We caught up with the brilliant and insightful K. C. Kanaan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

K. C., thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
Our company raised its Seed Round in July 2019. Unfortunately, things did not go well between the lead investor and myself. Things got so bad between the gentleman, the board and I that in March 2020, right at the start of the pandemic, we were looking at 3 options. Either we shut down the company, the investors buy my wife & I out or we buy them out. My wife and I decided to buy the lead investor & his group out. We took a loan against our home, liquidated some of our 401K investment while taking a huge tax hit, sold one of our 2 cars and bought the lead investor & his group out. The transaction closed on May 13th, 2020. We knew we were taking a huge risk considering that our company has lost over 70% of its business due to the pandemic and no one knew at that time when the pandemic was going to end. However, we believed in ourselves, believed in each other, believed in our team and believed in the market opportunity. It wasn’t easy turning around the company but thru discipline, having the right people on the bus in the right seats and, more importantly, the wrong people off the bus, perseverance, building partnerships with companies like Lifespark/Ambulnz/Fresenius/Access2Care, we turned things around. We started growing the revenues in the 4th quarter of 2020, grew the revenues in 2021, turned a profit in 2021 and expect to continue to grow moving forward.

K. C., love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?A lot of people ask me how did I go from working in the high tech industry for companies like Intel, Seagate and Bose to starting a company that serves older adults and patients. Starting Envoy America (with my cofounder & friend Andy Beran) was more about solving a problem that my family and I had, rather than exploiting an opportunity to make money. With aging parents that needed assistance and care, a sister that was fighting a major disease, 3 young children of our own, and my wife & I not living in the same state as my parents or sister, it became increasingly difficult for me to be available to both my parents, sister and children. I sought out a solution to help our family but could not find one, so I created Envoy America to bring care, companionship, assistance and transportation to people like my own parents & sister so they would never have to worry about feeling lonely, being isolated, receiving a ride, and could revel in their independence, maintain their socialization, and live their golden years with the best quality of life possible. The thing that I am most proud of is, thru hard work, perseverance and surrounding ourselves with a great team, we have been able to expand our service across the US to help older adults, patients and their families. Starting in 2015, our company has invented a new category of care through leveraging human compassion and technology. We have been solving real problems and have been bringing real tangible benefits to our clients that include healthcare organizations, health plans, accountable care organizations, senior living communities, religious institutions and transportation brokers.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I enjoy reading books and listening to podcasts. The classic books that have had the most impact on my career include: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr. Steven Covey, Built to Last and Good to Great by Jim Collins, Nuts – the Southwest Airline story, From the Ground Up by Howard Schultz and High Output Management by Andy Grove. I am an avid listener of these Podcasts: How I Built It by Guy Raz, Wisdom From The Top also by Guy Raz, Jocko Podcast, Business Wars by Wondery and American History Tellers by Wondery.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
My answer to this question is going to sound like a cliché but hiring great employees, making sure that our people understand the “why” behind what we do, and ensuring that myself & the leadership team work hard to ensure that our employees come first …. then they are happy. A motivated employee treats the client well. When the client is happy not only do they keep coming back but they only tell their network about their experience with us. We learned this strategy from great companies like Southwest Airlines and Starbucks.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.envoyamerica.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/envoyamerica/
• Facebook: https://business.facebook.com/EnvoyAmerica/?fref=nf
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kckanaan/

Image Credits
myself (I took all these photos)