Laurence Sotsky, CEO

This doesn’t feel as good as it should. Writing this announcement, in many ways the culmination of a 2 year journey for us, should fill me to the brim with joy. After all, we are official as of today - we have officially completed our transition from The OIX to Incentify. We are 100% Incentify and as spectacular as that is to say, it doesn’t overjoy me as much as it should. 

And I know why. 

The death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and the seven other members of that helicopter has cast a shadow over all of us in LA. I’m a Dad, I’m a native Angeleno, and I’m a guy who watched the entire Kobe Bryant story play out, from the draft (and losing one of my favorite Lakers, Vlade Divac for some punk 17 year old dating Moesha) to the dunk contest to championships, Colorado, Shaq, Pau, the Achilles, and the Oscar. 8, 24, 81, 60 - while I am far from a diehard Kobe fan, as anyone who lived in Los Angeles between 1997 and 2020 knew, Kobe Bryant was the biggest star in the city of stars. 

His death has rendered me reflective. Well, first it stunned me - any death of someone that famous, that young, and that complete a character from a public facing perspective is shocking. Princess Diana, James Dean, John F. Kennedy - it’s the shock of it that strikes first. It does to me, anyhow. Then the tragedy of it welled in me, especially the death of his daughter and the other young people on that helicopter. I have sons older than Gigi and to imagine their lives over - just... over - makes no sense to me. My brain won’t allow me to comprehend it in some ways. Then came the reflection. As the themes of Kobe’s life and public character permeated every part of LA over the ensuing month, my own reflections upon the company which I am so honored to lead found a singular resonance, a purpose beyond the usual CEO state of the company. 

As Kobe moved from 8 to 24 so too have we transitioned from the OIX to Incentify. While the number change may seem superficial to the uninitiated, those of us privy to the daily Kobe experience recognized the profundity of that shift. He moved from a hyper scoring young man dripping with defiant ego and the specters of impropriety, the young man as an island, to the Jedi. A master still capable of all the tricks of his former self yet now possessed of the wisdom to win wars. As #24 (with a few weeks as #10 as well) Kobe fulfilled the promise of his talent through a relinquishing of some of the ego which so many of us know in ourselves - isn’t there always a part of us that wants to be right no matter what when we are young? I know I had that tendency. Our own pivot from an online exchange to a SaaS model coincided with an acknowledgment that our mission - to continue the rehabilitation of the public-private alignment through C&I such that communities survive and prosper - demanded our own proverbial number change. 

Kobe worked hard - as glittery his persona, Kobe was a grinder which flies in direct contradiction to a great many stars of screen and court who experience the monetary windfall and enter the Hollywood lifestyle. Can you blame someone young, beautiful, and rich the tendency to live the life of Riley? Yet something greater drove Kobe. Likewise, in the start-up tech world, many of our competitors and contemporaries are defined by massive cash influxes, lavish largesse, and ostentatious public presence - the Silicon Valley glamour. But that’s not us. Our office is humming by 7a every day and I don’t have any plans to go Caligula. 

More than anything, Kobe represented that most Los Angeles of thoughts:

“This is your shot, don’t waste it.” Note that the word is ‘waste’ not ‘miss.’ We miss shots all of the time, we may even fail. But don’t disrespect the incredibly fortunate position in which you find yourself by failing to do the work. Don’t take things for granted. Move forward and embrace the change. Keep ownership of yourself and keep growing.

Maybe this is too meandering an address for something as simple as the announcement of a rebrand, but to speak otherwise felt dishonest. I believe in my heart that this is the most important tech company of the decade and I know that no other company will outwork us. I see that when I go back and look at the pictures of that 18 year old Kobe, that combination of belief in his own purpose and knowledge that no one else would ever outwork him. That much he could control.

So too will I say that our mission is stronger than ever and our dedication both to that mission and to the Mamba Mentality, to the promise to ourselves that we may miss or we may fail but damn it we will not be outworked, is a real part of every level of the company of which we are all so fortunate to be part. 

In 2020, as in 2019, we will not waste our shot.