Steve Sonnenberg of Awardco
An exclusive Tech Tribune Q&A with Steve Sonnenberg (founder and CEO) of Awardco, which was honored in our:
Tell us the origin story of Awardco – what problem were you trying to solve and why?
Over the past 10 years I’ve gone from bankruptcy to leading one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. It hasn’t been an easy road.
In 2011 a civil lawsuit wrapped up a small company I had started. My small family and I had to walk away from everything we had built and were left with nothing.
Amidst this difficult time, I decided to start Awardco. I borrowed $5,000 to buy the domain name Awardco.com, and set out to build a technology that would organize the world’s incentive spend with a platform where employees could recognize each other, earn points, and redeem rewards all on one platform. I knew we needed to offer redemptions that would be personal to people – millions of options, fast and free shipping, and zero markups. It became clear that the way to do this was to partner with Amazon and display their products on the Awardco platform. To my knowledge, no one had ever offered this.
What was the biggest hurdle you encountered in your journey?
I had a great idea, but was at rock-bottom in my career. My cousin Mike joined on as a back-end developer and co-founder, and we both knew there was a long road ahead of us. Together, we selected millions of products to display on Awardco, but Amazon rejected our plan. Jeff Bezos talks about staying stubborn on your plan, but flexible on your approach. This is how we decided to move forward.
For four years, I put in early mornings and late nights selling Awardco to interested parties. My wife helped fulfill orders as they came in. This model wasn’t scalable, but it worked.
Then, in 2015, Amazon Business was founded. I had developed some relationships there and was eventually invited to present Awardco to Amazon at their headquarters. This time, Amazon Business was elated by our proposal and we immediately began forming a partnership. We were ready to scale.
What does the future hold for Awardco?
Awardco now has over 3 million users all over the world, and is one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. We have new features in the pipeline, partner with new companies daily, and are doubling our employee base. There has never been a better time to improve the way the world does recognition!
What are your thoughts on the local tech startup scene in Provo?
Provo, and Utah in general, has been such an ideal place to build Awardco. Innovation is taking over the Provo startup scene. We have incredible partnerships with other Utah tech companies and young startups. Awardco has thrived in such a driven, innovative, and fast-growing environment.
What’s your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Take quality chances, be okay to fail and be wrong, value others’ perspectives and ideas, challenge the status quo, and never stop learning. Provide yourself with time to be curious and ask the questions that will help drive change. We are all born with a curious mindset – use it for good!