How to Position Your Startup for an Acquisition

How to build and approve your startup’s budget

We are now in the midst of the budgeting season, where startups plan and approve their 2017 budgets. As a startup CEO, the annual budget is one of the main tools you have to manage your company. The annual budget sets clear goals for the employees…

Is the Internet of Things the next big thing?

I just returned from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The main thing I noticed this year was that what used to be the largest mobility conference in the world has somewhat transformed into an Internet of Things (IoT) show. It seems like all…

What makes (Israeli) startups succeed?

It has been a good year so far for our Israeli-based portfolio companies with four exits totaling more than $1.2 Billion. Early this year, Altair was acquired by Sony Semiconductor for $212M, which was the first acquisition ever for the Japanese company in…

The fallacy of Participating Preferred

Once in a while I see a startup that gave its Series A investors participating preferred shares. Not unexpectedly, this is more common with startups that raised money from Israeli VCs.

Relocating to the US — the dilemma every Israeli entrepreneur faces

Most Israeli startups target the U.S. as their primary market. As an Israeli entrepreneur, your customers, partners, potential acquirers, future investors, and most importantly, your competitors — are mainly based…

Don’t let your first large customer kill your startup

Being a CEO of an early stage startup is tough. You have to find a way to efficiently reach customers and convince them buy your product. At the same time, you are continuously tweaking the product, battling to prove product-market fit…

The stark difference between US and Israeli VCs

We see it over and over again: Israeli entrepreneurs coming back from a fundraising roadshow in the Valley excited and hopeful. They met some of the top investors in the world during their visit and generally heard positive feedback. For the most…