USA Today named Porch.com CEO Matt Ehrlichman its first-ever Entrepreneur of the Year for 2014.

The newspaper launched the inaugural Entrepreneur of the Year Award as a way to acknowledge those who are bringing the U.S. economy out of recession, in particular small businesses and entrepreneurs. Key criteria of the award included exhibiting significant growth this year and solving a consumer problem.

Ehrlichman won the honor after a team of USA Today editors sorted through 10 finalists.

“I am very humbled by this honor,” Ehrlichman said. “The last year has been a very special time for Porch and 100 percent of the credit goes to our amazing team and our partners. I consider this acknowledgment a true credit to the entire company as I am truly blessed to work alongside such an exceptional group of individuals on this once-in-a-lifetime ride.”

Under Ehrlichman’s leadership, Porch experienced immense product and customer growth in 2014. For some perspective, over the last year Porch has grown from 30 employees to more than 300 at its Seattle headquarters. It also expanded its breadth of home professionals from 1.5 million professionals to more than 2.8 million, with project insights growing from 90 million to more than 120 million.

In addition, the platform rolled out a strategic partnership with Lowe’s in January and, by May, was available in Lowe’s stores nationwide. And, as its latest undertaking, Porch released its first-ever iOS 8 app and Porch Booking Beta.

Prior to Porch, Ehrlichman was chief strategy officer at Active Network, which he joined in 2007 and helped grow its revenues from $65 million in 2006 to $420 million. Ehrlichman also served as the cofounder and CEO at Thriva, which was acquired by Active Network in March 2007 for $60 million. He built Thriva out of his dorm room at Stanford University, where he received his B.S. in entrepreneurial engineering and an M.S. in management science and engineering.

For more on Ehrlichman’s Entrepreneur of the Year award, visit usatoday.com.