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Jeremy Parker
Co-Founder and CEO of Swag.com, Entrepreneur
Jeremy Parker is a prominent entrepreneur known for his role as the Co-Founder and CEO of Swag.com, which was acquired by Custom Ink in November 2021. He is currently the Founder of Swag Space, a subsidiary of Custom Ink that focuses on providing companies with high-quality promotional products.
Background and Education
Parker graduated from Boston University in 2007, where he majored in film production. His early career included establishing a promotional products division and co-founding an eCommerce platform that was acquired by a publicly traded company. His diverse experiences laid the groundwork for his later success in the promotional products industry.13
Career Highlights
- Swag.com: Launched in 2016, Swag.com quickly became a leader in the promotional products sector, generating approximately $40 million in revenue annually. The company gained significant traction by catering to the modern needs of businesses looking for engaging and memorable swag items.24
- Acquisition by Custom Ink: The acquisition allowed Swag.com to leverage Custom Ink's resources while maintaining its brand identity. Parker emphasized the alignment of values between the two companies, which facilitated their partnership.4
- Swag Space: Following his tenure at Swag.com, Parker transitioned to lead Swag Space, where he continues to innovate in the promotional products market.5
Personal Projects
In addition to his business ventures, Parker founded Up: Anonymously Spread Kindness, an app aimed at promoting positivity through anonymous acts of kindness. This project reflects his commitment to social impact alongside his entrepreneurial pursuits.13
Parker's innovative approach and understanding of customer needs have positioned him as a key figure in transforming the promotional products industry, making him a notable entrepreneur in today’s market.
Highlights
Excited to be leading a Workshop with ShirtLab. If you are a Promo Distributor, Screen Printer, Party Planner, Designer, Branding Agency, or someone who wants to get into the swag industry. Sign up!
Last week I stepped away as the CEO of Swag.com, the company I cofounded with Josh Orbach 8 years ago. Geeta Arora, our Chief Customer Officer, will be leading the team. She is amazing and I have so much confidence that she will take the company to the next level.
I feel really proud of what we have accomplished over the past 8 years. Josh and I started the business in January 2016 in his apartment building’s lounge room. We would buy thousands of samples to test and would lay them on the pool table. When anyone would come in to play pool, we would need to remove the samples and pack them up. This happened 5 times a day. Not the best situation. Ultimately we would get a small, no window, two person office at WeWork Times Square. We felt like we made it. So proud to have our company logo on the door. Fast forward five and a half years later, and in November 2021, we were acquired by Custom Ink.
Since we've started we have done nearly $150 Million in sales. It's wild to write that out.
When you start a business you are by default the head of the company and every department. You need to be doing everything to get it off the ground. As the business scales, your job as CEO changes. More team members and people management. It's a completely different job.
What I've realized is that I love building things and being an Entrepreneur. I love creating something out of nothing. I love taking it from 0 to 1.
With that in mind, I am excited to announce what I'll be working on next.
I am now incubating a new business under Custom Ink. It's called Swag Space (https://swag.space) and we are building the Universal Swag Platform. Our goal is to enable Promo Distributors, Event Planners, Print Shops, Branding Agencies, Wedding Planners, or entrepreneurs to easily sell swag. Swag Space will be the universal end-to-end swag platform to power both the front-end experience and operations and allow these business owners to really focus on their customer relationships instead. Here is some press that discusses the upcoming launch!
https://lnkd.in/eqM26tsF
I want to thank Marc Katz and the entire Custom Ink family. I'm excited to continue to work with you all. I want to thank the entire Swag.com team! You all have made Swag.com the success that it is. I want to congratulate Geeta on her new role. I have so much confidence in you and the entire Swag.com team. I know Swag.com will be in great hands and I can't wait for all of the things that we are going to accomplish in the years ahead.
