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Hi Roman! Thanks for taking part in our weekly programme “In2up Startup Of The Week”
Hi! Thank you!
Let’s talk about yourself
What did you do before creating your own company?
What did you do? What did you study?
Well, I studied in Kiev Classical Jewish Gymnasium number 99
After than I graduated from Kiev Polytechnic University
where I studied informatics with a long-named major
Automated Systems of Processing and Management but did journalism most of my life
It happened that I started writing at the age of 11
and still keep going, I have been working in IT journalism for the last 10 years
for different Ukrainian and other magazines
and the last 3 years prior to moving to Israel I was the editor-in-chief of IT Business Week
which a good niche-media for professionals
So yeah, on my way I tried many things that I was interested in, cause writing is not just interesting, it’s also fun and inspiring process
However there are other enticing activities. I was fascinated by coding from childhood
Was one of the first in CIS countries to get certified at 14 which I am really proud of, think that is all I can boast about
Was influenced by many subjects that are at intersection of IT, sociology and phycology
When social networks came to existence I thought “That’s exactly what I need!”
Together with that I followed what is called ‘informal education’ within different means, some jewish education too
So would you call yourself a mathematician or you prefer humanities?
I am good at mathematics and like to be at the intersection of sciences
Cause the coolest stuff takes places when things mingle
Speaking in the language of Steve Jobs, connecting the dots, combining arts, design and other disciplines lead to some great inventions
That’s exactly right!
JewishNet - what is it?
JewishNet is a social jewish network
with a quite simple mission of connecting all jewish people around the world
wherever they are, whatever they do, whatever social place they take
At this moment it functions not even as an alpha-version or prototype
but more as a sort of experimental project, we are sending the world our message
And even now we already have some audience of more than 10 000 users
who use JewishNet on a regular basis, we got some solid media coverage
and we have some features that are ready for a final version that will be introduced within the next 6 months of so
How did you come up with an idea? Is it a result of meticulous research or more of a sudden spark?
It took me lots of thinking but the idea per se came all of a sudden
Once in some social network, MySpace or one of its clones in 2004 I was looking for someone and accidentally added totally different person
And I was surprised that someone I did not know actually confirmed me as his friend, it was a cultural and sociological shock in a way
When I asked why the girl answered that I have some pictures with Israeli flag and since I am jewish I should be added to friends list
It was then when I got this idea of jewish social platform, though there were not technological or financial resources
to realize the project by myself but I was determined ever since then
After some time some standard social networks engines were brought to life, we tried some and did not succeed
Because even today they are not powerful enough and that is precisely why we are looking for our own solution, but current technologies helped us to build what we have now
What is the official release date of JewishNet?
That will be 3 May 2011, since that date we gave ourselves one year to identify what we want and what our audience wants and if we can deliver that
and to find investors and partners who would help us to bring our startup to a new level
By the way now you can address our community and say that JewishNet is searching for some investors
JewishNet has found an investor but we are always happy to meet some new ones!
Fair enough!
JewishNet needs more partners at the moment, those who want to introduce some services we might find useful
or those who could help us identify what jewish community or some relevant community that work with needs the most
Our partner can come from many areas from jewish organizations to different groups or educational bodies
Even though you are Russian language service, as far as I understand, there are no boundaries and your partners can be of any country?
Yes, sure. We have around 100 partners 4/5 of whom are Russian speaking which makes sense since currently our project is in Russian
Our next version will be in 4 languages - Russian, English, Hebrew (more for theological reasons rather than practical, obviously there won’t be many users) and Spanish
Spanish as a language of growing population right?
Absolutely
For people seeking a practical solution, when it comes to social network founding
you need to gather a team, who will you need first? IT, designer, someone in charge of marketing, who do you need at an early stage?
From the very beginning you need a few people with a clear understanding of what you want to achieve
who share you vision, and after that you can plan their responsibilities depending on what they can contribute
I mean first and foremost you need like-minded people, then you can evaluate their professional qualities, and obviously at the beginning you need some technical expert, an IT guy
We did not find one among our like-minded mates but found some decent freelancers
I can proudly state that I found several hundreds different volunteers, professionals
business owners who take part in our project to various extent
I mean I can’t say there is a core link which makes the system rely solely on it
From the inception we tried to make a system that is self-organizational and flexible
But ... you know 3 people that are essential today are our indispensable CFO who currently resides in Kiev
and is in charge of our relations with all the CIS bloc of countries,
the communication director who is also my wife
There’s been a love-story within this startup
And a third one is myself. But still we are trying to build up a system that will continue to grow even if we have to leave it once
What’s your role in the project?
Are you the founding mastermind, lieder, CEO, the general director?
At the beginning yes, everything you just mentioned plus I design the interface, fix all the bugs, do the marketing and PR, I am a Jack of all trades
Of course I can not do it for too long and I will have to delegate some of the responsibilities later
But at the moment it seems to be a better solution
How many days per week do you work since you have to do everything all the time?
True. I work 6 days a week
I always ask this question to our interviewees, how can one find a golden balance between work and private life? Is it actually possible to find the so-called golden middle?
To be honest - no, you can’t! It’s impossible
I went for a weird option and merged my work with private life and now there is almost no barrier between them
Except shabbat when we do not work and dedicate this time to each other with my wife
All the other days it’s all about work, work and work
And life within the work
What motivates you to wake up every day and make things happen?
Obviously it’s my wife!
I see. A couple of months ago we had Mike Tomshinsky in this programme, the founder of MemoCards
and I asked him how come Israel is the land of startups?
Just recently read in Wired (UK) that 4000 technological startups, and we are talking about only technological startups here, are founded in Israel every year
The biggest figure outside the US!
What’s the secret? The main advantage? Why startups appear there?
I think there are several Israeli peculiarities and several pure jewish ones
that could be separated
What so special about Israel is typical Israeli... I don’t even know how to translate it
in Hebrew it sounds like chutzpah
Wisdom
Something between audacity, resourcefulness and the ability to get out of any situation
That is what Israeli children learn since their birth and what they become connoisseurs at after the army
It is the ability not to get lost, not to get confused, accomplish what you put as a goal, ask when you don’t understand
and not to be afraid to start something you don’t really know
That is the Israeli feature
The jewish peculiarity is a thirst of knowledge that nourished from childhood too
It is even a thirst but more of a value of knowledge in society
The value of knowledge, of disputes, of public speaking, of defending your point of view
and it does not matter who are you arguing with, it can be some expert, your father, your friend or a million people audience
All that leads to a good effect, a positive one
I can’t come up with any other countries where the ratio startups/population would be as hight as in Israel
Yes, it is a hard task, maybe USA but again its territory is much bigger
Exactly
You company is founded in Israel and registered there too, am I right?
Legally it was registered in Ukraine but at the moment it is being registered in Israel
How hard or how easy is the whole process of registration in Israel?
What is with bureaucracy and red tape? Are there any?
Compared to Ukraine the process is almost absent, the commercial registration in Israel takes just a few days
if you are lazy, and I would say just a couple of days if you are not lazy
Any bureaucratic impediment is almost completely excluded from the system
Yes there are some institutes with waiting lists but it is nothing compares with CIS countries or even with some european states
Our situation is a bit overcomplicates since we are registering non-commercial organization
and in that case there’s a bit more red tape but again it is much less compared to other places
Generally is JewishNet commercial or non-commercial project?
It is a commercial project, we are non-commercial organization now because all the profits that will come from revenues will go for the project development
Later on once the project grew up we might split it into two different entities (commercial and non-commercial)
or form some other structure
How should your business model work?
The business model is very simple
Premium services, a commercial channel plus some niche partnership projects based on already existing system and community
It is not only users community but the community of partners too
Which premium services you plan to introduce?
Unfortunately I can’t tell you at this moment of time, we have an agreement
Understood
But we’ll announce them soon
What’s the next step for JewishNet? Speaking about the prospective of the next 1-2 years?
The plans for the next year that we are already working on
include the dramatic rework of the inner network mechanics
What we have at the moment is not a finished product, it is just our message
We are working on ideal social network mechanics for all those groups of population that we consider at the most lucrative
Firstly there is a geographical division, we’re going to focus on english-speaking population
Secondly, we are trying to cover all those social statuses that are of top priorities
And thirdly, though it is not so obvious at the first stage, but
we are trying to fulfill the demands of jewish communities in network functionality, its mechanics, as much as possible
Because we don’t want people learn and change their models of behavior
We want already existing communities to painlessly switch to a new way of communication
not even new but more of updated
What is the best marketing tool to attract new audience?
I assume you use some traditional media alongside a social media. What is the most effect tool?
From my own experience, cause before I used to think differently
There are two main ways to promote jewish projects
First is word-of-mouth as it is the traditional jewish method
And the second one is celebrities
Famous people from different domain, can be politicians, art people, well-known scientists, that is what gives some tangible result
All the other... Yes you can achieve some media buzz, you can use plenty of other tools
but when it comes to the ration of efforts to result word-of-mouth and celebrities outperform everything else
Did JewishNet ask some celebrities to advertize?
So far we used just a few individuals just to check out how it all works
We’ve been supported by Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the organization Sochnut (Jewish agency)
We’ve been supported by the minister of Israel Yossi Peled, several respected rabbis, businessmen and we could track who each of celebrities bring with them
It’s interesting, it seems that those people fans are supposed to intersect but users and partners that they bring are completely different
Does Israel as a state support startups like yours? Are there any funds or grants?
There is a crazy number of funds and grants provided by those funds
We talked to some of them and were even asked to follow some programs
but we were not entirely satisfied with their position
Most of them, about 95% are commercial and their first priority is to monetize the project fast and the leave it
which did not suit our strategy and ideology all the time
and our vision was not the same, we saw different ways of development, monetization and its deadlines
But generally for someone who wants to startup in Israel there are many opportunities
There is a bunch of private investors, angles and other types, about 200 funds if I’m not mistaken
who provide with grants, there are incubators, there are funds who assist startups and help to reach western european markets,
United States and even CIS now
You can find anything you need if there is a will.
When there is a will, there is a way! Speaking about the way
What type of investors do you prefer? Some particular business angels or other investors, maybe mentors? Any favorite categories?
I prefer an authoritarian way. Do everything yourself, invest in everything yourself
Obviously after reaching a certain point you have to choose something different
We are looking for an investor by checking 2 parameters
The focus should not be only fast profit-oriented
There should be a project understanding and full of 4/5 ideology sharing
Also a third important point - an investor should have some network we can benefit from
Not only in terms of technology of business model perfection
but also in terms of jewishness
And we managed to find an investor and network that used to be our rivals but now we got together
For me it is the ideal option, an understanding person that does not demand some quick buck and returns
Who does not look only at commercial side but also sees some ideology behind
Are you are an owner, a co-owner or do you own most of the share?
Now I am a co-owner at this moment
Would you give any advice on how to pitch the investors? How to persuade them that your startup is great?
I would say you need to find the right investor first, it’s not always right just to check every one, like from 10 000 investors there are 2% that are good for you
You can get confused. We have checked at least several dozen of investors while at the first stage of analyzes in social networks and other sources
It was fairly obvious that we would not explain our value to someone who is not ‘in the problem’ with his head
Yes we could still explain the commercial part, the market potential, what outcome can investor expect after all
But that is not exactly what we are looking for in our investor, and pitching...
The most important is honesty, even if you’re way too afraid don’t lie to an investor
He feels it and sense your lie within a fraction of a second and in this case will politely say bye
All the other things like being shy, being confused, lack of confidence, some flaws in business plan or business model, lack of team - that is not a big problem
Though some investors told us that we need to have a full team with everybody we need to develop the startup
Including technical specialists but we did well without it. So honesty and belief in what you do it is.
Might be too cliché but it works
Do you have any favorite entrepreneur?
Trying to follow the commandment of not making for myself an idol that’s why there is not a favorite one
but I do have people I follow or followed like Steve Jobs, again might sound too cliché
There are some entrepreneurs that I am interested to keep up with, for instance Shai Agassi who has not left Better Place
Also I have lots of entrepreneurs among people I know and I track what they do, their mistakes in a bigger extent that their achievements
Because the formula for success is clear in every single case but is not something that you can imitate and apply to yourself, but mistakes are interesting
It’s important
Any mistakes you regret about? Or any mistakes that you are happy you made?
There were mistakes and it’s good that I made them at the point when it was not that damaging
First mistake was trying to create a complete product that would have everything
Obviously we failed at that, it could not happen with the resources we had back then
and it was not right from the product promotion point of view, now we understand that the product should be more specific, focus on one thing
and serve well, after some time we can add more features and lead it to a stage where we are happy with everything
So with that mistake with lost some time and money but it’s great that it happened at the earlier stage
The second mistake would have to do not with JewishNet but with another startup that does not exist any more
We did not listen enough to our audience, we though since we have a great team that would build a great product
people will use, there’s not other way, but it happened that it was the other way
Not because the project was bad but because people were expecting something different
That too was just-in-time experience!
We’ll try not to do so any more
So JewishNet is not your first startup since you had some venture before?
Yes, I had some ventures before, some non-commercial ones that you can’t really call startups
More like a local website for specific groups of audience that were successful
Had also one venture that can be called a startup, not sure I can say anything about it since I was not the only one in the team
and we agreed to leave it within ourselves only, but yeah, great that we made all those mistakes back then, educational
Do you do anything else apart from JewishNet?
Yes, there are some other projects. We are opening a first startup incubator in Jerusalem
You’ll be surprise but they had never anything like that, I could not believe myself when researched the market
and found out that Tel Aviv, Haifa, Herzliya and other cities did have tens, maybe hundreds of incubators, accelerators, co-working centers
some places where startupers meet investors while there was nothing in Jerusalem
apart from local university initiatives
So we decided to change that
And you created Jerusalem Startup Hub?
Absolutely right. Jerusalem Startup Hub the current stage is a co-working center with some events for startupers
Later on it will become a pre-seed accelerator and I believe that there will be some demand in Jerusalem
First of all it is a capital city with lots of people, second of all you’ve got some serious technological universities where the audience is ready
and can’t stay in Jerusalem cause they don’t have any place to apply their skills and have to move to a central part of the country
And finally, it is just interesting
Speaking about co-working spaces, how many of them are there in Israel?
There are a few in Israel, I think the total number is not more than 10
and from that 10 probably 7-8 are located in Tel Aviv, they are designed and built in a smart way
according to the model of big german or spanish co-working centers
Obviously with a consideration of Israeli sizes, means they’re a bit smaller
Almost all of them are financed either by invest companies that are located in the same place and are just picking the best teams and startups for themselves
to work with later on or by private investors that are doing practically the same
So I didn’t find any independent commercial initiatives that could be called co-working in Israel so far
though there might be some
How does the economics of co-working space work? Do you need to attract more people or it is more about the unique service?
I mean how does it function in Israel?
Here we have a big segment of population, young professionals, freelancers, students who work in cafés
and when someone offers them a comfortable place to work in with everything one might need, with no noise and distractions
with sockets, with Internet and other people just like them, they are hooked up immediately
The most important is to entice them to become a regular visitor and here lie some challenges
That’s why some co-working spaces switched in renting their places for startups now
for some teams which allows them to forecast their profits and is just convenient for the team
The office renting is quite expensive in Israel...Speaking about Jerusalem
There is a profound lack of events here, there are no events for startupers
for innovators, for investors, for geeks, for everyone interested in IT business, just 1-2 events a month, sometimes less
And practically technological life in Jerusalem does not go further than that
even though there is some serious demand
Let’s talk a bit about the future. For the next 15-20-25 years, where in business will we have new Rockefellers and Morgans? From your perspective
I believe it’s gonna be those industries that will first of all connect people in some ways
I mean industries that are as close to people and what they do as possible
Industries that will create something small yet essential for the daily routine and make people’s existence impossible without it
Like it used to be mobile phones industry, Internet as a world wide web, I think some next step will take place
some call it Internet Of Things, The Global Connection, and it will happen within some stages of augmented reality
that guys from Google and other cool companies are working on, I believe that industry will reach its harmony and be gradually insensibly improving our lives
The key-words are gradually and insensibly
More of an individual approach?
Yes, and more personalized, as much as it can be
Look...Sorry I interrupted, you were saying?
It will be so personalized that the system won’t be searching for some set of tags of a user because some time ago he liked something
It will focus of user’s first needs and demands and will extract detect them in everything, not only in likes or the time spent online
or some social data but something that is not a fantasy even now, that can be achieved with Google glasses
Can we say that it’s small business that will benefit from that? Some small companies will be able to navigate among the giants
For instance, there is Microsoft Messenger and there is an Israeli startup ICQ
that can detect marketing trends fast and act upon. Can we say that small business will get the biggest boost?
I am absolutely positive about that simply because small companies are faster. The can do what giant not even can’t do but will take more time for a decision making
Plus small companies can afford to make mistakes which is good. Big companies can make mistakes do but that will cause bigger problems with their budgets
A small company can make 1,2, 3 mistakes, today’s startup market proves that it is not a problem but more of a benefit actually
Something interesting will happen as a result, so yeah, I think the future belongs to small companies
Great time for startups! Since you are an well-educated man who studied a lot, what is the benefit of an academic education, how important it is? Is it important at all?
I may sound somewhat provocative here but the benefit is quite questionable
I mean the benefit of academic education. I think that every more or less developed cities offers some great self-education means within its network and society
It allows to achieve much more while spending the same time as it takes to get a university degree
Much more with a greater quality, something more scalable and convertible in real life
Here I am talking about CIS countries education. Essentially, the gap between university syllabus update and marketing demands
is not only enormously huge, it is hopeless, a technical university graduate in CIS country
will have to spend as much time learning new skills to fit the market as he spent while getting his degree
We don’t count some humanities that are more of a universal discipline
That’s why if one get his own motivation he can achieve much more
What do you think about online education? Projects like Coursera
I like it, took several courses myself. But again I would not consider it as a full education
It’s a good addition that helps you to feel more educated, smart, well-rounded man that just took a class of Stanford professor
and even got a certificate. Obviously universities will not encourage that competition against themselves
from free education bodies, it is good for someone who wants to receive some extra information in addendum to what he already knows
However he will not find some fundamental knowledge there
Do you mean it’s most likely going to be some sort of alliance between online and offline education?
Sure, there should be some basics that you have to get offline, like for technical education it is some mathematical courses
Which could be self-studied too but to me offline would be more appropriate
When it comes to human sciences, I think online already becomes a competitor
in terms of quality and in terms of its depth
Before we proceed to a table-tennis set of question, could you define the term Entrepreneur?
First of all, Entrepreneur is a human, if he/she forgets it something wrong can occur
What’s the worst part of entrepreneurship for you? Some drawback of this type of profession?
It is the last 20% of any project
Because the first 80% you are driven by enthusiasm, by zest, by energy that support you
The last 20% is a hard routine, but nothing can be done without it
So that’s why these 20% is the hardest and least liked part, no one have ever managed to avoid the routine
Now it is a time of table tennis set of questions, we will be asking you simple questions consisting of options as a answer and you’ll be picking up one
Steve Jobs or Bill Gates?
Steve Jobs
iPhone, Blackberry or HTC?
iPhone
Tea of coffee?
Tea
Going to a party or staying home?
Staying home
Mercedes or BMW?
Mercedes
Fresh food or fast food?
Fresh food
Egg or chicken - what came first?
Of course it is chicken!
Being married or not being married?
Being married! Hey wife!
God believer or atheist?
God believer
Roman, what advice will you give for those guys who are watching us right now and want to startup but have some doubts?
There is an old, well, maybe not that old, jewish proverb that in translation sounds like
The whole world is a very narrow bridge, you should never be afraid of anything
Never be afraid of anything, simple as that. What can happen in the worst scenario?
Well, you may loose some time, money, you might be a bit ashamed for some period of time
But it all passes away, converts into experience and everything turns all right after the second, third or fourth trial
Maybe even after the first one, who knows? Just believe in it
That was Roman Gold, JewishNet, specially for In2up