MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Merchology announced on Friday that it was ranked No. 1 by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal at its Fast 50 Awards reception.

First-time honoree Merchology is a B2B ecommerce retailer of custom logo apparel and gifts. The company reported 2017 revenue of 23.4 million dollars, a growth rate of nearly 422 percent since 2015.

Revenue isn't the only thing growing at the company. It's also scaling up its workforce. In 2015, it had just 11 employees. Now, there are over 100, plus 40 full-time subcontractors to apply custom logos using a variety of techniques.

When asked to comment on the award, CEO Richard (Dick) Ward said, "We are grateful to MSPBJ for this award. Every company experiencing significant growth has its challenges, and we have certainly had ours. But we have a group of ambitious and talented employees that have worked incredibly hard and really delivered when we needed it. Our success is due to our entire team at Merchology."

Dick and his co-founders (Nolan Goodman, Ally Delgado, and Andrew Ward) provided additional insight into what fuels their company's growth.

What are your tips for managing and motivating your people as your company grows?

• Live your company values daily. Our core values are hung in every room of our office and drive our annual performance reviews. Employees can cite them by memory!
• Show each employee how their role contributes to company goals.
• Make your workplace fun! "Celebrate and share our successes" is one of our core values. Our employees work very hard, so we make sure to celebrate frequently through events like our Lake Minnetonka boat cruise, Halloween open house, holiday parties, monthly volunteer events and barbecues, and weekly Beer O'Clock in the office. Our social committee rocks!

What was the most exciting thing to happen at your company in 2017? We moved offices to bring our two locations under one roof! After acquiring a local embroidery company in 2016, we continued operating in two buildings. In April 2017 we moved in together into a new space in the Carlson Business Park. This dramatically improved our collaboration as a company.

What is your top priority for the year ahead? We want to ensure that as we grow, we continue to evolve and improve our customer experience.

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SOURCE Merchology