Sramana Mitra: I’m going to get into a granular line of questioning so that we can extract the real story here. When you decided that you wanted to start a company, what did you do first? I imagine you incorporated, but was there any savings? How did you put this business together? David Sharpe: We
Sramana Mitra: How old are you now? David Sharpe: I just turned 30 last November 17. Sramana Mitra: How does this bridge us to your entrepreneurship? Where does your entrepreneurship begin – more of the kind of entrepreneurship that we cover? David Sharpe: Certainly, you guys didn’t contact me because of my entrepreneurship in the
From drugs, sex, prostitution, David Sharpe has seen it all. Hopelessly lost since his teens, a father at 15, jailed in his twenties, David has found his way back to a healthy life through entrepreneurship. Enjoy reading one of the most unusual stories we’ve done in the eighth year of Entrepreneur Journeys. Sramana Mitra: Dave,
Sramana: What is the most popular reward type? Scott Dudelson: Without a doubt it is the Amazon gift card. Gift cards in general are popular. Sramana: If you were able to give advice to another entrepreneur, what advice would you pass on? What were some of your biggest lessons learned? Scott Dudelson: We pivoted twice
Sramana: You are sitting at $35 million in revenue a year. What percentage of that money comes from affiliate relationships? Scott Dudelson: The majority of the revenue comes from affiliate opportunities, although I do not have the exact percentage of that breakdown. We have recently brought on salespeople who are helping bring in more direct
Sramana: What were the business models that you worked with for the incentive providers? Scott Dudelson: We just bought the gift cards and the award items. We did try to get free goods. We had a business model that supported itself. When a user took an action that generates us money, he or she would
Sramana: It seems that the key differentiator with Swagbucks.com is that you have made a move to host a destination site, and you no longer rely on other brands to promote your service. Is that correct? Scott Dudelson: That is correct. In 2008 when we launched Swagbucks.com, we took control of attracting our own users.
Sramana: When fans go to the SearchWithKISS.com website, what do they get out of it? Scott Dudelson: Every time a fan does a search on that site, he or she has an opportunity to earn points called Swagbucks. They can redeem those points for things like KISS concert tickets, memorabilia, or autographs. The money that