At Qarrot, success is the product of determination, vision, and the willingness to adapt.
From its early beginnings in gamifiying incentives to becoming a top-rated SaaS platform for employee rewards and recognition, Qarrot’s journey is a true startup success story.
In this feature, we dive into the story of Aaron Carr, whose passion for problem-solving and commitment to underserved markets helped Qarrot grow into a trusted platform for businesses worldwide.
Qarrot: The Backstory
Qarrot is a cloud-based employee rewards and recognition platform that allows teams and businesses to easily recognize and reward their staff for their contributions and accomplishments.
Like many startups, Qarrot evolved from unique beginnings! Initially, the company focused on building ‘gamification’ apps and solutions for large enterprise clients. That led us in 2015 to build an employee incentive program (using gamification and rewards) for a large US retailer.
In 2016, we joined the 2nd cohort at L-Spark and started our journey towards building a true SaaS platform that integrated our gamification approach with the employee motivation and engagement features we’d learned by building the program for our US client.
A few years later, Qarrot grew to be a highly-rated (4.5/5 stars) employee recognition platform with a vast portfolio of clients, then in 2018, we raised a pre-seed round and in 2022 raised additional capital from a strategic investor to help fuel growth.
In 2024, we rejoined the L-Spark family by participating in the “Alumni Accelerator”, which has given us a renewed boost of energy and forward momentum, in addition to helping us make further inroads into a new market, which is really exciting!
As of Q3 2024, Qarrot has over 120 customers with employees in dozens of countries and we’re working towards even greater growth as we approach $1 million ARR.
How did the idea for Qarrot come to fruition?
The idea for Qarrot really originated when we built a custom employee incentive program for a large US retailer. Before then, we weren’t even thinking about employee recognition!
When we went through L-Spark in 2016, the opportunity to take that approach and package it into a SaaS offering really came into focus. Even then, we had to build a prototype and do lots of market testing before Qarrot (as it is today) really emerged.
Where did your passion for building your business stem from?
I’ve always had a passion for building products, even before I was an entrepreneur.
While that helped fuel the early stages of my journey, my passion for Qarrot specifically really emerged when I learned that small to mid-market-sized companies (50 to 1,000 employees) didn’t have any cost-effective employee rewards and recognition solutions available to them.
Upon learning this, it became our rallying cry, and knowing that we’re helping address an underserved segment of the market is really motivating for the entire team.
What was the hardest part of Qarrot’s growth in the early stages?
As I’m not a software developer, one of the biggest challenges I had was translating my ideas into a concrete product.
Like many startups, I didn’t have access to capital in the early days (and, frankly, that’s still a challenge) so hiring a team wasn’t easy either.
I started by generating revenue from small service contracts that eventually allowed me to make my first hires. That part of the journey was really tough as I had ideas, energy, and passion but wasn’t able to execute them easily.
Any advice for other entrepreneurs?
I would simply advise that founders really take the time to ‘market-test’ their ideas before quitting their jobs and starting a company.
It’s going to be hugely challenging for you and, likely, your family, so be smart and do as much validation as you can before overly committing yourself.
But, once you commit, push to execute your vision, and don’t be afraid to adapt as you learn and get market/customer feedback.
🚀 Looking to learn more about Qarrot’s story or better motivate employees, strengthen culture, and improve performance? Head to their website here.
About Aaron Carr
Based in Montreal, Aaron is the Founder and CEO of Qarrot. With a mission to drive better employee engagement and performance for growing businesses, he loves creating products, programs, and solutions that create value for businesses by engaging their employees and customers.
