Michael Eisenberg. Michael’s a canny investor who’s on the cutting edge of the VC scene in Israel. He invested in Wix and Conduit while working with Benchmark - now he’s set up his own firm, Aleph. Listen in to hear about Aleph’s investments in an AI dashcam, Michael’s journey from unemployment to top VC, and why scale-up is the new start-up.
Famous 5
Favorite Book? – Good to Great
What CEO do you follow? — Jeff Bezos
What is your favorite online tool? — Gmail
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? —There’s so much to do in this world. Keep working.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:40 – Nathan’s introduction
02:00 – Welcoming Michael to the show
02:06 – Started Aleph 3 years ago with a partner - wanted to invest in Israeli startups
02:40 – Michael’s been a venture capitalist in Israel for over 20 years
03:20 – Started a merchant bank for technology startups in Israel
04:00 – Invested in the first online photo-sharing site in 1994 and sold for over $100 million
05:00 – Worked at Benchmark in Israel for several years - invested in Wix, Conduit, and other startups
06:00 – Raised $150 million for Aleph in 2013
06:20 – Core mantra is: “Different is better than better”
06:50 – Aleph is an equal-partnership firm in terms of return and decision-making influence
08:15 – Invest almost exclusively in Series A
08:40 – The Thing About Cycles - Michael’s blog post about cyclical investing
09:10 – Currently investing in Nexar, an AI-powered dashcam
10:15 – Nexar can give you real-time information based on location and the license plates of the drivers around you - it takes information from drivers’ speed and location.
11:20 – Have already covered more mileage than Google Streetview
12:10 - Invested $4 million in Series A
13:08 - 15 months in; 9 months since the launch
13:18 - Collecting about 80k license plates each day
13:46 – Connect with Michael on the Aleph website or through his blog
16:20 – Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Invest in disruption: “Different is better than better”
Michael’s currently investing in a smart dashcam that has an enormous capacity to collect data.
Keep working. The world is full of opportunities.
Resources Mentioned:
Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
