It’s hard to believe that it’s been just over 15 years since I launched VC Cafe on December 2nd of 2005. At the time, shortly after moving from a Tel Aviv suburb to join GLG in New York, I was looking for a way to keep in touch with the Israeli tech ecosystem. At the same time, I got very curious about the then “new” medium of blogging (VC Cafe originally started on Blogger as goisrael.blogger.com). I also wanted to create a publication that covered Israeli startups, in English, and put a spotlight on the wonderfully diverse tech ecosystem in Israel at a time when most of the news about Israel were negative and related to the conflict.
So much happened since then, both personally and in the world. I moved to San Francisco and then to London, completed an MBA, advanced in my career and started a family. These things took most of my attention, with blogging and writing sometimes taking the toll. But one thing remained a constant: my curiosity about new technology and my admiration of founders who take a risk to make their ideas into reality. I’m also happy I’m able to support founders more meaningfully now, with Remagine Ventures, a fund I co-founded with my long-time friend, Kevin Baxpehler.
Money was never a goal for this blog, as you can that see from the lack of ads. It also hasn’t aimed at replacing professional journalists, as I quickly discovered that by ‘breaking’ stories about startups (publishing stories ahead of anyone else) I was potentially hurting those startups I intended to help. Certain publications (for example one that ends with ‘crunch’) told a startup whose round I scooped that if they’re not the first ones to publish the news, they won’t release the story at all. I shifted from ‘news’ to focusing on topics that I thought could be helpful for founders and interesting to those in, or hoping to follow, the Israeli startup ecosystem.
2020 was a tough year for most. Dealing with a pandemic, being away from family and friends and seeing many businesses and livelihoods disrupted. It came with fear, anxiety and a lot of other negatives for so many of us. It was also a special period, where time moved slower, travel came almost to a halt, and we got a chance to look inside, to ourselves and our (nuclear) families. Lockdown means a completely different thing for parents of young kids when school closes, and with everything else going on I wasn’t always able to find my mojo to write much. I’m not giving myself excuses, just pointing out what reality was. It’s ok to not ‘crush’ it all the time with all the shit we’re going through!
Now at the start of 2021, and several vaccines being deployed in various countries around the world (I’m grateful that my mom and several friends have already been vaccinated in Israel), an end, or at least a new beginning seems to be on the horizon. We may not get back to the ‘old normal’, but maybe we can choose a “normal 2.0”, drawing lessons of what worked during this lockdown. I hope that getting the pandemic under control will help us rebuild and solve the many other problems in the world that require our attention. I’m just grateful I can play a small role in casting a well-deserved light on Israeli tech.
I want to wish the readers of this blog a healthy, curious and prosperous new year. I strive to write more regularly and find my writing voice again in 2021.
In the wise words of Yoda:
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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