Mountain West Capital Network Entrepreneur of the Year is an annual award luncheon that recognizes a Utah entrepreneur who has built a thriving Utah-based company. The annual event is designed to inspire others to participate in the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship and provides the entrepreneur honored with an opportunity to give back to the community by sharing their knowledge.
2022 Winners: Sam and Kacie Malouf
This year, Sam and Kacie Malouf are the winners of the Entrepreneur of the Year award. Together, they founded Malouf Companies. Diversified is proud to know the Maloufs as not only clients but friends. They are leading the way when it comes to economic growth, corporate responsibility, and philanthropy in Utah.
Sam and Kacie Malouf transformed a two-person operation into a company with over 11,000 product choices. In their journey, Sam and Kacie found a common thread tying consumers together—the desire for comfort, identity, and value.
Beginning their entrepreneurial journey together while in school in Logan, Utah, they decided to get into the bedding business after discovering a hole in the market. They began by selling sheets. Their original goal was to simply make at least $1,500 per month. They quickly surpassed that – running everything from their small, two-bedroom apartment.
Sam Malouf recently shared with Utah Business magazine,
“For seven years, we ran the business completely by ourselves. Kacie and I did it all from product development, photography, marketing, shipping, fulfillment, customer service, and warehousing—the list goes on and on. We could have continued, just the two of us, and had a moderately successful business. But instead of capping out, we found the key to our success: people.
As soon as we hired someone else, it clicked. Kacie and I knew that we could do everything ourselves, but that meant we didn’t do anything thoroughly. Instead, we discovered that we could hire people who could do it BETTER than we could! New team members were able to dive wholeheartedly into the different functions, and our productivity and efficiency skyrocketed. Their expertise created space for Kacie and me to think of new ideas and research those other gaps in the market that needed to be filled.
Soon after expanding our team for the first time, we were able to add to our lineup of bedding products with mattress protectors, comforters, duvet covers, and the big-ticket item that found a huge audience: rolled and compressed mattresses in a box that could ship straight to customers’ doors. This innovation allowed us to add even more employees, and we currently have a team of about 1,600 people.”
The Malouf Foundation
Sam and Kacie established the Malouf Foundation to further their goal of helping people sleep better. In addition to donating sleep products to many organizations, the Foundation fights child sex trafficking and exploitation.
When they started Malouf™ in 2003, they recognized sleep products could help meet a primary need for children and families experiencing hardship. They started with a community-centered approach, donating bedding to women’s shelters, safe homes, foster care families, and public events. Over the next few years, their contributions continued to multiply, so in 2016, they formalized their charitable efforts and created a public charity called the Malouf Foundation™.
In 2017, the Malouf Foundation™ adopted the flagship cause to confront child sexual exploitation. As the parents of five children, the Maloufs saw how heartbreaking it was to learn that millions of children are victims of this horrible crime. When they became aware of the issue, they immediately took action by donating sleep products to survivor aftercare centers nationwide.
Today, the Malouf Foundation™ partners with industry experts and survivor leaders to educate the public and increase survivor identification. They collaborate with healthcare providers and other specialists to help survivors heal and take their lives back. Working side by side with law enforcement and government officials to improve prosecution processes so perpetrators are held accountable.
You can confront child sexual exploitation by taking the OnWatch™ training, giving children a new space to heal through Rooms Restored™, supporting your local child advocacy center, or donating to the Malouf Foundation™ to back any of their initiatives.
Malouf is now a Certified B Corporation®. This means that as a company, they are concerned not only with revenue, but also with their corporate social responsibility for society, workers, the community, and the environment.
Congratulations to the Maloufs on Entrepreneur of the Year. We can’t think of two people who deserve it more. Diversified is proud to have Malouf as a client. If you would like more information about Diversified, go here.