VC Cafe

MARCH 31, 2021

As the startup ecosystem in Israel scales, so must the teams leading the growing number of Israeli unicorns. Is there a marketing crunch in Israel? VC Cafe: The common case in Israel is founding teams flying solo without a marketer until it’s imminently necessary. The post Is there a marketing crunch in Israel?

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Israel Marketing Early Stage Seed Stage 180

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 16, 2024

Sierra AI , founded by Bret Taylor (former co-CEO of Salesforce, CTO of Facebook and current chairman of OpenAI) is currently raising hundreds of millions of dollars at $4 billion valuation, just a year or so from launch after unlocking AI voice agents for companies. billion to re-hire the founders of Character.ai Google paid $2.6

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Vertical Generative AI B2C CTO Hire 169

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 31, 2022

It’s a tough time for a lot of startup founders right now. This is not meant to be a negative post, but rather a temperature check of today’s market environment and the levers founders can pull on to survive this period. What is a founder to do? As IVC reports: In Q1–Q3/2022, Israeli high-tech companies raised $12.3

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Founder Technical Review Down Round Liquidation Preference 174

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

The past year was a wild ride for startups and founders, giving a whole new meaning to the ”rollercoaster” aspect of being an entrepreneur. A combination of competition for top talent and an effort to bring employees back to the office drove startups in Israel to throw extravagant parties and all-inclusive retreats abroad.

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Founder Startup Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 187

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 7, 2017

by Pratik Dholakiya , Co-Founder of E2M and MoveoApps. Pratik Dholakiya is the Co-Founder of E2M , a full service digital marketing agency and MoveoApps , a mobile app development company. Pratik has spoken at NextBigWhat’s UnPluggd, IIT-Bombay, SMX Israel, and other major events across Asia.

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Entrepreneur Cofounder Israel Asia 203

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 6, 2024

OpenAI co-founder and former CTO, Ilya Sutskever and his new SSI Inc. OpenAI co-founder and former CTO, Ilya Sutskever and his new SSI Inc. The company plans to have only 2 offices for now – Palo Alto and Tel Aviv, so many AI engineers are polishing their CVs in Israel. billion compared to $6.7

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Israel Down Round Silicon Valley Stealth 97

Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

What was your approach to picking co-founders, and what advice would you give entrepreneurs on this? I think having a co-founder is very important. I’ve seen people succeed as solo founders – but I think not having a co-founder makes an already hard journey that much harder. The rest is history.

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Community Cofounder Security Open Source 62

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Though, this article is not a reflection on the fundamentals of unicorns—rather, I am using them as a proxy for situations in which founders have executed on big ideas. 38 unicorns, or 1 in 4 (24%), have at least one MBA founder. 63 MBA founders are represented among the 157 unicorns. Key Insights. Red Ventures (HBS, Wharton).

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Programming St. Louis Cofounder India 120

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 24, 2021

The global rise in venture capital didn’t skip Israel, which has been breaking new records the amount of venture capital raised by companies in 2021. Generally speaking this breakdown applies to Israel as well, with a number of huge outcomes in fintech (Melio, Rapyd, eToro, Papaya Global, etc) and of course Cybersecurity.

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Israel Lock-up Period Merger IPO 218

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

So much has happened in the generative AI space globally, and in Israel since we published the previous version of the Israeli generative AI landscape, back almost exactly five months ago. We’ve seen new foundational models, open source LLMs and all sorts of new companies building the co-pilots for every category. billion, a 2.5x

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Generative AI Israel Artificial Inteligence Vertical 89

Hearpreneur

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

Noreen Sablotsky is the founder and CEO of Imalac , a revolutionary company in the breastfeeding world. eld of marketing and sales for Ciba- Geigy Pharmaceuticals before co-founding Noven Pharmaceuticals in 1986. In the startup accelerator in Israel, I saw people of all ages participating in this vibrant community.

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Founder Israel Miami Cofounder 91

Lightspeed Venture Partners

APRIL 19, 2016

This is the exact problem that Tal Weiss and his co-founders at Takipi faced a few years ago after selling their startup VisualTao to Autodesk. And as applications have trended towards a more distributed, data-centric, and segmented architecture, keeping them up and running reliably has become more of a challenge. It took over 2.5

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Architecture Cofounder Cloud Distribution 60

The Next Web

JANUARY 26, 2014

Ohad Frankfurt is the cofounder and CEO of Swayy , a personalized content curation and management platform. About a year and a half ago, we got accepted to the Elevator accelerator program in Tel Aviv, Israel. For us, being specifically based in Israel, these were our four main advantages. Coworking space.

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Programming Early Stage Founder Technical Cofounder 162

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 4, 2024

billion raise (at $157 billion valuation), despite the senior departures of co-founder Mira Murati and the former head of research. As OpenAI ironically becomes ‘closed’ (and for profit) NVIDIA announced an open-source GPT-4 rival, Microsoft unveiled co-pilot vision and a number of other AI additions to Windows.

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ChatGPT Israel Valuation Cofounder 78

VC Cafe

MARCH 4, 2024

In the last 3 months of 2024, Israel’s GDP shrank by 20% in annualised term s and Israel’s credit rating was downgraded by Moodys. Sophisticated investors and tech leaders are bullish on Israel But don’t take it from me. What is important for them now in the context of Israel is a permanent ceasefire.

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Israel Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital 78

The Next Web

OCTOBER 25, 2013

Aside from needing to be conveniently located for your employees to get to (and potential clients to visit for meetings), Ori Goshen, co-founder and vice president of research and development at Tawkon , says staying close to good bars and restaurant options also give employees a sense of life outside the work space.

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San Francisco Design Product Startup 167

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 16, 2016

One of the most obvious to me was Nanit, that was brought to our firm by my colleague Jordan Hudson who met them team, fell in love with their founders & technology, and encouraged us to invest. His co-founder and COO, Andy Berman , made the smart move from being a young VC to becoming an entrepreneur.

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Jordan Israel CTO Hire Cofounder 150

Genuine VC

JANUARY 29, 2008

Before joining as President & COO, Israel Ganot spent six years at eBay, where he was instrumental in the company’s international expansion. The CEO Rousseau Aurelien is a serial entrepreneur and former eBay PowerSeller. Today’s announcement of a $4.4M

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Israel Angel Investor 101

The Next Web

JUNE 19, 2012

Under the relatively fresh ‘TNW Profile’ banner, we regularly shine a light on great European entrepreneurs and startup founders, to learn more about their journey and their business, and what drives them personally. Me and my cofounders Joanna Socha and Mariusz Lusiak just got into Y Combinator. What are you currently involved with?

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San Francisco Cofounder Founder Poland 136

Genuine VC

JANUARY 29, 2008

Before joining as President & COO, Israel Ganot spent six years at eBay, where he was instrumental in the company’s international expansion. The CEO Rousseau Aurelien is a serial entrepreneur and former eBay PowerSeller. Today’s announcement of a $4.4M

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Israel Angel Investor 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2015

It’s my hypothesis of why so many founding teams have 3-4 founders. I’ve seen many first-time founders who had fallings out with their co-founders, had lawsuits, had investors bail on them, lost market momentum. In a way I think this is part of the magic of Israel. I fund both types all the time.

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South Korea Italy Recapitalization Germany 150

VC Cafe

MARCH 20, 2011

Startup Intelligence caught up with co-founders Zohar Dayan (CEO) and Yotam Cohen (VP Business Development) to find out more. Wibbitz was started in response to what its founders observed as a change in the way people consume content on the web today. Co-founders Zohar and Yotam are both business graduates from IDC Herzliya.

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Web Video Cofounder Early Stage 87

VC Cafe

MAY 18, 2023

After graduating from University, he joined McKinsey & Co. as a management consultant and in 1977, he co-founded Apax Partners, a private equity firm. But Sam Zell’s impact investing in Israel’s Zell Entrepreneurship program for outstanding students, changed my life and and the lives of its many alumni.

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Private Equity NPV Israel Kenya 134

VC Cafe

AUGUST 15, 2011

As every month, VC Cafe is re-posting the “Invest in Israel” Newsletter, published by the investment promotion center of Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor , which offers many helpful tools for prospecting investors. Investment Bank Morgan Stanley raised its growth forecast for Israel to 4.8% ValueClick Inc.

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Israel China Cofounder India 90

David Teten

DECEMBER 2, 2019

Now the bad news: some venture capitallists have a bias against startups with an explicit positive social impact, on the grounds that they have a smaller addressable market, and that the founders are not sufficiently focused on creating shareholder wealth. Future Labs Flash Pitch. “For Google AI for Social Good. Notley Ventures.

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Technical Review SBIR Dilution Silicon Valley 60

Seeing Both Sides

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

This post was co-authored with Omri Stern and originally appeared in Harvard Business Review. Israel has been branded the “startup nation.” Frequently cited as one of the world’s most vibrant innovation hubs, Israel boasts more startups per capita than any other country in the world. The founders have started companies before.

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Israel Cofounder Technical Review United States 20

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

November 23, 2010 Entrepreneurs, Using Outsourcing to Obtain Capital Efficiency Needs to be Thought Through to be Effective - Robert Ochtel , June 7, 2010 Teen Entrepreneur, Brian Wong, Youngest Founder to Receive Angel Funding - teenentrepreneurblog.com , October 28, 2010 Build Your Own Silicon Valley?

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Silicon Valley Startup Term Sheet Venture Capital 378

VC Cafe

JANUARY 7, 2021

I also wanted to create a publication that covered Israeli startups, in English, and put a spotlight on the wonderfully diverse tech ecosystem in Israel at a time when most of the news about Israel were negative and related to the conflict. One of the early VC Cafe posts, image taken from Wayback Machine.

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Israel San Francisco Cofounder New York 115

VC Cafe

MARCH 4, 2021

I first met Mark in Israel in 2003, when he offered me a job at GLG straight out of college. Consequently, we concentrate around 80% of our giving in two organizations that I co-founded and Chair — African Mission Healthcare and United Hatzalah. Please join us!

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Africa Israel Cofounder Community 156

VC Cafe

MARCH 28, 2011

Ron Gura, co-founder and CEO of The Gifts Project, believes his B2B platform solves this problem. For example, Dr Yossi Vardi , Israel’s most famous angel investor, provided the original seed funding in 2009. All too often, as a result of this commotion, the gift doesn’t get bought at all.

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Israel Widget eCommerce Early Stage 97

VC Cafe

MARCH 28, 2011

We rarely hear of such a large round amongst Internet startups in Israel, which is why Wix’s founding round is particularly interesting. Wix , the Israel-based flash website platform, has announced a D round of $40 million. Wix, the Israel-based flash website platform, has announced a D round of $40 million.

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Israel Flash IPO HTML 142

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

In Israel alone I mapped some 61 generative AI startups and that probably fails to capture companies in which generative AI isn’t their main product. Wix, for example, announced earlier this week that it started offering AI to write all the text for your website.

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Generative AI ChatGPT API Venture Capital 104

The Next Web

JULY 8, 2013

I recently stumbled upon this great read by Sam Altman, the co-founder of Loopt, and number 10 caught my eye: “ Growth solves (nearly) all problems.”. Currently we are based in Israel and we are making steps in establishing our US based HQ. The set of skills required from founders change and we have to adopt quickly.

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Advisory Board API Cofounder PPC 128

VC Cafe

JANUARY 28, 2020

1 Media SE sports Head of global business development at ESL Gaming Head of innovation & data at Newzoo QueeNiki – one of Israel’s top streamers CEO of Overwolf Co-founder of StreamElements. In attendance there will also be the top esports startups and investors in Israel.

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Israel Philadelphia Cloud Cofounder 133

David Teten

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

Organizations like Worldwide Investor Network and the US-Israel Business Council are helpful in this area. I am now talking with some affinity groups in these domains about co-organizing such pitch nights under the umbrella of HBS Angels.

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Government Technical Review New York Offshore 146

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

Mike is a no BS guy, has all the attributes I look for in a founder and says things like, openly shares knowledge and opines without a filter including this one, “whoever invented uncapped convertible debt should be spanked!&# This is an interview you’re not going to want to miss, I promise.

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Semantic Acquisition Valuation Angel Investor 302

mporat.tumblr.com

MARCH 8, 2012

Venturing from Israel. Popular Posts: 5 Creative Ways to Find a Technical Co-Founder. 5 creative ways to find a technical co-founder. Technical co-founders are a scarce resource. So I spent some time thinking about how can entrepreneurs be creative and get access to strong co-founders?

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Cofounder Founder Israel Ruby 41