Marc Elkiner, the co-founder of sharingbox, understands better than most how difficult it can be to not only run but sell a company during an economic downturn.
His company provides innovative photo booth experiences for events and product installations. Sharingbox had an income model that starts from zero every month.
He saw his company’s income go to nothing at the beginning of COVID, yet he still managed to sell it.
Sharingbox is now in 10 different countries and has achieved a revenue of over $20 million a year in six years.
The company’s success comes from its innovative cloud-based software, implemented by Marc, and bringing a sense of cool to the photo booth experience.
Adidas and Calvin Klein Women have been able to boost their growth by utilizing the marketing data they receive from events thanks to Sharingbox.
Marc says: “Because we have no monthly retainers, we always start from scratch.
“Marketing budgets are cut as soon as recession is mentioned and people know that it’s looming. As a business owner, you always have to worry about sales.
“We had to make ourselves less dependent on sole clients. That was a major lesson we learned.”
Marc says while others were battering down the hatches, he and his co-founder Sidney Valenta saw COVID as a potential opportunity to sell: “We decided we would sell because otherwise, we wouldn’t survive. We really wanted to keep the company afloat for the employees.”
“The biggest stress as a business owner is knowing you have people depending on you. You care about those who work for you.”
Another dealbreaker was that Marc and Sidney could stay with the company: “We didn’t want to have somebody telling us what to do and have the performance based on that. That way, we still have a degree of control.
“We started with a small idea and made it into a big success. Yes, it may be small compared to other industries, but no one had done that before in our industry.”