No doubt, there were some tenuous moments during the spring and summer of 2020 for Founders Holding Co.
Its two divisions – passenger transport Cedar Bus and non-emergency medical transport software provider BiTs – were on their way to record years when the pandemic struck.
“We were at one of those nothing-can-stop-us moments,” Founders CEO Paul Snyder IV said.
Instead everything ground to an immediate halt, imperiling hundreds of jobs at the Founders campus on East Amherst Street on Buffalo’s East Side and throughout its multi-state footprint.
Quick pivots into adjacent industries not only saved the business, they put the transportation company on rocket fuel.
The logistics company partnered with a major shipping firm as it moved into the last-mile logistics space. And the software business moved into special education, selling both to bus companies and school districts.
It worked.
“We went from staring down a goose egg in revenue in March 2020 to retaining every single job,” Snyder said.
Founders has reorganized into four divisions – Founders Logistics, Founders Mobility, Founders Software and Founders Gateway – which will serve its traditional markets and allow it to grow into new ones. The company recently received a $1.5 million tax credits award from Empire State Development Corp. In return, it pledged to invest more than $28 million in the coming years to acquire and expand its holdings.
Snyder said the extensive market research and development work last summer clarified the opportunity ahead.
That’s particularly true with Founders Software, which has about 40 employees and has grown business by 50% in the last year alone.
“We are expecting that business to more than double annually, a long way into the future,” Snyder said. “We’ve hit a nice seam of pay dirt which will help us expand our core objective, which is to bring technology into spaces that have historically lacked it.”
Snyder co-owns the company with his father, Paul Snyder III, and David Puehn, who is chief technology officer. The leadership team includes Brian Snyder, senior vice president of corporate development, and Patrick Finucane, director of finance and administrative services.
The company was also recently named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the U.S., coming in at 548th.
Founders now has more than 400 employees overall, many of them working from its East Amherst Street headquarters. It also has more than 100 job openings across multiple functions, from software developers to customer service to logistics managers and drivers.
Snyder said Founders takes its role as a major East Side employer seriously and believes his company has a compelling story to tell recruits even in today’s highly competitive hiring environment.
Founders hired 15 people alone in one recent week.
“We spent a year in the weeds trying to get this company we built not just back on its feet but in a prime position to succeed,” Snyder said. “Now we’re investing in our newfound chops in different spaces and accelerating our growth rate.”
