VC Cafe

MAY 20, 2022

I normally share 3 links in my weekly Firgun newsletter , so thought I’d try it here for the first time. The updated retail tech Israel 2022 report by Deloitte with very interesting nuggets on the sector. But founders sometimes don’t know how to best approach. Tabs to open on your browser this weekend. Amazon link.

Technical Review 159

Technical Review Early Stage Email 159

VC Cafe

JUNE 10, 2022

For the past few week I’ve been sharing here the impact of the current downturn that started in the public markets on startups and venture capital. As a result, founders are accepting increased dilution of the stakes they hold in their own companies. As an example, here are 34 new unicorns minted in May 2022.

Valuation 152

Valuation Marketing Venture Capital 152

VC Cafe

JANUARY 12, 2022

The metaverse is here, and it’s not only transforming how we see the world but how we participate in it – from the factory floor to the meeting room. We are excited to continue backing ambitious founders in this space with our second fund, especially in Israel and the UK. Nvidia’s Omniverse. Take a look.

Technical Review 217

Technical Review Non-Compete IP 217

VC Cafe

JUNE 18, 2012

Innovate Israel 2012 aims to connect Israeli web, mobile & digital entrepreneurs & businesses with their UK & European counterparts. The UK is Israel’s second largest export market following the US, but Israeli startups often ‘forget Europe’ when it comes to Internationalizing their product.

Securities and Exchange Commission 133

Securities and Exchange Commission Technical Review Software Review 133

Cracking the Code

MARCH 28, 2022

The Accel 2021 Euroscape was unveiled earlier today at SaaStock EMEA and you can view the full presentation here. * Back in 2016, Europe and Israel had only four public companies worth less than $9B combined and local cloud companies had raised just $900M throughout 2015. Annualised, this would be 2.7x larger than last year!

Global 62

Global Europe Software Review 62

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 7, 2010

A s 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. For previous editions, click here. ISRAEL RANKED 22ND BEST COUNTRY IN WORLD.

United Kingdom 96

United Kingdom Austria Global 96

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 6, 2018

So I’m packaging the best of them up for you here in a new series called The Entrepreneur’s Essentials. So here we go with the fourth lesson from The Entrepreneur’s Essentials. During my speech, I promised to put my notes up on my blog and so here they are. In totality, these posts are at least as long as most business books.

Founder 51

Founder Cofounder Software Review San Francisco 51

VC Cafe

MAY 28, 2020

Indeed, some AR/VR startup founders are especially optimistic. There’s a big opportunity here, because everyone is shopping from home during COVID-19,” Evan Gappelberg, the founder and CEO of NexTech AR Solutions, told Haaretz newspaper. This is the time to build. EchoAR works with developers to deliver 3D content in the cloud.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Cloud Forecast 164

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 7, 2017

by Pratik Dholakiya , Co-Founder of E2M and MoveoApps. Here are six things successful entrepreneurs certainly don’t do: 1. Pratik Dholakiya is the Co-Founder of E2M , a full service digital marketing agency and MoveoApps , a mobile app development company. Ignore Work-Life Balance.

Entrepreneur 203

Entrepreneur Cofounder Asia 203

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. When you work in tech, being close to Silicon Valley just makes sense, you can learn so much here.

San Francisco 136

San Francisco Cofounder Founder Poland 136

YoungUpstarts

JULY 3, 2012

@jack : Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is on Twitter as well, sharing updates from his work as the CEO of Square. dens : Co-founder and CEO of Foursquare Dennis Crowley gets personal on his Twitter account, sharing his interests in soccer and hidden urban art. MichaelDell : Follow Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell.

Cofounder 239

Cofounder Technical Review Social Media PR 239

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 CTO Hire Cofounder 150

VC Cafe

JANUARY 15, 2024

A billion dollar valuation, the Unicorn status was once the holy grail for many VCs and founders. Spotlight on Israeli unicorns in 2024 Israel is home to 131 unicorns, over 10% of the global total. You can find the list of Israeli unicorns here and previous coverage on VC Cafe here. From here, the only way is up.

IPO 88

IPO Valuation Private Equity 88

Haystack

JULY 20, 2018

I believe this is an important post for both founders and investors in the Bay Area and outside the Bay Area to read carefully. Yes, the concentration of entrepreneurial founding and management talent is here in the Bay Area, but so too is lots of private money, more and more large platforms which continue to grow in market share.

San Francisco 116

San Francisco Silicon Valley Seattle Venture Capital 116

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!&# The video can be watched here , but there is a most excellent summary below provided by John Excley.

Semantic 302

Semantic Acquisition Valuation Angel Investor 302

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. If you think I’ve missed any, please contact me. Future Labs Flash Pitch. “For

Technical Review 60

Technical Review SBIR Dilution Silicon Valley 60

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

At today's roundtable, we had entrepreneurs presenting from Brazil, Israel and India. Next, Nir Savitzki from Israel, presented JobVoyage , a social CRM service for job seekers. Please take the 1M/1M self-assessment test here , and see if you can answer the nine questions adequately. Thursday, September 29, Register Here.

Brazil 115

Brazil India Entrepreneur 115

VC Cafe

JULY 7, 2022

In Israel at least, the trickle of layoffs has become a steady stream. So without further ado, below are three reasons founders and VCs can be optimistic about the future, even in today’s market. Here are 3. Unicorns weren’t an exception and public companies fared even worse. 1) More dry powder than ever.

Venture Capital 174

Venture Capital Marketing Startup 174

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Ben is the Chief Executive Olarker (CEO) and co-founder of Olark Live Chat. In this episode, CEO and co-founder of Olark, Ben Congleton, talks about the building of Olark and how they’ve differentiated themself in such a competitive industry. He's the chief executive o Larker and co-founder of O LA Live Chat.

SMS 91

SMS Technical Review Channel Cofounder 91

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Founded by CEO Meir (Iri) Zohar, eXalate has offices in New York and Kfar Saba, Israel. The founder of SimpliTV is Doron Kempel, who founded and sold Diligent to IBM with his partner (and now angel), Moshe Yanai. more here and here ]. This is the startup’s second round, coming to a total of $19 million to date.

Software Review 138

Software Review Venture Capital Technical Review SEM 138

VC Cafe

JULY 7, 2023

The state of Generative AI startups in Israel According to The Global AI Index by Tortoise Media, the first index to benchmark nations on their level of investment, innovation and implementation of artificial intelligence, Israel is the 7th most attractive AI hub globally. Workflow automation – the reason Jasper.ai

Generative AI 89

Generative AI ChatGPT Startup 89

The Next Web

JANUARY 21, 2014

Yaniv Tross is the CEO of Tross Creative House , a creative agency for tech, based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Here are a few key differences between real funding and “crowdfunding”: 1. While there is a place for founders on crowdfunding platforms, they’re not a must. Have a great idea and thinking about crowdfunding it? Think again.

Campaign 153

Campaign Naming Conversion 153

Steve Blank

APRIL 19, 2010

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, Jason Calacanis , founder of Mahlo.com, and Mark Suster of GRP Partners, have all weighed in on the nature side – you’re born being an entrepreneur or your not. Since I get to ask questions but not talk, I’ll weigh in with my two cents here. Or look at Israel. Taking Sides. Is it their DNA?

Silicon Valley 226

Silicon Valley Venture Capital China New York 226

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.

Generative AI 104

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.”. As you will read, my company Yotpo is experiencing accelerated growth but the problems are here and very much alive. We’ve spent $0 on outbound marketing.

Advisory Board 128

Advisory Board API Cofounder PPC 128

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 11, 2018

So I’m packaging the best of them up for you here in a new series called The Entrepreneur’s Essentials. As I review our startup portfolio at Hurt Family Investments, the companies that are doing the best have a founder-CEO that really focus on selling. So here we go with the seventh lesson from The Entrepreneur’s Essentials.

Las Vegas 48

Las Vegas Green Sales 48

VC Cafe

MARCH 22, 2021

He was the founder of Cellogic, an early stage of an Israeli startup that created a lock screen app (a bit ahead of its time) and I was a senior product manager at Ask.com. where he now works as Director of product management, leading a team in Israel. Itamar Weisbord and I were introduced in 2008 by a mutual friend.

Bootstrapping 133

Bootstrapping Early Stage Matching 133

David Teten

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

As the former CEO of an Israeli startup with a (modest) US and UK presence, this is an obvious way to create more jobs here. Organizations like Worldwide Investor Network and the US-Israel Business Council are helpful in this area. . - Encouraging non-US companies to set up operations in the US. Details to come.

Government 146

Government Technical Review New York Offshore 146

VC Cafe

JANUARY 27, 2021

The buzzy app, that only launched in April 2020 as the pandemic was hitting the US, reached Unicorn status last week with fresh $100M round led by A16Z and has gone from an invite-only insiders chat for Silicon Valley founders and VCs to early adopters everywhere in Europe.

Audio 169

Audio Silicon Valley Europe 169

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

T he VC funding news from Israel are piling up on my inbox. Two year-old TaKaDu , a SaaS product for water utility companies to monitor water infrastructure, has raised an undisclosed second round of funding led by Emerald Technology ventures and joined by existing investors Giza Venture Capital and Gemini Israel Funds [ Zdnet ].

Technical Review 80

Technical Review Matching Venture Capital 80

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

The VC funding news from Israel are piling up on my inbox. Two year-old TaKaDu , a SaaS product for water utility companies to monitor water infrastructure, has raised an undisclosed second round of funding led by Emerald Technology ventures and joined by existing investors Giza Venture Capital and Gemini Israel Funds [ Zdnet ].

Technical Review 80

Technical Review Matching Venture Capital 80

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

T he VC funding news from Israel are piling up on my inbox. Two year-old TaKaDu , a SaaS product for water utility companies to monitor water infrastructure, has raised an undisclosed second round of funding led by Emerald Technology ventures and joined by existing investors Giza Venture Capital and Gemini Israel Funds [ Zdnet ].

Technical Review 80

Technical Review Matching Venture Capital 80

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

T he VC funding news from Israel are piling up on my inbox. Two year-old TaKaDu , a SaaS product for water utility companies to monitor water infrastructure, has raised an undisclosed second round of funding led by Emerald Technology ventures and joined by existing investors Giza Venture Capital and Gemini Israel Funds [ Zdnet ].

Technical Review 80

Technical Review Venture Capital Matching 80

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. Getting started with Wix.com [Video] – ( click here if you can’t see ).

Flash 142

Flash IPO HTML 142

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

On Monday, Kevin Baxpehler and I hosted the UK Israel Business investor delegation to Tel Aviv, and today I spent the morning with the 8200 EISP startup delegation to London where I was joined by Kirsten Connell (Cylon Lab, Managing Director) Simon Menashy (MMC Ventures, General Partner). Here they are in no particular order.

Founder 138

Founder Technical Review Early Stage 138

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.

Philadelphia 133

Philadelphia Cloud Cofounder 133

Seeing Both Sides

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

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. Here's what the data say about Israeli startups: They’re Israeli-run but with global footprints. American VCs are critical.

Cofounder 20

Cofounder Technical Review United States 20