Inc. Magazine 09.2019

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38 ● INC. ● SEPTEMBER 2019 ● ● ● PHOTOGRAPH BY HEAMI LEE

Art of the Cart

Baby-stroller wheels and a repurposed cart chassis that looked like it was held together by

duct tape and glue—that’s what Michael Reznik found himself looking at when, at a birthday

party, a family friend shared a photo of his stair-climbing, fold-flat handcart prototype. “It

looked like some Frankenstein contraption, but I saw there were a thousand potential applica-

tions for it,” says Reznik, who’d built a career helping Fortune 500 companies with process

improvement. Post-soiree, he and Leonid Khodor, a patent agent, became business partners,

launching TriFold and its debut product, the UpCart. Today, the carts are a hit with parents,

seniors, urban grocery shoppers, contractors—and pretty much all those who want to schlep

stuff from one place to another without breaking their backs. —KATE ROCKWOOD

Three-year growth 1,765.7% | 2018 revenue $7.3M

Columbus, Ohio | Founded in 2013

Michael Reznik

The Staircrawler

The foldable cart rolls

up and down stairs,

adapting to whatever

surface it treads.

Finding a Cult Following

At the 2015 National Hardware

Show, UpCart snagged an award

for most innovative product,

which led to a QVC appearance.

Inventory sold out in five minutes.

TRIFOLD