Jason Wolfe (entrepreneur)

Jason Wolfe
Residence Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Education Bachelor of Science in Marketing
Alma mater Bloomsburg University ('92)
Occupation Entrepreneur
Known for Founder of GiftCards.com
Website Official Website

Jason Wolfe is an American businessman and entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of several companies, including GiftCards.com.[1][2] The company is considered the largest online retailer of gift cards[2][3][4] and has appeared on the Inc. 5000 list on several occasions.[5][6] Wolfe has appeared on the MSNBC program, Morning Joe[3] and has been profiled in Entrepreneur[1] and Fortune[7] (among other publications).[2] In 2015, Wolfe was awarded a Diamond Award from the Pittsburgh Business Times[8] and named Tech CEO of the Year by the Pittsburgh Tech Council.[9]

Early life and education

Wolfe grew up in a family of three children.[1] His father left the family when Wolfe was 4 years old, leaving his mother to raise him and his siblings alone.[3] Wolfe's mother was disabled and on welfare.[2] In 1980 when Wolfe was 10 years old, his mother sent him to the Milton Hershey School, a boarding school for disadvantaged children in Hershey, Pennsylvania.[3][8] Wolfe graduated from the school in 1987.[10] He attributes much of his later business success to the principles he learned at the Hershey School.[3]

After graduating from the Hershey School, Wolfe attended Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.[7] He graduated with a B.S. in Marketing in 1992.[8][10] Wolfe spent two years as a whitewater rafting guide in West Virginia before deciding to move to Pittsburgh. Soon after his move in 1994, he was involved in an accident that required him to undergo two spinal surgeries.[7] While recovering, he wound up living out of his car. He taught himself how to code by using books at the local library[1] and CompUSA's Building the Perfect Web among others.[7]

Career

In 1995, Wolfe founded the first online coupon site, known initially as CouponsDirect.com.[7] The site would eventually be renamed MyCoupons.com. The business provided coupons for companies. In the first year of operation, MyCoupons only earned around $1,000.[2] By 1999, however, the business was garnering over $1 million in annual sales[7] and 20 million page views per month.[2] The company also had around 3 million registered members.[11] The company was sold to a competitor, Save.com,[7] for roughly $23 million in 2000.[12][13] Because this occurred around the time of the dot-com bust, Wolfe only received about $2 million total from the sale.[2] He reacquired MyCoupons.com in 2002.[11]

After selling and reacquiring MyCoupons, Wolfe began to build Direct Response Technologies. He also launched DirectTrack, an affiliate tracking technology and platform. By 2006, DirectTrack had tracked tens of billions of impressions and tens of millions of clicks. Wolfe sold Direct Response Technologies, DirectTrack, and DirectCertificate.com to Digital River in 2006. He repurchased the GiftCards.com domain and rebranded and relaunched the site in 2008.[14][10][15][16] He also relaunched MyCoupons.com in 2007. Both companies became subsidiaries of Wolfe, LLC, a holding company that Wolfe founded in 2007. Other subsidiaries that are part of Wolfe, LLC include Omni Prepaid and Swapagift.com.[11][17]

In 2009, GiftCards.com recorded $44 million in sales.[4] In 2011, MyCoupons was earning 2 million page views per month and maintained a network of 6,000 to 8,000 retailers across the United States.[11] In 2015, GiftCards.com sold its 6 millionth gift card.[18] The company is currently owned by Blackhawk Network Holdings after its purchase of the retailer in 2016.[19]

Recognition and awards

Wolfe has been nominated for and won numerous awards throughout his career. Ernst & Young named him the 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year for the Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia region.[20] In 2013, he was given the Pennsylvania Governor's ImPAct Award in the Entrepreneur category.[10] In 2014, he was named the Milton Hershey School's "Alumnus of the Year."[20] In 2015, the Pittsburgh Business Times honored Wolfe with a Diamond award.[8] In 2015, Wolfe was named Tech CEO of the Year by the Pittsburgh Tech Council.[21][9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Weiss, Geoff (14 July 2014). "Orphaned and Homeless, How This Self-Taught Techie Founded a Multi-Million Dollar Empire". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Gittleson, Kim (23 July 2014). "GiftCards.com boss: From orphanage to entrepreneur". BBC. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Mika Brzezinski (host), Joe Scarborough (host), Thomas Roberts (host), Jason Wolfe (interviewee) (28 July 2014). Overcoming the Odds. Morning Joe. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  4. 1 2 Fleisher, Chris (9 March 2015). "GiftCards.com of Green Tree carves out niche online". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  5. ↑ "Inc. 5000 2015: The Fastest-Growing Private U.S. Companies, At a Glance". www.Inc.com. Inc.. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  6. ↑ Firer, Oleg (24 August 2012). "Which Company Racked Up a Growth Rate of 23,646 Percent?". CNBC. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Wally, Maxine (7 November 2014). "Pittsburgh's comeback kid". Fortune. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Kindler, D.H. (24 April 2015). "2015 Diamond Awards: Jason Wolfe". Pittsburgh Business Times. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  9. 1 2 Nixon, Alex (30 October 2015). "Entrepreneur Wolfe of GiftCards.com named Tech 50 CEO of the Year". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Entrepreneur rises above adversity to create three companies". Team Pennsylvania Foundation. 5 November 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Spencer, Malia (26 August 2011). "MyCoupons.com finds success by tapping into extreme couponing trend". Pittsburgh Business Times. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  12. ↑ Parker, Pamela (16 May 2000). "Save.com Buys Coupon Sites in $23 Million Deal". ClickZ. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  13. ↑ "Save.com Acquires MyCoupons.com and DirectCoupons.com". Bloomberg. 15 May 2000. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  14. ↑ Todd, Deborah M. (29 May 2014). "Green Tree tech firm planning campaign for gift cards". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  15. ↑ "Digital River Acquires Direct Response Technologies; Expands Affiliate and E-Marketing Capabilities". Business Wire. 25 January 2006. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  16. ↑ "The PrimaryAds Network, Powered by DirectTrack, Signs Letter of Intent to be Acquired by CGI Holdings Corporation - Now Known as the Think Partnership, Inc.". PR Newswire. 10 March 2005. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  17. ↑ "Company Overview of Wolfe, LLC". www.Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  18. ↑ Tascarella, Patty (10 February 2015). "GiftCards.com sells 6 millionth gift card". Pittsburgh Business Times. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  19. ↑ "Blackhawk Network (HAWK) Announces Acquisition of GiftCards.com". Street Insider. 6 January 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  20. 1 2 Kiner, Deb (28 April 2014). "Milton Hershey School names 1987 grad as alumnus of the year". The Patriot-News. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  21. ↑ Todd, Deborah M. (10 August 2015). "Pittsburgh Tech Council announces Tech 50 finalists". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 14 October 2015.

External links

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