Now that Birmingham startup Airship has been acquired, co-founder Trent Kocurek said there are things that will change, but ultimately the deal will bring new opportunities for employees and clients.
Airship was acquired by Unosquare, which provides full-cycle digital transformation services, both nearshore and onshore from delivery centers in the U.S., Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia and the United Kingdom. While Kocurek was not able to disclose the amount of the acquisition, he said he is "pleased with the partnership and invested in the success of the larger organization."
Kocurek and co-founder Adam Aldrich will have strategic positions at the new organization. Aldrich will be country manager for the U.S., and Kocurek will be vice president of strategy on the global team.
"As we integrate, we will have more information about what this means for our capabilities, but I can tell you that this partnership will bring many new opportunities to our crew and our clients," Kocurek said.
The biggest changes, he said, will center around the company's ability to serve current clients with more service offerings and for Airship to tap markets that were not within its focus in the past. Unosquare’s recent acquisition of Catalyst UX, a Silicon Valley UX firm, and the current engineering team in Belfast, Ireland, will expand Airship's capabilities and capacity drastically all while Airship delivers its services on-shore, Kocurek said.
From the beginning, Kocurek said Airship's goal was to build a successful business that doesn’t require the founders in the day-to-day operations, adding that this was at the root of each decision they have made to date.
"A successful business should be operationally sound and create an environment where great people can come together and produce great value for others," he said. "If one is to create such a business, it will inevitably attract a buyer that believes in these things as well and is willing to spend money to acquire that business. This event is the outcome of intentional decisions and a laser focus on our culture and value delivery. I believe it speaks volumes for our leadership team and the entire Airship crew."
Currently, Airship has 45 employees located in 15 states. All employees have been retained in the merger.
Over the years, Airship has built an award-winning culture being named a BBJ Best Place to Work finalist every year since 2017 and winning in 2021 and 2022, a BBJ Diversity and Inclusion winner in 2022, and has twice been named to the Inc. 5000 list — most recently in 2022.
Kocurek was also among the winners of the BBJ's recent CEO Awards, which took place Dec. 8.
