Over the course of the COVID crisis, which presented particular challenges to small and mid-sized businesses in the US, a number of Israeli startups that target the small business sector have found that their technologies were able to help businesses that were struggling financially due to the pandemic.

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The technologies in question were not developed with COVID in mind, but proved themselves effective for many small business owners.

One of these startups is Tailor Brands, which supplies small businesses with the services offered by traditional branding companies, but through a digital application. The company's technology is also available to owners of brick and mortar businesses who were forced by the pandemic to transition into the online sphere for the first time or improve their digital footprint.

Tailor Brands' platform lets users design a business logo for free, brand their businesses, build an Internet and social media presence.

"We have thousands of customers who used the platform to find a new source of income during COVID," said Yali Saar, founder and CEO of Tailor Brands.

"For example, a single mother from South Carolina who was let go during COVID used our platform to turn a hobby she started with her daughter into a kennel for pets that is now the household's main source of income, " Saar said.

According to Saar, most small businesses "die during the idea stage, because they simply don't get off the ground. "During COVID, the ability to transition from the idea stage to the implementation stage quickly turned from something that's nice to something that's critical," he added.

Saar says that his company's system has nearly 30 million registered businesses. Tailor Brands looked at some 7 million founded during or close to the pandemic and found that the rise in unemployment had led to a corresponding rise in the number of new small businesses this past year.

US Census data corroborates this. In 2019, some 3.47 million businesses opened, and in 2020 that number jumped to 4.41 million.

Melio is another Israeli startup active in the US small business arena. Melio offers a platform that transfers digital payments between US small businesses. The company was founded with the aim of helping businesses like these handle payments remotely and improve their cash flow.

Business payments in the US are still largely processed by hand, which leads to long payment times.

Founding partner at Melio Ziv Paz said, "What makes our technology unique is that it is adapted to people without a technological or financial background. We saw family businesses in the US start using our solution that had never integrated any technological tools before this. It was new for them and for us, but the complications of the COVID crisis pushed them over the edge into digitalization."

Paz explains that Melio's founders decided to set up an accounting firm in the US to understand business cash flow and get a sense of the pain, nuances, and workflow of the sector.

"That helped us create a precise solution," he said.

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For her final project, Eitan came up with an entire marketing initiative that would encourage the Israeli public to eat insects. She named the project "Hagavit," from the Hebrew word for grasshopper, hagav.

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"The world can't keep pace with population growth and people are looking for new sources of food, like insects," Eitan explains.

"Grasshoppers are eaten in third-world countries, but the West is less open to the idea of eating insects, which carries negative cultural baggage. … When I researched the topic, I found out that grasshoppers are kosher, so are a foodstuff that meets almost everyone's needs. The fact that they're kosher makes them sound more edible. In Yemen and Morocco, there is a history of eating grasshoppers, and that piqued my interest," she says.

Eitan added that many Israelis who have traveled in the Far East are familiar with grasshoppers being sold as snacks in markets.

"The problem is that there, it really doesn't look appetizing. I come from the world of design, and I tried to think about how branding could be used to change social perceptions and cause people to eat grasshoppers more readily. I went with a 'street food' concept, but I took it to a more tempting place in terms of a pleasant, colorful design with a young vibe that sorts of references the Far East.

"The result was Hagavit – a food truck. The Hagavit reaches everyone – like locusts move from place to place – and spreads the word of grasshoppers as it offers different products. The basic product is Hagachips, whole fried grasshoppers that are sold in a paper cone. The simplest, most down-to-earth thing."

To wash down the Hagachips, the food truck offers Hagmitz (fruit-flavored grasshopper juice); Hagshuk (a grasshopper snack made with dried zucchini, beet, and tomato; Hagcao (milk, dark, or white chocolate with bits of grasshopper); Hagbis (a single grasshopper dipped in a sweet coating such as pistachio crème); and Hagtea (herbal teabags that contain pieces of grasshopper). Mmm, delicious.

Eitan bought the grasshoppers from a farm owned by Yagel Kochavi, an agronomy student who is working to encourage the consumption of insects. She fried them in a pan that belongs to the apartment she shares with her roommates.

"My friends dealt with it well. It was even funny, and there are still grasshoppers in the freezer," she says.

Responses to her grasshopper initiative were mixed. "Some ate them, and there were others who were disgusted and refused to try them, but there were people who eventually tasted them after swearing they never would. … I even know vegans who support eating grasshoppers because raising them causes less environmental damage [than raising animals]."

Has Eitan sampled her own wares?

"I knew I couldn't market grasshoppers without tasting them myself, so I was very open to the idea. But when you look at the plate and see the creature in front of you – eyes, legs, everything – it was hard for me. After 10 minutes, I put one in my mouth and after the first grasshopper, it's easy to eat the rest. They're crispy and the grasshopper takes on the flavor of the seasoning."

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