EY Names ActiveCampaign Founder and CEO as 2021 Entrepreneur of the Year

Jason VandeBoom has been recognized as the EY 2021 Entrepreneur of the Year, highlighting the huge steps that ActiveCampaign, the leader in customer experience automation (CXA), has made in the past year toward transforming the way businesses of all sizes interact with their customers. This award is an accolade to ActiveCampaign’s lucrative customer success commitment that has helped thousands of entrepreneurs worldwide realize their dreams.

EY Entrepreneur of the Year is an award that recognizes highly ambitious and innovative leaders. It distinguishes great entrepreneurs who explore new ways to further their industry and make the business of others much more effective.

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For Jason, the meaning of this attribute doesn’t just mean he embodies it on his own, but rather to have this value embodied completely throughout the company. Jason and the ActiveCampaign team have worked tremendously to ensure an impactful and supportive employee environment that pushes forward more innovation.

Jason founded ActiveCampaign in 2003 after noticing a lack of meaningful connections between growing businesses and their customers, which translated to a loss in business growth and revenue opportunities for those companies. With a passion for small businesses and an understanding of the importance that comes with business and customer connections, Jason knew that a more meaningful system was needed for high-touch relationships at every stage of the customer life cycle.

ActiveCampaign highlights some of the huge accomplishments reached this year:

• Surpassed 150,000 customers and 850 employees globally
• Named a unicorn company with a valuation of over $3 billion with its $240 million Series C round
• Announced investments in its employees and forthcoming expansions to its Dublin and Indianapolis offices, significantly increasing headcount and footprint in each of its hub locations
• Launched a $2 million developer fund in search of app developers for increased integrations
• Won SIIA CODiE Award: Best Marketing Solution of 2021
• Added Facebook Messenger, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Twilio SMS and Zendesk Sell to app integration ecosystem, surpassing 870 integrations
• Created new automations, localized in six languages, totalling over 600 recipes in the automation library
• Received the SaaSWorthy Award: Most Worthy Software, as well as Fastest Growing Marketing Automation, Most Popular and Highly Rated for Marketing Automation
• Released new educational series “This Just Works” and YouTube Live series “Growth Decoded”

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Supporting quotes

“Receiving this award is about much more than myself, it underscores the time and effort that every single ActiveCampaign employee has put in to help us, and most importantly, our customers, grow and scale quickly,” said Jason VandeBoom. “ActiveCampaign continues to thrive because of the ecosystem we have created with our customers, partners and employees all over the world. We’re on a mission to help businesses grow, and we plan to continue keeping our heads down to focus on that drive.”

“EY is proud to celebrate these unstoppable entrepreneurs and welcome them into our global Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni community,” said AJ Jordan, EY Americas Entrepreneur Of The Year Program Director. “Despite the unprecedented challenges of the past year, these heroic leaders have inspired us all with their unrivaled courage, ambition and unwavering commitment to their companies, clients and communities.

“ActiveCampaign’s commitment to customer success and continual innovation has been evident throughout our time working together,” said John Morrison, founder and senior consultant, ModeEffect. “Their seamless integrations and eagerness to include all available functionalities underscores their customer service commitment to the fullest. Huge congratulations to Jason and the entire ActiveCampaign team on this achievement!”

“With ActiveCampaign, I can always expect a human on the other side when I reach out for support, and that’s so reassuring as an entrepreneur,” said Cassandra Williams, ActiveCampaign user and founder and director of Education Innovation. “Working with a company that actually cares about my needs and my business’ growth has been the key to my company’s success. I can tell that level of care comes from every single person at ActiveCampaign.”

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