Viral Launch Founder and CEO Casey Gauss won the Rising Entrepreneur Award during TechPoint’s 20th annual Mira Awards gala honoring the best of tech in Indiana.

As a 21-year-old college student with a disruptive idea, Casey Gauss took a bold risk to drop out of school, teach himself to code and build out his own model for driving sales and ranking on Amazon. Today, Viral Launch is one of Central Indiana’s fastest growing companies having helped its customers launch more than 40,000 products and driving $8 billion in Amazon sales. He bootstrapped the company for nearly four years before winning the $100,000 Salesforce Pitch Night competition in May last year, and Viral Launch plans to announce a Series A round of funding soon.

The Mira Awards judges were impressed by the impact Casey has had both in business and in the Indianapolis community. Having tripled revenue and then nearly tripling it again over the past three years, Viral Launch has been profitable since day one. The company created 60 new jobs in 2018 alone and expects to employ up to 250 people by 2021.

The judges noted that Casey has achieved a high level of entrepreneurial success at a young age while still demonstrating a dedication to support and give back to the local community. His passion for people, technology and learning is palpable and inspiring to his team.

Casey Gauss Portrait by Photo by Polina Osherov.

TechPoint, the nonprofit, industry-led growth accelerator for Indiana’s tech ecosystem, honored the successes and innovation of Indiana people, places, companies and products at the JW Marriott Indianapolis during the 20th annual Mira Awards gala presented by Angie’s List, Infosys, and Salesforce. With a sold-out crowd of 1,400 attendees—up another 100 from last year—this was the largest Mira Awards in the program’s 20-year history.

Only a handful of the 2019 nominees existed as companies 20 years ago, and 82 percent were founded in just the past 10 years. Similar to the rapid adoption of the iPhone starting a decade ago and streaming services today, tech businesses in Indiana have grown from a few pioneers to a fast growing, vibrant industry that is a key driver of job growth and a critical part of the state’s economic success story.

SEE ALL WINNERS

A total of 14 award winners and honorees were chosen from the 109 outstanding people, places companies and products that were selected as nominees for their achievements during the 2018 calendar year. Fifty-two independent, volunteer judges spent more than 850 total hours evaluating applications, interviewing nominees, and selecting this year’s winners. Judges included company founders, CEOs and presidents, CTOs, CIOs, and other subject matter experts.

The Mira Awards are named after the first of the brilliant variable stars to be discovered – the Mira Star. It is also the Latin root meaning “worthy of admiration, wonderful, marvelous.” The awards represent the best of tech in Indiana each year.