total revenue in 2025, reflecting more than 200% growth since 2021. Vogel sees the momentum as the result of steady work. “Last year wasn’t anything special — there’s no magic wand,” he says. “I think it reflects the aggregation of doing right by clients year after year, campaign by campaign, and yielding the benefits of doing right by people and getting results.”

Success can look very different across 215 Marketing’s portfolio — from a one-person contracting and plumbing business to an international software-as-a-service company, with small- and medium-sized companies across industries such as manufacturing and financial in between. That’s where 215 Marketing’s ability to create custom solutions sets them apart. “We are more like a partner to their full business than a marketing agency,” Gillin says.

In recent years, a new focus on franchise services has helped 215 Marketing go national. In 2022, Gillin and Vogel created Units, a subagency focused on managing operations for franchisees. Entrepreneur magazine recognized them in 2025 as a Top Franchise Supplier, reflecting their emphasis in that area. The nationwide reach of their client base prompted 215 Marketing to go fully remote after the COVID-19 pandemic and forgo a physical office in Philadelphia.

Though the company has ranged far from its original home base, the Philadelphia area and the Drexel network have remained vital to them. “I feel like, as an alum, you can reach out to people who went to Drexel and there’s an immediate bond,” Gillin says. “We’ve come across business opportunities with other Drexel alumni numerous times, and I think just having that camaraderie around the brand is important.”

What propels 215 Marketing today — dedication to relationships, adaptability and a willingness to never be outworked — has shaped the company’s approach to clients from the start, and helped some of its earliest customers grow alongside it. Universal Credit Services and TenantReports.com first approached 215 Marketing while Gillen and Vogel were working out of the Baiada Institute. Those companies were later rolled up into a new company, Xactus, which has remained their client even as it swelled into a multimillion-dollar financial data firm. Other longtime clients, like plasma donor service B-Positive and medical device company Boehringer Labs, have remained fixtures of the firm’s portfolio.

“We were never the cool company in Baiada,” Vogel says, recalling peers who were developing must-have apps or cutting-edge cancer treatments.

“Marketing agencies are nothing novel,” Gillin adds, “but Drexel really empowers people working within standard business models to go out and be successful.”