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The story of “Uncourse” could have had a completely different ending. With nearly half of the company, including the CEO and founders, left in reserve, the company was on the verge of freezing operations and entering a rapid trajectory toward closure. But when the company’s founder and CEO, 26-year-old Amit Brandon Kadosh, was injured while serving as a reservist on the northern border, he received an offer that would change everything.
Kadosh most recently lived in Austin, Texas, but returned to Israel for the Jewish holidays. He had a return ticket to the United States on October 10, but then war broke out and he was drafted into the reserves as a combatant in a classified unit at one of the outposts in the Mount Hermon area.
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Brandon Kadosh.
(Photo: Courtesy)
In October, the future looked bright for the company, which has developed an app that helps people find meals at local restaurants tailored to their needs and personal allergies. He had 20 employees and the platform he developed had more than 2,400 restaurants operating from his three locations in the United States: Austin, Boston, and Chicago. “Momentum was very good, but once the war started, the entire development team and I found ourselves in the reserves, and we quickly realized that if we didn’t organize in time, we would shut down the company. What we did was contact all of our business partners and let them know that we are currently freezing our operations because we don’t know what will happen.”
Since the outbreak of the war, hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been drafted into the reserves, 20% of whom are workers in high-tech industries, doubling their share of the population. This reality means that many start-ups, especially smaller ones, have to continue operating with limited staff, sometimes without entire departments, including senior managers and key organizational figures. It meant that the business had to continue.
In large companies, even if the CEO is selected as a reserve, there is a team to back him up. For companies with global operations, global teams are “mobilized” to support the company’s business continuity. Small start-ups, on the other hand, often have younger employees who are more likely to be drafted into the reserves and have no one to back them up or replace workers sent to war. is normal.
One night, at 10:30 p.m., while Kadosh was in the reserve in the northern region, he received a call from one of his U.S. partners, a company that operates point-of-sale systems in the United States. “He liked what we were doing and made an offer to buy us. He had 72 hours to respond to us and the offer was ‘take it or leave it.’ “I said yes, and it’s not negotiable,” he says.
A few hours after accepting the offer, Kadosh was injured by an anti-tank guided missile fired at Israel, but fortunately his injuries were minor. “I don’t really believe in it, but I realized what I had to do and decided to accept the sale offer the next morning. We started the process with a lot of mixed emotions. On the one hand, this was my baby and we were.” “Momentum is building and the company is doing well. There’s always the desire to build a bigger company and record a bigger exit.” On the other hand, injuries It helped me understand what’s really important in life. I’m a family man now and it’s time to focus on that,” he says.
The purchasing company, valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, is an American cash register system provider that will use technology built by Encourse to integrate into its cash register systems and provide restaurant owners with insight into the nature and nature of their restaurants. are planning. Customer segmentation.
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Brandon Kadosh.
(Photo: Ohad Kadosh)
“We were preparing for the launch of another product before the war, but we could not survive after the launch and we froze our activities, even though we also have an American division that continues to grow its customers. “We had planned to achieve $2.1 million in revenue by 2024, but the war completely changed our plans. We had to accept offers in such a short period of time. It was very important to me that none of my employees left.”It was my and my partner’s decision to take care of all our employees. , and I made sure to give them a retirement plan that would support them for at least the next four to five years. “A few months,” he says.
Kadosh, who grew up on a kibbutz in the northern Afula region, founded Encourse three and a half years ago with a partner (he changed hands). Although he is only 26 years old, this is his fourth venture he has founded. Before that, I ran a venture company in the mobile phone field, but I closed it and opened a store on Amazon. He jokes that in real life he may be 26 years old, but due to the intensity of his life as an entrepreneur, he is actually 144 years old. After his three-year “marriage” to an upstart, an injury while in the reserves made him reconsider what was important in his life.
“Right now, I’m in Israel, but I don’t know where I’ll find a bride yet. I’ve been married to my startup for three and a half years, and now I’m looking to the next chapter. ” he says. As a professional, he is currently considering offers to join existing teams. “Right now, I don’t have any ideas for new businesses.At this time, I would like to join an existing team and double down on the knowledge I have gained while building my next team.”New business “It’s not a question of if, but when,” he says.
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