Memory Bank is a reflection on the galvanizing moments in a founder’s journey — a rare glimpse into the human side of their relationship with entrepreneurship. For Ofek Lavian, an early drive towards financial independence taught him the lessons he carries to this day as the Founder and CEO of Forage, a mission-driven payments company helping merchants accept complex, highly regulated government payments through a single, unified API.
This story is written in the words of Ofek Lavian, as told to Mercury writer Shreeda Segan.
I was born in Israel and immigrated to the United States with my family at the age of four. Growing up in an immigrant household had a profound impact on the way I think about money management. I come from a family that survived the Holocaust and persecution in Iran. We didn’t come from money and spent it sparingly. I drove a 1998 Dodge Caravan that I shared with my sister and was the first in my family to attend an American college. When I started my undergraduate studies, I quickly realized I needed to enroll in their work-study program to financially support myself. During my first week on the job, I was assigned to calling alumni and requesting donations. As you can imagine, this wasn’t a very fulfilling position and I got hung up on a lot. After just one weekend, I made up my mind to leave the work-study program but knew I had to find another way to support myself.
While walking around campus, I noticed most students wore t-shirts for student-run organizations, such as intramural sports, Greek life, or campus clubs. I saw an opportunity to leverage the talent of our graphic design students — their work was far more creative — and personal to campus culture — compared to generic t-shirt prints. This got my wheels spinning, and given the location of USC, I was lucky to live in LA (where many apparel companies are headquartered). I decided to take advantage of my proximity to these companies, and USC’s graphic design students — and so Campus Ink Apparel was born.
At just 17 years old, I borrowed $180 from my mom to officially file and create the company. I’ll never forget receiving her check in the mail and feeling the excitement that came with starting something from scratch. I started my venture with a bit of research, realizing that a shirt retailed for $25, but I could buy them wholesale for $4-6 after purchasing in bulk. I discovered reasonably priced screen printers, and after settling a few tactical to-dos, I connected them with USC’s graphic design program.
Within quarters the business achieved six-figure sales, but looking back I fondly reflect on our challenges. We were a small operation run by college kids, and we certainly had our share of problems. For starters, our margins were insanely low. It cost nearly 80% of our revenue to reach six figures in sales, and we were building the plane while we were flying it. We often ran into printing errors, for instance, which led to unavoidable late orders.
Through the highs and the lows (of which there were many), I learned a great deal from my first entrepreneurial stint. One of the most important things I’ve taken away from this experience — and something I remind myself as I lead Forage — is to never compete solely on price. That’s a race to the bottom. I started Campus Ink Apparel because I thought I could offer a better product. The same is true for Forage. We aim to compete with our product, offering the very best solution in the market. Forage exists because we think there’s an easier, more seamless way for merchants to accept government payments, starting with EBT SNAP online.
Forage is the only USDA-approved third-party processor that focuses on processing government benefits, and this uniquely positions us to offer our partners best-in-class software and service. We believe building a better product that’s easier to integrate and is more reliable than our peers, coupled with the best service in the industry, is a winning business strategy — much like offering a colorful, better-designed t-shirt.
Shreeda Segan