Blog > Sawbuck Wins Inman Innovator Award

Last month, Sawbuck was named a finalist for an Inman Innovator Award for Most Innovative Brokerage. Inman News is the leading voice in real estate news, and the awards are given out annually at their Inman Connect conference in San Francisco. In 2006 and 2007, the winners in our category were gigantic brokers Remax and Coldwell Banker.

As you would think, we were really excited to be nominated. We're just getting started in this business, having launched only five months ago, and serving just one market so far (our home market of Washington, DC). Though we have big plans, and feel great about our consumer-friendly model of making buying or selling easier and less expensive, we didn't expect to really be on Inman's radar at this stage of the game.

But on Friday, a strange thing happened...we won!

The awards are the last order of business on the last day of the conference, and Most Innovative Brokerage is the very first category. I was sitting in a special little section at the front with the other finalists and stood up when they read our company names. When they announced the winner, to my surprise, our logo popped onto the giant screens and our name was called. I hopped up a few steps, shook Brad Inman's hand and walked away with a petite, but very nice (and dense) trophy of crystal and marble.

I was quite sure we were not going to win, so it was a most pleasant surprise. The representatives of the other finalists were super-gracious, and many people came up afterwards to congratulate me/us. Afterwards, I made sure to thank the folks from Inman, and let them know we would work hard over the next year to make sure they didn't regret their choice.

Hopefully, this unexpected award will help us as we grow, move into new markets and attract new agents and customers. While we're just getting started, we're onto something.