VerticalResponse CEO Wins U.S. Small Business Administration Award

San Francisco Company VerticalResponse Continues Award-Winning Work; CEO To Be Presented With "Small Business Person of the Year" Award Today

SAN FRANCISCO, CA– May 17, 2010 – VerticalResponse, Inc. (http://www.verticalresponse.com), a leading provider of self-service email marketing, online survey and direct mail solutions for small businesses, today announced that CEO Janine Popick won the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) award for "Small Business Person of the Year." Popick will be presented with the award tonight in San Francisco at the 2010 Small Business Week kick-off event, Flavors. Continuing its success in the email marketing industry, VerticalResponse has won a series of company and executive awards recently.

"I’m truly humbled to be honored with the U.S. Small Business Administration award for San Francisco Small Business Person of the Year, because at VerticalResponse we’ve always been focused on helping the small business community," said VerticalResponse CEO Janine Popick. "Having an award that takes into account contributions to the local community and volunteer work really highlights what a positive force the SBA is."

2010 Small Business Week

"This marks the first year Popick has been nominated for the SBA awards. She was honored for the community contributions VerticalResponse regularly makes, as well as achievements in overcoming adversity. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will attend the 2010 Small Business Week kick-off event, Flavors, where Popick will be honored with the SBA “Small Business Person of the Year” award for this District. The event will be held at the Cityview Room in the Metreon San Francisco from 6:00 p.m. PT."

SBA’s "Small Business Person of the Year"

Winners of the “Small Business Person of the Year” are honored for developing an outstanding, growing local business. Additional criteria may include overcoming adversity, innovative products, creating and increasing jobs, and contributions to community. VerticalResponse was selected due to:

• Contributions to the community: VerticalResponse CEO Janine Popick encourages her employees to help others in the community. Popick actively supports volunteer initiatives by instituting at least four volunteer events per year for employees.
• Innovation of product or service offered: In recent years VerticalResponse invested heavily in product development leading to several significant launches; formed strategic partnerships including Intuit‘s Partner Platform; won a series of prestigious awards and honors; and continued to build out its stellar management team. The combined efforts led to a dramatic surge in customer base, revenue, partnerships and staff. 
• Response to adversity: VerticalResponse was started in the worst possible financial climate of the 20 years before 2001. To date the company has not taken any Venture Capital, as there was none to be given. The risk of starting a new venture was undertaken while the email marketing industry was facing huge risks—email marketing was taboo due to pending spam issues

About VerticalResponse

VerticalResponse, Inc. is a leading provider of self-service email marketing, online surveys and direct mail services empowering small businesses to easily create, manage and analyze their own direct marketing campaigns. VerticalResponse bundles email, online surveys and postcards to offer customers an integrated Web-based direct marketing solution that’s intuitive and affordable. VerticalResponse is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For additional information, please visit www.verticalresponse.com

About Small Business Week

Each year, the Small Business Administration (SBA) holds Small Business Week to salute the vital contributions of entrepreneurs to the American economy. An important part of that celebration is the competition for the SBA awards which recognize outstanding businesses. The SBA awards consist of four categories, with one winner per state, per category.