Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Cultural Bridge Creates Venture Gold: Eyal Bino's Israel-NYC Startup Connection Strategy

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Cultural Bridge Creates Venture Gold: Eyal Bino's Israel-NYC Startup Connection Strategy · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:12
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:15
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:17
today's guest is Ayao Bino, founding Partner at 97212
0:22
Ventures. They are a venture capital firm
0:25
in New York that invests in Israeli startups, helping them
0:30
grow globally. With a mission to become the go
0:33
to partner for founders, they provide hands on support to
0:36
accelerate growth and innovation.
0:39
They focus on connecting early stage companies to the US
0:43
market, offering funding, guidance, and a strong network
0:47
of mentors to drive success. Now IL started 97212 in January
0:54
of 2022 and previously served as a partner at Iconic Labs while
0:59
also contributing to Forbes. He has a background in
1:03
international relations business and a passion for nurturing tech
1:07
entrepreneurs. Under his leadership, the
1:10
company has built a reputation for creating category defining
1:13
companies ready to scale. IL's hands on approach has
1:18
already led to notable achievements with several
1:21
portfolio companies gaining international recognition.
1:24
He has nearly two decades of experience supporting startups
1:28
and continues to be a driving force in the venture capital
1:31
ecosystem. Now before we get into all that
1:34
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AD back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:07
today, the founding partner of 97212 Ventures.
2:11
Aya, I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
2:14
Thanks for having me. So Aya, let's go back a bit.
2:18
What first drew you into the world of funding and startups?
2:22
Great question. So I spent probably about 90% of
2:27
my professional career in New York.
2:29
I was, I did my both of my degrees here, my bachelor in
2:33
communications at a school called Kane in New Jersey.
2:38
And then I studied my MA in international relations and
2:42
business at NYU. And then following that I, I
2:46
went to lead the business development for accompanying the
2:50
education space or the e-learning space called
2:54
Brainpop. I spent about four or five years
2:56
there and over time a bunch of entrepreneurs reached out to me
3:01
and said, hey, can you make me an introduction to a potential
3:04
customer? I'm raising capital.
3:06
Do you know anyone in the venture scene which lawyer is
3:12
right for my company? I'm trying to decide if to
3:14
register the company in, in either Israel or the, or the US
3:17
or, you know, whether it's a company from elsewhere.
3:22
So I'm getting all those questions.
3:23
And why were they asking you these questions, Al what?
3:25
What was it in your background up to that point?
3:28
So I ran based dev. I'm like, I think a natural
3:31
networker and you know, people either heard about me.
3:35
It comes from, you know, they came from family or friends.
3:38
They're just kind of word of mouth.
3:39
And I think I'm trying to be, I think my style is always to be
3:42
helpful. It gets harder when, when, you
3:45
know, when you scale business and adventure, you know, now I'm
3:49
looking at my e-mail and I, I think I, I respond to 100 emails
3:53
a day and I steal it like 1000 in the inbox.
3:55
So it's a, it gets harder. But I think what's, what's
3:59
interesting is New York just started to kind of formulate
4:03
itself as a tech hub. It was like 2010.
4:07
We work just started, you know, a lot of people were like laid
4:12
off working in one of the banks or in a financial industry and
4:17
went to the Ace Hotel, which is a hotel in New York that
4:20
basically they sat there all day and started coding or talking
4:24
about their ideas. And I realized that this is a
4:29
kind of interesting moment in time where New York is not going
4:32
to be the same. It's not going to be just a
4:33
financial, you know, scene. It's not going to be into just a
4:38
tech or fashion. And I started consulting.
4:45
I basically said, OK, I'll, I'll consult, I'll, I'll, I'll take
4:48
a, you know, a little retainer and I'll, I'll do my best to
4:51
help companies grow, whether they're like at seed stage or at
4:54
a run stage. And I think over this period of
4:57
time, I realized a couple of things.
4:59
A it takes way longer for a company that's not based here to
5:04
build trust to get, you know, not just an introduction to a
5:08
customer, but building their trust of a customer.
5:10
So they need someone who really kind of understands the local
5:14
scene, understand the culture, etcetera.
5:17
And two, I think I have probably the right passion and talent to
5:22
help Founder Wars who are not based in in New York or in the
5:26
US, kind of like ease the migration and the expansion to
5:29
the US. So that kind of led me initially
5:33
to build a program for international entrepreneurs
5:35
looking to expand to New York, which we can dive into and then
5:39
build an accelerator and currently, you know, running AVC
5:42
kind of a proper VC fund. So it's been kind of a natural
5:45
progression for me from 2010, like, you know, 15 years ago,
5:50
trying to help, you know, founders to kind of just kind of
5:54
get a, a foot in the door in New York to now really putting, you
5:58
know, a big, a big enough check for me at least in the right
6:02
capital to help companies get funded, grow and and kind of
6:07
build hopefully, you know, a long lasting business.
6:10
And how does your work at Iconic Labs starting back in 2015 kind
6:15
of fit into this whole picture? Great question.
6:18
So in 20, so between 2011 and 2015, I ran a program called
6:24
Global Innovator. It was basically sourcing
6:26
companies from all of the world at at seed stage who can to
6:28
expand to, to the US market and specifically New York.
6:32
We sourced hundreds of companies every year and kind of selected
6:37
5 every quarter to come to New York, pitch to investors,
6:40
customers, attract talent, etcetera.
6:43
And then at some point I was like, OK, well, I'm getting most
6:47
of the best deal flow or the best companies from Israel
6:50
because I'm Israeli and I have a much better network there than
6:54
in Europe or in Canada or in South America.
6:57
So back then I had a kind of a network of mentors who I teamed
7:02
up with companies who were selected to present in the
7:05
program. And one of them was a guy named
7:09
Ari Abacasis. And Ari, he was an entrepreneur.
7:12
He was an investor and he was born in in Israel.
7:16
He moved here when he was two years old.
7:18
And he basically kind of reached out to me and said, Hey, you
7:20
know, why don't we just build an accelerator just focused on
7:23
Israeli companies that we can give them kind of a small check
7:27
and then give them space. And then really work with them
7:31
for like, you know, 6 or 12 months on really expanding to
7:34
New York, building the right kind of footprint in the US
7:38
market, getting to the first 5-6 US customers, you know, so they
7:44
can actually attract the attention of, of local VCs and
7:49
then be able to build a business.
7:51
So that was kind of the, the, the journey that led me to build
7:54
Iconic. And then with Iconic, I think I
7:57
was able to kind of bring the best of all worlds, meaning I
8:01
was able to source and get into some interesting, you know,
8:04
talent from Israel. I was able to then bring them to
8:08
New York and then help them with connections and introductions to
8:12
potential customers and kind of like use my network to put them
8:16
in front of local investors. And then I think kind of slowly
8:20
but surely you see that the progression of companies is real
8:25
once they are have the right partner locally who can help
8:28
them move you know from kind of pre C to C, from C to A
8:31
etcetera. So your work with Iconic
8:35
continues today is still ongoing.
8:38
So yes and no. So iconic was born in 2015, we
8:45
we raised about $3,000,000 in capital.
8:48
Most of it has been deployed to about 50 companies.
8:51
So we invested in about 50 companies over five years or 10
8:55
per year. And then in 2020, I think we
8:59
looked at the market and said, well, you know, companies need
9:02
more, they need more capital, they need more talent.
9:05
Things are getting much more expensive.
9:07
So the model, it really didn't make any sense to continue it.
9:11
So out of the 50 companies, about 35 are still alive.
9:16
We have one Unicorn, a company called Connect team in the
9:20
employee engagement space and then probably about another 15
9:26
companies raised over $20 million in in capital and are
9:30
doing extremely well. So we, you know, I do portfolio
9:34
management, meaning, you know, manage the relationship with,
9:39
with the founders, helping them where I can.
9:41
And also ideally at some point some of them have a liquidity
9:46
event, meaning either an exit or, or a merge or an IPO.
9:51
And then hopefully you know, there's it results in a nice
9:55
return for our investors. And so the companies that you
9:59
were investing in with Iconic, they're all tech related, either
10:03
hardware or software, is that right?
10:06
Yeah. So it's all tech related.
10:08
I think what's really interesting in an accelerated
10:11
model is that because the check is, you know, small, you can
10:14
actually make a lot of experiments.
10:16
So at some point we invested in a drone company that actually
10:20
company that that went into the Israeli stock market.
10:23
At some point we invested in a crypto company that, you know,
10:27
after a few months went nowhere. But we wanted to kind of like
10:30
just experiment with different things.
10:32
I, I think on in general, we invested in, in enterprise
10:36
software. So Israeli talent because of the
10:39
army, I think they have a natural talent for building
10:44
software that the enterprise needs or or likes to use.
10:50
We also invested in some companies in the healthcare
10:53
space where I think in healthcare as we know it is
10:56
changing and then some areas that are either proptech or
11:01
fintech logistics areas that really need to move from pen and
11:06
paper or excel to the the modern world.
11:10
So you're talking about $3,000,000.
11:13
That's almost fully deployed now across 50 companies.
11:15
It's not a lot of money for each of these companies.
11:19
So and, and you kind of framed it as, Hey, these are
11:21
experiments. Let's throw, you know, some
11:24
different things against the wall and see what sticks.
11:26
So was the idea for 97212 to kind of take the same idea but
11:32
be able to invest more and get more involved or, or what,
11:38
what's sort of the connection there?
11:39
What? What kind of bridge?
11:40
Those two things? Yeah, You know, so I actually,
11:42
so maybe I didn't frame it correctly.
11:45
So we worked very hard with the companies because we believed
11:48
in, in any, you know, any investment we made, we believe
11:51
they can be super successful. But I think because it was a
11:54
small check, it gave us a lot of flexibility.
11:57
We're like quick to the market. We're able to like move fast.
12:01
I think with 97212, which by the way, 97212 came with the idea
12:06
that a lot of people are like, hey, what's the meaning of the
12:09
numbers? I think a lot of Israelis who
12:11
grew up in my age look at this. It's like 90210 which Beverly
12:16
Hills if you remember the show back in the day, the the idea is
12:21
972, which is Israel country code and two and two which is
12:25
New York code or the dialing code.
12:29
Yeah. So the idea is like Israel to
12:31
New York. I think with the the
12:34
accelerator, it was really it's a small check.
12:36
At some point, the best companies, they need more,
12:40
right? So they can't just like get 20
12:42
or 50 or 100 a 100,000. And actually, if you look at the
12:46
the market as a whole, there aren't many accelerators left,
12:50
right. There's Y Combinator, there's
12:51
tech stars, but I think a lot of the smaller ones have basically
12:55
realized like they can't really tap into great talent because
12:58
the check is smaller. Unless maybe there is like a
13:01
specific industry where there's expertise or a special network
13:05
with 97212. I basically realized I need to
13:09
build two things. One, I need to, I need to invest
13:14
bigger checks. I need to have more capital if I
13:16
want to be a player in the Israeli tech scene.
13:19
Israel has a ton of capital right now, A lot of success
13:22
stories. All the BBCS are in Israel,
13:24
whether it's, you know, from Israel or in the US or Sequoia
13:28
has an office in Israel, Excel, Greylock, all the big VCs, they,
13:32
they see Israel as you know, there's an alpha there.
13:35
So if you want to be a player, you know, you got to, you got to
13:38
play with the rules. The other piece is I wanted to
13:41
build an infrastructure where companies and founders have more
13:45
access to either talent, potential customers, you know, a
13:50
a potential partner. Obviously the venture scene,
13:54
there's so much competition, so you really have to try to
13:57
differentiate yourself from other VCs and other players in
14:00
the industry. So for me it was, you know, if,
14:04
if founders want to move to New York, ideally I want to be the
14:06
first investor to want to speak with.
14:08
And then on top of this, once we invest, we really spend a lot of
14:12
time working with founders on moving from what I call 0 to 1.
14:17
Because if I'm able to or we're able to bring them from zero to
14:21
1, which means from pre C to C, either from C to A, they'll have
14:25
a much higher likelihood for success versus just giving them
14:29
a check and what they call, you know, spraying and praying,
14:31
right? Like I want to be.
14:33
I have a founder of Mentality and I want to bring it to the
14:35
venture scene. So you made a comment in there
14:42
where you said VCs see that there's an alpha in Israel.
14:45
What do you mean by alpha? So a few weeks ago, I'm not sure
14:49
if you're familiar with the company, a company called Wiz
14:53
Wiz, it's a cyber security company focusing on on on the
14:58
cloud was sold to Google for 32 billion.
15:04
That company actually was offered about nine months ago to
15:08
be bought by Google for 23 billion.
15:10
And they said no. I mean, I don't know what was
15:13
the drive behind saying, you know to 23 billion, but they
15:17
basically said we think we are, we're worth more.
15:20
And nine months later, you know, there are, you know, this is the
15:24
biggest acquisition Google has ever made and this probably is
15:28
the biggest acquisition of any company, private company.
15:32
So I think more VCs are looking at the type of talent that
15:37
exists in Israel. And by the way, there's now 450
15:40
start-ups who are Israeli with a base in New York, right?
15:45
There's about 30 unicorns, Israeli unicorns based in New
15:49
York. There's like hundreds of, of
15:51
successful founders coming out of out of Israel.
15:54
So I think if you look at and by the way, the pricing is used to
15:58
be much cheaper about 10 years ago and now the pricing is as
16:01
expensive as Silicon Valley. But I think the mentality, the
16:06
grit, the the passion, the I think some of the the resilience
16:11
that Israeli founders have to have in order to build the
16:14
company versus, you know, in other places around the world, I
16:18
think makes it very attractive for foreign investors to go to
16:21
Israel and look for the next ways or for the next ways.
16:25
If you remember ways was the, you know, kind of the first big
16:29
success story coming out of Israel.
16:31
So I think that's really interesting.
16:32
I think it's, you know, if you combine this with where New York
16:37
is right now when it comes to the state of venture and the New
16:40
York tech ecosystem as a whole, we think it's a great
16:43
combination. And, and really I'm, I feel I'm,
16:46
I'm very fortunate to be in that, you know, bridge between
16:50
Israel and New York. So are the companies that you're
16:53
working with IL, they're already well established and successful
16:57
in Israel and now they want to come to New York or or the
17:00
states in general? Or are some of them still very
17:04
early on in their life cycle in Israel as well?
17:09
So I think it's a great question.
17:11
So I'd say most of them are pretty early either what I call
17:15
the two guys in the garage, right?
17:16
They, they have an idea, they have a, they have a deck they
17:20
need capital to build, you know, kind of an MVP and then deploy
17:24
it and, and, and, you know, bring it to the market and see,
17:28
you know, what works and what you need to make adjustments.
17:32
In other cases, we'll invest in a company where maybe it's a
17:35
second timer or third timer who's, you know, built a
17:38
business before and maybe they already made some progress.
17:41
Maybe they have some capital that, you know, they use from
17:45
their own capital to kind of get started.
17:48
And then we come in and and we try to help them kind of move
17:51
the needle and be supportive from, you know, from an Israeli
17:58
or non Israeli perspective. We only invest in Israeli
18:00
founders. Typically we have at least one
18:02
or two Israeli founders on the team, even if the company is
18:05
based in the US And I'd say half of our companies already started
18:11
here locally, either in New York, Miami, LA, Seattle.
18:18
So we tap into Israeli founders, you know, all over the US and
18:21
not just in Israel. In some cases it's a little bit
18:24
easier because you know, instead of like trying to kind of go to
18:27
Israel, find them and then they have to move here.
18:30
There's logistical issues, there's resources issues,
18:32
etcetera. They're based here and we're
18:35
able to kind of work with them, you know, on go to market pretty
18:38
quickly. So what?
18:40
Tell me more about sort of the Israeli US connection.
18:45
Is it enough for the like, does the person have to have been
18:48
born in Israel? Can they just be of Jewish
18:51
heritage? Sort of like what are the the
18:52
criteria that you're looking for in it?
18:55
And in a moment, we'll get into sort of more like the business
18:59
side of things, but just sort of making that kind of distinction.
19:03
Yeah. So my, my, my model basically
19:06
says I need at least one Israeli founder who was born and raised
19:09
in Israel, right? I can't have someone who just
19:12
went to hyper school or Azure school, right?
19:15
I need, I need someone to know almost like the slang in the
19:18
culture, right? Being able to attract talent in
19:23
Israel because many times the R&D is going to be based in
19:27
Israel and the sales and marketing is going to be based
19:29
in the US, right. That's kind of the, the Israeli,
19:32
if you want to call it kind of the Israeli model.
19:36
The, you know, and I think for us, what we find great is a
19:43
combination where the CEO is Israeli.
19:47
Let's say the company is based here, the CEO is Israeli and the
19:51
rest of the team can be American.
19:53
And maybe they recruit some Israeli talent in Israel and
19:55
maybe they recruit more American talent here for marketing and
19:59
sales. And it's kind of the combination
20:01
of both worlds. I think naturally Israelis are
20:04
great technologists. It's harder for them to tell a
20:06
story. It's harder for them.
20:09
To, you know, they they basically many times think like,
20:14
OK, 1 + 1 = 2, but they don't really understand that you need
20:18
to actually tell a story that you know, tells investor world.
20:21
These two can really be a billion, right?
20:24
Like you, you need to get it, get them excited.
20:27
You need to get them on board with why you versus, you know,
20:31
the other founder across the street, right?
20:33
So we try to help them, you know, with that.
20:36
But I think in general our focus is Israeli companies, Israeli
20:42
founders and trying to move to the US.
20:46
By the way, not that many people know that Israel is is a very
20:48
small country. There's really no market there,
20:50
right? So there's 10 million people who
20:52
live in Israel. You can't just build a Unicorn.
20:55
But just selling into Israel, I mean, it's pretty rare.
20:59
So by and large, the first market that Israeli start-ups
21:04
look into is to build a business in the US where the scale is
21:07
much bigger, the opportunities are much bigger, and they can
21:11
really shine if they want, you know, if they build the right
21:13
business. OK.
21:15
So now let's talk about more of the business side of things.
21:17
What specifically are you looking for in a company that
21:21
you would bring into your portfolio?
21:23
Excellent question. So I'm looking for a a great
21:28
team. So we look at it as probably
21:29
like 3 main criterias, a team where there is complementary
21:34
skills, ACEO who knows how to tell a story, can build a
21:39
business, can attract talent, can unify everyone, can, you
21:44
know, raise capital, etcetera. And then if it's, you know, two
21:49
or three people, if it's two founders, the I think the other
21:52
founders got to have got to be ACTO, right?
21:55
Someone who was a chief technologist, build technology
21:58
elsewhere, has the ability to like build a tech team around
22:02
it, around him and build a product that's pretty unique and
22:06
defensible. And then typically if there's a
22:08
third founder, it's what I call a CPOA chief product officer,
22:12
someone who knows how to build a product, then I look for, you
22:17
know, if they've done something together before, how, how well
22:21
do they know each other, right? Like all those things come into
22:24
place when, when it comes to, you know, kind of building a
22:27
start up from from the ground up because it's just it's a roller
22:31
coaster, right? Like there's so many challenges
22:34
to build a successful start up. So many things can happen.
22:37
And the idea that you really gonna, you know, you go to war
22:41
together, you get married is huge, right?
22:43
Because when things get tough, that's when you really get to
22:46
know each other, right? So that's on that.
22:49
Second thing is the market, how big is the market?
22:52
How many players are in the market?
22:54
Is there a really big opportunity in, in a specific
22:58
market, in the market you're you're trying to to sell into?
23:02
That's 1111 big piece for us. And then I think the third piece
23:06
for us is our ability to impact the business.
23:10
Can we really work with those founders on go to market?
23:13
Can we help them get their first 5 customers?
23:16
Can we see this company raising capital for one of the top VCs
23:20
in the US and New York specifically?
23:23
So we look into our value add and how you know how much we can
23:28
bring to the table. Because if it's a company where,
23:31
you know, we really don't have expertise, we don't want to be
23:34
just a check, right? Like we want to be able to talk
23:37
about the company, to think about the company everywhere we
23:39
go. And then the fourth piece is
23:41
really kind of the Israel, New York connection.
23:43
We, we really would love all of our companies to have a
23:46
footprint in New York, whether it's by opening an office,
23:50
having people on the ground, etcetera, because this is where
23:53
we can add the most value. So it's kind of tied to the
23:55
Third Point, which is, you know, where do we come in, in, in
23:59
this, you know, if we made an investment in a company.
24:03
And and explain a little bit more about why the New York part
24:05
of the connection is so important.
24:07
I mean, companies could be all over the place in the US and
24:10
still kind of, you know, be able to make money and have access to
24:14
the US market. Yeah.
24:16
So I mean, I think if you look at data and research, being part
24:20
of an ecosystem that has a lot of opportunities, whether it it,
24:25
you know, whether it comes to venture capital, to raising
24:29
capital, right? So being able to sell to
24:33
customers who are locally, New York has everything right now.
24:37
I mean, if you look at New York about 10-15 years ago, maybe
24:40
there was 100 VCs in New York. Now you're looking at hundreds.
24:45
So there's so much capital, right?
24:46
So everywhere you go, you can go into a city investor, you can
24:50
tap into great VCs who are looking for great opportunities
24:53
and great founders. So that's one piece.
24:55
And I think we have the network that's really expanding and kind
24:59
of it's a it's a force multiplier, right, to help
25:02
companies and founders tap into this industry.
25:05
The second piece is, you know, can you attract great talent on
25:10
the business side like marketing, sale, etcetera?
25:13
There's just a lot of great talent in New York.
25:16
A lot of people just want to come here.
25:19
I think there's something more specific about Israelis.
25:22
There is an amazing community of founders from Israel and New
25:26
York. I think the The funny thing is
25:29
that in Israel we can kill each other and we fight about
25:32
everything. But when we leave overseas,
25:34
suddenly we're like the best friends.
25:35
We have family, we want to, you know, we want to protect each
25:38
other. So I think it's the same on the
25:42
on the entrepreneurial side. So a lot of founders who are
25:45
first timers moved to New York without really knowing anyone.
25:48
You can see that within a month, they already spoke to like about
25:52
100 founders or Israeli who have been here.
25:55
They tell them, hey, talk to this guy or that guy because you
25:58
can trust them. Do not work with this aid agency
26:01
because they're going to screw you.
26:02
Or those guys on the HR side are more too expensive, right?
26:06
So that ability to help and kind of use this as a way to kind of
26:11
build each other is pretty unique to New York.
26:15
And I think, you know, another aspect that we didn't talk
26:19
about. So the time zone difference is I
26:21
think huge for Israelis. So traditionally in the early
26:25
2000s, you would, you know, when you want to raise capital, you
26:28
want to build a business and build an office, you typically
26:32
move to San Francisco or Silicon Valley because this is where the
26:35
money was. If you look now and the time
26:37
difference between Israel and Silicon Valley is 10 hours.
26:40
So if ACEO is based in, in the Valley at 8:00 AM Silicon Valley
26:46
time, it's, it's going to be 6:00 PM Israel time.
26:49
So that really creates kind of a gap between those two offices in
26:55
New York. You know, you, you start your
26:56
day at 8:00 AM. It's, it's still like 3:00 PM in
26:58
Israel. So you feel still like everyone
27:00
is working together for a bunch of hours.
27:04
But I think, you know, in general, you look at the
27:06
evolution of New York as a tech ecosystem.
27:09
It's incredible to see, You know, I, I, I look at, you know,
27:14
I look at other funds, right? About 10 years ago, there's a
27:16
fund called EMEA Adventures. Maybe 13 years ago, their first
27:20
fund was 1.6 million. They're now probably on their
27:24
5th or 6th fund. That's like 120 or 150 million.
27:28
And you know, they've, they've generated so many success
27:32
stories, but they started small, right?
27:33
So I look at them as kind of a role model for what I'm trying
27:37
to create, you know, with 972 and two and where we can take,
27:40
you know, this fund in the in years to come.
27:44
So even this age of Zoom having close physical proximity to each
27:49
other, each other as well as the investors who are in the city
27:54
makes a big deal. Being able to spend time in
27:57
person, that's a force multiplier.
28:01
It's huge. It's huge.
28:02
You know, what's, you know, we can talk about culture at some
28:05
point, but Israeli culture is like, you just want to go for
28:09
coffee. I mean, people in Israel have
28:10
coffee like 10 times a day, right?
28:12
They're like, oh, let's go talk about life with, you know, over
28:15
coffee. Let's meet for coffee.
28:18
And I think in the US it's a little bit different, right?
28:20
Like there's a lot of Zoom calls, you know, there's a lot
28:23
of emailing and texting. And you know, I think at some
28:29
point Zoom is we have kind of Zoom fatigue right after COVID.
28:35
And I mean, how much can you share over a video, right?
28:38
Like when you're not on a podcast, it's hard.
28:41
It's hard to do this, right? So there is something about that
28:43
personal connection and meeting someone face to face.
28:47
I actually just saw someone on Twitter at VCR truly respect who
28:51
basically said I'm moving away from Zoom calls and moving into
28:56
regular phone calls. So I kind of responded like,
28:58
welcome to Israel, because this is really the Israeli culture
29:01
and it's, listen, there's nothing better than being
29:06
someone in person because this is where you can really get to
29:08
know someone, right? And that being, you know, the
29:13
ability to be local and spend time with investors you want to
29:18
work with, with customers you want to bring on board, the
29:22
relationship building. There's really nothing like it
29:25
that's being done face to face. So I'm I'm a I'm a big proponent
29:29
of that. I'll say more about what you
29:32
want people to understand about Israeli culture and the Israeli
29:36
people. No, it's, you know, it's, it's
29:40
interesting, you know, I saw, I saw an interview with someone
29:44
who's been to Israel maybe like once a few weeks ago.
29:48
And he said, you know, it's the first time in Israel.
29:50
But I felt like I'm, I'm at home because people are very
29:53
welcoming. They're very warm.
29:55
Yeah, they'll, yeah, if if you take a cab, you know, people are
30:00
beeping at you and the light is just about to be green, like,
30:03
you know, 15 seconds later because they're just in a rush,
30:06
right. I think on the same token, you
30:11
know, people are super helpful. They love life.
30:14
I think there's like this like, you know, we don't know what's
30:17
going to happen tomorrow kind of mentality.
30:19
So we really have to live every single day like it's our last
30:23
day. And you know, I think that there
30:26
is a lot of innovation in Israel.
30:29
If you look at also like Israel, I think you look at the the
30:34
progress Israel has made with food, with restaurants, with art
30:39
and culture. You look at Netflix, there's
30:40
probably about 1520 shows out of Israel at any given time that's
30:45
been bought by Netflix. There's just like a lot of
30:50
different dimensions. You look at art, right?
30:53
There's a lot of different dimensions to Israel.
30:56
And I think that unfortunately, you know, given the war and,
31:00
and, and other elements in, in history, I think a lot of people
31:05
view Israel as a place of conflict.
31:07
And I think that there's just like so much more than that.
31:10
And I think all Israel is at least that I know, really want
31:14
to continue innovating, continue building and, and focus on what
31:18
matters, which is, you know, making the best of life.
31:22
And I think, I think, you know, my, my, my hope is that that's
31:27
going to come out of what people view Israel is in years to come.
31:31
And that you're going to be, you know, hopefully this war is
31:35
going to be over very, very soon.
31:37
And we're just going to be able to move on and just live life
31:42
the way we envision it. Yeah, sometimes, you know, we
31:46
can get sort of caught up in media portrayals and the sort of
31:50
the geopolitical portrayals and, you know, not really connect
31:55
with the the actual human beings that are kind of, you know,
31:59
enduring and living through all these things.
32:01
So it's it's great to have that additional context.
32:05
And, you know, social media is probably the best and worst
32:07
thing that happened to us, right?
32:09
Because it really shapes our views about everything in life,
32:12
right? And, you know, misinformation
32:16
has been, I think one of the biggest problems that I think a
32:20
lot of, you know, this generation needs to deal with.
32:23
And that brings me to kind of the point of like education and,
32:28
and building the right narrative, right?
32:30
And if you bring it to kind of the world of venture and
32:33
entrepreneurship, telling the right story is, you know, people
32:37
really need to connect. They really need to investors
32:40
and to connect with founders. Sometimes, you know, you meet
32:44
AVC and it's and you kind of make an introduction to a
32:46
company and can I ask him like, hey, So what are you thinking?
32:50
He's like, listen, there's nothing really bad I can say
32:52
about the company. I just didn't connect with the
32:54
founder, right? So that that connection is
32:58
something that, you know, I think we all have to strive to
33:02
do with anyone in our lives, whether it's with our family,
33:04
with our kids, with business partners, with, with, you know,
33:08
with your life partner. This is just something that
33:14
probably is not talked about enough, and I think it's
33:16
becoming more and more important as as as, as life kind of, you
33:20
know, goes by. Yeah, I'm glad that you hit on
33:23
that. I I'm a big proponent of, you
33:25
know, sort of this idea of safe human connection.
33:28
And it makes the world of difference, you know, whether
33:30
you're talking about a business deal or just sort of the way
33:33
that you move through life with your friends and your family.
33:37
Yeah. So I appreciate you giving voice
33:38
to that curious, you know, from kind of a, a tech standpoint,
33:44
you get to see a lot of things come across your desk.
33:47
You know, some you get excited about, you invest in some, you
33:49
know, there's limited bandwidth, limited dollars you have to pass
33:52
on. But what are some of the the
33:53
bigger trends that you're seeing and that you're excited about?
33:59
So I think just in general, I think some industries are
34:05
completely being transformed right now.
34:06
So you look at healthcare patient engagement, right?
34:10
Like you see that there is just a lot of innovation in that
34:15
area. You look at, you know, we
34:19
invested in a company called Inner Balance.
34:22
Inner Balance, it's what they call HRT.
34:25
It's a hormone replacement therapy product where a lot of
34:30
women in their early 40s and 50s are really being impacted by
34:36
the, the physiological process of menopause.
34:41
They, it's, it's basically a product that been kind of the
34:47
ideation and the innovation came from a doctor called Sarah whom
34:53
basically came up with a product that it's a, it's a cream that
34:56
helps women kind of lower the impact and the influence of
35:03
issues that are elements that are come with the idea of just
35:09
growing older and, and having a body change, right from an, from
35:12
a hormone spend standpoint. So this is not something that
35:16
has been done in, in years past, right?
35:18
So 203050 years ago, women just went through it and they went to
35:23
a doctor and the doctor said, Hey, you know, it is what it is.
35:26
I mean, you're just going through menopause, but there is
35:29
issues with moodiness, there's the issue with sleep and just
35:33
longevity in in general. So, you know, I'm looking at at
35:37
something like this, that's it just opens up a whole new world,
35:41
right? You look at another area that
35:45
you know, I like is legal, legal tech, right?
35:48
So until now, you look at, you know, the work of lawyers, It's
35:53
been reading through documents and listening to audio,
35:56
etcetera. We invested in a company called
35:58
Trialkit that uses Gen. EI to summarize discovery data
36:05
for defence attorneys. The CEO is a former defence
36:10
attorney and he basically said, like I've seen what's going on
36:14
and, and lawyers just can't keep up with all the, the data that
36:18
they have to deal with and it actually impacts trials, right?
36:23
So he came and built basically a platform that uses Gen.
36:28
AI to summarize, to summarize discovery data for defence
36:32
attorneys. And you can look, they just
36:34
launched a product in, in January and you look at the
36:37
demand from lawyers. It's been incredible.
36:39
Like it's completely changing an entire industry.
36:42
So, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm excited about that.
36:45
On the Israeli side, as you can imagine, cyber has been, you
36:50
know, an amazing industry. There's a lot of companies
36:54
building cyber solutions that have been sold to some of the
36:58
big companies for billions of dollars.
37:00
And I think that's not going to change.
37:02
I think cyber is going to be big, you know, I will say
37:06
forever, but it's going to continue to be big.
37:08
But you know, I think as a fund, we're looking at areas in, in
37:14
fintech, in healthcare, in legal tech, in logistics, right, where
37:19
maybe it's been done through, you know, using a certain way,
37:23
whether it's Excel or, or pen and paper.
37:26
And now with AI, those industries can be completely,
37:30
you know, they can be transformed, become much more
37:33
productive, much more efficient. And you know, hopefully you
37:38
know, move, move. You know, the way we work, move
37:41
it forward. You mentioned a Unicorn earlier
37:45
in the interview from your time with Iconic.
37:48
Something in the employee engagement space.
37:50
What's that? Yeah, it's a company called
37:53
Connect Team with One T It's an incredible story.
37:58
It's a company out of Israel that basically have an app that
38:07
filled employees, whether it's drivers, salespeople and
38:13
logistics people, etcetera, who are in the field most of the day
38:16
can use to really feel part of the organization.
38:21
So when it comes to corporate communication, when it comes to
38:24
like, you know, little things like punching a card or big
38:27
things like, you know, birthdays, employee benefits,
38:31
etcetera, it's all being done through one app.
38:34
And they actually don't even have to have an e-mail.
38:36
You can be just using your phone number.
38:39
The company raised maybe $1,000,000 when we came in, you
38:44
know, really amazing team, amazing CEO and it kind of took
38:48
them some time to try to get to like $1,000,000 in revenue.
38:52
But then they kind of figured it out and, and got to like a bunch
38:56
of organizations who basically said we really need this because
38:59
we have no way to track our employees.
39:01
We have no way to engage with them, whether it's trucking
39:04
companies, cleaning companies, etcetera.
39:08
And then COVID hit and then all companies needed that.
39:11
So they are now at probably 20-30 thousand customers using
39:18
the app. So I'm talking about
39:19
organizations. So that that's hundreds of
39:21
thousands of employer, hundreds of thousands of employees using
39:24
it. They already raised about 250 or
39:28
$300 million in capital. And for me, what's really, you
39:33
know, what's really amazing is to invest in a company that when
39:36
we invested, it was like maybe 4 or 6 people.
39:39
And now they have 250 employees offices around the world.
39:44
They have a big office in Tel Aviv.
39:46
And you know, I still have that level of connection with the
39:49
CEO. So when I text him and I say,
39:51
let's, let's meet for coffee or for a drink, you know, I get an
39:54
immediate response. Or when I want to actually have
39:58
a precede or AC company get an advice, the founder needs to get
40:03
an advice from kind of a more mature CEO.
40:05
Or maybe they need to have a design partnership or maybe
40:08
become a customer. I actually can tap into the CEO
40:12
and say, hey, can you please look at that company?
40:14
Can you please, you know, work with his founder and, you know,
40:18
life moves in circles, right? Like, he knows that 10 years
40:20
ago, it was very hard for him to raise the first million.
40:23
And now he's in a much different position.
40:25
And he wants to kind of give back, right?
40:27
So it's beautiful to see. It takes a long time, you know,
40:32
to get there. And you need, you know, a little
40:35
bit of luck, sometimes more than that.
40:37
But it's, you know, it's definitely, it's definitely
40:41
credible to see how transformative, you know, their
40:45
solution is, how big of an impact it act on many, many
40:48
companies and obviously to see the success of, you know, the
40:51
success of the founders. I'm kind of curious to get your
40:55
impressions or your opinion on something here IR 'cause you've
40:59
been deeply, deeply ingrained in the tech space for a while.
41:02
And so you've seen trends come and go, You've seen hype come
41:08
and go, right? youknow.com days, the, you know,
41:12
the 2000 bubble bust, you know, we've had the, the hype of, you
41:16
know, blockchain and Bitcoin kind of come and go and come
41:20
again. And, you know, now we're sort of
41:24
in a a whole new era of AI and it's tremendous what it's
41:28
already doing. The future applications of it
41:32
are mind boggling. And there's also a ton of hype
41:36
around it as well. And that just kind of goes with
41:39
the territory. Every time you have sort of, you
41:41
know, giant new advancements in tech like this, how do you think
41:45
about filtering through and kind of identifying, you know, where
41:50
the real opportunities are versus where the hype is?
41:54
It's going to sort of fade away. Oh man, this is a loaded
41:59
question. I so there's kind of two layers
42:04
to this, right? There's a foundational AI.
42:06
Those are like the anthropics of the world.
42:09
Those are big companies that need to raise a ton of money.
42:13
They want to compete with like the opening eyes of the world.
42:16
I'm too small of an investor to play in that field, right?
42:19
Like this is this is not my sandbox.
42:23
And I think those companies are going to be they are already
42:25
transformative, right? You look at perplexity and you
42:28
look at entropics and open AI, it's incredible, right?
42:32
I mean, who is not using ChatGPT today, right?
42:34
So it's it's it's really amazing.
42:37
And then there's the application layer, how AI can go into a
42:42
specific application and make kind of completely change, you
42:48
know, an industry completely change the way people work, the
42:52
way people, you know, being more productive, etcetera.
42:56
So I'm looking at this, you know, in a, in a way, almost
43:03
like when you look at like the Internet in like, you know, the
43:05
early 2000s, right? Like there was this big hype and
43:08
then the kind of the dust settles and you want to, you
43:12
want to be very disciplined. I think the way I'm looking at
43:14
this is, OK, how can I be getting into like the best
43:17
companies but still be disciplined?
43:19
So I think it goes back to kind of the core base, you know, of,
43:24
of principles. You look for great teams.
43:26
You want to be you, you, you don't want to go into companies
43:30
because there's hype and what they call like like a party
43:33
round, right? Like it's a bunch of VCs trying
43:36
to kind of build the company and putting some money into it.
43:39
And, and you just kind of go into the hype and I think you
43:44
kind of look at an industry and say, you know, how many players
43:47
are doing this? Can this company build something
43:52
really impactful and they can scale quickly enough to be able
43:56
to be, you know, one of the, you know, kind of early market
43:59
leaders? So that's what I'm trying,
44:01
trying to do. I think also what helps me is,
44:06
and we didn't really talk about this, I'm a solo GP, what they
44:09
call solo general partner, where in in essence, I raise the
44:13
capital, I make the decisions. But I do have some great
44:16
partners with me, some venture partners and I also have about
44:22
50-60 LP's. Many of them are other investors
44:26
who are running their own funds. And many times I'll consult with
44:30
them on a specific company based on their expertise, right.
44:34
So there's like this, like community of investors.
44:37
So I can tap into if I'm not sure about the specific company,
44:42
because at the end, you know, you, this is a, this is a
44:46
profession where you have to be very humble.
44:47
It doesn't matter how successful you are, there's always going to
44:50
be someone more successful. There's always going to be a
44:53
better company. And I, I want to really kind of
44:56
trade, stay true to that because in the end, the only way you can
45:00
be successful in this business is to produce success stories.
45:04
And in order to be, you know, produce to produce success
45:07
stories, you have to be very disciplined.
45:08
You have to look at a lot of companies and you have to make
45:11
bets where you really believe that the founders and the teams
45:14
can can build a very successful unique business.
45:19
What are some of the commonalities that you see in
45:21
successful businesses, whether it's at the founder level or the
45:25
idea or the the execution, If you there's sort of a some
45:30
threads that you're kind of looking for or would see even in
45:33
the rearview mirror, what would those look like?
45:37
Yeah, No, I, I, I think that it really starts with the team,
45:41
right? There's got to be a very strong
45:45
base to building a company, right?
45:47
And it starts with the top, right?
45:49
It starts with the Ceoi think the next thing is to build a
45:53
very differentiated product, right?
45:55
If there's, you know, a product that's really just like, you
45:58
know, another sales tool or another music app where there's
46:03
just been a million of those, it's going to be very hard to
46:05
build and scale business. So that thing that's, that's one
46:08
thought. I think the other, you know, the
46:12
other thing that I've been looking at and I've been doing
46:14
some reading is the transformation of founders,
46:18
right? So there's a company that has
46:21
certain employees and those employees are really good for
46:25
like the zero to 1. But then to get from 1:00 to
46:29
10:00, you pretty much need almost like half of the
46:32
employees got to be different, right?
46:34
Like they have to be able to like scale they able, they have
46:37
to kind of be at that early growth stage, right?
46:41
And then from like 10 to 100, you know, you got to recruit
46:45
founder, I mean, not founders, but employees who are different
46:49
and maybe have done this before and can build, you know,
46:53
regional sales and can build, you know, a product at scale
46:57
etcetera, right. So I think that's, that's been
47:01
something that I've been spending some time with because
47:03
I think recruiting, you know, good talent is, is, is very hard
47:07
today because a lot of, you know, the, the, the good
47:09
employees have options, right? So, and I think that's part of
47:13
it. The other part, and I think that
47:15
goes to like a lot of companies that have offices in different
47:21
parts of the world, whether it's or even in the US, right, is
47:25
building a culture like employees want to be in a
47:30
company where they like each other, they like who they work
47:32
with, they like the CEO, you know, and that everyone feels
47:38
like they're on this mission together.
47:40
So I think that's something that I've seen a lot of commonalities
47:43
with the successful companies, you know, that that, you know,
47:47
that I met with over time. And listen, I think that's
47:50
something that not many people talk about, but you just need to
47:53
get sometimes a little bit lucky, right?
47:55
And, and many times those are things that are not in your
47:58
control, right? Like you just you've been there
48:00
at the wrong at the right time in the right place.
48:03
There's you know, COVID helped many companies being super
48:06
successful and it killed other companies, right?
48:08
So, you know, I just it is what it is.
48:13
And I think the other piece is you want to have a good support
48:16
system around you, right? You want to have investors who
48:21
helped the company thrive and not holding it back.
48:24
You want to have an Advisory Board was really help, you know,
48:28
helping the founders, you know, in strategic decisions.
48:33
So yeah, those are, you know, it's it's really, I look at it
48:35
as as a puzzle. So it's a puzzle where all the
48:38
pieces got to come together at the right time and then into the
48:41
right place for the company to be successful.
48:44
And then at the end, there's just a timing issue, right?
48:47
Like many companies think that they can, you know, hold on and
48:50
they can raise more capital and just, you know, they never want
48:53
to sell or they want to get to that IPO.
48:55
And then there's another company comes in and suddenly it doesn't
48:59
look as bright. So I, I think, you know, there's
49:02
probably some, some, some good amount of research on when is
49:05
the right time to, to sell a company.
49:06
And I think those are all all things that come with
49:10
experience. You know, life's hard.
49:14
Sometimes startups are hard. Obviously you had a lot of
49:18
success, but there's been some bumps in the road.
49:20
I'd be curious to hear about whether it's personal or
49:23
professional, serious challenge that you've overcome, how you
49:27
got through it, and what you learned.
49:30
So I'll start with with work. I grew up in with a great
49:39
family. My parents have been great role
49:42
models for me, especially on, you know, working hard, not
49:46
getting a free lunch, you know, really making sure that I get
49:49
the right education, etcetera. But there are blue collar
49:52
people. There was no entrepreneurship
49:54
involved in it. You know, my mom was a nurse for
49:58
40 years. My dad worked for a factory for
50:00
about 40 years. I was working for an e-learning
50:04
company and I just felt like after a few years it was just
50:09
like not for me anymore. And I kind of felt stuck.
50:12
I had only a work visa to work for that company and my direct
50:20
boss, to put it lightly, didn't want me to do what I did over
50:27
there. He felt like I was just not the
50:29
right person for for the job and he kind of let me know.
50:33
But the owner of the company wanted me to stay there and I
50:37
kind of didn't really know what to do.
50:40
So I'd left the company and started doing consulting for
50:45
start-ups and that business has been doing OK.
50:48
I had a mentor who basically gave me office space.
50:52
And at some point after like, I don't know, 8-9 months, he
50:55
basically said, yeah, listen, I don't think it's really going
51:00
anywhere. Maybe you should just look for a
51:01
job. And I got, I, I really took it
51:04
hard. I, I basically said, you know,
51:07
he's Downing me, he feels like I'm not good enough, etcetera.
51:13
And you know, self doubt is big, right?
51:16
Like I had to kind of dig deep and say, OK, So what am I going
51:19
to do with my life? And I basically did some
51:26
research and said, hey, there's no platform here for
51:28
international start-ups to expand to New York.
51:31
How about building a program that sources companies from
51:34
scratch, brings them to New York.
51:36
Maybe they pay a little bit of of money to get some access.
51:40
I'm going to bring in, you know, someone to host it.
51:45
I'm going to bring in a couple of sponsors to who want to, who
51:47
want to get access to founders. And I went with it and I asked
51:52
my wife, what do you think? And she said, listen, I believe
51:54
in you. Just go with it.
51:56
A couple months later, I had Denton's, which is one of the
52:01
largest law firms in the world, basically say, sure, you know,
52:04
we're with you. They're hosted our events.
52:07
I, I brought in an intern, a girl who has been doing an
52:11
incredible job and she's been with me for four years.
52:14
We've been sourcing companies from all over the world.
52:17
And within four years, we looked at probably 3000 companies.
52:22
We had 100 companies go through the platform.
52:26
There's been, you know, probably 10 or 15 exits, one company
52:30
that's going for an IPO. So it's been really, really
52:32
helpful. But for me, if I didn't go
52:35
through that, hey, you know, self doubt, OK, look, look, you
52:40
know, maybe you should look for a job.
52:43
I probably wouldn't do that because I was, I was
52:45
comfortable. I needed to get to an
52:47
uncomfortable place. On the personal side, I was in
52:53
Israel for a couple. If we could just pause for a
52:55
second because I want to pull out a thread there because I
52:58
think you hit on a couple of important things.
53:01
You know, maybe looking back you, you probably have some
53:04
gratitude to that one guy who said, hey, this isn't working
53:07
right. Maybe you should get a job
53:09
because it sounds like it kind of gave you a very painful kick
53:12
in the rear to kind of do some soul searching.
53:15
Totally, totally. And he reached out to me
53:18
actually a few weeks ago and it's like, Hey, what's going on
53:20
with you? I like to go like, because now
53:22
he looks at me and I'm like, I have, you know, I have, I'm very
53:25
active on LinkedIn. And I think he's in a way he's
53:28
he's like proud. But yeah, you kind of need
53:31
someone to kind of hit you, right?
53:33
And obviously back then I was very offended.
53:36
But I cannot thank him enough for what he did for me because I
53:40
think this was his way to basically shake me a little bit.
53:43
And I wouldn't be where I'm at today if I didn't didn't go
53:49
through that, you know, kind of like transformative lesson in
53:52
soul searching, right? Then he kind of started there.
53:54
And I, I can tell you I was, I was in Grand Central.
53:57
I was calling my wife and I was like, I was crying.
54:00
I was so upset. You know, I was like, hey, he's
54:03
you know, he gave me office space.
54:04
He probably doesn't want me there anymore.
54:07
And and you know, I think that all of us like to be in the
54:14
comfort zone level, right? Like, because it's, it's easier.
54:19
And I think I'm trying to push my kids not to be in, in always
54:23
being almost. You want to be comfortable, but
54:25
you don't want to be always comfortable that you don't move
54:27
up right? Because I think this is the
54:29
biggest enemy of us fulfilling our full potential.
54:34
I agree. I think growth happens at the
54:37
uncomfortable edges of life, and your story's a great example of
54:41
that. And you are about to share
54:42
something there on the personal side as well.
54:46
Yeah, I mean, I, I was in Israel for a couple years, kind of in
54:49
between my second degree. So I finished my my school then
54:53
with you. I was, I was, I was dating a
54:56
girl who did not want to move to, to, to New York and I moved
55:01
back. And, you know, at some point I
55:05
basically said, OK, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm going to be in Israel
55:09
and this is where I'm supposed to be.
55:11
And then the company I work for said, Hey, actually we need you
55:14
back in New York. So I was like, OK, well, I
55:18
thought I was done. And I need to make a decision.
55:21
Hey, am I coming back with everything that goes with it,
55:24
with the idea that I'm not sure when I'll come back to Israel,
55:28
if, if, if ever? Because once I start building a
55:32
career here, you know, I, I know how it is.
55:34
Like someone told me once, listen, if you ever want to move
55:37
back to Israel, you should do it before you have the house for
55:39
the pool, because once you have the pool, it's over.
55:42
And I needed to also make a decision personally, if I want
55:47
to, if I see myself with this person for the rest of my life.
55:49
And back then I did and I, I proposed and then I realized
55:57
that kind of a couple months later, I basically realized
56:01
like, I don't think this is going to work.
56:03
Like I don't think that's going to work for me.
56:05
And I think it's going to work for her.
56:06
And I, you know, I kind of cancelled, cancelled the wedding
56:11
and moved to New York. And it was kind of a difficult
56:13
time because you kind of like, you start a new chapter in your
56:16
life. And in, in the meantime, there's
56:19
all this like, kind of emotional roller coaster of like, hey, I
56:23
was actually supposed to be married, but I'm coming out to
56:25
New York as a single guy. But again, you know, life moves
56:29
in circles. And, and about a year later, I
56:33
meant a girl who became my wife. And we, you know, we fell in
56:39
love. And within 10 months I proposed.
56:41
And, you know, three months later, we had a wedding in
56:44
Israel. And then we had a wedding in, in
56:45
New York. And then we have 3 kids and,
56:47
and, and a dog and you know, it, it's, it's been, you know, the
56:53
best thing ever for me, for my family.
56:56
We've, we've gone through, you know, a really beautiful
56:59
marriage. And, you know, I, I think that,
57:02
and again, I was in this like uncomfortable situation where
57:06
eventually, at the time, obviously I didn't know it, but
57:09
eventually it led me to where I'm supposed to be.
57:12
And, you know, I think a lot of us are going through life
57:17
searching for something, but sometimes it just, you know,
57:20
life brings it to you without you even knowing about it.
57:24
On a different timeline than what you wanted.
57:26
Correct. Right now, and you know, I think
57:30
we all have the a tendency to to doubt ourselves, to question
57:33
ourselves, to question decisions that we're making.
57:36
There's probably an element of you that you were going back and
57:39
forth in that first engagement of you know which, which way do
57:42
I go? And can you think back like, how
57:45
did you know that this direction was the right direction?
57:53
Was it a logical thing? Was it like, here's the pros,
57:56
here's the cons? Or was it just like a gut
57:57
feeling? It's totally a gut feeling.
58:00
I just, I, I think that you can, you can analyze everything like
58:03
1000 times, right? Like I think sometimes,
58:07
especially in the big decisions, at least for me, I got to go
58:10
with my heart, right? Like I, I, I just have a feeling
58:13
like this is the right thing to do.
58:15
And it kind of felt right to do this on the business side, right
58:19
when I went and I built the, the global innovative program and
58:22
then to build iconic, which was an accelerator.
58:25
And then at some point he just felt like I need to move on.
58:28
I need to build a true VC that is true to myself that has a lot
58:34
of what I bring to the table, meaning like a great team and
58:40
you know, the Israel New York connection and everything that
58:44
kind of like portrays me as one of those like friendly guys who
58:48
was always on the side of the founder is going like on a zero
58:53
to 1. And you know, that self, you
58:58
know, analysis or I don't say self doubt, but like always
59:03
thinking about kind of growth, like what's next was actually
59:06
something I've been thinking about with this fund, right?
59:09
So because we towards the end of fund one soon we'll, you know,
59:12
we have another four or five investments to go.
59:16
And I've been thinking about fund 2 and, and many VCs are
59:20
starting at let's say 20 and then they want to raise 100 and
59:22
then they want to raise 200 and they really want to scale this
59:26
as a business. But I've been thinking, I did
59:28
some soul searching and I basically said to myself, am I
59:31
really like, you know, the $100 million VC or, or am I really
59:36
like the 20 to $30 million VC where I'm just there for the
59:40
founder. I'm, I'm helping them move from
59:42
Israel to New York from zero to 1.
59:45
And, you know, can I, can I actually sharpen that and be the
59:49
best at the zero to 1 Israel to New York piece, right?
59:54
And I think that's obviously that's what I'm going to go for,
59:57
right? Like I want to build a slightly
59:58
bigger fund too. I want to increase the value
1:00:02
that our founders are getting. And I want to make sure that I'm
1:00:05
the best at what I'm doing, especially now that I'm getting
1:00:08
into the age where, you know, it's not about just exploring.
1:00:12
It's about fine tuning and being as best as you can be because
1:00:16
you come with all this experience And now, OK, can I
1:00:20
get this experience to a point where this is magical and and
1:00:25
this is something that everyone sees when they think about me
1:00:29
and I don't have to prove myself time and time again.
1:00:32
Obviously I do need, but on the, on the on the basic level,
1:00:35
people when they see me and they talk to me, they understand who
1:00:39
I am very quickly. Last two questions for you.
1:00:43
First is how do people get in touch with you?
1:00:46
Maybe they're listening and they're interested in from an
1:00:48
investing side, maybe they're interested in showing you what
1:00:52
they're working on and perhaps being one of your port codes.
1:00:55
What's the best way? Easiest is LinkedIn.
1:00:58
I may albino at LinkedIn. That's that's easy.
1:01:03
I get a lot of emails on LinkedIn.
1:01:06
I try to share as much content as I can.
1:01:08
I think it's a lot of it is about sharing knowledge.
1:01:11
So that's that's on that. Another a is e-mail.
1:01:14
So I'm at ALEYAL at 97212 dot VC.
1:01:19
That's also easy. So that other two good mediums,
1:01:26
you know, founders who obviously get in touch with me, they can
1:01:28
also text me or you know, I get hundreds of text messages on
1:01:32
WhatsApp everyday. So that's that's on that.
1:01:36
And but I'm very I'm very easy to connect with.
1:01:40
We'll include links to all those in the show notes.
1:01:42
So last question for you, Al, as you look to the next, call it 12
1:01:46
to 18 months, what is it that you're most excited about the
1:01:49
change that's coming to the space that you're in?
1:01:52
What gets you really excited? I think first of all, I think
1:01:56
it's an amazing time to build a company.
1:01:58
AI is changing everything and I think founders now have an
1:02:02
amazing opportunity to build great businesses.
1:02:06
So it's one piece. I think I'm excited about just
1:02:09
being there and trying to produce more success stories.
1:02:12
And I think that's really cool about this time right now.
1:02:15
So we had the 21, 2021-2022 era where everything was hyped,
1:02:22
everything was super expensive, venture firms got bigger.
1:02:25
And then we kind of had this like 2324 years, right, where
1:02:30
things were a lot more difficult.
1:02:32
There wasn't like much liquidity in the market.
1:02:34
The market was slower. I think I'm looking at 2025 and
1:02:38
beyond as those are the building years.
1:02:41
Those are where the most amazing companies for the next 50 years
1:02:45
are going to be, are going to be built.
1:02:47
And I want to be there when they are built and hopefully
1:02:50
investing in a few of those. So I think if you're a founder,
1:02:55
this is an incredible time to build a, to build a company, go
1:02:59
for it, have the right deck, you know, reach out to me, you know,
1:03:03
if you want to raise capital. And I think if you're an
1:03:05
investor on the venture side, I think a lot of VCs have
1:03:08
basically said, OK, well, you know, what is the right size for
1:03:11
our fund? Just like I've been asking
1:03:13
myself, what is the right value prop for us when it comes to the
1:03:19
founders that we are targeting? And I think now the market is in
1:03:22
a state where a lot of those answers are being being
1:03:26
answered. A lot of, I'm sorry, a lot of
1:03:28
those questions are being answered and which I think
1:03:32
brings clarity to a lot of people.
1:03:34
And I think this is overall, you know, a good time to, you know,
1:03:39
to be either an investor or founder or generally be part of
1:03:43
the tech scene. Hi Hal.
1:03:45
I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing both your
1:03:47
time and your story with us today.
1:03:49
I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
1:03:52
You know, I enjoyed it and you know, I look forward to, you
1:03:55
know, to, to talking to you hopefully in a couple of years
1:03:58
and see, you know, see what happened since last time.
1:04:01
Would love to do that. Check in folks.
1:04:03
That's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:04:06
Thanks for learning with us today.