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)

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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?

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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

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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?

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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)

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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.

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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?

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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)

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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. 

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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

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