Patience, prudence and solid operations: the three elements to which Cardcash.coms COO Marc Ackerman attributes their ventures success and its rapid growth since its founding in 2008. New Jersey entrepreneurs Ackerman and CEO Elliot Bohm, a childhood friend, are seeing the results of six plus years of hard work and confidently tout that their New Jersey startup has grown to be -the largest online gift card exchange in the world-.
Bohm and Ackerman first thought of the idea for Cardcash.com when they were left with unused and unwanted gift cards following the holidays. With a little bit of investigation, primarily on eBay where they saw gift cards being sold at a discount, the two aspiring entrepreneurs saw the potential of a service that would assist consumers seeking value for their unused gift cards.
Now having experienced triple revenue growth in every year since its inception, Ackerman looks back on what led to their early success. However, before sharing Cardcash.coms journey, he proudly notes their recent acquisition of their former competitor Plastic Jungle. He explains how Plastic Jungle was investor funded quite early which enabled them to grab market share. Yet, they are now owned by Cardcash.com that keeps growing while early entrant competitors are folding. Ackerman explains the reasons why.
First, Cardcash.com remained conservative about accepting outside funding—this enabled them to resist the temptation (and possible pressure) to scale the company up too quickly. Instead they focused on establishing their operational processes—prompted by their concern over gift card fraud that is a core challenge in their industry and a real business threat with rising card volume. Staying patient while competitors grew and being prudent about controlling fraud, Cardcash.com took the needed time and effort to put the right operations in place. -It is an extremely challenging business to run,- Ackerman explains. They focused on hiring the right talent, both personnel and knowledgeable industry consultants, who now work as a team to put the critical operational processes and controls in place.
Next, bootstrapping was key. Especially at the beginning, since it was one factor that enabled the founders to defer outside fund raising. But, Ackerman and Bohm also had some early good fortune when a fairly obscure domain name they owned was sold for over six figures to a European corporation. This provided a timely and early funding boost that helped them through the first couple of years. By holding out as long as possible before bringing in professional investors, they feel they secured the best valuation for their venture. Also, by being profitable almost from day one they were able to tap into an extensive network of family and friends for funds before finally securing the venture capital that is now in place and very important for their continued high growth.
The wrapper on all this for Ackerman is company culture. -Team success is necessary if you want to have a great company,- he explains. Having the right startup atmosphere that -makes everyone feel part of the team- is what is necessary because it will -bring out the best talent in people-. Ackerman emphasizes that it includes -Being willing to listen-, particularly because a quickly scaling business puts founders on a steep learning curve.
Now with the company solidly on course to exceed $100 million in revenue this year and closing in on 100 employees, Cardcash.com has moved into another expansion stage that focuses on establishing relationships with industry partners. Ackerman is pleased to share that they just formed a partnership that will enable a major airline to directly accept retailers gift cards as payment for their airfares. Cardcash.com will serve as the intermediary to handle these transactions for the benefit of multiple partiesand most importantly the consumer.
Having been patient and prudent in building their highly efficient and secure operational platform that serves their customers, Ackerman and Bohm have achieved a level of success they had not imaginedand that has given them even greater confidence about what they see lying ahead.
