January 2013
1 post
Who's Behind the #ארץחדשה Online Campaign? A...
If you’re an Israeli, the odds are very low you haven’t heard of #ארץחדשה. The question isn’t really whether you have, rather **why** you’ve heard of them.
See, it’s a very interesting case of a party that has taken upon itself to lay down the very gory details of how the citizens of Israel have been abused by the connection between wealth & governance.
No feather has been left...
July 2012
1 post
Disrupt SF to Feature Both Israeli AND Brazilian...
The upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco will not only feature the third Israeli Pavilion, it will also have an inaugural Brazilian Pavilion… This is fantastic news for the Brazilian startup community!
A bit of background: Back at Disrupt San Francisco in 2011 no less than 20 early-stage Israeli startups flew-in from Israel to demo and network themselves to the bone for three...
April 2012
1 post
The Israeli Pavilion at TechCrunch Disrupt is On!
Great news! The previous TechCrunch Disrupt featured an Israeli Pavilion. No less than twenty Israeli startups flew in to San Francisco to demo and network their asses off. And boy did they.
In fact, it was such a success, that we’re going to repeat it again for Disrupt NYC, taking place May 21-23.
Here are the details I was able to arrange for this special package:
Cocktail table for...
March 2012
1 post
Considering Debuting at Disrupt? Talk To Me...
The most important event for Israeli startups is locked & loaded… TechCrunch Disrupt NYC has been officially announced to take place May 19-23!
Disrupt has been the debut platform for a number of Israeli startups, including DoAt, BillGuard and Farmigo.
And of course, the most notable of the bunch, Shaker & Soluto which won the competition and brought the Disrupt Cup to Israel....
February 2012
1 post
CodeBlue - The Israeli Hacker Academy
Hackers. The topic I have a conversation about at every industry event I attend. It’s always same conversation. And it’s been going on for at least three years. Hackers.
Or rather, the lack of hackers in the local market.
Put simply, our Startup Nation has been heading down a dangerous path for too long. There is just a crippling lack of hackers. By this I mean modern-day developers...
January 2012
2 posts
I know Everything. Or Nothing. Good Luck.
One thing I should have stated when I re-booted my blog a couple of months ago is that I’m full of sh*t. Or not. Or both. Whichever, it’s your problem to figure out when applicable to your own personal situation. I’ll explain:
I’ve only been a professional investor for 7 months or so. The subjects I write about, as well as the tips and suggestions I make, are based on...
It's NOT All About the UX. Except It's ALL About...
Recently one of my partners received an email from an entrepreneur saying he chose to reach out to him because, and I’m paraphrasing, ‘Roi puts too much emphasis on assessing companies based on the UX’.
So first off, that’s factually incorrect. Second off, that’s absolutely right. Allow me to explain:
At Initial Capital, the first paramater we look at in order to...
December 2011
1 post
The Art of Meeting... Me
Entrepreneurs email me all the time requesting a meeting. There’s nothing wrong with that of course, it’s my job to meet entrepreneurs. Except that lately more and more are requesting these meetings while insisting not to share any information prior. And that is a problem.
There are two main variations to these emails… Either ‘I just need 10 minutes of your time,’ or...
November 2011
2 posts
On NDAs & Confidentiality
Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that at least once a month I get asked by an entrepreneur to sign an NDA in order for him/her to share their venture with me.
I have a usual drill where I explain that I, along with other professional investors, don’t sign NDAs. I always include a link to a post by Brad Feld titled ‘Why Most VCs Don’t Sign NDAs’ that outlines the...
A New Beginning
I started blogging four years ago, writing on both TechCrunch and my own personal blog which I ran a custom WordPress install on.
Having been a big fan from afar for quite a while now, I decided the time was right to jump into the deep end and start fresh, this time running on Tumblr with a custom domain.
This new ‘fresh start’ means a couple of things…
First (and some may...
