PluggedIn

In this episode of PluggedIn I sit with Avichay Nissenbaum, General Partner @ Lool Ventures and discuss how he started his career as a pest shop worker, ended up selling his last startup Yedda to AOL in 2007 and transitioned into a leading VC in Israel with Lool Ventures. Tune in to listen to that and much more as Avichay discusses his philosophy on startups and more including; How he got started in his career? What was his first startup? How long did it take to build & scale SmartTeam? (4:45) Before AOL acquired Yedda, what offer did they turn down? What did he learn from working in a pet shop? (6:50) What is the "Thin Wedge Approach"? Why does Avichay believe that "consumer experience matters more than algorithms". What mistake should startups try and avoid? (24:30) Why being CEO is lonely? (43:52) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of PluggedIn, I sit with Iri Zohar CEO of DFine and previously started and lead Oridian acquired by Ybrandt now Brightcom, eXelate acquired by Neilsen, & Freshub acquired by IKAN Technologies. It's an incredible track record and it's one of the many topics I discuss with him, what is the secret to his success, what keeps him motivated to keep building companies. When you listen to this episode you will also learn the following: 1st startup idea? Pivoting and how difficult it can be?  Overcoming the first failure? Was founding his 2nd company easier or harder? Challenges of building company culture at eXelate? What did Iri want to be at 15? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I sit with Eli Hoffman, CEO of Seeking Alpha. Eli joined the company in 2006 after moving to Israel from Toronto to build the company's breaking news team. He is responsible for creating Seeking Alpha's flagship newsletter, Wall Street Breakfast, which is read by hundreds of thousands of investors daily. The story on how Eli went from a principal of an elementary school in Toronto to CEO of one of the hottest and most relied upon sites in finance is amazing. Eli had no idea that teaching would influence his management style and how his habit of investing while teaching would play a much larger role later on. When you listen to the podcast you will also learn the following; What pushed Eli into a career change (11:35) What challenges did Eli see stepping in as CEO (29:30) Thoughts on leadership and why have a strong opinion is critical Building company DNA The 3 Qualities he looks in employees Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 3 of season 2, I had the pleasure of sitting with Dov Moran one of the more grounded entrepreneurs i know (there is no age limit to being one)who sold a company for $1.5B to Sandisk. He is pragmatism and realism are refreshing as he discusses the pros and cons (yes there can be some downside) to selling his company and why he decided he wanted to start something new, the mistakes he made along the way, and what he is doing now with Grove ventures. Dov even goes into how he became chairman of Tower Semiconductor and has to make some really hard decisions to save the company. But this is just some of the things you will learn when you listen to this podcast, here are a few more things; 1) What was his first job? 2) When did he realize that he had the wrong people in mSystems? (12:50) 3) When did mSystems start taking off? (15:45) 4) How many times did it take before mSystems sold to Sandisk? (20:40) 5) How instrumental was Dov in turning around Tower Semiconductor? (28:10) 6) Why is Grove Ventures focused on deep learning tech? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode I site down with Ofer Fryman, CEO of Syte Syte a leasding AI startup out of Israel which is redefining online and in-store retail with next-generation visual AI. Ofer takes us on his journey working at HP, Microsoft, Jungo and how his experience working at those companies have helped shape him into the CEO who just closed a $21.5M series B round and has grown to 70+ employees.  Most of all Ofer shares his insights into his experiences and if you listen you will find out the following: 1) Why breaking eggs is so important and why Ofer loves to be the one to break them. (5:00) 2) How many tries did it take to find the right product fit for Syte? 3) Be a sales leader- why it is important not to rely on others to sell your product early on.  4) Key to growth in Syte- Communication between sales & BD teams 5) What was most difficult management decision Ofer made? (38:20) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 26 I sit with Gil Dudkiewicz, CEO & Co-Founder StartApp a mobile media & data company and the 3rd most popular SDK after Google & FB. Before StartApp, Gil was the CEO of SweetIM, which was acquired by Perion Network (NASDAQ: PERI) in late 2012 for $41 million. In addition to this, In addition to this, I was also the CEO of MyDTV/MeeVee and the Entrepreneur in Residence at The Cedar Fund. This episode we discuss how his career got started, when he caught the entrepreneurial bug, what keeps him motivated, how he handles adversity, creating a culture of success , hiring methodology, scaling company, and why he doesn't believe in doors in the office. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 25, I sit down with Meir Morgenstern who co-founded CloudOn in 2012, in short, it offered a web-based collaboration tool that lets users open, review and edit Microsoft Office documents. Meir and his team were acquired by Dropbox in 2015 after collaborating with them on a third-party application. So how did Meir come up with ClouOn? Great question and in this episode Meir takes us to his first job and the impact it had on him and the lessons he learned about leadership helped him create a culture of success in CloudOn and Dropbox Israel. However, success did not come overnight, listen to the podcast and you will learn about that and more; - First job - Coming up with CloudOn - The pivot (11:15) - What is a Persumer? (22:20) - Becoming an effective CEO & leader - How did the relationship with Dropbox start (36:45) - Challenges of integrating the team into Dropbox - Building and growing Dropbox in Israel - What did Meir want to be at 15? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 24, I sit with Gil Eyal, CEO of HYPR as we speak about how HYPR came to be and how Mobli which was the Instagram before Instagram helped get him there. Eyal is a pioneer in the influencer space, as he served as the COO of early player photo-sharing app Mobli Media, and worked with influencers ranging from Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Pitbull, Lance Armstrong, Lil Wayne and Serena Williams to Nash Grier, Bart Baker, and Cameron Dallas.  In this episode, you will learn the following about Gil; 1) What lesson he learned at his first job at Playdom that has stuck with him till today 2) How he overcame failure (8:40) 3) The pivot- Realizing that the path of HYPR early is not scalable & (19:00) 4) How listening to a VC early paid off big time (22:00) 5) What he looks for in employees 6) Productivity hack (45:40) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 23 I sit with Eyal Gura, co-founder & CEO of Zebra Medical - an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company dedicated to transforming medical imaging. So how did Eyal go from cleaning windows at a gas station to a serial entrepreneur with 2 exits under his belt as a founder and another as a founding investor, a prolific angel investor that includes Taboola & Appsflyer come to lead one of the hottest companies in Israel and in the AI & Medtech sectors worldwide.  Eyal goes into how he got started, what motivates him, how he took his bar mitzvah money and invested in the stock market, why Zebra Medical is revolutionizing affordable medical care, his management style, company culture and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I sit w/ Mike Seiman, CEO @ Digital Remedy a company which he started back in college building websites and selling ads his first one being for Aaron's Pharmacy. His journey to success is rooted in hustle, loyalty, and a bit of chutzpah as he went from selling ads to scaling his company early one and how his management style has evolved over time. Here are a few more things you will learn when you listen to the podcast; - What age did Mike start making serious cash & what did his mother think he was doing? - When did he start giving to charity? - What did Mike learn from his first job? - What hard lesson did Mike learn early on and how did he overcome it? - Biggest surprise campaign (31:45) - Management Skills and what makes him effective (36:00) - What did he want to be at 15? - Recommended productivity hack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I speak with VideoAmp Chief Strategy Officer Jay Prasad about his career has taken him to VideoAmp and how he has helped them become one of the leading AdTech players in the industry. From his time as a consultant with EY where he learned that listening was a big part of how to succeed. Before joining VideoAmp, he served as VP of Global Business Development at TubeMogul where he led the company’s launch of Programmatic TV, data and supply partnerships, and international partnership teams in the U.S., EU, Japan, and Southeast Asia.  Previously, Jay led strategic development at FreeWheel, focused on broadcasters’ distribution to digital and OTT platforms. In this episode, Jay discusses; - Early challenges VideoAmp faced - Building the company culture- What do look for in employees and how do they create loyalty? - The hardest decision he made? (33:50) - Management skills- what to look for. - What separates VideoAmp from competitors (39:30) - What did Jay want to be when he was 15? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode #20 I sit with Eric Berry of TripleLift a leading native ad platform. We delve into all topics from his first job, getting into adtech, the founding of TripleLift, initial capital raise, management style, why he feels Slack is a net drain on productivity, getting the first campaign on TL, why Java is at the core of their product, how they have been profitable from early on and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode #19 I sit down with Omer Keilaf, CEO of Innoviz on of the hottest companies in the autonomous vehicle sector. Omer finally realized his dream of being a CEO after spending years helping 3 different startups succeed to the point where he co-founded Innoviz in 2016. Omer took an idea and in 3 weeks raised $9M and the rest is history. He brought in 20 employees and started to build the product out, over that time tInnoviz has grown to over 200 people with $182M raised to date. In this podcast you will also learn the following: - How long did it take Omer to raise capital? - What is Lidar? - When did Omer realize Innoviz was going to be HUGE? - Why was CES '17 a pivotal point for Innoviz? (17:00) - How did a startup land a partnership w/ BMW - What did he want to be at 15? - Productivity- what hack does he suggest for others? (41:00) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode #18 I sit down with Ziv Elul, CEO of Fyber a leading mobile adtech company in Israel and beyond. Ziv's story is pretty amazing from a career in the IDF to an MBA at Hebrew U where he took a thesis project on In-Game Advertising and built it into one of the hottest adtech startups with friend and co-founder Offer Yehudai. So what led him to this path, what lessons did he learn from IDF that prepared him to be CEO of a multinational company. All excellent questions and you will learn the answers when you listen to the podcast. When you listen you will also hear how he raised his first round of funding, got his first client, started getting traction, why he pivoted the company (21:00), what he looks for in employees, why he looks forward to Shabbat. Listen and enjoy but most of all don't forget to give a positive rating in iTunes, Google, etc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 17, I sit with Sarah Hofstetter one of the more accomplished executives in the Digital Media Space. Sarah's story shows what hard work, creativity, perseverance, and good timing can lead to. Sarah is currently President of Comscore but her first job was as an intern at the NYTimes where she learned the art of storytelling. One of the key lessons she learnt early on was the importance of communication within the company and how the absence if it allows false narratives to be created. Here are a few more things you will learn when you listen to the podcast; - How did she get started at 360i - What led Sarah to become CEO - What 3 traits did Sarah instill at 360i (Passion, Purpose, Persistence) - Why was her first pitch at 360i was or Living w/ ED (hysterical story) - Why Comscore? - What keeps Sarah on top of her game? - What hack does she do and recommends- hint: it's waterproof Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 16, I sat down with Dennis Crowley, co-founder, former CEO, & Executive chairman of Foursquare to talk about the beginnings of his career in tech and how he took his passion of bringing people together into Foursquare. However, before founding the geolocation company in 2009, he had a less than ideal experience selling his previous startup, Dodgeball, to Google in 2005. That experience led to the creation of Foursquare as the leader in geolocation data for enterprises and the fun app for consumers and is now used by more than 50 million people every month. Here are some of the other topics discussed in this episode: - How many things did Dennis fail at? (8:20) - What was the grad thesis project that Dennis write in Syracuse? - Why the lack of infrastructure hurt the first fundraising round? - What advice did Andreessen Horowitz give to Dennis that helped them grow? - Had no idea how popular Foursquare would be - When did he realize that Foursquare needed a new CEO (19:30) - How did the pivot into a location data company come to be? - What does Dennis do in his spare time? - What did Dennis want to be at 15? - What hack does Dennis recommend to keep himself organized? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode #15 I sit with Avner Halperin, CEO of EarlySense a medtech company that is at the forefront of Digital health. EarlySense developed a software and sensor that remotely monitors patients’ sleep and movement when placed under a mattress. Crazy! I know as it's one of the more effective non-invasive patient-monitoring systems, in fact it saved over 3,000 lives in 2018 and is now in over 1M beds. So how did Avner build EarlySense to be one of the largest MedTech companies out of Israel? Listen to find out, but in the meantime here things you will learn in this episode. 1. What proverbial wall did EarlySense hit? How did they overcome it before it killed them? 2. What challenge did EarlySense overcome w/ first product? 3. Diversity within the company as they have 13 languages spoken in the office and employees ages range from 17-77. 4. Market Research!! Critical to their sucess- EarlySense spent months in hospitals listening to the needs of users-i.e. medical professionals 5. Leveraged experts in field to prove value and generate proof points. 6. How did EarlySense penetrate & sell to US Hopitals? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode #14 I sit down with Yosef "Gary" Levitt, former CEO & Founder of MadMimi which was acquired by GoDaddy for $45M. The road to success was anything but easy as Yosef's journey started on a farm in South Africa to becoming a pro-skateboarder and bass player, getting a scholarship to a music college in the US, working as a Busboy in SOHO, playing at wedding, getting married, moving to Jerusalem and building MadMimi into one of the best email platforms for artists and small businesses. This interview with Gary Levitt is one of the most incredible and inspiring I have ever heard. W/o any formal education Gary was able to produce music for The Oprah Winfrey Show, teaching himself HTML from a book, and so much more. This interview will make you realize that you too can start a company and the only one holding you back is yourslef. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode #13, I sit down with Yoni Assia, CEO & Founder of eToro, the worlds leading social trading platform. So how did Yoni take his passion for finance from his teenage years and build a company that in 2018 had 1 Trillion in trading and 1 Billion in customer deposits? It wasn't done alone, he had great investors like Guy Gamzu who was an early lead investor and was critical in creating an organizational structure that has helped the company grow, it now has 620 employees worldwide. He keeps employees happy by giving them equity and looks to hir jr. people who look to grow. The culture he has built has been infectious and has helped them grow to over 10 million users and 60% growth in revenues the past 2 years. In fact they are looking to hire 150 people in 2019 and have their sites on global domination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 12, I sit down with Yaron Samid, a serial entrepreneur who already built 2 successful startups on Pando & Desksite took an idea he had after finding a weird credit card charge which led him to create BillGuard a “collective brain” of credit card charges needed to be created to warn people about common grey charges. Yaron's journey to a successful exit was long, hard, and fun from his really short stint at Edelman PR after college, to Forman Interactive (Register.com), Backweb, Desksite, Pando and finally BullGuard. Yaron's career originally started in marketing and moved to product marketing and management which he realized made him a better founder and one that gave him a better perspective on running a business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 11, I sit down with Sagi Schliesser CEO & Co-founder of TabTale one of the largest mobile gaming companies in the world with over 2 Billion downloads. Years of experience from 8 years in the army, 10 years in B2B led Sagi to follow his passion and creativity to create TabTale. TabTale was not an overnight success, it took a number of years to find the right formula and a big commitment from Sagi who sold his apartment to continue to build and grow TabTale. Now it has 5 offices around the world with their mobile games regularly breaking the top 10 in the app store. This episode has so much more as Sagi goes into their marketing strategies, company culture, and most of all what Sagi wanted to be when he was 15. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 10 I sit down with Shaul Olmert Co-founder & CEO of Playbuzz and learn how a deep introspective look at his career had him start Playbuzz. So how does a kid from Jerusalem who started out as a teacher end up creating and running one of the largest content creation companies in the market? It all started back as a teach where he met his co-founder and former student Tom Pachys and years of working at startups, entertainment companies, gaming companies and the growing frustration with where his career path was going. By taking a deep look at himself and his career Shaul realized that he needed to follow his passion and create something, which led to Playbuzz. Shaul opens up on the many challenges he faced from almost running out of money early on, doubling down when the future looked bleak and how success happened by accident early on. Most impressive though was the loyalty he showed to his first lead investor Danny Cohen from Viola ventures (formerly Carmel Ventures) who gave them terms before they saw any traction and easily could have gotten better terms after their viral success on their demo product led them to see over 20M users on their site within 4 months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 9, I sit down with Yali Saar former child actor and now CEO of one of the hottest creative companies around. His story is fascinating as there are many things that led up to him creating Tailor Brands with two of his best friends and how they went from building brands via AI to becoming an agency for SMBs and servicing all their creative needs, viewing themselves as the WPP for the small business market. Questions we discuss range from how his acting career prepared him for fundraising and raising $20M, how he is building loyalty and fostering community with his employees, challenges of scaling Tailor Brands, approach to marketing and onboarding over 500,000 new customers monthly, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I had the privilege of sitting down with Ouriel Ohayon- entrepreneur, angel investor, VC, and founder who has accomplished all this in his 20 or so years in the space. We discussed a variety of topics spanning past, present, and future including his first job of selling CD's in a retail store and how that stayed with him. Ouriel takes us through his early days of starting an internet company and the important lesson he learned that lead him on an amazing journey of investing and building one of the largest VC firms in France to the realization he wanted to build a company when the iPhone & AppStore. That lead him to start Appsfire and growing it only to pivot when Apple made some big changes and working through that to having a sucessful exit. All of his experience has culminated with his latest company KZen Networks and is taking all the experience he has gained to build a juggaernaught in the crypto/blockchain industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 7, I interview Dennis Mortensen, CEO & Founder of X.AI and a serial entrepreneur who had 3 exits prior to X.AI. It’s hard to believe Dennis started in the fur trade back in Denmark building cages and saving his money to buy his first computer and becoming a computer geek. The hard work paid off as Dennis has had one hit after another with his last company being acquired by Outbrain. If you want to learn more about his drive and philosophy on selling than listen to this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 6 I sit down with Eric Franchi who co-founded Undertone which was acquired by Perion on how he started out in the Adtech industry and how he came to be an angel investor and partner in MathCapital an aggressive early-stage VC in the Adtech/Martech industries. Eric goes into detail on how sales / cold calling prepared him for success to what he looks for in founders and startups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 5, we take a bit of a detour and instead of a founder, CEO, or angel investor I interview Hillel Fuld a premier influencer in tech and specifically the Israel startup ecosystem. From how he started blogging which lead to vlogging, his pay it forward approach of helping companies. I try and bring insight into what makes him go (at a really fast pace) from his approach to advising companies, networking, and the overall Israel tech scene. This is an in-depth interview with one of the master connectors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this Pluggedin Podcast we go deep with Chris Cunningham the early adopter on FB advertising and how AppSavvy came to be. Chris takes us on his journey from being a founder and on top of the advertising world for a number of years to being forced to pivot and going from 50 customers to one large one. How did that experience make him one of the premier Angel Investors and why he is crushing it today. This episode has it all, listen to get some awesome insights. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rooly was an architect by trade but soon realized that he really wanted to build products more than buildings. In this interview Rooly tells us how he met his co-founders at Gigya, how they worked so well together, how they built Gigya (which was sold for $300+ million to SAP) from within and much more. This podcast is full of fantastic info especially how they fostered a culture within the company to make horizontal and latter also moves for employees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How exactly did Guy Gamzu become one of the more successful angel investors in Israel? Guy goes into detail from his first investment and why he wears the title of Angel Investor proudly. Learn from his successes and failures, what he does to overcome the proverbial brick wall, what he looks for in an entrepreneur, how to deal with a company pivot, how involved is he with portfolio companies and it's founder. This is a podcast you will not want to miss as we get an inside view on his journey over the past 20 years as one of the most active angel investors in Israel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A candid conversation with Steven Glanz the former CEO and Co-founder of Crosswise which was acquired by Oracle in 2016. Steven goes into detail on what spurred him to start a company, at what point did he realize it was time to sell, what he took away from his first job in tech that stayed with him until today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices