#69 Inc500 Fastest Growing Companies in America (2021): Going Public Through a SPAC with Jeffrey Harris, Co-Founder and CEO of springbig Inc.

Hello everyone and welcome back to CEO Secrets. Our guest for today has over three decades of experience in marketing sales and management, specifically in the field of incentive and loyalty marketing. Achieving a 5,485% 3-year growth, his company ranked 69th in 2021’s  Inc Top 500 list of fastest-growing privately owned businesses in the US. Let’s welcome to the show, the Co-Founder & CEO of springbig Inc., Jeffrey Harris.



In 1998, Jeff started a loyalty marketing agency that catered mainly to servicing retailers, financial services companies, and insurance companies.  After 25 years, he handed over the active management side of his business to his team, who was doing a better job than him, and decided to focus on a new opportunity.



He created a platform that would give small businesses the ability to create and manage their customer loyalty program. In 2016, two cannabis retailers joined the platform.  Jeff and his team realized that the cannabis industry was still in its infancy but it has great potential to grow tremendously fast.  A year later, they decided to focus entirely on the retailers, brands, and wholesalers that are servicing the cannabis industry.



Today, Jeff is the Co-Founder and CEO of springbig, a provider of customer-loyalty software to cannabis retailers across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico.  Recently, his company announced that they’re going public through a merger with Tuatara Capital Acquisition Corp., a SPAC or a blank check company.



Let us hear from Jeff as he shares how he found success working in the cannabis industry and his insights on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs).



Top Takeaways:

04:20  How loyalty programs allow business owners to have a really good view into what's happening in the industry.

04:34 Is there a blanket incentive to the consumer that will drive them back to the retail shop?

04:53 A misnomer on opening up a cannabis retail shop

06:59 Is there an industry-agnostic plan you can implement to increase repeat and referrals?

07:26 What loyalty is all about

08:21 Is it advisable to implement a loyalty program for a real estate business?

09:49 What made them decide to merge with a SPAC

20:31 The greatest Aha’s Jeff had hit that kind of revenue growth?

21:56 Why Jeff prefers his salespeople to “report the news” than to just sell.

22:39 Why providing great service is a real differentiator among tech companies in the industry.

23:40 How to get technology partners to become ambassadors for your software.

To get a hold of Jeff Harris, email him at [email protected] or visit www.springbig.com

Episode Transcript:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10pBvkgoGt2uGt_AkwSo6VzTP6QkZXylmkTRRPeNk7qs/edit?usp=sharing