Asaf Frige

Today, I came across a concerning trend that made me reflect on the state of our tech ecosystem. Despite the hype and excitement surrounding Israeli startups in recent years, the number of new technological entrepreneurship ventures has been on a steady decline. This downward trajectory persisted even during the explosive growth of 2020 and 2021. It's disheartening to witness the decrease in new early-stage tech companies sprouting into our ecosystem. The challenges we face seem to go beyond temporary economic crises or societal issues. The root causes may lie in how our government and investor communities are approaching sector strategies and regulations. As a part of the Israeli startup nation, it's crucial for us to address these underlying issues to ensure the continued growth and success of our tech industry. Keeping this trend going is not an option for our ecosystem, and it is maybe one of the most important challenges we need to think about in the near future. This graph came from the Israeli Innovation Authority's 2023 annual summary report and IVC data.

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Post Funding-Round Imposter Syndrome - a new term coined at Buildcon’s closing session. Oz Alon (CEO of HoneyBook) and Ariel Assaraf (CEO of Coralogix) are two of the most accomplished founders around, leading growth-stage companies that are successful by any parameter one can think of. But here they speak with such vulnerability, humbleness, and ‘dugriness,’ capturing much of what’s so special about Israelis building companies. Turns out they are also very funny. A link to the full session is in the first comment.

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Over the past decade, I have reviewed over 1,000 cv's in search for the best team members to join our team. I see a lot of people in Israel in need of jobs these days so sharing some tips from my experience as a manager and Organizational Psychologist that I hope can be helpful. If you have any questions or additional insights, please feel free to comment below or pm me. I divided the job-seeking journey into 4 stages: 1. Self-reflection 2. CV building 3. Networking 4. “Dating” your future boss In this post I will cover some pointers for the first 3 stages. Next post will cover pointers for the last stage. *Self-reflection* 1. Self-reflection and understanding what you are good at and what you are passionate about. 2. Who are you - Need to be able to answer this in 2-3 lines at the top of the CV. Are you a manager and looking to be in a leadership role or more of a hands-on executive? Is your focus marketing/sales/coding/project management? Pro tip: Ask your friends to be honest with you and share the value they see you bring. It will crystalize your own view as well. *CV and LinkedIn profile* 1. CV building - how does your future boss know you are great at what you do? What success and impact did you have that you can articulate with numbers? 2. The design is great. But the most important is the content. Make sure clear description in the header what you do and keep it short, with bullet points and a 1-pager. Make sure no mistakes. If there is even 1 typo, it is a no-go. 3. Passion talks. Years ago I hired a young man with very little experience because he came with great passion and told me how he taught himself code at age 11. See how you can find that story that highlights your greatness. *Networking* 1. Networking and asking friends for an intro or to put in a good word. Identify 10 people you will have coffee with to brainstorm your career. Some will give you great advice. Others will give you a good lead. 2. Don't only think about networking with those who can give you the job today but rather with those who know people that can help you. 3. The best way to build trust is to show your work in action. I once hired someone because he reached out and explained to me in a loom video why one of my client websites stinked and how that can be fixed. He didn't tell me what he does but showed me. What tips have you found as a manager that you would give future employees?

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Are ICON - Israel Collaboration Network startups a supreme cohort of companies? Analysis of the last 5 batches - SV 12 until today. TL:DR - Sign me up as an LP please 🙂 (I just need to become wealthy first). Get the full free list in the link at the end of the post. Following the participation of some great friends in the program and their incredible feedback, I had to dive deeper and run the numbers (shoutout to Yonatan, Yosef, Gilad). 37 companies in the list, 2 are still in stealth. Let’s go! Most recurring investors? TLV Partners, Entrée Capital, Jibe Ventures. Many companies also took part in the Intel Ignite accelerator. 5 companies have been acquired (nice one Ron!) - Entitle, Easyway, Silk Security, Eureka Security, EverySQL. *Excluding them from my analysis going forward. Company sizes by headcount:  🥚 Small (0-15) - 15, 46.87%  🐣 Medium (16 - 35) - 12, 37.5% 🐥 Large (36+) - 5, 15.63% Fastest growing companies YoY in employees for each category: 🥇Opti AI (Small). 🥇Miggo Security (Medium) - Nice Daniel! 🥇OX Security (Large). All growing in high double to triple digits in headcount %. Makes sense since these are relatively early stage companies.  💵 Ludeo leads the list with the most funding to-date, totaling $42M raised. 💚 10 companies disclosed funding in the last 12 months.  💛 11 companies haven’t disclosed new funding in 12-24 months.  🧡 11 companies haven’t disclosed new funding in 24+ months. Ample investment opportunities for early-growth investors.  ARR (estimation, still in beta): 📈 3 companies crossed the $10M / ARR 📊 7 companies are between $2M - $6M / ARR Want to know who? Perform your own analysis? Check out the free full list through Dealigence in the link here -> https://lnkd.in/dsKf939y   P.S - This is a non-profit organization, so thank you to Yasmin Lukatz and her team for making this happen (always wanted to tag a ‘Shark’ in a post). P.S #2 - I’m not saying we did this analysis to participate in the next batch, but hey! If you are looking for a cool data & insights company, I haven’t been to SF in way too long 😎. Gil, Yaniv.

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This post is dedicated to my non-Israeli friends. But everyone’s welcome to read it :)   I’m sitting down to write this post about 10 minutes before the Israeli Memorial Day transitions to our Independence Day. Every year this is a nearly unbearable transition, from deep sadness to pride and joy. We are taught, from a very young age (as early as 6 years old, as I learned this year through my son), that these two dates were set intentionally, so that us Israelis will always remember that our independence came, and keeps coming, at great cost. This year, I feel it’s even worse than unbearable. It’s simply impossible. I find myself uncapable of celebrating Independence Day. As a nation and a country, we’re still at war. As an individual (and far from being the only one feeling like this), I’m still mourning. I truly believe we should still find ways to be happy and participate in or even initiate whatever activities that serve that purpose. But highlighting the achievement of becoming an independent country, of forming a safe country for Jewish people.. Right now it just doesn’t feel like the right time to do that.     And here’s why I’m writing to you, non-Israelis. I want to tell you more about what I’m mourning. I hope this will help those of you who see Israel at a mostly negative light, better understand the complexity of our reality.   Personally, I fully acknowledge Israel shares the responsibility over the truly shitty life of the people of Gaza. Along with that, I’m mourning what Israelis must live through right now: The tragic loss of so many loved ones, so many of them in terrible ways that I don’t think I’ll ever dare expose myself to. The need to leave their homes, and uproot their families, their whole lives. The fear that we’ll never feel safe again, not in Israel, and not anywhere else. The feeling I often struggle with, that I might never fully recover from my personal Oct 7 experience. That I will never be my best self again because of it – not the best mother I want to be, not the best partner, not the best friend, not the best employee.   So back to the complexity – you see, almost all Israelis are like me. People who just want to feel safe, just want to provide their kids with everything they need, just want to be able to celebrate without thinking about all that is wrong in the world.   I’m proud to be Israeli, although I’ve never felt more challenged to say it out loud.

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Please watch this video if you cherish life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The POTUS seems to have been hijacked not only by dementia, but also by Islamism, which is sweeping the free world like wildfire. As if 9/11 wasn’t enough. As if Oct 7 wasn’t enough. As if hijacking higher education and our economies in the free world wasn’t enough. It’s time for civil people to take back control and defeat Islamism. The only party that offers a way out right now are the Republicans as seen in this video, along with the Israelis who are fighting this evil while sacrificing their brightest in the process. Please consider making a donation to the speakers in this video, to Israeli soldiers at the IDF, and most importantly - speak up! Sitting quietly on the sidelines as the foundations of the civil world are shaken by Islamism (take 2, after WW2... Islamism is the ideology that inspired German National Socialism, and the one that denies it ever happened while disseminating Mein Kampf in Islamist school systems) is the worst we all could do. If you’re a Muslim that fled Islamism to live in democracies like the U.S. or Israel, you especially are indebted to uphold the values of life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. If you consider yourself a liberal, if you’re gay - you especially are indebted to uphold the values of life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness - you saw what it’s like under German National Socialism - which is today’s Progressivism, brainwashed by Islamism. Let’s fight and reject this horrific evil of Islamism together. There is no other way.

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The Israeli tech sector has a reputation for its rich innovation and healthy competition. Actually, there are now more than 2,300 AI startups active in Israel today. Pretty incredible, isn’t it? It’s no secret to us here in Israel that our companies are disrupting existing markets and creating new ones while fostering an amazing community of technical talent. I’m proud that Google Cloud has been doing its part to build on these AI endeavors. So, who are some of the leading AI customers from Israel? Meet five incredible companies that are showing the world how Israel leads in new tech >> https://lnkd.in/erPvKAvs #CloudForIsrael #AI

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Clear questions, unclear answers

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We are thrilled to announce that Andreessen Horowitz is investing in Wiz - the global cloud security platform revolutionizing the way companies secure everything they build and run in the cloud. Wiz is already one of the fastest growing companies we’ve ever seen, but we believe the best is yet to come.   The opportunity to build the next iconic security company is here. Wiz sits at the interaction of two massive tailwinds: more workloads and data shifting to the cloud and generative AI taking over the enterprise. With both shifts, the sheer magnitude of digital threats has exploded and threat vectors have become increasingly sophisticated. No one is better positioned than Wiz to build a true platform at this intersection (and their customers agree!).  It's only fitting we announce this during RSA, years after Zane Lackey and I first grabbed coffee with Assaf Rappaport and Ami Luttwak. Zane, David George, Justin Kahl and I couldn’t be more excited to finally partner with the incredible Wiz team!  Read more about why we think the next phase of growth is even more exciting than the last 👇 https://lnkd.in/gzh9t5u6

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“Tavi Li” is a phrase I know very well. I hear it all the time from my 2-year-old. It’s a Hebrew phrase that means “give me”. That’s why when I stumbled upon an AI project called “Tavily” I was intrigued. When I looked it up I realized that I know the author and I was blown away by the popularity of this project which I have not heard about before. Founded by Assaf Elovic and Rotem Weiss, Tavily is an AI research agent. Unlike ChatGPT which provides basic research, Tavily provides a comprehensive research and includes sources. This reduces hallucinations to minimum. I use it daily at Toffu AI and I have yet to encounter any hallucination issues. Another interesting tidbit is that Tavily is based on an open-source project called gpt-researcher (https://gptr.dev/) If you're into AI agents, check it out:

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The Israeli tech sector has a reputation for its rich innovation and healthy competition. Actually, there are now more than 2,300 AI startups active in Israel today. Pretty incredible, isn’t it? It’s no secret to us here in Israel that our companies are disrupting existing markets and creating new ones while fostering an amazing community of technical talent. I’m proud that @Google Cloud has been doing its part to build on these AI endeavors. So, who are some of the leading AI customers from Israel? Meet five incredible companies that are showing the world how Israel leads in new tech >> https://lnkd.in/dqBajGAb #CloudForIsrael #AI

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Is it shopping season for Israeli technology? The recent surge in M&A activity in Israel is the most significant sign of hope and optimism I’ve seen since October 7th. It demonstrates the potential of Israeli tech and the faith placed in it by top global companies. When technology leaders choose to further expand into Israel and acquire local teams, you know financial outlooks are positive. In cybersecurity - often the poster-child of Israeli tech - we’ve seen five acquisitions in quick succession totaling more than $1Bn. Flow Security by CrowdStrike (~$200M), Avalor Security, a Zscaler Company ($350M), Gem Security (acquired by Wiz) ($350M), Silk Security by Armis ($150M) and Entitle by BeyondTrust (~150M). All are led by exceptional individuals, well done! Perhaps more telling is the emerging AI industry. Last week NVIDIA announced its acquisition of two companies for a combined value of $1Bn. Congratulations RunAI ($700M) and Deci AI ($300M). Mainstream media is so focused on the voices of a racist minority calling for boycotts and divestments that they fail to capture actual news. Antisemites might yell the loudest, but the actions of multinational corporations speak louder than words. I am optimistic about the future. Are you?

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Amir Hershkovitz, CPA story and insights were tremendous!!! From starting his career as a CPA and eventually becoming a Controller before switching to RevOps, his perspective is truly unique while also being extremely relevant as RevOps leaders are consistently having to bridge the gap between GTM teams and Finance. This episode does NOT disappoint!!

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We all have choices. Israeli entrepreneurs choose to thrive

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Some Insights from our latest AI Salon held in Tel Aviv: - How soon will AI become a critical national resource? - Does human creativity exist in the age of Generative AI? - When will National AIs emerge and how will they redefine global Geopolitics? - How to successfully integrate AI tools & processes into corporations? We also discovered that Whisky fits well with AI…

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ChipEx is happening in Tel Aviv next week and Dave Kelf will be there talking about #AI in verification. Breker solutions have some of the latest techniques in test suite synthesis, achieving some of the best ROI in test generation and coverage. Our SystemVIPs in coherency, security, power management, RISCV/ ARM SoC & Core validation & more, are helping to expand usage rapidly across design houses working on the most complex chips. #VerifyGPT is closer to reality than we might think! Attend the session or get in touch with us to learn more. #TestSuiteSynthesis #SystemVIP

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🇮🇱 Israeli Startup Success: Lessons from Over 20 Years 🇮🇱 Yesterday, I met with a US investor from Chicago in NYC, and our conversation turned to the 20+ years I've spent working with Israeli startups, founders, and investors ... and what makes them uniquely successful on a global scale: 💡 Culture of Innovation, Risk-Taking, & Entrepreneurial Spirit 💡 Working with Israeli Founders, I quickly realized that taking risks and learning from failures is integral. The unique boldness of many Israeli entrepreneurs allows them to pursue incredibly ambitious projects despite recognizing the obstacles and the risks of failure. 🌐 Strong Ecosystem & Community 🌐 Israel has developed a vibrant startup ecosystem with accelerators, incubators, VCs, and multinational corporations. Tel Aviv is a global tech hub with a high concentration of startups, thought leaders, educators, investors, and innovation centers. And it's a community of both competition and mutual collaboration in many unique and very valuable ways. 👩‍💼 Leadership Experience, Technical Skills & Camaraderie 👩‍💼 Many of the highly successful Israeli entrepreneurs I've worked with gained crucial leadership, operational and technical skills through their required military service. I've worked directly with former Air Force pilots, Naval Officers, Tank Commanders, and many others who were trained in highly elite technology units. This experience has consistently translated into commercial success for Israeli Founders. 🏫 Academic & Industry Collaboration 🏫 Many Israeli Universities collaborate closely to commercialize research, partnering with global tech giants like Google, Cisco, Microsoft and Intel, leading to technology transfer and innovation. 🔬 Emphasis on R&D, Cutting-Edge Technology & Innovation Programs 🔬 Israel has one of the highest R&D spending rates as a percentage of GDP, fostering relentless innovation and advancements in technology. The Israel Innovation Authority providing grants and incentives to early stage companies and the overall ecosystem attracts a tremendous amount of foreign venture capital. 🌍 Global Mindset & Market Orientation 🌍 Israeli startups target global markets from the outset, ensuring scalability and international relevance. Many founders have also studied at top universities in the US and Europe, giving them a broad worldview and extensive global network. 🤝 Strategic Partnerships & Alliances 🤝 Israeli companies often form strategic development relationships and alliances at the earliest stages to enhance market presence, technological capabilities, and to increase the pace of product/revenue success. 🌐 Leveraging Global Connections 🌐 Israeli startups leverage personal and professional networks for resources, mentorship, and funding on an international scale. #Innovation #Startupnation #Entrepreneurship #IsraeliStartups #TechEcosystem #GlobalMarket #Leadership #VentureCapital #Technology #BusinessGrowth #TelAvivTech

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"Working for a startup one day a week? How exactly does it work?". A conversation I had yesterday with the wonderful Yaara Kassner from Vertex Ventures Israel made me realize that fractional work is a mystery out there (Yaara, hope it's OK that I disclosed this part of our conversation, don't kill me please). --- There's a growing trend of fractional C-level professionals. I'm happy to be part of the trend, working one day a week for a startup. One day a week???? So, first of all, the one day a week is divided into all week days. Second - I'm always in communication - always responsive on Slack. And most importantly - to make this really work, perhaps the most essential skill is #prioritization. A fractional C level needs to prioritize more than any other team member. Every task needs to be prioritized according to ROI and Impact (that's always the outlook on tasks, but a fractional CMO needs to be more cautious with time). Meetings? Only essential ones. There's no time or need to sit in "this should have been an email" meetings. --- In short - I LOVE it. In the pic - coming back from walking my dog, and he's frowning. He wants to hang around me full time. #fractionalCMO

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