For corporations that need a boost in employee motivation or customer loyalty, John Knodel and his partners at
Online Rewards can lend a helping hand.
"We design for clients whatever they ask, according to their needs," Knodel says. "We help companies set up a whole range of incentives for employees and customers alike, from sales and peer recognition programs to health and customer loyalty programs."
One example he gives is that of a company that wants to decrease their health insurance costs among employees. "To reach that goal, they may want a health guru on the campus who can help employees learn how to shape up and save on health costs in the longer term. We can set up programs like this and many others," Knodel explains.
Although the company is now growing rapidly, Knodel's road to Online Rewards was anything but straight. But that hasn't slowed him down any. "I'm good at winging businesses," he laughs.
And it shows. With an intensely entrepreneurial spirit and a dash of creativity that he cultivated as a young musician, Knodel brings success to nearly every venture he touches.
Graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in theoretical mathematics, the Texas-born Knodel relocated to his childhood home of Cincinnati, where he opened Buzz, an icon in Cincinnati's café culture, and a sister coffee shop in Oxford, Ohio.
After cashing in on the sales of his small café empire, it was a yawn for Knodel to take the leap from barista to cofounding a company called Fulkert Consulting Group (now Prospera) that did "everything computer." Drawing on his analytical thinking skills, Knodel mastered the tools needed to be "a web person," alongside partners Eric Fulkert and Marc Slagle.
Though a short stopover on Knodel's journey, this all-things-computer venture generated the idea and laid the groundwork for what would later become Online Rewards, a company that Knodel officially incorporated in 2002, along with co-founders Slagle and Michael Levy, a Texas-based business adviser who was introduced to the pair by Knodel's brother.
"When Marc, a brilliant programmer, and I decided to break off and build our own company, we thought we would build all kinds of things," Knodel says. "But then, we built the program that would become Online Rewards for a client in Texas and thought, 'Holy smoke, this is going to be a monster.'"
When Knodel, Slagle and Levy jumped into the scene, most companies who dealt in corporate incentives or customer loyalty programs were gigantic amorphous warehouse-based outfits that operated on slow gear. According to Knodel, this gave him and his tech savvy partners at Online Rewards a distinct advantage, despite their smaller size.
"At the time we started, most companies in the industry were running out of warehouses full of filing cabinets, clip boards and telephones," he says. "We were part of the first wave of companies that said, 'You don't need a warehouse to do this.' We presented a streamlined internet-based alternative that made the process significantly smoother and cheaper."
Knodel adds that although some of the competition consists of massive companies worth $100 million or more, "once you start in a warehouse, it's hard to get out of the warehouse mindset."
The ability to compete with these Goliaths is all the more remarkable considering Knodel and friends jump started Online Rewards in the proverbial garage - or an apartment in
Prospect Hill, to be exact. When reminiscing about the early days, Knodel recalls long, hard days fueled by a seemingly endless supply of Mountain Dew Code Red and buckets of fried chicken.
Despite the unhealthy regimen, the boys at Online Rewards were able to piece together a cutting edge software program that is now in its seventh iteration. Knodel explains that this continual renewal of the program has significantly streamlined the way Online Rewards does business and has resulted in even greater synergy and faster processing speeds.
"Once you've gone through several iterations of your platform software, you end up building better technology through it," he says.
And while Online Rewards zips along, many of the larger companies are "still pimping merchandise out of a warehouse" and using software that is somewhere along the lines of Online Rewards' second or third generation program.
Knodel explains that it was this software that impressed Harley Davidson, their breakthrough client, and secured their position in the game.
"By that time, we were on our third iteration of our software, and were finally seeing our problems that needed to be solved," he says. "Seeing that we were onto something with our online business model, Harley Davidson believed in us and gave us a chance. This deal opened doors through which many other big clients came."
Online Rewards' impressive roster of clients now includes SAP, Adnet , YMCA, comScore, Inc., Interstate Batteries, Dell, Allied Insurance, Blue Cross Blue Shield, BMW, Unilever, British Airways and more.
The local team, now numbering 13, has since outgrown the early Prospect Hill pad and moved into an office space on 6th and Main downtown, which handles implementation, while a second office in Dallas with a staff of five handles management. Within the next three years, Knodel says that he expects to increase the current Cincinnati team to 25.
"In terms of man power, the companies that we usually compete with on a bid will be from twice to one hundred times our size, or as many as 2,000 employees. But this doesn't correlate to worth," Knodel says.
By the look of it, they're holding their own.
Photography by Scott Beseler
Online Rewards office
John Knodel and Marc Slagle
Daily espresso
John Knodel
602 Main, The Gwynne