Our Story
In 2019, during an internship with The Gospel Coalition, Cole Shiflet began to recognize the potential impact of investing in search engine optimization. With a background in web and content development, he began to explore search marketing.
He was drawn to this field because he recognized that there were real people behind these searches. Real people with real problems looking for real answers. Quickly, he began to realize that faith-driven businesses and ministries were often left behind in Google’s search results. As he searched for various theological questions, he struggled to find trusted, evangelical Christian ministries. Instead, he found the websites of non-Christian groups with resources committed to a false gospel.
Before launching Accelerate, Cole researched How Religious Groups Grow through SEO. Overwhelmingly, he found that ministries and businesses with orthodox Christian beliefs struggled in the search results.
As he talked with non-profit and business leaders, he found that many of the organizations driven by Christian values lacked clarity and direction in their search engine marketing efforts. For some, they had been scammed by marketers with bad intentions. For others, they were afraid to invest in SEO because they didn’t understand how it worked or why it was valuable. He knew something needed to change.
In 2021, Cole partnered with Jack Pokluda to begin laying the groundwork for what would become Accelerate. As they were preparing to launch the business, they became convinced that they should build the business through the lens of "redemptive entrepreneurship.” Rather than simply working ethically, Accelerate aims to pursue entrepreneurship that changes the way people think about marketing. At Accelerate, we aren't building a business to use people, we are building a business to bless people because business exists for the good of others.
Driven by their Christian faith, Cole and Jack have worked with companies like Radical, The Gospel Coalition, Joshua Project, Wildsparq, and more by providing services in organic SEO, paid ads, content marketing, and website consulting. Accelerate exists to amplify businesses who bless others.
