The Human Founder - Global

Boaz Gaon, Founder & CEO of Wisdo Health

Curing others (and yourself) from the loneliness epidemic

 

In our intimate conversation, we talked about what it’s like being part of a very well known family of high achievers in Israel, with the constant expectation from you to leave your mark in the world, about the power of storytelling and how it connects to the world of founders, and about his mission to cure the loneliness epidemic with his innovative company, Wisdo.

“Loneliness is simply a gap between the human relationships that you have in your life, and the human relationships you would like to have in your life. The larger the gap, the more lonely you feel. It’s not a matter of - if you're married or have co-founders or a lot of friends. If you are living a life where you're surrounded with people you don’t feel you can be close to and vulnerable with in an open and authentic way - that gap is not going to be closed by itself.”

Ori Manor Zuckerman, Co-Founder and CEO of SubStrata

How can we spot the social signals we send and accept, and improve our communication as founders & dealmakers?

“It all starts from pain.” Ori admits being shy and sensitive as a child. That same sensitivity is still rooted into his character and personality. Oddly, Ori believes it serves as a key component in some of his recent achievements (successful exits) and an effective “fuel” for future ones. His journey was and still is all about accepting yourself and your weaknesses, and sometimes understanding that your ‘weaknesses’ ARE  your strengths.

In our intimate and fascinating conversation, we talked about learning from your mistakes as a young entrepreneur, about the hidden nonverbal channels behind  every social interaction, who shed a light on the mystery of human communication, and why knowing this is crucial to your success in every field in your life.

Narkis Alon, Co-founder of DoubleYou and “playing with Fire”, Author of “Alive Woman”

** How does the connection to our own body affect the way we lead in the world? **

 

In an intimate and insightful conversation we talked about how Narkis experienced her eureka moment that changed her whole perspective and fueled her to forge a new personal and professional path, about the way women are taught to treat their bodies and how it reflects later in their workplace, about the price that we all pay when were controlled by gender roles and what we can do to create a safe space in the workplace, that is not just based on what no to do, but also knows and communicates what we want and can.

Nevo Alva, Co-Founder & CEO of Acumen

**How seeing everything as a ‘learning opportunity for personal & professional growth’ is a mindset that  can change your life as a serial entrepreneur?**

In an intimate and fascinating conversation we talked about how Nevo discovered his purpose by coincidence, about managing a balanced family life as a busy parent, the roller coaster of founding Visualead, and how after a surprising success in China he and his family packed everything and moved on to a challenging and amazing year. How after a big success he got the courage to jump into the deep water again and found Acumen together with Itamar and Daniel, and how to stay balanced in a world full of ups and downs, while still keeping the inner fire of a serial entrepreneur.

Alex Frenkel, Co-Founder and CEO of Kai.ai

How can we as parents-founders help better our own Teenagers’ mental health?

 

From psychologist to entrepreneur

Just a few years ago, Alex was all in as a clinical psychologist, having two clinics, teaching about psychology - when by accident, he found himself diving into the Tech world. It was something he didn’t know had existed before, and he felt like ‘Alice in wonderland’ as he discovered the full power and potential that lies within that world. He decided to found his first company, and poured his energy into it. 

 

When I asked Alex about this big switch, he shared that from his perspective - it wasn't a big shift, because companies are all about people. As a psychologist, his activity has changed but the essence is still about people. He uses his empathy and wisdom as a psychologist to connect and understand his usersand their needs.

 

When it came to Kai, it started when the time was right. Alex and Netanel reached out to Ziv, who built an earlier version of Kai. They weren't sure about it in the beginning - they didn’t think people would cooperate and use AI, but after weeks of convincing, he decided to go for it - not because he was sure about the idea, but because he was ready to build a company with amazing co-founders to explore with. He said yes to this unique combination between psychological background and technological expertise.

 

The alarming data

1 out of 3 teenagers will experience severe sadness, the percentage is even higher for teenage girls. Suicide rate grew by 40%, and Covid only accelerated it. Why is that?

Well, the last two years were very hectic - teenagers stayed an enormous amount of time at home without having any certainty about the next day, they were more exposed to the stress in their home life and had nowhere to escape to. Add the absence of time outside in the sunlight and in nature, and the twisted mirror of social media, which filled all their time with watching the illusion of the perfect lives of others - it’s a ticking time bomb.

Although it’s scary and hard to admit as parents - we don't necessarily always know what happens to our children, and what’s going on inside their heads. And when we do know eventually, it’s often too late.

 

How can we as parents be there for our kids?

- Spending quality time with them - there's no way around it

- Creating space where parents bring more vulnerability 

- Normalize sharing about emotions through asking how they’re feeling, letting them know that it's super normal to feel pain and difficult feelings - everyone goes through them in their lifetime

- Address their questions, even and especially when they’re difficult or uncomfortable to talk about

- Nonjudgmental attitude

- Modeling - we often don’t teach our kids tools to handle their emotions, and then they find unhelpful and even harmful ways of coping. It’s our responsibility to teach them about the most powerful and basic part of being human - expressing our emotions.

- Talk with other parents to know you are not alone dealing with those things, and also learn from others about the tools they give to their kids. 

 

Reacting to Kai

Alex found that the different age groups react differently to Kai. Adults tend to use technology in different ways and for different reasons than teenagers, and had a resistance to Kai - they expected it could replace a human, and tried to find the holes that will trick the platform. They were very skeptical. 

The younger Kaiers on the other hand, didn't expect it to be like a human at all. They trusted the tech more, and it allowed them to share without feeling shame, and have a safe space.

 

We might have a hard time understanding this, but teenagers have new ways of interacting - they’re used to interacting through apps like Discord - a platform for managing conversations. It started for connecting  while playing online games and expanded to servers that are building huge communities for a lot of interests like anima and music - they use more group chats, messaging and sending voice messages, they’re use to interacting through gaming with avatars that are not even humans, and have the shield of anonymity. Teenagers don’t use one app anymore for interaction, but are constantly on a different conversation experience - that’s where the future is heading .

 

Tech as the problem and the cure

Technology is a big part of the problem and the solution together. It’s the channel we can harness to reach out to teens. Just like Duolingo is making learning languages accessible, the goal is that Kai will make emotional tools accessible for everyone.

 

I asked Alex to demonstrate Kai’s work, and we chose the example of a girl named Amanda who's struggling with body image. The first and surprising thing that Alex mentioned, is that many times, she won’t know she's struggling, anxious or depressed.

They found that the first thing that helps a teen like Amanda is to ask her - how happy are you right now from 1-10? - This question is a very important trigger for them to gain awareness about themselves.

From there, the way Kai works is simple - daily short interactions where Kai allows them to pause, recognise what's good in their life through questions and be proactive about it, and describe their feelings. 

 

As a user of Kai for almost 2 years now, as well as a coach to many founders, I know that for most of us, even stopping for a moment and verbally saying what we want in a coherent way and speaking our emotions is a very hard task, but so incredibly crucial.

 

Alex adds that paying attention to the good things is even harder from a neuroscience perspective, because of our brain’s negativity bias. We are all programmed to pay attention to the negative things, and don’t notice the good things naturally. This muscle of noticing the good things and feeling gratitude needs to be practiced every day to rewire our brain for happiness and joy in life.

 

Alex sees a future where everyone has an AI companion and the more they engage with it, it will get to know them and help them more. A big uniqueness of Kai is that their team is a combination between therapists, psychiatrists and psychologists that come from both research and clinical work, and create the best toolkit. They focus a lot on tools from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy:

- Learning to control our breath

- Learning the ability of observing our thoughts and emotions and create healthy distance from them

- ACT - acceptance and Commitment Therapy - teaches not to fix challenging emotions, but allowing them to be

- Learning the skill of psychological flexibility

- Learning the skill of positive psychotherapy 

 

And the amazing thing is that Kai also learns and improves itself through its users. A therapist will see 1K of patients on average through their entire career, but Kai will see more than 15k users every single day. 

Machines on their own have many limitations, and humans on their own have many limitations - but the combination of humans with the machine is stronger than any human or machine on its own.

Natan Linder, Co-Founder & CEO of Tulip, Co-Founder & Chairman at Formlabs

How do you build 2 successful startups and how significant are the mindset and desire along the way?

 

Natan grew up next to his granddad's wood shop, always building things with his hands. At the same time, his dad, who was an engineer, taught him  about  programming, and he started doing that at an early age as well.

As a teenager, he was interested in getting stuff done with more people, so he started his first company at the age of 17, and caught the Entrepreneurship Bug. Still being a highschool student, he came to experience a totally different world of meetings and thinking as the COO of the company, the things he only saw in movies before.

 

After he graduated high school, he served in the Air Force Intelligence, where he did operational and  technical roles, which meant a lot of responsibility on his hands. When he finished his service, he stepped out to a different world - it was the end game of the “.com” era, and he found himself writing a lot of code.

He was drawn mostly to embedded systems - he liked the combination of hardware and software. 

One friend sent him to the IDC, because he was interested in their scholarship for entrepreneurship, tech and leadership and asked Natan to take the application forms for him. As he helped his friend he thought to himself - why wouldn’t I fill one for myself as well?

At the time Natan was studying political science at the Open University Of Israel - Jean-Jacques Rousseau was as exciting to him as c++, but at the end - he found himself getting the scholarship and reevaluating his direction. He decided to do his Bachelor Degree in computer science.

 

He met Eyal Toledano in this program - a good friend and his co-founder. Both of them were in love with mobile, and searched together for what was most interesting for them.

Natan managed to work during his studies full time. They were working on getting downloadable apps on mobile phones in the early 2000, when mobile phones mostly knew how to send text messages and do very simple things. Then came the 2008 crash, and while they had great ideas, they couldn’t raise money. 

Samsung reached them, as they had no R&D in Israel at the time, and although they were dreaming of making a company of their own, Samsung managed to convince them to join. 

And so, at the age of 23-25 - Natan found himself being the GM for the mobile division for Samsung in Israel, an experience which he describes as his Grad School.

 

Moving to the US

After 5 years in Samsung, Natan decided he wanted to try and build a company of his own.

He came to the conclusion that for that he needed to become a VC or work in a VC, which in retrospect he suggests not to do.

He met Harel Margalit. and joined JVP as EIR, where he had a lot of freedom to do what was interesting to him, when his wife was accepted to do her MBA in MIT - an opportunity of a lifetime. 

It was a no brainer, and he decided to put his work aside and come with her.

 

That’s how he landed in Boston. At first, he was confused and didn’t quite know what to do after working in tech for a decade, but he knew this could be a fresh start for him. He thought he might try MIT as well, the Media lab specifically.

At the same time, he started working with Prof. Rodney Brooks, whose company is responsible for iRobot & rumba, and pioneering robotics in general. Meeting Prof. Rodney was like meeting Michael Jordan for a basketball fan, as he was a very impactful and known figure in the worlds of machine learning and artificial intelligence. 

Natan joined him in the new company he was building that signaled the dawn of collaborative robots, robots that would be safe to interact with humans and would be programmed by teaching.

 

He was 29 years old at the time, and after considering the tradeoffs he decided to join MIT, and his amazing journey there started, which ended with a PhD. He found new opportunities for himself from within the realm of the unknown. Natan explains that he appreciates the beauty in the dichotomy of the entrepreneur, of “organized chaos” - he didn’t have a solid plan, but he had his anchors. He came in with the mentality of - “we’ll figure it out. In the worst case - I’ll get a job in a big company. And I tell that to new employees as well - people have the wrong impression of how risk works - because in the worst case you'll go back to the market and get a normal job.”

 

This belief is crucial for entrepreneurs, because we need to navigate all the time within the unknown, we can't have it all planned out and go exactly according to plan. We need to have trust in ourselves and believe in our abilities, and know from that deep place that no matter what, we’ll figure it out.

 

Product-Market fit

Media lab is a very hands-on place at MIT where you can explore and have a lot of creative freedom, and also get sponsors who come from industry and interact with the students. Natan came to MIT after decades of experience in engineering, and shares that it’s difficult to unthink this way of doing things, so the entrepreneurial mindset never really left him. 

He was working on projected augmented reality, and created Formlabs with two of his classmates.

 

Today, Formlabs is a decade old company with 700+ people, selling over 100,000 printers for design and engineering, but also for dental care. It became a Unicorn.

“You can’t really plan which company will hit its product market fit and when.” - Their decision to put their complex and expensive HW - SW product on Kickstarter was a risk, as the platform wasn’t really used to that type of product - but it turned out to be a huge success, with 3M$ of product orders - that was an early product-market fit for them.

 

“No regret decision”

Natan made the difficult decision to leave Formlabs and found Tulip, and shared that:” it was a moment that Jeff Bezos defines as a “no regret decision”, where you don’t evaluate your decision based on what you know now, but based on thinking how regretful would you be if you looked back as an 90 years old man at this choice.”

Formlabs was pretty stable, and Natan realized that this is the chance to build a very important second company, he couldn’t imagine a reality where someone else does this instead of him - so he went all in. “It doesn’t mean that you're comfortable and know exactly all the things about the decision, but the conviction that this is something worthwhile building was extremely clear.”

 

Managing it all

Having 2 companies, a wife who's also a very busy executive and kids - how do you manage all the stress of having so many balls in the air at the same time?

Natan shares that for him it didn't become so stressful overnight. He made the progress and the building of the company slowly and gradually on purpose - his bar for building a platform was very high, and he was preparing for the longhall.

 

As for the stress, he shares that for him there's only one thing that can give you balance, and that’s the people around you - the family, his teams, the investors. Even as for stepping down from an operational type of role in Formlabs, it wouldn’t have been possible without a great co-founder on the other hand.

 

When I asked Natan about navigating between his personal and professional life, he shared that he grew up with 4 siblings and 2 hardworking parents, so the idea of a demanding career and kids together was not foreign to him, it’s just life. 

The practical reality is that as parents you take turns and cover for each other - there is no magic answer. Although they’re far from their close family, there are other parts of the family and a community that they’ve built over the years, and they make the best of it - there's always trade-offs.  Still, he shares he’s living in a constant reality of wanting to be with his family more and spend more time with his kids, but having said that, the other side of the coin is that they’re being good role model for their kids, teaching them the value of work and the entrepreneurship mentality - “no matter what they’ll choose to do when they’ll grow up, it teaches them about life.”

Sharon Barak, CEO and Co-Founder at Solutum

About the power of purpose, the skill of debate and building yourself all over from the ashes 

 

A strong “why”

 

Sharon always wanted to do something of her own, but didn’t know what and how she’s going to do it in the beginning. What she did know is that it had to answer those criterias:

1) Be within her expertise areas - an arena where she knows that she's doing

2) Have a great impact for the world

 

She spent years as an employee, having a great career, learning a lot in her last job about the world of plastics - the good and the bad - and then all the dots connected. She knew that plastic is good, but it creates huge pollution at the end of its life. She was determined to find a solution for the planet. So she quit her job and became an entrepreneur.

 

Then came some turbulence at the age of 35. Her relationship at the time ended, she had no job, which means no money and no place to live. She hit rock bottom. But from that place, she realized what it means to be there for herself, truly. The power needs to come from within. She invested all of herself in her startup, living in her aunt’s and uncle’s apartment for a year, creating everything from the ashes.

 

From nothing to everything

 

How do you keep on going when there's no promise for achievement in the future?

 

1. Sharon had no plan B - there's no other way. She was passionate and believed in what she was doing.
2. She enjoyed what she was doing, and so she could live it and give it her all.
3. Having a good support system - she had her family, she met Maya who started the company with her and believed in her. Even as adults, we all need that one person who believes in us, that will help us take the next step.

 

Saron shares that in hindsight, she probably made every mistake in the book on her journey of founding her startup. She shares about trying to bring a person she admired for his knowledge in tech and business to be her co-founder, although he wasn’t really into it. In the process of making a contract, they couldn’t get into agreement and things turned ugly, to the point where they had to involve lawyers, which meant that the business was in a loss before it even started - it was a scary point for her. 

 

She handled the situation through being very upfront with the investors, and luckily they were willing to take the risk. The second thing she did, is putting the lawyers aside and meeting with him in person. This made a huge difference, and allowed them to end things on friendly terms. That was a big lesson for her, teaching her about the importance of making a contract from the very beginning of working together - don’t just trust luck.

 

I (Gali) always tell the entrepreneurs I coach - if we’re not willing to speak about the major parts in the beginning, then later on they will find their way to come into the surface as much bigger issues. It’s crucial to know if we’re aligned before we choose to work together. Look the fear in the eyes, don’t avoid it.

 

Debate

 

In her 4th year at the university, Sharon had a big project to present in front of the entire chemical engineering department - and even the thought of that was terrifying to her. She was frustrated, thinking of what she can do, when a friend told her about the debate team - and she jumped on the opportunity. 

 

The first few sessions were terrible. A couple of months later, she won first place in a debate competition - and completely fell in love with it. It taught her many lessons that served her later as an entrepreneur - the value of listening deeply to the other opponent, how to study and practice before the debate itself  in order to plan the strategy for convincing, and of course - how to speak in front of an audience: “I don’t know how I would have done the startup without it.” Now when she needs to do a pitch, she can manage that with all the tools she learned.

 

The power of listening

 

As the founder of her startup managing her team, she found that what helps her employees shine and express their great ideas is simply - shut up, and listen. In meetings, she resists the urge to speak first and gives her team the space, and they come up with amazing ideas - that’s why she picked them, after all. She still makes her voice heard, but she allows others actively by waiting to do that as well. It's not easy, but it’s a learning muscle, and the benefits are enormous. 

 

Bringing entrepreneurship into a traditional industry

 

Sharon definitely ‘stood out from the crowd’, and people didn’t really know how to handle her unique position, coming from such different worlds. When she went as part of the delegation of Weact of the wonderful Darya Henig Shaked to Silicon Valley, people didn't know what Water soluble Plastic is, and Sharon faced the challenge of raising money as a woman entrepreneur, as well as pitching something that doesn't have a “sexy” ring to it. 

 

The turning point was when she realized words are not enough - they need to see it with their own eyes. So she showed them a plastic bag that can dissolve in contact with water - and indeed, it made a huge difference. Now she had them hooked, and managed to raise a few millions of dollars.

 

When I asked Sharon what she wishes for herself for her soon to come birthday, she shared about how lucky she feels with her life partner, 2 kids and her startup, and that she simply wishes for it to stay that way. Enjoying and maintaining the beautiful relationship with her supportive partner, raising her two sons, raising the next round for her company, and enjoying the great team she has built.

Dr. Lisa Law, Clinical Psychologist

Unless we have the freedom to fail - we don’t have the freedom to succeed. How to cope with failure and embrace it as an integral part of our lives?

 

For risk takers - failure is part of the journey. Although entrepreneurs are more confident in their personality - understanding that failure is inevitable - is a must. Otherwise - there’s a lot of suffering, self blame and frustration. Just like children learn how to walk by falling and learning - same goes for us. The more we are psychologically resilient - the quicker we will bounce back.

 

Why do people don’t want to cope with failure?

 

People want confidence. By coping with failure - it’s like putting a mirror of what didn’t work well which may lead to confusion, frustration and a sense of instability of how to act next. Instead of letting it affect our self-esteem and thinking how others will see us - we have to be realistic, to be able to meet it, and move away from it, like Tony Robbins said:

“A fantastic analogy for the power of focus is racing cars. When your car begins to skid, the natural reflex is to look at the wall in an attempt to avoid it. But if you keep focusing on what you fear, that's exactly where you'll end up. Professional racers know that we unconsciously steer in the direction of our focus, so with their lives on the line, they turn their focus away from the wall and towards the open track.”

 

Vulnerability is the name of the game. Embracing life as they are, and allowing ourselves to be human and navigate through the emotional sides of life. It’s a muscle we need to strengthen - leading with our vulnerability and not ignoring it. 

Not everyone is up to it, as it involves taking risks. People feel safer to take risks in areas where they feel strong. For example, people who are confident in managing money - can take risks in financials. But being an entrepreneur - means also taking an emotional risk, and it may be hard. 

Gen Z, for instance, brings a different mentality into the workforce, and there’s a shift towards being more emotionally connected, keeping their well-being in place, being more authentic, and bringing themselves in. Founders & employers that won’t embrace this mindset - will simply won’t win in the competition for the brightest talents. 

 

When coping with failure - we need to identify between internal and external attribution and how it impacts us. E.g. - if the pitch didn't go well - is it because I wasn't prepared (internal), or the investors were extremely harsh (external).

If it’s internal but not stable - it’s OK,

but if it’s internal and stable - then we’re stuck.

With the help of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), we can re-evaluate it and change the way we feel towards failure, getting out from our “stuck” place.

 

When we deal with failure, it can affect our stress level, which will be reflected in:

• Physiological symptoms, like our increasing heart rate, blood pressure etc. Learning techniques that can actually help us reduce the stress levels - can be very beneficial. In stressful situations - the sympathetic system gets into action, and our adrenaline and cortisol levels can increase as we feel that “the lion is in the room”. By moving, doing exercises, practicing yoga, meditation, shaking our body, learning breathing techniques, eating in shorter intervals and drinking less coffee - we can help calm our sympathetic system. Furthermore, having social support increases the levels of the oxytocin spread in our body (the ‘love’ hormone), which also improves our feeling. 
• Cognitive aspects - like negative thoughts we should transition into positive ones.
• Emotional aspects - we can feel unpleasant emotions and feelings.

 

Ask yourself - which feeling or emotion I don’t allow myself to feel/show enough? Being angry, jealous, hurt?

Dealing with emotions includes 2 stages: 

1 - Validate it, naming it, acknowledging what we feel. 

2 - Stay with it for a while and then move along. Don’t get stuck.

Entrepreneurs often move on, but without necessarily processing what happened to them.

 

As we volunteer to be part of society - we have to understand that loss, failure and pain are part of life. When we choose to connect with people - we take a risk, as we will also have to learn how to lose & mourn. 

Elizabeth Kobler Ross defined in 1969 the different stages of the loss & mourning. When processing a failure within our entrepreneurial life - we are actually experiencing the loss of a hope/ effort/ belief/ relationship.    

In the 1st stage - we are in denial and/or shock - “the company doesn't close ''/ “he is not leaving”/ “he hasn't died”.

Then we try to bargain  - if XXX then YYY. We try “to close a deal” in order to change the verdict.

Then we feel a strong anger combined with anxiety - “how will I ever be OK?”/

And lastly, is the stage of the acceptance - “I’m not OK that it happened, but I’m OK with it”. 

We’re not necessarily going through all those stages, and we can also get in and out from each stage several times.

 

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places”/ Ernest Hemingway. 

This idea is what lies in the basis of AEDP, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, developed by Dr. Diana Fosha. Crisis and suffering provide opportunities to awaken extraordinary capacities that otherwise might lie dormant, unknown and untapped. AEDP is about experientially making the most of these opportunities for both healing and transformation. Key to its therapeutic action is the undoing of aloneness and thus, the co-creation of a therapeutic relationship experienced as both safe haven and secure base. Then, working with emotional experience toward healing trauma and suffering, and toward expanding emergent positive transformational experiences.

 

Understanding that life is more complex than two axes of good-bad, right-wrong - we shall embrace the spectrum of experiences we are experiencing through life. Less labeling and categorizing, be less judgmental and more compassionate.

 

Showing empathy & vulnerability, make it much easier to live life to its fullest. There is a correlation between vulnerability and likeability. 

Remember - learn how to empower yourself and not be awaiting external approvals of who and what you are. 

 

Failure is our way to learn how to walk.

Mor Assia & Shelly Hod Moyal - Founding Partners & Co-CEOs of iAngels

How superwomen investors navigate together investments & motherhood? 

 

In light of International Women Day, I chose to share my conversation with two inspiring women.

Shelly & Mor have been close friends from New-York for years. They often discussed the challenges that they saw with investing in Israel, until they decided to pick up the glove and said:” We have to do it”. From their point of view, working in a big organization at the time, where there's a lot of discipline and many practices, the ecosystem seemed to them like a Jungle. Mor was working for Amdocs, and Shelly was working at 

Goldman Sachs  - and they both loved it, being able to do big things and having that corporate back. But on the other hand, Mor felt that her job was too narrow - she wanted to do more and expand.

She started dreaming about building something from scratch, and bringing an innovative approach for investing. So instead of taking her maternity leave - she took a risk. 

It took a lot of discipline to make the time for their work, both Shelly & Mor, especially as mothers to very young babies. It was a true test to their commitment, and they passed it successfully, armed by new confidence in what they can bring to the table.

 

Shelly always wanted to do something of her own. After the 1st child - she knew she couldn’t delay it any longer, she wanted a change. 

She was thinking about connecting between investors & founders and creating a professional way to invest. Her background in financing & investing allowed her to experience the finance system from many different angles.

Together, with their complementary skill set, Shelly knew they could be a good team.

 

They met in a meeting of young Israeli professionals in New York. Shelly was very impressed by Mor and came up to her. They became friends. The partners. Now they’re family.

 

The superpowers that  were the base for their partnership - Trust & Open Communication

 

Shelly shared about Mor’s talents - her strong sense of self, optimistic, crazy original logical way of thinking, analyzing, good dialog that sharpens her thinking, teaching her things about herself and the world. Mostly, she felt that their relationship has created a lot of personal & mutual growth for both of them.

 

As for Shelly’s abilities, Mor shares that Shelly is very smart, a crazy work ethic that pushed her to work at Goldman for 22 hours a day. ”She is my superpower”. Their different enough backgrounds were complementing without them stepping on each other’s toes. 

“I totally respect the fact that Shelly can have her own opinion, and sometimes it won’t be my opinion, but we have so much mutual respect, admiration, love and values that allows us to engage in probably anything. We can talk about things openly, we can decide to disagree and still love each other.” Their early employees were shocked by their chemistry, one of them told them that their communication was on a completely different wavelength so that they didn’t even have to talk to know what the other one is thinking, and another one was floored by seeing them completely disagree about something in a meeting and being seemingly very upset, and then grab lunch together like nothing happened. 

 

Their baseline of communication is trust - Know the other person has your best interest at heart - it took a lot of training to build that.

 

While choosing how to react in a situation - one should ask him.herself:

How would you act differently if the transaction only happened one time or if this was a repeated transaction? If you know that this is the partnership you want for life, it’s no longer a transaction, it’s continuous. They both understood that this is what they want in life. What they will build together, is what they will share. Shelly compared it to marriage - it only works if you’re thinking of the other person. 

She stopped nitpicking in her close relationships.

In negotiation, Mor shared - “when you have a hand that’s dealt - we are never satisfied, because we feel we can pull another card and change the entire situation = we're good with seeing new opportunities”

Do your best.

 

How to fight 

 

Shelly knows when Mor is upset - “she needs a breather, so Ineed to let go”. 

Shelly has a mindset of executing, getting a resolution, while Mor needs to take the time to analyze the situations and not react when she’s too emotional - how can I act differently? She wants to come back to the conversation with solutions. 

They know how the other one operates, and so they can have patience with each other during the process. 

 

Shelly shares that the key to Not get into a fight - is to not get insulted. Don’t let the ego take the wheel, don't take it personally. You can have different angels on the same situation.

They don’t shout or yell at each other, a rule that they’re implementing at home as well.

They speak firmly without intimidating.

 

We spoke about the  4 understandings to live by, by Don Luis Miguel, and how to implement it within our lives:

1. Don’t gossip
2. Don’t take things personally
3. Don’t assume - keep it simple, don’t tell yourself stories
4. Do your best

 

Flexibility to live your life both as a mother and a businesswoman

 

How to manage career & life?

They know that they’re both career driven, and it’s a part of who they are.

 Their family knows - mommy is working, there's respect to that at home.

It’s not either/or - they do things in parallel, both the personal and career life are important, knowing that it’s not easy.

 

How do you manage the tradeoffs mentally, as a parent?

Shelly answers: “I forgive myself. I’m great, my kids love me, I’m doing my best, and it’s fine - they got love and everything they need.” She makes sure that as part of the logistics schedule is to spend time with her kids, and be there when she’s needed.

Shelly shared with us insights she took from the book “The one thing”:

If you want to be successful in life or career, 9-5pm isn’t really the right framework. 

Adjust everything - You need to understand that you have many balls in the air - health, career, friends, family. All the balls, except from career, are made of glass. Career is rubber. So when you're juggling this, it’s very important that you won’t drop the ball. Within the career domain, you can have more flexibility. 

Work-life balance - it’s ok to have periods of time when you need to work more than usual, and have counter balance for periods, but when you're with a friend/ children - as long as you are present, dedicate your whole self to the situation.

 

How can you adopt that mindset in your day to day life?

 

For Mor, it’s having ‘date time’ with each kid per week - one on one quality time.

Figuring it out with the kids, each has different kids and different needs.

Shelly agrees and emphasizes how much things changed for her, when she decided to take a babysitter for the rest of the kids, in order for her to take one kid every time.

Same method is used with all of their employees, even a short talk when you're fully present and listening can make a huge difference. If they get less in the amount of the time, the value needs to be there.

 

“We’re not going anywhere - this is our life - incredible ride. We embrace the challenges, trying to be in our element, have fun, enjoy, create meaningful partnerships while running an investment arm of $400M nowadays”.

Amir Shevat, Head of Product - Developer Platform at Twitter, Investor

The angel investor you’d like to have 

 

Amir was asked to join Google back in 1999 and to pay for his flight to SV, so he refused. Years later - he was one of the first Israeli Google’rs, in charge of the developers relations, building chrome, android etc. He joined Yossi Matias and launched its first Campus in Israel. From Google he moved to Slack. It was a very early stage and he thought it’s going to be awesome. It felt great being part of something big, when all startup companies are going to be using your product.

 

Amir worked a lot, being very passionate about what he does. Working was the criteria for success, for identifying yourself. Amir describes the San Francisco people - how everyone measures themselves according to “what’s your startup”. 

He used to commute 2.5 hours to work daily. Although super fulfilled and successful - he started to ask himself - “What do I want to be?” The answer was simple: “happy, thoughtful, create an impact, be centered.”

 

After years in SV, he moved to Austin, with a great atmosphere and community, making sure to keep up his daily sports routine, be mindful about what he eats, having dinner together with his family and mitigating the pressure in his life. 

 

From a Tech Superstar to an angel investor

 

Last year, Amir saw 500 startups, made 13 investments and joined @Innovation Endeavors. He sees amazing companies, 99% of the deal flow is through warm referrals from other VCs/angels, and he also made 1 investment that began with a cold reach. He likes to see himself as paying forward the value of experience and network, and not just money. 

“As an angel investor, you try not to do the DD - but rely on the big VCs that do it. You try to find the right deals and get the conviction from the founder. While the VC does the process and decides about the size of the check, as an angel investor - you don’t negotiate.”

 

Amir is very mindful of his time. The day time is dedicated to Twitter, the evening - for investments.

 

Amir doesn't believe in zero inbox or tools alike - tools need to serve us and not us serving them. “You like the calendar to be with meetings you want to have, and not with meetings that others want.”

 

When I asked him about the choice of becoming an angel investor - he emphasized that one should have a strategy. In the beginning, his investments were random, nowadays he invests in Dev tools & SaaS. When he talks with the founders - he asks them: “what will be a good outcome of this meeting?”

 

So far, he never took out the money for secondary investment. On the other hand - he tries to do pro-rata and increase his investment. Amir says “we’re all ‘work in process’, and in 5 years from now - he’s going to be a VC. I’d definitely like him to be my future investor.