Aviad Harell’s Insights on Tech, AI, and Venture Capital
In this exciting episode, Frank La Vigne and Andy Leonard sit down with Aviad Harell, managing partner at Team 8, to explore the transformative power of technology in today’s business landscape.
Aviad shares his mission to eliminate day-to-day bureaucracy and leverages technology to automate processes, drawing from his vast experience in the tech industry. Beyond business, Aviad reveals his passion for traveling in South America and his book recommendation, “The Mom Test,” which acts as a guide for proper idea validation.
As the conversation unfolds, we explore how venture capital has evolved from a hobby to a disciplined, professional field, much like the maturity models in software development. Aviad details Team 8’s innovative approach to venture capital, partnering with founders early in their journey, sometimes before even fully forming ideas. This unique model includes building a robust support system of 85 professionals to ensure the success of the startups they invest in.
Discover the importance of critical thinking, loving the problem more than the solution, and the journey from idea to execution.
Hear Aviad’s insights on why execution is more crucial than the original idea and his belief in adaptability, quoting the famous military adage, “No idea survives contact with reality.”
Show Notes
04:56 Founders seek validation, partners provide early support.
07:57 Teammate model founded on deep cybersecurity understanding.
10:51 Query about venture capitalist process’s modernization and perception.
15:28 Entrepreneurship challenges led to significant personal growth.
19:07 Unintended tech consequences changing finance and daily lives.
22:47 Interested in different applications of agile methodologies.
27:22 Fascinating insights into approaching venture capitalists today.
30:31 Passion for skill, idea improvement, crucial teamwork.
31:23 Seek advice, consider other ideas, and collaborate.
36:26 Entrepreneur becomes angel investor, supports Tel Aviv.
37:52 Considered new company, resisted VC, became investor.
43:58 Automating bureaucracy, taxes, and legal document review.
47:53 Focus on problem, not solution; meaningful feedback.
50:38 Data-driven episode with Aviad Harrell from Team 8.
Transcript
Hello and welcome back to Data Driven. In this episode,
Speaker:Frank and Andy interview Aviad Harrell, managing partner
Speaker:at Team 8. Aviad sheds light on team 8's unique
Speaker:model of partnering with founders even before they have fully formed
Speaker:ideas, emphasizing the importance of critical thinking,
Speaker:understanding problems intimately, and having a systematic process for
Speaker:success. Aviad's insights into the evolution of venture
Speaker:capital capital and the AI revolution are sure to intrigue and
Speaker:inspire. Now on to the show.
Speaker:Alright. Hello, and welcome back to Data Driven, the podcast where we explore the
Speaker:emergent fields of AI, data science, and, of course, data
Speaker:engineering. With me on this epic road trip down the information
Speaker:superhighway of data.
Speaker:Andy Leonard. How's it going, Andy? It's going pretty good, Frank. How are you,
Speaker:sir? I'm doing alright. You and I are both suffering from the
Speaker:pollen wave that has hit, Virginia, Maryland.
Speaker:We're at least half of Maryland. The southern the the kind of coastal
Speaker:half. I was in Pittsburgh. Out of town, and I was up in you were
Speaker:north. I was in Pittsburgh, and Yeah. Everyone up there is complaining about
Speaker:allergies, but, yeah, it wasn't at the degree. It didn't bother me. And then it's
Speaker:literally as soon as I crossed interstate 81, in
Speaker:Hagerstown, boom. Like, it just hit like a wave.
Speaker:But with me, with us today is
Speaker:Aviad Harel. He is a, management partner
Speaker:at team 8, and, he's gonna tell
Speaker:us all about what team 8 is because I've heard it used, I've heard it
Speaker:referenced, but I'd like to know more. Welcome to the show, Aviad. Hi, Frank.
Speaker:Hi, Andy. Happy to be on your show today. Cool. Good to have you.
Speaker:So It was my pleasure. You are, you're an
Speaker:investor. You're, an adviser, and
Speaker:you have a history of of being a founder, actually. You you
Speaker:were a founder and COO of
Speaker:Sisense. So tell us about what is team 8? Let's start
Speaker:there. Yep. So team
Speaker:8 is, is a VC to begin with. It's
Speaker:an Israeli based VC, quite large one,
Speaker:but, it has, a spill. It's a VC with
Speaker:a spill, and I'll try to explain what, makes it, unique.
Speaker:We at Teammate, we really like to partner with
Speaker:founders very early in their journey.
Speaker:Sometimes before they have a very established idea of what they're going to
Speaker:build, we usually look for founders
Speaker:that, we we become big believers
Speaker:in in their capabilities, and
Speaker:we are also interested in founders that are interested in the
Speaker:same verticals that we are interested.
Speaker:Part of our day to day is to build
Speaker:thesis for ideas. What does it mean? We don't like to be
Speaker:passive. We don't like to sit on our on our chairs and waiting for,
Speaker:founding, teams to come to us and pitch us ideas. We
Speaker:do that, and we like that, but we also really, really
Speaker:like to be very active on the ideation part. So even
Speaker:before we find founders, we work very hard to build our own thesis in
Speaker:our, in our specific verticals that we're interested
Speaker:in. But we're building the thesis in a way
Speaker:that is like we are going to start that company.
Speaker:So we come up with an idea. We connect to
Speaker:the market, to specific companies that potentially can become design
Speaker:partners or even customers, of that idea, and
Speaker:we try to validate that idea together with them.
Speaker:If we were able to validate the idea
Speaker:in in in a very systematic way, and we have a very
Speaker:elaborated, book of processes, how we, validate
Speaker:our teasers. And then we also found the right
Speaker:founders that, we feed them, they feed us, and they feed the
Speaker:teasers. Then we usually don't just bet
Speaker:on them, we triple bet on them. It starts with the size
Speaker:of the check. Usually, we invest in
Speaker:precede, rounds. We invest 2 x to
Speaker:5 x of the average check size in these founders and
Speaker:ideas. We do not invest
Speaker:in many companies every year. We invest in only very few
Speaker:because we want to give them our full attention. And lastly, at
Speaker:team 8, we have, an establishment we call
Speaker:the, the platform. It's actually a group
Speaker:of 85 professionals on the payroll of teammate that
Speaker:includes, developers and product people and
Speaker:sales people and business people, that they have two purposes
Speaker:in, teammate. 1, help us in, validating
Speaker:thesis, and secondly started
Speaker:it. So from the
Speaker:perspective of the founders, if we decided,
Speaker:to partner with them, we give them large
Speaker:checks very early on in the process. They give they get
Speaker:the bandwidth of, the managing partner such as
Speaker:myself and my, partner, and they're augmented,
Speaker:at day 0 with the platform, the 85, professional,
Speaker:part of, teammate. This is a very expensive motion.
Speaker:We were able to execute on that motion
Speaker:if and only if we're able to build a very strong conviction
Speaker:on the problem, the solution, and the founders. So
Speaker:we do very little, but the little we do, we
Speaker:triple bet on that. So this is this is
Speaker:my way to explain the difference, or the
Speaker:different motion of teammate versus a more typical VCs.
Speaker:Right. And, you know, VCs, at least in America at
Speaker:least in the Valley, the Valley model, it sounds like you're very different than the
Speaker:Valley model. It seems like you're you're kind of, like, a step or
Speaker:2 ahead of you you bet. And that's not fair to the valley based ones.
Speaker:Right? Like, because there there's a stereotype. Right? Like, and and I'm sure they're they're
Speaker:painfully aware of the survey. But it sounds like you don't just invest in the
Speaker:idea, but you also invest in the people. Right? Correct. Correct.
Speaker:I I I would not be, very quick to say that,
Speaker:the Silicon Valley VCs do not invest in people. They do invest in
Speaker:people, But, we invest
Speaker:in people very early. Right. And,
Speaker:we take bigger chances because we build bigger conviction
Speaker:more than average at least on the problem statement and the solution for that.
Speaker:Mhmm. Nice. That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker:No. And I don't mean to track the value of these. It's
Speaker:just it's a different what you're doing is is I think being people first,
Speaker:if that's if that's a a a good way to think of it. How did
Speaker:you come to that I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. We're big
Speaker:believers in, people. You know?
Speaker:I think the number one, attribute to success of a
Speaker:venture is the people we partner with and the
Speaker:market. Right? These are the 2 most important, attributes, to
Speaker:that. So we try to partner with the best founders we can. Now best
Speaker:founders we can partner with is a combination of few qualities.
Speaker:1st, the the people, and secondly, they're matched
Speaker:to the teases, to the idea that they are after.
Speaker:Interesting. Interesting. How did you
Speaker:come to that model of being kind of a people first approach as opposed
Speaker:to what I've seen as more of a product
Speaker:based approach or an offering based approach?
Speaker:Yeah. So first, teammate, was
Speaker:founded way before I joined. I joined a little bit over a year ago, so
Speaker:it's not a a model I invented. But I think,
Speaker:this model, was
Speaker:created based on few things. 1st, I think
Speaker:the people that founded team 8 basically,
Speaker:had a very good understanding of a specific vertical they started
Speaker:with and cybersecurity. Teammate was found by
Speaker:the x 8200, commander. It was the the
Speaker:intelligence, technical intelligence unit out of IDF.
Speaker:And, he and his team came with,
Speaker:a set of understanding deep understanding of, the
Speaker:vertical, and, they wanted to
Speaker:be very active in regards to what they're going to build and not just
Speaker:wait for, ideas to come to them. So they started to build few teasers,
Speaker:and they part of the process of building or or building a
Speaker:factory to build, startups, they also started
Speaker:to, meet or date potential, founders.
Speaker:And, they had a very good initial success, And I think this
Speaker:is what, set, set the structure going on
Speaker:forward of, how, things are, taking
Speaker:place at Team 8. Well, that whole that whole seeking
Speaker:out people, I know I know that's what other, VCs do.
Speaker:But most of the time, you know, those of us on the outside of the
Speaker:market, hear of people going to pitch
Speaker:their ideas in a shark tank kind of way. Is that on my side
Speaker:or your side? So that on my side, that's what
Speaker:I hear. You know, my understanding is Got a little bit dumb. Invested.
Speaker:So you got a little bit disconnected. Technical glitches. Yeah.
Speaker:So from my side, what I see as a person on the outside is
Speaker:that usually engagement with venture capitalists
Speaker:involves someone like me going to someone like you
Speaker:and sharing an idea and creating a pension oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker:I still see him. Oh, no. I still see you. Can you
Speaker:still hear me, Andy? I hear both of you. Yeah. And I've had a couple
Speaker:of glitches over here, but that's kinda normal. Am I back in
Speaker:sync? You look like you are.
Speaker:Okay. Can you hear me? Typing. I can hear you. Can you hear
Speaker:me talking when and see my mouse moving into the system? You for,
Speaker:few to, 10 of seconds. Okay. Can you hear me now?
Speaker:Daphne says she can hear me. Okay. Weird. Oh,
Speaker:well. Sorry about He's moving. Yeah. I can see
Speaker:I think the video is good. You come in and go. I'm trying to check
Speaker:my network. It seems okay. Yeah. It's probably me.
Speaker:I'll let my team Teams. I like blaming Teams. Hold on. Frank, you know what
Speaker:I you got the gist of what I'm about to do. Yeah.
Speaker:So I will I will ask in behalf of Andy because it's okay. So
Speaker:from the outside, right, and and to be clear, last time I had any kind
Speaker:of interactions with, venture capitalists would have been the dotcom
Speaker:boom. Right? So this is, like, a lifetime ago. And,
Speaker:one of the things is, like, when when we when people tend to when people
Speaker:on the outside of the industry, they tend to think of something like Shark
Speaker:Tank. Right? Where a a a, entrepreneur
Speaker:goes to a bunch of venture capitalists, and they do a pitch deck or a
Speaker:pitch. Has that changed? Like, what is what is what is kinda normal for the
Speaker:industry now?
Speaker:Can you still hear me?
Speaker:Oh, wow. Okay. He's not moving, so you come and go.
Speaker:Okay. Yeah. Let me prep a Google Meet
Speaker:just in case.
Speaker:I think now it's a little bit better. Now it's better.
Speaker:Yeah. Maybe we should turn off cameras just to be We
Speaker:can. Yeah. Sorry about that, guys. No worries.
Speaker:Alright. How's that? Can you I can
Speaker:hear you perfectly. Yeah. Excellent. Alright.
Speaker:This is gonna happen over the course of 8 years of podcasting.
Speaker:Alright. 1st time. Go ahead, Andy. We'll we'll take it from the top.
Speaker:Okay. So my question was, you know, I'm I'm a person outside of,
Speaker:venture capital. I've not interacted with, with with
Speaker:venture capitalists at all. And my understanding has
Speaker:been that the way you engage with a venture capitalist
Speaker:is you do a pitch deck. You go to a meeting that's a lot like
Speaker:the TV show Shark Tank, and they ask
Speaker:questions and you give answers. And, you know, at the end
Speaker:of that, they you know, the venture capitalists go thumbs up,
Speaker:thumbs down. And what I hear you saying, it sounds like that, yes,
Speaker:you're doing that, but you're also actively seeking out
Speaker:founders and that that's a bit different from what we've
Speaker:what we've expected. Okay. I think Cool. I think I think you
Speaker:described it, well. We seek out founders sometimes even
Speaker:before they have ideas. And in parallel, we also seek
Speaker:ideas regardless of founders. Now that's an interesting
Speaker:approach going after the that you know, I've never heard anybody say
Speaker:that before, that you're looking for, I guess, you're looking
Speaker:for leadership or, enthusiasm or
Speaker:intelligence or some combination of all of the above. You're you're
Speaker:looking for a person, and then y'all are all
Speaker:gonna get together, you and that person and your team,
Speaker:and you're gonna come up with an idea for that person to
Speaker:lead. Is that accurate? It is. It is. I just,
Speaker:even make it more, more,
Speaker:concrete. We look for entrepreneurs. Right? Entrepreneur
Speaker:is a little bit, of mixture of of, everything you listed,
Speaker:earlier. Uh-huh. But it also has the x factor.
Speaker:You know, someone that, will be able to get,
Speaker:in the room from the cracks in the floor. Right?
Speaker:So that x factor is a must,
Speaker:a must be, fairy dust on the qualities you described earlier.
Speaker:But, yeah, we're focused on that. Interesting.
Speaker:Interesting. What is what is kind of like
Speaker:because last time I interacted with any kind of venture capital would have been during
Speaker:the dotcom boom in the late nineties. Yep. How how has the industry
Speaker:changed since then? Well, this is this is
Speaker:a a a great, question. So,
Speaker:I'll try to answer it from, my own experience. So,
Speaker:before I joined team 8, I was a
Speaker:founder of, business intelligence and analytics company called Sisense.
Speaker:I started it 18 years ago. It's a long
Speaker:period of time when I say it, like that, and I spend there 15 years,
Speaker:holding, all the various position, you can,
Speaker:think of. I remember few things
Speaker:from the early days of, Sisense. 1st,
Speaker:it feels like it was way
Speaker:less professional than it is today. In the
Speaker:sense that when me and my cofounders
Speaker:wanted to start a Sisense, we were completely clueless.
Speaker:Right? We were completely clueless of what it means to start a
Speaker:company. We were completely clueless what it means to build a product.
Speaker:We were completely clueless of what it means to define a product
Speaker:or to build a team or to raise money.
Speaker:Today, many years after, I meet
Speaker:many teams and I see that the level of understanding,
Speaker:and, the knowledge that the teams, the founders that I
Speaker:meet today have is a few orders of
Speaker:magnitude, higher than what I had when I
Speaker:started. So this is one thing. Secondly,
Speaker:the first money I raised to my company was half a
Speaker:$1,000,000, I think. It was a long time ago.
Speaker:It's a different ball game today. Yeah. It used to be a lot of money.
Speaker:It used to be a lot of money, and I gave
Speaker:a big equity chunk for that half a1000000 dollars
Speaker:worth of, funding. Today, it's a different ball game.
Speaker:This is pay more for much smaller part
Speaker:of, of, the company. So this is
Speaker:a a second, difference. And lastly,
Speaker:I think the ecosystem is much more mature. The
Speaker:ecosystem of startups and that, that
Speaker:cradle the the the founders and support them. Right? I'll give you a
Speaker:few example. When you want to start,
Speaker:a venture and you raise money from any VC
Speaker:by the way, many many VCs are really good
Speaker:VCs in, provide you,
Speaker:air coverage of building your, company. They will,
Speaker:introduce you to relevant potential, customer or design partners.
Speaker:They will help you with future found of running funding.
Speaker:Sorry. They will introduce to you
Speaker:potential, key hires to your company. They used to
Speaker:do it in the past, but, in in much less systemized
Speaker:manner. So I think that on one
Speaker:in one way, it's easier or more systematic,
Speaker:to be a founder these days. However, it's more competitive
Speaker:than it used to be back then. Interesting.
Speaker:What do you think has driven that the kind of the evolution? Just a
Speaker:few aside from inflation and being that, you know, half
Speaker:$1,000,000 isn't what it used to be. Well, I I think many
Speaker:factors. 1st, you know, the industry
Speaker:matured in in I don't know. 20
Speaker:years ago, there weren't so many tech
Speaker:startups out there. And as a
Speaker:derivative of that, there wasn't so so
Speaker:much of, institutional money to be invested in
Speaker:it. It wasn't a thing to invest in start up. It was, more of
Speaker:a hobby. Now it's more, matured
Speaker:and incorporated in many ways.
Speaker:So the the industry, like many other industries, matured
Speaker:along, the way. Now, secondly,
Speaker:the world is becoming more tech, savvy or more
Speaker:tech driven, compared to what it was, 20 years
Speaker:ago. Right? That's true. Look at the Fortune,
Speaker:500, companies. Who are the companies that now lead the Fortune
Speaker:500 compared to who led the Fortune 500,
Speaker:least 20 years ago? Yeah. It's definitely tech heavy
Speaker:now. Yep. Yes. Absolutely. No. Those are
Speaker:good points. Those are good points. It's interesting to see how
Speaker:just unintended consequences of, you know, things becoming more
Speaker:tech, heavy has changed things like the, you know,
Speaker:the S and P and, as well as the weighting of
Speaker:the Dow Jones, but also kind of our daily lives, but also,
Speaker:you know, the better venture capital industry. Like, it's a it's more sounds like it's
Speaker:more of a proper discipline now as opposed to, you know,
Speaker:a hobby. Like, you know, kinda like we said, it was kinda,
Speaker:but now it's more of a professional discipline with with with
Speaker:proper kind of structure and form
Speaker:around it, I guess, would be a good way to put it. Yep. I agree.
Speaker:I agree. It's I think it's fair to describe it that way. Yeah. I
Speaker:like the way you're approaching it. It's very systematic. It it
Speaker:feels, you know, it feels kind of appropriate
Speaker:in that there's, that there's a framework that
Speaker:you're following, a system that you're following, kind of a, like Frank
Speaker:said, a disciplined approach to it. And, it it feels
Speaker:self similar. So you're investing in technologies.
Speaker:Maybe you're looking for or maybe part of what you're looking for
Speaker:is someone who has the ability to
Speaker:perhaps create methodologies to solve business problems,
Speaker:technical problems. And, you know, and and in
Speaker:doing that, you're applying this methodology that you've already built,
Speaker:you and your partner. I think it's,
Speaker:the right way to put it. In a way,
Speaker:if you want to become better in what you're
Speaker:doing, you must have a system. Doesn't matter
Speaker:which discipline you're involved with. But if you want to constantly
Speaker:improve, you must have a system. Because without a system, you won't be
Speaker:able to look back in a retrospective and understand in a
Speaker:systematic manner what worked and what didn't work and
Speaker:how to improve it. So in order to have the the the the
Speaker:the base ground to analyze what worked and what didn't
Speaker:work, you need to have a a a framework, a systematic framework that
Speaker:will help you to do so. So you're describing an
Speaker:advanced, or mature. There's a capability maturity
Speaker:models that are applied in software all the time. And what you're describing sounds
Speaker:very, very similar to that. And it's,
Speaker:you know, the same sort of thing that I recall from an article that
Speaker:I I read. I wanna say it was back in the nineties. And it was
Speaker:about the team that developed software for the Space Shuttle,
Speaker:for NASA Space Shuttle here in the US. And
Speaker:one of the things that, that they would do, an approach that they
Speaker:took was if there was a
Speaker:failure in the code, they didn't
Speaker:go fix the failure. They went back to their process
Speaker:and found where that failed and let that failure in the code
Speaker:through. So it's it's funny that you
Speaker:describe it that way because of 2 things. 1st, I think the the
Speaker:people you referred to are very smarter than I am, and they
Speaker:build much greater things in a in a bigger unknown,
Speaker:environment. But, in in in
Speaker:regards to that, internally at team 8,
Speaker:the the system we've built to how to IDA,
Speaker:to how to validate, to how to build a company,
Speaker:we actually, we actually call it the machine and and for a
Speaker:reason. We try to build a machine, that will help
Speaker:us build great companies. That that really
Speaker:sounds impressive, and I'd love to know more about that. And I
Speaker:know we're, and I know we we have a limited amount
Speaker:of time, but I I'm fascinated by that application,
Speaker:you know, of this in a different field because
Speaker:I've seen, people try to attempt other methodologies
Speaker:that do great in software. My my number one experience was
Speaker:with the scrum agile method. Yep. And I was at a
Speaker:business where that was introduced, and we all learned it. I learned it there for
Speaker:the first time. But then I saw the the
Speaker:business, part of that try and adopt,
Speaker:and and, you know, adapt from and adapt it to,
Speaker:applying it to business principles and business decisions. And in that
Speaker:particular instance, it failed miserably. And it was
Speaker:like I don't know what they did differently because I'm I wasn't that
Speaker:high up in the business. I was a low level manager. But
Speaker:but seeing that having that experience, seeing that fail
Speaker:was eye opening. And it's really cool to see
Speaker:somebody applying this in a to a to a business model
Speaker:and especially to, venture capitalism and the
Speaker:funding of founders and the building of ideas,
Speaker:and taking an idea from actually taking it from before the
Speaker:idea even exists, just finding a founder
Speaker:and then building an idea and then building that idea
Speaker:to some product or service. That that's just very impressive
Speaker:to me. It's exciting to hear that that's happening. It sounds like the movie
Speaker:inception. Right? Like Doesn't it? Yeah. You get it? That you
Speaker:can move before it's really a fully formed idea. You kinda nudge
Speaker:it along. Yeah. So so you know what? Let let let
Speaker:me give you a manifestation of, this process that, relates to
Speaker:our discussion, today. One of the things that,
Speaker:we build, at teammate as
Speaker:assets that we use to, to execute upon that
Speaker:motion is what we refer to as the villages. We
Speaker:have a couple of them. We have the CISA village, the system
Speaker:information security officer village, and,
Speaker:the data village. The Cisco village obviously is
Speaker:a network of, great CISOs from
Speaker:across the globe. Many Fortune 500, companies CISOs
Speaker:are part of, that network. And in the data village, we have,
Speaker:CDOs and and head of, data operations in different
Speaker:companies all across the globe. And the reason why we
Speaker:build these, networks that, we work very hard to maintain
Speaker:and to create engagement in these networks, it's not only because of
Speaker:the of the social, for
Speaker:exactly
Speaker:for exactly what we've talked to. For example,
Speaker:recently, and we do it on a on a cadence. We reach out
Speaker:to our network to learn about their day to day
Speaker:and top of mind issues and challenges that they
Speaker:face in the real life. And, we use
Speaker:that, as an input for us to map
Speaker:the world and understand which areas are,
Speaker:mostly painful for, the the,
Speaker:network, members of ours. And it's a great
Speaker:indication for us to start investigating whether there is a potential to
Speaker:build a company there. Right? So this is one thing. And the
Speaker:second part of it, is later in the process. So,
Speaker:let's say we build a thesis. Let's say I came up with a thesis in
Speaker:a data infrastructure, vertical. Now
Speaker:I really like, my thesis, but, nobody cares about the fact
Speaker:that I like them. I need the network to like them. Right? Because they're their
Speaker:potential, buyer eventually. So I take
Speaker:the thesis that, we processed internally at, at,
Speaker:team 8 that we worked on it, and I bring it to their table.
Speaker:I want to hear a candid feedback from, these,
Speaker:village members, what they think about it, and, why,
Speaker:we don't know what we're talking about or the opposite. Why this is the the
Speaker:best thing since sliced bread?
Speaker:Right. Right. Yeah. It's it's almost like it takes a village,
Speaker:you know, or takes Exactly. You know? Exactly. The approach.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:No. This is fascinating. Like, you know, it's it's it's fascinating to see kind of
Speaker:how this this world works as someone who is kind of, you know, on
Speaker:the outside and kind of I watched our tank. There's actually a
Speaker:knockoff version of the show called elevator pitch, which I've
Speaker:seen. You know, it's not my client's
Speaker:getting shark tank, but so what
Speaker:would be your advice to entrepreneurs?
Speaker:Like and and, like, what would be your advice for
Speaker:them in general? They have an idea. And what would
Speaker:be your advice to them to, like, say, hey. I wanna execute
Speaker:on this idea. Like, what how would they best approach a venture
Speaker:capitalist in today's kind of terms? Right? Because it used to be you have to
Speaker:write this huge document way back, then it became, oh, you see the PowerPoint
Speaker:deck. Right? I'm pretty sure it's evolved to something else now. What what what
Speaker:what would be your advice to somebody in that position? So,
Speaker:I'm trying to address this, question, holistically and not,
Speaker:tactically. First, I think
Speaker:that, having a founder that, operates
Speaker:in that specific domain for some time is very important.
Speaker:To have an intimate relationship with a problem, I think it's a get
Speaker:great indicator, for a great,
Speaker:problem understanding and potentially to solve that problem. So this
Speaker:is one thing. Secondly, critical
Speaker:thinking. Right? Sometimes all of us,
Speaker:fall in love with our ideas. Right?
Speaker:And and and this could be the the one of the the
Speaker:biggest detractors or or company destroyers
Speaker:out there, to fall in love with what you do. I mean, you should fall
Speaker:in love with it, but you should also be very judgmental
Speaker:about everything you do and question every step
Speaker:you take. For example, I give you the example. We come up with a
Speaker:thesis that sounds to us or feel to us very
Speaker:good, and we have, a lot of confidence with that. It's
Speaker:nice, but it doesn't mean a lot. I need the actual market,
Speaker:the actual, friction of the market,
Speaker:to indicate the same thing. So we try to be
Speaker:as critical thinkers as, possible.
Speaker:The people, we talked about it. Building your,
Speaker:founding team is crucial, for your
Speaker:success. And, it's one of the those things
Speaker:that I believe that you should build a team in a way that 1
Speaker:+1equal 3, meaning the sum of the people,
Speaker:or the the the value of the group is bigger than the sum of, the
Speaker:people. And to make sure you have a a good distribution of, skill
Speaker:set in that team, you have someone that is more business oriented, someone
Speaker:is more technical oriented, someone is more, focused on a
Speaker:product. These are great indicators or
Speaker:initial great indicators for, a good founding
Speaker:team, and and and and a good venture.
Speaker:I I love that approach. I love the overlapping bends,
Speaker:for both passion and for skill.
Speaker:The thing you said earlier, though, that that really, that I wanna
Speaker:go back to is the idea of an
Speaker:idea, if you will. So, yes, people can,
Speaker:I think, approach with a a great idea? And I see this all of the
Speaker:time on a much smaller scale, just managing teams of individuals
Speaker:that people will look at a a solution or look at a problem that needs
Speaker:to be solved and come up with a solution that
Speaker:is okay. Maybe not great, maybe it'll solve it, but
Speaker:it would be so much better if they just added a couple
Speaker:of, you know, a couple of tweaks to that idea. And it could
Speaker:be too. That that's one part
Speaker:of it. The other part of working with others, and this is the crucial part
Speaker:of that, building that team that you're talking about. And it's my experience
Speaker:with it is that, sometimes you need
Speaker:somebody to look you in the eye and say, that's a bad idea.
Speaker:And it really it can go a couple of ways from there. So one way
Speaker:it can go, and I think this is often overlooked, so I'm gonna mention it
Speaker:first, is that they may be wrong about that. It
Speaker:may be a great idea, and somebody's got a passion for it, and they
Speaker:want to, to build this thing. But here's an
Speaker:option. You don't you can build it, but maybe you don't have to
Speaker:build it right now. If you build this other idea, which
Speaker:is, you know, what everyone agrees that you should build, now
Speaker:everyone's engaged. You've got the power of all of those
Speaker:blends of skills and passions, and you can
Speaker:produce this product now. Go ahead and do that. Spend a few
Speaker:years on it. Make your money, and then you can go off and build your
Speaker:passionate project. And it could be that that also
Speaker:succeeds. So that just I that's just that take
Speaker:on it. I I really like that idea, though, the team. I
Speaker:think anybody who's ever worked in a good team has enjoyed
Speaker:that experience and seeks to repeat that experience because it
Speaker:is truly an awesome thing. It's a great feeling when the
Speaker:team clicks. I couldn't agree more
Speaker:with you, Andy. One thing that,
Speaker:was, I heard between the words of
Speaker:what you said is something that I also relate to, and
Speaker:this is the process. Right? We talked about the team.
Speaker:We talked about, the perspective of being a judgmental or
Speaker:critical thinker about everything you do. But one thing that I think
Speaker:is overlooked sometime is the process itself. I mean,
Speaker:I hear on a on an average week at least
Speaker:20, 30 new ideas. Right? Ideas
Speaker:are at best at best, 20% of the success of
Speaker:a new start up at best.
Speaker:80% if not more, it's all about the execution of
Speaker:the idea. Right. The execution of the idea. And,
Speaker:there there are many many layers to this statement.
Speaker:You start with the idea. Right? But, then reality
Speaker:happens. Right? And you see that, yeah. And
Speaker:then you see that the idea well, the the the origin
Speaker:of the idea is right, but, you need to constantly
Speaker:navigate the idea, the product vision,
Speaker:you know, with the conjunction of, the reality. And Sure.
Speaker:The best teams, others are the ones that
Speaker:can navigate, in a very up,
Speaker:open and critical thinking way the product
Speaker:from the the initial idea to the actual,
Speaker:embodiment or the actual manifestation of the product that it that
Speaker:they will, end up with. So the
Speaker:process itself is super important in my mind.
Speaker:Yeah. I I so agree with that. We have a there's a a famous
Speaker:military statement, but what you said reminded me of a modification of
Speaker:it. It's like no idea survives contact with
Speaker:reality. Mike Tyson is
Speaker:also known for for a similar quote where everybody has a plan until they
Speaker:get punched in the face. That's right. But I think I think that
Speaker:ties into something, you had said earlier, Adiad, was, you know, like, you you you
Speaker:wanna love your idea and you wanna fall in love with your idea, but I
Speaker:don't think you want your love to blind your common sense.
Speaker:So here is a a a quote I really like, to use.
Speaker:Don't fall in love with your solution. Fall in love with the problem.
Speaker:Right? Make sure you have yeah. Make sure you're
Speaker:you're very, very familiar with the problem.
Speaker:You really relate to it, you understand it in a very intimate
Speaker:manner, the right solution will evolve, will
Speaker:evolve throughout the process if if if you're a strong leader.
Speaker:Right. Wow. Yes. That's good. That's
Speaker:really good. That's a quotable. Definitely. I
Speaker:know we're short on time, and, normally, we do all these questions, but I think
Speaker:we can do an abbreviated one. I think the first question I'd have for you
Speaker:is how did you get how did you find your way into into
Speaker:being a VC? Right? Like, did did it find you or did you find
Speaker:it? So probably a little bit of both. So,
Speaker:as I mentioned, before I joined T9, I was, I spent
Speaker:15 years in a company I founded, a AI analytics
Speaker:company. And it was a great success. Right? When I left the company, it was
Speaker:at 100 and $60,000,000 of reoccurring revenue, and we had
Speaker:more than 800, employees, globally. But
Speaker:I did it for a very long period of time, 15 years. And I
Speaker:started that company out of college. It's almost, the the cliche
Speaker:of, founding up, a startup. You're
Speaker:doing brilliant. Yeah. And I wanted to to
Speaker:to, you know, to experience few other things.
Speaker:So when I started to have these existential thoughts, I informed the board
Speaker:of directors of, my company, and it took some time until I departed.
Speaker:But, during my last
Speaker:few years at Sisense, I also became an
Speaker:active angel investor. So I tried to start,
Speaker:giving back to the community of, entrepreneurship in Tel Aviv,
Speaker:by meeting founders and offering them my candid
Speaker:support and advice. That's it. And, I started to do
Speaker:that. And every once in a while, I met up, founders or a
Speaker:team that I got really excited, from. And,
Speaker:I I I asked them if I can also invest some of my
Speaker:own money. And this is how I started my, angel investment,
Speaker:journey. When I departed from teammate,
Speaker:You mean Sisense? Yep. Sorry. Sisense.
Speaker:I, had a lot of free time on my plate. So,
Speaker:naturally, I became more and more active
Speaker:in my angel investments. If you ask
Speaker:me when I when I left, Sisense, if I'll, if I
Speaker:want to become a VC, the answer would have probably been
Speaker:no way. I'm a founder. I'm a founder. I'm going
Speaker:to start a new company. And, I was very close
Speaker:to start up, a new company, after Sisense,
Speaker:but the reality is that it didn't happen. Now
Speaker:I can talk for hours about the psychological,
Speaker:reasons for that, but it didn't happen. And,
Speaker:I I can think of why not, but, eventually,
Speaker:after, I became, quite, active
Speaker:angel investor, I met the teammate, people.
Speaker:And, they talked to me for quite some time, and I remember the first
Speaker:few talk, that they asked me about the, about potentially
Speaker:working together. I told them I will never become a VC.
Speaker:But after some kind of, relationship for a long term,
Speaker:they came to me and told me, but, Aviad, you you were saying you're
Speaker:not you don't want to be a VC, but you actually invest in companies for
Speaker:your living. This is what you're doing currently. So join us. Don't
Speaker:fool yourself. Look at the mirror and join us, and it made
Speaker:sense. And, this is how I became a,
Speaker:a VC. You understand? That sounds
Speaker:like, Frank and I talk often about divine appointments, and
Speaker:it sounds very much like like one of those. You happen to run into
Speaker:the these people and it happened or, you know, your first
Speaker:reaction was not positive. That's great.
Speaker:Our next question is, what is your favorite part of your current
Speaker:gig? Very easy answer. Working
Speaker:with great founders. By far, meeting the
Speaker:teams, identify that these are great,
Speaker:great entrepreneurs. This is what makes me tick. And
Speaker:spending as much time, with them. I don't care doing what? Spending
Speaker:time with them? This is my favorite part of, my current gig. That
Speaker:is awesome. Very cool. We
Speaker:have 3 complete the sentences. When I'm not working, I enjoy blank.
Speaker:Well, it's a little bit embarrassing because, I don't have
Speaker:many hobbies. I really like, I really like, working.
Speaker:I I mean, obviously, my family. I love my family. So if I have spare
Speaker:time, I'm gonna I'm gonna spend it with, my wife and,
Speaker:kids. But if I'm not doing that, I'm probably working.
Speaker:No. I'm right there with you. Don't be embarrassed. You're I
Speaker:I don't know if you're in good company, but you have a lot of company.
Speaker:That's right. That's right. That's right. That's an interesting way to phrase
Speaker:it. So our second
Speaker:complete sentence, I think the coolest thing in technology today
Speaker:is blank. Oh, so many cool new things in
Speaker:technology. I think the most prominent one is the
Speaker:AI revolution we're all experiencing. It's
Speaker:disrupting so many verticals, and
Speaker:very, very quickly, probably more, or faster than
Speaker:anything I've seen in the past. I thought when the
Speaker:cloud movement started, I don't know, 10 years ago, I thought this
Speaker:is the the quickest, evolution or revolution
Speaker:in technologies that I've seen. Nothing compared to, the speed
Speaker:of AI, and and how quickly it changes so
Speaker:many
Speaker:in it's in I thought we had reached kind of, a
Speaker:certain plateau of pace. But then when
Speaker:Chat GPT came out, I mean, it did just, like, just
Speaker:accelerated. You know? What do you think made Cheggipt,
Speaker:becoming the pivotal thing in the perception of everyone that
Speaker:is, the reason for the the
Speaker:change in perception around AI? I
Speaker:personally think is the way that it was presented.
Speaker:It has you know, there's 2 factors to
Speaker:it. 1, it's a chatbot. Right? So people can kinda relate to that. Right? That's
Speaker:it the the the and big deal. Right? There's been chatbots around for number
Speaker:of years. But I think the real thing that blew people away
Speaker:was it destroyed the notion that AI can't be
Speaker:creative. Well, this is very close to what I think.
Speaker:Mhmm. I was dazzled. I mean, I heard
Speaker:about bots. I played with many bots in the past. But the first
Speaker:time I started to play with JetJPT, I was dazzled by the
Speaker:quality, how good it was. And it was light
Speaker:years, better than anything else, any other
Speaker:chatbot that I've seen, and and it was very apparent that this is a
Speaker:revolution for me at least. That was that was my reaction. Right? So
Speaker:when it came out, I was presenting because we we launched a product to Red
Speaker:Hat about the same time and at at AWS reinvent.
Speaker:Right? So I was kind of in AWS reinvent
Speaker:land. And I go I get to the airport at
Speaker:Vegas because early because when you wanna leave Vegas, you do you wanna
Speaker:leave. Right? So I get to the airport early, and I'm like, you
Speaker:know, I a lot of people I know have been, like, raving about chat GBP
Speaker:and saying how great it is. And I'm like, alright. Alright. So let me just
Speaker:ask it. How do I start how do I get started with SageMaker? I think
Speaker:that was the original question I asked it. And I had a expectation of,
Speaker:well, you do this, you do this, you do this. But, like, the the the
Speaker:answer behind it was so coherent and so cogent.
Speaker:Like you said, it was light years beyond my expectations.
Speaker:And I'm continually amazed at, like, what it can do. Right? Like, it
Speaker:and it blows my mind to this day and this is, like, what's
Speaker:going on 2 years later. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker:Alright. Andy, you want the the next complete the sentence or has the allergies
Speaker:gotten you?
Speaker:Alright. I will I will ask you for him so we stay on some kinda
Speaker:sketchy. Sneezing. He's probably sneezing. Alright. Complete the sentence.
Speaker:I look forward to the day when I can use technology to blank.
Speaker:Take away the vast majority of my day to day
Speaker:bureaucracy. Right? Dealing with the bank and taxes.
Speaker:And I think we're getting quickly towards that.
Speaker:Quickly towards that. I'm involved in a company that,
Speaker:is actually building, disruptive technology in,
Speaker:filing your taxes every year. And they do it, yeah, doing
Speaker:it automatically in a in a very good manner.
Speaker:I met up, founding team in in legal deck that they
Speaker:build, a technology that can summarize
Speaker:thousands of, legal document very, very quickly and just
Speaker:do, the red lines very, very quickly and replace,
Speaker:you know, the the tedious work of, endless, hours of,
Speaker:lawyers in that regard. So I think we're at the right direction
Speaker:towards that, but, it's a brave new word, I
Speaker:think. I don't know what the tax code is outside the US, but
Speaker:in the US, it's very convoluted and confusing. Yep. So if you can have an
Speaker:AI that you can explain it to you like you're 5, you know what I
Speaker:mean, that would be very useful. There are a few very exciting
Speaker:technologies that, are after that goal, so stay tuned.
Speaker:I will eagerly be awaiting that.
Speaker:So share something different about yourself. It's a family podcast.
Speaker:Like, it's a it's a family podcast in the sense of,
Speaker:we went into this before. Like, when I drive to where
Speaker:my my my wife's family is, it's about 3 hours. It's about 1 Joe Rogan
Speaker:episode away, but I can't listen.
Speaker:That's influence. Right? You measure time and distance based on your
Speaker:podcast. Right? That is true.
Speaker:But, so I don't listen to
Speaker:it because I have kids in the car. So what that's
Speaker:the rationale behind it. So what's your, you know, what
Speaker:what's, you know would you answer that? Yeah.
Speaker:So first thing that comes to mind that, not many
Speaker:people know about me, I, really love traveling,
Speaker:and I used to to backpack in South
Speaker:America for almost a year. Oh, wow. A while
Speaker:ago. A while ago. But backpack by myself
Speaker:as a decision. I wanted to backpack by myself in
Speaker:South America, and I did it for 11 months. Wow.
Speaker:That is very interesting. You must have gotten a lot of, like, clarity on
Speaker:things. Like, just along with your thoughts. It feels amazing. I
Speaker:have to admit. That's awesome. So, Audible is a sponsor.
Speaker:And if you go to the data driven book dotcom,
Speaker:you can sign up for a month. And if you decide to
Speaker:subscribe after that, then Frank and I get to buy a coffee.
Speaker:It it works out well because we both like coffee. We treasure every
Speaker:cup. Is there a a good audio book
Speaker:or just a a book that has influenced you,
Speaker:impacted you? Yeah.
Speaker:Actually, there is one. It's called the mom's test. I don't know if you heard
Speaker:about it, but a few of the thing,
Speaker:that, we talked earlier relate to that book. And the mom
Speaker:test is a book about how, this is
Speaker:my interpretation of it, how to properly validate
Speaker:ideas. Right? In a very, as I mentioned, a very
Speaker:critical thinking way and doubtful way,
Speaker:that I usually advise, founders that I meet to read. I
Speaker:think it's very valuable. Interesting. Okay. I
Speaker:see it on Audible. I tested the link earlier, the
Speaker:data driven book.com, and it took me right over to Audible like it was
Speaker:supposed to, and it's by Rob Fitzpatrick. Is that accurate?
Speaker:Okay. The mom test. I love that title. Yep.
Speaker:Very cool. You know, in a in a nutshell in a nutshell,
Speaker:when, when you question people about idea, it talks
Speaker:about few things we we've mentioned is to focus on the problem and not the
Speaker:solution. Right? If I'll tell you, hey, guys. I have an idea for a great
Speaker:app on your iPhone that organize your icons. I don't know. What do you think
Speaker:about it? And you'll probably say, oh, it's cool. That
Speaker:feedback is meaningless. I learned nothing from that feedback.
Speaker:Right? Right. So how you structure the questionnaire? How you structure
Speaker:the discussion in order to properly validate the problems, the solution, and
Speaker:such is at the at the core of this book, and I think it's
Speaker:super valuable. Well, I love it when authors read their own work,
Speaker:and he does. And so I grabbed it. It's, about
Speaker:almost 4 hours long, and that's that makes it kind of a
Speaker:short audiobook, which is also, perfect. I love that as
Speaker:well. So I appreciate you, recommending that, and I'm going
Speaker:to read that, and then I'm gonna connect with you on LinkedIn so I can
Speaker:give you feedback on that, on what I would do at work. I would love
Speaker:that. Well, this has been an
Speaker:amazing show, Frank. Absolutely. I I it
Speaker:was it was a pleasure, Aviat. Yep. Where where
Speaker:people reach out to find out more about you? That's what I was gonna
Speaker:say. You're most welcome, and I'm very accessible. If
Speaker:you want to talk again, just, have my email. Send me an
Speaker:email. I travel a lot to the US. So next time on, on the
Speaker:East Coast, I get to New York a lot. So if you're there, I'll be
Speaker:happy to meet for I'll buy you coffee. You said you like coffee.
Speaker:That would be outstanding, sir. Thank you so much. So if,
Speaker:where can people learn about your, the company you're working with now?
Speaker:Sorry. Say it again. So where where might
Speaker:people learn more about the, the group you're working with now? Team
Speaker:8. Team 8. Yes. So, we can
Speaker:do multiple things. 1st, check our website,
Speaker:teammate, dot v c. You can read all about
Speaker:this team 8, the motion, the the portfolio companies, the
Speaker:founders, and such. And,
Speaker:if you need more information, I'll be more than happy to share with you, you
Speaker:know, marketing information and everything you need.
Speaker:So that is for our listeners team, the word team, and then the
Speaker:number 8 dot v c. Correct.
Speaker:Pretty awesome. Okay. Excellent. Andy and
Speaker:Frank, I had a blast. Thank you very much. Same we did
Speaker:too. Same Learned a lot of you. Yeah. Great great
Speaker:conversation. Thank you so much. Well, excellent. You. With that, we'll
Speaker:let the nice British AI lady finish the show. Well, that's a wrap on
Speaker:another episode of data driven. We hope you enjoyed our chat
Speaker:with Aviad Harrell from team 8 as much as we did. If you
Speaker:found this episode insightful, please show your support by
Speaker:liking, subscribing, and leaving a review on your favorite podcast
Speaker:platform. Your support helps us continue to bring you
Speaker:fascinating conversations and the latest in AI, data
Speaker:science and data engineering. Stay connected with us on
Speaker:social media and visit our website for more content.
Speaker:Until next time, keep learning, keep innovating, and as
Speaker:always, stay data
About the author, Frank
Frank La Vigne is a software engineer and UX geek who saw the light about Data Science at an internal Microsoft Data Science Summit in 2016. Now, he wants to share his passion for the Data Arts with the world.
He blogs regularly at FranksWorld.com and has a YouTube channel called Frank's World TV. (www.FranksWorld.TV). Frank has extensive experience in web and application development. He is also an expert in mobile and tablet engineering. You can find him on Twitter at @tableteer.