How did you become a venture capitalist, and why?

I got my first PC (a Spectrum ZX) when I was 12 years old, and immediately fell in love with programming. Later on, I became a software programmer and worked at several Israeli software startups, increasingly gravitating towards product management and customer-facing roles. One of these startups was in the midst of fundraising and I was asked to join the CEO and demo the product to investors – that was the first time I heard about venture capital and, coming out of that meeting, I just knew that this is an industry I would like to join.

How can you help founders and startup teams succeed?

In venture investing, as in life, there are no cookie-cutter recipes for a guaranteed success, but there are best practices to follow and pitfalls to avoid, to increase the chances of getting there. Investing since 2001, I have accumulated a lot of experience guiding founders and management teams through their scaling-up phase, from team building to go-to-market strategies. This is particularly relevant to European startups, whose domestic markets seem initially large enough to grow a business in, but later on find it difficult to break out of their home bases to scale globally. 

Which technologies and sectors are you mostly interested in?

I specialize in Enterprise software and have worked exclusively withing that sector throughout my entire VC career. I am particularly interested in software startups active in the cyber security, digital identities and decentralized computing sectors, as well as in software infrastructure and novel algorithms. 

What do you do in your free time?

Playing the Flamenco guitar, growing Bonsai trees and meditating.