Who We Are
ROOTED IN
YOUNGSTOWN.
BUILT TO WIN.
SkyForgeLab was founded to solve one problem: great contractors were losing jobs to worse competitors because of bad marketing. We built the agency we wish existed for the hardworking trades businesses of the Mahoning Valley — and everywhere else in Ohio.
"Make the best contractor in every market the most-visible one too."
THE STORY
BEHIND THE LAB
It started in 2017 with a barbershop. The question driving the work wasn't complicated: why do some local businesses show up on Google and others don't? That first client taught more about what real businesses actually need from digital marketing than any textbook could have.
Over the next several years, that work expanded to restaurants, service businesses, retail — a range of Youngstown businesses trying to get found. One pattern kept repeating: trades businesses were getting burned worse than anyone. Plumbers, HVAC techs, electricians, roofers — paying for generic marketing from agencies that had no idea what a service call looks like, or why a customer searching "furnace repair Youngstown" at 9pm needs a completely different website than someone browsing for a restaurant.
A contractor doesn't need brand awareness. They need the phone to ring when someone in their city has an urgent problem. That's a completely different goal — and most marketing agencies aren't built to solve it.
SkyForgeLab was built in 2024 to solve exactly that, and nothing else. See what we do and start with a free audit.
Meet the Founder
SEAN GERIN
FOUNDER
Sean Gerin started SkyForgeLab in 2024 after watching too many home service contractors in northeast Ohio get burned by marketing agencies that promised the world and delivered dashboards full of impressions.
The pattern was always the same: a contractor would sign on for $1,500–$2,500 a month, get a glossy onboarding deck, and six months later still have no idea whether the spend was producing actual phone calls. By the time they figured it out, the agency had already moved on to the next client.
So Sean built the opposite. At SkyForgeLab, every client gets direct access to senior-level work — no account managers, no junior coordinators, no hand-offs after the sales call. The work is measured in calls and booked jobs — not impressions, not "reach," not engagement. Pricing starts at $300/month with no long-term contracts because if the work isn't producing calls, you should be able to walk away.
Before SkyForgeLab, Sean was working in banking — a job that taught him how numbers on a spreadsheet can say one thing while the business reality says another. He started learning to code and building websites, took on his first clients as a freelancer, and one of the early ones ran a home service business. That's when it clicked. Contractors are operators, not marketers. They don't have time to parse agency jargon or figure out what "impressions" mean for their bottom line. They need someone who measures the right things, charges a fair price, and actually picks up the phone. That became the niche SkyForgeLab was built to own.
Based in the Youngstown area, SkyForgeLab serves a focused roster of home service contractors and B2B clients across northeast Ohio and the Mahoning Valley — a region the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber has long served as one of Ohio's most active home-service contractor markets. Sean believes the next decade of contractor marketing will be won by businesses that show up in AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity — not just Google — and is building SkyForgeLab to put trade businesses on the right side of that shift before their competitors notice.
When he's not optimizing GBP profiles or building AI automations, you'll find him spending time with his family or working to sharpen his craft.
Started
2017
First client was a local barbershop in Youngstown. Learned digital marketing by doing it on real businesses from day one.
Location
Youngstown, OH
Born and raised in the Mahoning Valley. Not a national agency with a local ZIP code — actually here.
Background
Finance & Tech
Came from banking before transitioning into digital marketing and web development. Built skills through years of hands-on work with local businesses across multiple industries.
Focus since 2024
Contractors only
Exclusively home service contractors. Depth over breadth — sharper results for clients who need the phone to ring, not brand impressions.
HOW WE OPERATE
The principles that guide every client relationship.
Local & Accountable
Based in Youngstown. Real people who answer, follow through, and know what it means to do business in Northeast Ohio.
Contractors Only
We don't work with everyone. We work exclusively with trades businesses — and we're sharper for it.
No Long Contracts
Month-to-month. We keep clients by performing — not by trapping them in agreements they can't get out of.
Measured in Jobs
Not rankings. Not impressions. Phone calls, booked jobs, revenue. That's the only scorecard that matters.
The Vision
BUILT ON
SYSTEMS, NOT PEOPLE
Most agencies are built around whoever owns them. If that person leaves, the wheels come off. We're building SkyForgeLab differently — repeatable processes, documented playbooks, and tools that deliver results consistently regardless of who's running the play.
That's what we want for our clients too. A marketing engine that brings in calls every month without you having to think about it. We hold ourselves to the same standard.
LET'S TALK.
15-minute call. No pitch. Just an honest conversation about what's broken and what we can fix.