Meet the Investors: Ben Wiener, Jumpspeed Ventures

The “Exclusively Jerusalem” VC

I sat down with Ben Wiener on Monday to talk with him about Jumpspeed, a micro venture capital fund in Jerusalem. Something that I’ve come to realize during my time in Jerusalem is that investors and firms each have their own personalities, and Ben is no exception. He is very particular about his investments, only investing in early-stage software companies based in Jerusalem.

Origin Story

Ben was one of the very first players on the Jerusalem investment scene. He likes to say that he was in the “right place at the right time.” He realized in 2013 that Jerusalem was at the very beginning stages of a technological renaissance, and even though he had never invested before, he decided to give it a try. He realized that he was sitting on a goldmine because there was a “crazy mismatch of innovation to available capital.” His very first investment was in 2014 in a company called Breezometer, a graduate of the Siftech accelerator. A $50,000 check and a few months later, the company was named by the White House as “the most promising startup in the world.” Not bad for a first try.

The Strategy: Aspirin, Not Vitamins

Today, Ben has a clear-cut strategy for selecting companies for investments, which he refers to as the “5 Ps.”

Pain- the product needs to be solving “an acute problem that occurs with frequency and density”

Product- the company needs to have a minimum viable product

Paradigm Shift- the product needs to provide a solution to the acute pain that the “other 7 billion people on earth haven’t thought of, but somehow these people did”

People- Ben needs to fall in love with the founders of a company, but he emphasizes that he needs to fall in love with the market first

Passion- the team needs to “be in the game for the right reason”

Ben only invests in “hanging curveballs over the plate,” modeling his investment strategy on Warren Buffet and Ted Williams. “Other companies can be valuable,” he remarks, “but just not for me.” So Ben is unlikely, for example, to invest in a new social media platform, even if it could be the “new Facebook,” but would be inclined to invest in a company that fulfills a “need instead of a want.” Using a metaphor, he explains that he only invests in “Aspirin, not vitamins.”

His Investment Profile

I asked Ben for a quick overview of his investment profile. He brought up a few companies during our meeting: (for a more complete list, click here)

Cyberguild- an incubator for cyber-security -startups, Cyberguild promises to catalyze Jerusalem’s development in the cyber-industry

Convizit-with Ben as the first investor, this company is capable of automatically capturing and analyzing the intentions of visitors of websites and extracting insights for the website owner

Gooseway-a graduate of both the Siftech and MassChallenge accelerators, Gooseway is an EdTech platform for the Arab speaking market, connecting kindergarten children, parents, and teachers

AutoLeadStar-provides an automated marketing platform for car dealers using AI technology; used by over 30 Original Equipment Manufacturers

ScaleAbout-the future online platform to directly connect vloggers to their fans, allowing small stars to effectively monetize their assets

BreezoMeter-provides accurate real-time air quality data; now used by Google, in place in over 83 countries

Reputation

Ben sees himself as different than other investors in Jerusalem; he’s been in the ecosystem since the start and he is exclusively dedicated to Jerusalem-based companies. He views his compassionate personality and passion for Jerusalem as strong assets. Also, he boasts of having a good reputation with later stage investors — “everybody knows everybody in the city,” he tells me, and companies that are part of the “1% selected by Jumpspeed Ventures are known to be reputable” and have good chances of success.

On Jerusalem Today

In 2013, the Jerusalem startup ecosystem was something like a rag-tag group of 30–40 entrepreneurs without any investment possibilities, Ben comments. Now, he continues, it is a multi-thousand person friendly community. Working here, he describes, is like “growing a company under the hug of an umbrella, with Harl’i [the Hebrew nickname for the JDA] and MadeinJLM. ” The tech community is increasing in both “volume and quality, and is more interesting,” he says. Ben sees the community as healthily diverse, with 30% of his invested companies having female CEOS, much higher than the industry average.

Shoutout From the Mayor

To see a video about Jumpspeed Ventures featuring Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, click here