Micha Kaufman, CEO and founder of Faber, spoke today (Wednesday) at the Globes Israel Business Conference with Globes reporter Shiri Dover.
Dover opened by referring to the high-tech crisis and the decline in the markets. Kaufman testified that “We are one of the first companies to divest in the economy. It will get worse before it gets better. But we are also recruiting. Faber is in a phenomenal situation – we were issued in New York three years ago, and today we are three times larger and have become a profitable company. But the macro- Economy is in a problematic situation. There is a recession, and when there is rain – everyone gets wet.”
The stock fell by almost 90%.
“We fell with the entire technology sector, and the stock is still twice above the issue price. Shares of other companies in the tech world also go up and down, not only because of the performance of the business, but also according to the mood of the investors. I’ve seen crises, it’s a cycle, and so is it will pass”.
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How do you retain employees?
“What’s important is the corporate culture. We talk to the employees about the long term. I’ve been doing this for 13 years, and I hope to do it for many more years. You have to talk to the employees openly. The average age of our employees is 30-32. Anyone who is 32, all he has experienced is a rising market. In their experience, a market has never fallen. They need to be given a perspective from someone older who has experienced several such cycles. That is why I am optimistic. We have been in other crises for other reasons but with similar characteristics. Governments printed money, it lowered the The power of money lowered prices. What curbs inflation is a decrease in consumption, and that’s what will happen.”
Kaufman also referred to the crisis itself positively: “Periods like this clear the field. Access to the market was almost unlimited, and also companies that do quite stupid things to succeed in raising money. Yes, there will be consolidation, and some businesses will close. In the immediate term it hurts, but it’s healthy for the economy”.
“If someone wants to take 20 breaks a day – who cares?”
The ‘quiet resignation’ – do you feel it?
“People want more flexibility and want more control over how they manage their time. There are companies that what’s important to them is controlling their employees, counting their time… People worked at home during Corona, learned to manage their time. If someone wants to take 20 breaks a day – who cares? We were forced to move to measure the employees instead by inputs, by outputs, by output, and we discovered that this is the right way to do it.”
Do you work hybrid?
“Absolutely, two days from the office and 3 optional days. Many choose to come to the office anyway.”
Your business is built on freelancers, on the gig economy (Khaltura, Israel). What will happen with that?
“The freelancers represent the ultimate freedom, the level of flexibility that allows people to work on the things they have a passion for doing – on their own time. After all, a business has group expenses and variable expenses. Our ability to control variable expenses allows us to spend more when we need to and spend less when we don’t. Freelancers allow us Access to specific niches that we don’t need for a long time, and we wouldn’t employ them as full-time employees.”
Is this the direction of the job market?
“Absolutely. Over 90% of freelance activity is offline at all and does not take place on Fiber. But we think it’s like the end of the 90s for Amazon, this is the first wave of the transition from offline to online activity. In less than a decade, 50% of the workforce of USA will be freelancing and will not be available for full time employment. That’s what excites me, because we offer the operating system that makes it possible to do that. In my opinion, this is a trend that cannot be stopped. I’m optimistic, it will be hard before it gets easy, but we’ve gone through such cycles, and we’ll go through them again.”
*** Full disclosure: The conference is in cooperation with Bank Hapoalim, sponsored by Phoenix, Amdocs, BDO, Hot, Geely, Shufersal, El Al, Tnuva, Profimax, the Medical Organization, May Desk, Contigo, Cisco and with the participation of Mekorot, the Innovation Authority, Mobileye, Start Up nation central, Ashdod port and the electric company