Bullets in the Laundry -- Should that be Normal? No.

This morning I found live bullets in the washing machine (which explained the banging noises I heard while the cycle was going). Suitable for a semi-automatic machine gun (M-16 to be exact) the bullets seemed to have enjoyed their time in the suds, came out looking quite clean and ready for “action.”

Why was I not so surprised? My oldest son, Adin, was home from the army this past Shabbat. That means laundry.  Theoretically there are washing machines on his base, but he wasn’t on his base, and anyway, he came straight home after spending  about ten days on the border with Gaza.

Now, I have been a parent for 22 years, and thus have been doing other people’s laundry for quite some time. But bullets? That’s a first.

My initial reaction was “wow, glad that all that shaking around didn’t cause the gunpowder to explode.” 

Second reaction: “hope the washing machine didn’t get damaged.”

Finally I realized I had just found machine gun bullets in the laundry. And that is not “normal.” Chewing gum – super annoying, but normal. Wrappers from various candies, ice creams, potato chips – have pulled all those things from the laundry.

Seashells, pebbles, sticks, leaves, yup all those too.

But bullets? Gevalt.

Israel has lived far too long with a level of “normal” that has hardened our senses. When I take a bus on a Sunday morning to Herzliya or Tel Aviv and I am surrounded by machine gun toting soldiers, I accept that as normal. When my kid’s youth group goes on a trip need to order a guard with a gun strapped to his wait to accompany us. OK, he also has first aid training but don’t think he is killing mosquitoes with a magnum .45.

I am not starting a discussion here on gun control laws – but there is nothing normal about a society where guns are so prevalent. Sure, statistically we have less civilian gun violence in Israel than in the US, but that’s not saying much.

The reason our soldiers carry guns with them at all times is because the “front line” is potentially every street corner. In a tiny country (land mass wise, not ego) where at the narrowest the State is less than an hour’s bike ride. We have over the past twenty years endured waves of terrorism reaching every public gathering place (malls, restaurants, beaches, etc.).  

We have “normalized” our situation (purposefully not getting into here the potential ways out of our situation) and go about our business as if 18/19 year old kids walking around with machine guns in the public sphere is  “normal.”

Our army experience is very different from the US and many other countries. Our soldiers come home on average every two weeks, sometimes every week (and there are those who are not in combat units that often live at home – but still usually carry guns). And yes, we do their laundry.

All I am saying is – it should NOT be normal to find bullets in the washing machine. 

Riding with Via (or “NE Corner of 53rd and Park, in front of Citibank”)

It is not always the first to market that successfully delivers  innovation. “Success” is measured in many ways in our business of company building. Sometimes just changing the equation slightly is what brings true disruption – and if done correctly a positive force in the world.

We all know the basic elements to success in successful hyper-growth new company creation: innovation, passion,  timing, and luck. Of course there are some other necessary ingredients, like leadership, management skills, and money.

Once in a very long time I directly touch companies that manage to pull together the above mix, and it is simply magic. The magic can be felt by all the stakeholders in the venture  -- and it is infectious. In a good way, as long as the forces stay calibrated.

In my (still somewhat new) role as part of McKinsey (more on that in a post to come) I get to play cheerleader and coach to some of the most exciting disruption going on, particularly that coming out of Start Up Nation. And I am privileged to help in the scaling up.  

When it speaks directly to issues that I feel passionate about, it’s really fun.

RidewithVia (or simply Via) is such a unique combination – determined to make a difference in the world of on-demand transportation.

 Transport is one of the major areas of life in the developed world that is crying out for serious positive disruption. Every time I watch the thousands of cars coming into downtown Tel Aviv in the morning with one person in each car I get shocked anew that in 2015 both the systems and the regulations have not moved the needle – and the result is traffic jams, pollution of many kinds,  avoidable death and injury, and poor use of our limited resources.

Uber (and it’s smaller cousins Gett and  Lyft and all the copycats around the world) basically took a very conservative view toward disrupting this space – but still are looked at as massive innovators worth tens of billions of dollars. Why conservative? They  give the same product that existed prior, but flouted regulations to make that same product slightly cheaper (at times). Reminds me of the work we did in the VoIP industry back in the 90s. We replaced circuit switch minutes with packet switched – but left the experience quite similar. An Uber driver is a car service driver with a nicer way to “call” them (button on your phone) but the experience is the same. Point to point, quite expensive, servicing one person at a time. I don’t call that disruption. If even the “Uber et al”  model made the same experience vastly cheaply I would agree to call it positive disruption. But that is not the case.

An Uber ride from JFK airport to downtown Manhattan costs similar to what a yellow cab cost BEFORE Uber came on the scene. An experience out of reach of budget conscious folks.

Uber is at best slight disruption for the elite that took cabs BU (Before Uber).  For the rest of us who consume public transportation (for reasons of budget, convenience, or ideology), AU (After Uber) and BU look the same.

Then Via comes along, and using algorithms designed to make the world’s best Humus, they create a new experience. Via demands of its users to change their behavior and accept different conditions precedent as well as travel in ways that perhaps were not part of their lexicon. Via saw the matrix – the industry spaces left untouched and the pathways to people’s consciousness that would allow for trans-formative experience.

Via takes people out of their comfort zone. It says to the multi-millionaire, “hey dude, you are heading downtown, so are a whole bunch of other folks – why not travel together?” Better for the planet, the pocket, and there is a chance to meet folks who think like you.

As Via is real disruption, the price is within reach for the average person as well, the guy with a metrocard, who knows the subways, and can appreciate paying just a little but more for a much nicer experience that takes you to where you need to be (not where the designers of the subway lines think you need to be).

Via is ride sharing without the end user needing to think about the massive logistics and computing power that go into getting it right. And more and more New Yorkers (currently VIA only operating in Manhattan) are getting hooked on the service. Initially flat priced at $5 anywhere in Manhattan, Via is used by student and stock broker, hedge fund manager and hair stylist.

In order to use Via you need to be ready to walk a block over to benefit from common sense. If you are standing on Madison and want to head south, you are asked to walk over to Park. If you are on a busy side street you will be asked to go out to the corner. You enter the car (currently all Suburbans) and chances are there will be a few people already in the car. Via requests that you do not speak on your cellphone during the trip – so often you strike up conversations with the people in car – how quaint!

Via has a lot of challenges ahead as it continues to scale (company hasn’t publicly released usage statistics yet, but when I saw down to lunch with a friend and mentioned Via, he immediately pulled out his phone and showed me the Via app in a prime spot – he and his wife use it daily).

If Via it doesn’t [quickly] figure out answers to some of the big questions it could stumble. But for now it is magic at work. Give it a try if you are in Manhattan, but be ready for a new experience. 

LinkedIn [Growth]Hacked my Account. Again. Am I now worth more?

Like many of you, I try to multi-task. While talking to someone I sometimes will scan emails to see if there is something I need to deal with...especially if I am on a call.

But I learned my lesson in the past with LinkedIn -- as their company name attests, they live and breath creating links between people. Sometimes without asking. Or against our wishes.

In Facebook I am somewhat selective with friend requests (both issuing and accepting), but somehow still have over 1000 "friends," with many of whom I have very superficial connection.

In LinkedIn, on the hand, I accept almost every request -- putting aside that are clearly spam or with a negative agenda. And sometimes issue LinkedIn requests (or as they put it, invitation to be LinkedIn). But I usually only do that with folks that I think I will have some reason to reach out to, and easier than creating new contacts.

In one of my gmail accounts, I have some default setting on that creates a contact for anyone I have been in "email connection" -- either sending or receiving email from. That's a lot of people, even for an address I rarely use.

Today while mutli-tasking an email came in with an invitation from someone I like, and relevant to my work (he is a marketing manager at a major tech company). I automatically clicked yes...and then the LinkedIn hacking started -- asking me if I wanted to enter that email into my list of associated email addresses -- I thought, why not...and clicked yes. Then was asked if I wanted to "share" to all my contacts a LinkedIn invitation. I clicked "skip this step." Then I was asked again -- and again I clicked "click this step." Finally I was asked a third time, and again clicked "skip this step."

Within seconds my phone started to buzz constantly, I looked down and saw endless push notifications from LinkedIn telling so-and-so has just "accepted my invitation."

But this was an invitation I never intended to send, because I hate spam, and had no idea who was in the default list of contacts for that email address.

How did this happen? Well, once I had agreed to associate this particular gmail address with my LinkedIn profile, LinkedIn proceeded to suck out my contacts AGAINST my choice and spam all my "contacts" with LinkedIn invitation. 

Q: Any real harm done? 
In this case, not really, apart from folks asking me who I am...and there those who say any publicity is good publicity.
But that is not the point. This easily  could have led to sharing of information that I did not want to share, or giving access to people I did not intend.

Often the term "Growth Hacking" is used to describe tactics to quickly generate users and that infamous "traction" that all are seeking.

In the end of the day, however,  growth is growth and hacking is hacking. If you need to hack -- it means you are not playing by the rules, which often are in place for good reason!

I am a big fan of real growth -- and at times I am a hacker. But I don't believe the two belong together, certainly not from multi-billion public companies like LinkedIn. Let them find real ways to grow, and leave my random assortment of gmail contacts alone.

Oh, and results of the LinkedIn spam -- I am now connected to an additional 250 people (at the time of writing this, few hours after the "incident.").Am I now worth more? 

"Configure your email client (e.g. Outlook, Eudora, Netscape Mail)": SAY WHAT??

"Configure your email client (e.g. Outlook, Eudora, Netscape Mail)": SAY WHAT??

Been a long time since I wrote a blog post, but in looking at Gmail settings today (as to why is subject for another post...) I noticed the above. 

How many of you can even remember Eudora or Netscape Mail? Anyone still using those applications? I am sure some people. Outlook has held on because people have it at work, almost noone outside of an office chooses to use it. 

And yet nobody at Google has changed the above. 

Why?

Well, it's in settings that are buried and only an explanation, not a feature itself ("e.g"). 

In addition it is not something that is broken, just awkward. 

But why did it trigger my interest? 

Because how quickly our habits change -- especially in area that is close to my heart, in communications and messaging. 

Not so long ago desktop email clients were the standard way consumers and worker bees alike managed their email traffic. In addition there were desktop applications for what we called then "Instant Messaging." (as opposed to email that was seen as less than instant and more formal as well as cluttered) 

The web/cloud picked up steam obviously for many years, but messaging remained application centered, Sure there were servers out there helping our mail move from place to place but it felt more like a traditional letter, especially if we deleted from server as we downloaded (anyone remember that?). The more geeky among us knew that even if we deleted from server chances were there still were copies somewhere, but for most consumers once email was downloaded it was only on their computer, especially for consumer email. 

Hotmail (which came before Gmail) and other webmail providers started to change the user experience paradigm. But it was only with Gmail that it went completely mainstream. And even gmail at first assumed that many, as indicated above, would continue using a desktop client to manage their email. 

Today gmail can handle it all, multiple addresses, and can even work in off-line mode. We have gmail apps on our deskptop, ipad, iphone, android, etc. 
And yet that certainly wasn't enough, Google continues to try and improve the experience, with layers like "Inbox" and third players like Sanemail try to help Gmail work better. 

On top of that even in Google, clickable from Gmail, are other products like Gchat, and then there are hangouts, Google +. 

All within Google! 

Once we leave world of Google we see Facebook Messenger (they gave up on email product). WhatsApp. Skype. Zula. 

Which of these will people still be using in 5 years? 10 years. Difficult to tell. Eudora has not been available to download for many years, and the same goes for Netscape Mail. They live on only in the buried settings of Gmail. 

However less than ten years ago they were both very much alive. 15 years ago Eudora was a major check of the email application market. 

I personally don't think Outlook will survive either. Recently tried Office 365 Online, painful experience. But in the enterprise market things live on for a long time. Heck, many big companies still have IBM mainframes and need COBOL engineers to maintain their code. 

While Zula is my direct interest in this market -- I am fascinated in general at the trends in communication, and the increasing speed at which new things come (and sometimes go). Will Snapchat be around in 5 years? I wouldn't bet too much on either possibility. Too early to tell. But I guarantee will be VERY different in 5 years. 

OK, need to go look for my Palm 5 to see my meetings for rest of the day. Peace. 

Story of Why I am Typing on Windows 8 (Toshiba version); and By The Way -- Zero on Intuitiveness Index

Given that I am CEO of a company (Zula) developing a user facing service, I am sensitive to  user-friendliness of new apps/gadgets/”computers”. In order to understand why I ended up with a Toshiba laptop running Windows 8, a little background.

For the past two years I have mainly worked off an iPhone, an iPad, and sometimes an old (3-4 years)  “desktop” in my winery office.

My favorite, hands down -- the iPad, along with a Logitech cover keyboard. Unfortunately it was stolen two months ago, and since then I have trying to figure out with what to replace it. A healthy combination of procrastination and "too-busy" have had me limping along with my iPhone and borrowed time on winery desktop. Definitely cut into my productivity.

On the home front, various wintel (Intel based running Windows) laptops died or slowly ground to almost a complete halt when trying to do anything beyond stare at the screen saver. My almost-seven year old son is going through a phase where he needs to lose himself in  computer games to calm down. My older kids have long figured out that having no cable does not mean they need to miss the latest content (what we used to call TV shows and/or movies) -- but rather they can tune in via Hulu, Youtube, Amazon, and more. But all that requires an available surfing device.

I bought two HP Chromebooks, but unfortunately found out days after that that version of HP Chromebook suffered from a defective charging system. Google sent me new chargers but they didn’t work. Now I need to go chase HP/Google to replace them.

Which means at home we are down to an old laptop running Windows XP that turns off randomly and has zero battery strength left (needs to be plugged in to work) and Haviva’s Mac Air. Now Haviva is justifiably sensitive about kids using her Mac Air, but regardless they take it all the time, challenging Apple to fight off all the viruses they seem to attract.

So I have been under pressure for some time to get something new for the house…

At Ben-Gurion Airport this morning I had some time to check out laptops in the duty-free. And realized that I was embarking on 4 day business trip with just my iPhone, which is bit risky. On top of that, I thought of typing long emails (or blog posts, like this one) on my iPhone and the pressure mounted to get something.

There was a table of Mac laptops, which with all the different configurations, but still a small table. Apple makes beautiful machines without too many different options. And there were tables and tables of WinTel laptops. Toshiba, Assus, Lenovo, and more. Prices all over the place, options way too confusing to understand.

Finally I said to the salesman “look, I just need a computer for the kids to use.” He suggested the Toshiba, it was a reasonable price and I said OK. Then I saw it even had DVD player -- I thought that was a cute retro touch, but will allow us to play the hundreds of DVDs Haviva made me keep when we recently moved (our DVD player died last year).

Salesman asked me if I wanted him to “take it out of the box and set it up.” I wasn’t sure what he meant by that but said OK, however explained that I wanted the settings and all commands to be in English (I love the Hebrew language but even after 18 years I simply can’t follow Hebrew computer speak, gives me a headache). Of course, after I opened the computer waiting at the gate (plane was delayed so had time to play) I saw he chose Hebrew as the default language….

OK, back to the computer itself. The laptop is running Windows 8. Very pretty tiles. First problem -- how to get online? I could not find in any of the pretty tiles something like good old wireless network manager. Anything I did push simply said I wasn't connected (which I knew). Finally I found a way to get to a familiar looking screen which had the network doo-hicky [that is a very technical term for the traditional network icon]. Clicking on that allowed me to select the free WiFi network in the airport (supplied by Netvision, talk about a blast from the past).

OK, now on-line. Uh…what to do now? I clicked on Office icon, but that just asked me to sign up to buy license. I just bought a computer, I should be able to type some text without paying -- no?  Finally found my way to email app, which asked me to sign up for an outlook email address. That seemed to be free (also could have signed up for Hotmail but that would have been way too anachronistic). I sent myself a test message to my gmail address and -- it worked! Very exciting.

Allowed me to be comforted that at the very least I will be able to use the email application to type on the plane (which I am doing). Almost every other tile was an add for something, clicking on resulted in Internet Explorer being launched and needing to buy a subscription.

Couldn’t figure out how to set the time and date.

Bottom line, on my experience so far this laptop, and it’s rendering of Windows 8, gets a big fat ZERO on the intuitiveness index.

I am sure Microsoft had many, many UX/UI experts involved over several years to deliver the experience I just went through. I am sad to have to say that outside of team meetings not sure what they were doing all that time. Outside of the pretty tiles, which does take us away from the standard and very-tired “start” button, Windows 8 needs a lot of work before regular people like me will enjoy using it.

But soon I will be back on line, will download Chrome, and use the laptop as glorified Chromebook. Hopefully with a charger that works! 

You want to "Crowdfund"? Start with a Crowd; or What Used to be called Friends and Family

Crowds and the effect they can have on our society has been an important part of my life for many years. Both my parents have been (and still are, thank God) active politically, organizers of "crowds," of groups of people coming together to effect positive positive change. That crowd bug passed to me, and for 45 years have lived most of the time on the edge of the crowd, helping pull and push in this direction or another (some might say that at times I fall off the edge...).

For 18 years my  "professional career" has been start-up guy. As co-founder, CEO, board member, investor, you name it, I've done it.

When I first started as an entrepreneur I was bewildered how to raise money -- how does one "start" if your bank account is at zero or close to...when I read up on it I discovered the phrase "friends and family." Back then, the recommendation was first go to your inner circle, your friends and family, and try and get them to back you (with cash or in-kind...housing/food/etc.). The theory was, these folks were essentially helping to contribute to your success -- they were not savvy financial investors -- but rather kindly backers.

Now, I don't know if you ever mixed family and money -- but usually not a good combination, or for that matter with friends. Oh sure, if desperate and need to crash somewhere, get some food, even emergency money for an operation, family and friends can be there for you and nobody will ever look back. But as a healthy well educated person, to ask family and friends to give you (ok, "invest") money in your dream of a ____________(fill in blank with appropriate business dream) is an entirely different matter.

On top of that, my parents were public servants most of their careers, and the honest kind, so they didn't have a spare $1 million to help bankroll my start-up (back then was much more expensive to start, no Google App Engine or Amazon Web Services). So what to do? I looked to my friends. Well, at the time they were a bunch of 20-somethings, either still in school/army/unemployed. None of them had any loose change of $ that was needed to create new software.

So where was this mythical "friends and family" round going to come from? I needed to go out there and get new friends (family is family!). Not to replace to my old ones, but to supplement the ones I already had (this was pre-facebook, we are talking a handful of existing friends).

Through a lot of luck, and somewhat smooth talking, I gained some friends who did have spare cash looking to take a ride on the start-up roller coaster. But it took endless meetings, presentations, wild-eyed pontificating on paradigm shifts. And making new friends. And for the past 18 years, has remained a challenge. Never "easy" to raise money, even if now I have some friends with loose change..

Which brings me to what today we call "crowd-funding."

Let me clearly state -- I am a huge fan of OurCrowd, Indiegogo, Kickstarter, and all other crowd-funding initiatives, and a direct participant in Our Crowd (who kicked off off the seed round for  Zula and currently raising follow-on) and Indiegogo (where winery I co-founded, Jezreel Valley Winery, is currently running "Wine for Life" campaign). I am an angel investor in Mosaic Solar, bringing crowd funding to renewable energy porjects.

But there are clear differences between the different platforms.

First, left me put OurCrowd aside, as they have done an incredible job, led by Jon Medved and the rest of his amazing team. Jon uses the term crowd funding, but he has gamed the system. OurCrowd has curated, and is constantly expanding, it's built in crowd. In other words, OurCrowd has signed up thousands (more than 4,000 to date) angel investors who have spent the time to register on the site and receive deal flow. The friends I didn't have 18 years ago...OurCrowd management screens and selects a handful of start-ups every month to expose to their growing investor community. From the numbers I have heard, maybe 2-3% of the deals that approach OurCrowd make it on to their platform. In this way, OurCrowd is similar to the classic VC model. What OurCrowd has done is reshape the economics behind

At Indiegogo and Kickstarter, and many other crowdfunding platforms you will NOT get seen if they do not feature you. And they will not feature you if they don't see momentum. And you will not have momentum if you do not show up with your own crowd. Yup, back to the friends and family. Your "inner circle." By all accounts, these people are supposed to make up at least 20-30% of your target raise -- and only then will "strangers" even think to support you, or get featured by the editors of the platform's front pages. These types of platforms are more egalitarian and deal neutral than OurCrowd --  anyone can create a project to fund. There is almost no screening. From Indiegogo I recently heard that they have over 7000 campaigns live on the site right now (campaigns can run for maximum of 60 days, so annually its a big number, easily tens of thousands of projects jostling to be seen).

Yes, there is some mix of the above models. When we went live last May (2013) on OurCrowd site for Zula, we spread the word. Many friends joined OurCrowd because they were interested in Zula, and this allowed them to invest a relatively small amount ($10,000 is the OurCrowd minimum) which we as a company could not handle. Thus the relationship between company and platform does become symbiotic, if everyone does what they should  -- the "crowdfundee" can help bring more traffic to the platform, which can spill over into other projects seeking a crowd (and funding).

Bottom line: In the 18 years since I was first told I needed to raise money from friends and family, a lot has changed but much is the same. Just now it's called a crowd -- and if you don't have one (or the right one) don't expect to succeed at "crowdfunding."

Zula As Pop Up Community: and Mishkan

Recently I was preparing to start my Zula shpeil (or in VC talk -- my "pitch") to a VC in NY and he pre-empted me and used my words before I could say them -- and then he made them even better as he took the metaphor to a higher level.

The term I have bandying about recently is "pop-up communities" to explain the power of Zula. I will not use this post to go into the details of current and planned features and functionaity of Zula (check out our website and service itself for that). But I do want to walk through what I mean by pop-up community and how it resembles a Sukka (the "huts" Jews built in desert during their 40 years of wandering just after leaving Egypt). (the sukka metaphor comes from David Hirsch of Metamorphic Ventures -- not sure if David will invest but he already gave us some pearls of wisdom, so he is part of the Zula story now). 

And then recently, sitting with the wonderful Mort Meyerson (who has invested in Zula) we took the metaphor to an even higher level -- the ultimate sukka, which is the mishkan. 

But back to the concept of pop-up community -- what do I mean by that? (don't worry, weave back in Sukka and Mishkan). 

Over the past few years the term "pop-up store" has been trendy in retail (I fist came across in NY but now has spread all over the world). A pop-up store is one which pops up in an available space but with the intention from the start that it might be for only a limited time, whether that be a few days, weeks or months. The reasons behind the temporal nature could include excess inventory, seasonality, or simply testing the waters before committing to a long term lease. And there have been many cases of such successes that the temporary becomes permanent. 

The same can be said for many of our work teams these days. As SMBs (small and medium sized businesses) dominate (most new jobs are created by SMBs) and corporations become more fluid, ad-hoc team formation is becoming the norm, rather the exception. 

Twenty years ago (and to some degree still today) it was possible to communicate only with people who worked for the same corporation, in technical terms "behind the firewall." Today, with the rise of the consultant and the project based approach, teams tackling an issue on behalf of GE or GM more likely than not will include members who do NOT carry a company card, and are not credentialed to use the company's domain based tools. 

Over the past years we have also seen the acceptance of outsourcing, offshoring, and cross company collaboration at levels unimaginable twenty years ago. 

The Mishkan, or the tabernacle, was the first ritual space created by the Jewish people in the desert after Moses came down from Mt Sinai. According the the Bible, very clear and detailed instructions were given as to the construction of the Mishkan. But the Mishkan was not a permanent structure -- in fact a lot of the detail involved how to put up and breakdown the Mishkan so it could be carried along in the Journey (and my tribe, the Levites, were tasked with being the Mishkan porters while the Jewish people marched -- and we were responsible for the construction and breakdown...interesting that I should be the co-founder and CEO of Zula). 

The essential nature of the Mishkan was that of a non-permanent structure...it was intended to be part of the Journey. 

When the Jewish people reach the promised land the mishkan continued to move around...until King Solomon (Shlomo) builds the first permanent structure, the first "Temple" (or Holy House). It could be said everything went down-hill from there. According to many commentators (and my own reading) the whole notion of creating a monarchy, a formal structure, was itself not seen by God as an overly positive move. 

The corporation of the 20th Century was the Western world's version of the Temple -- a seemingly permanent entity that provided a focal point for much of the working class. But much like the temple of old, permanence is fleeting. No building or entity is too big to fall. 

And in the 21st century we are retuning to much more fluid ways of work -- small teams coming together, setting up and breaking down structures. The Cloud is our desert -- it is the backdrop for our journeys. 

Over the coming months I will continue to develop this concept, and touch more on how the true liberation is one in which we recognize the temporal nature of all realities, we should never feel servants to any regime be it a corporation or a monarchy. 

Zula is doing its' part to allow people to communicate in ways that don't respect the old structures.  Where will this journey take us? Come along with us and let's find out together. See you in Zula. 

What To Do Next -- Start-Up CEOs Lonely Dilemma

One of the problems of being a seed stage start-up CEO is that no one is really telling you what to next. Generally boards of seed stage companies are either non-existent or pretty passive. Often there are "active" angel investors, and/or microfunds involved, but they usually have so many investments that they are more reactive than proactive.

The problem I am highlighting is felt the most by CEOs who are not coding -- which unfortunately is my reality (although just signed up for Ruby on Rails course). I know enough about coding to be dangerous but not enough to really help...when coding at least after there is agreed spec goals are defined.

Of course can spend time in promotion, marketing, thought leadership, long term planning, budgeting, admin, HR, corporate finance, team empowering, and more -- no lack of things to do. And each of those things could easily fill 20 hours a day and more. Of course some are incredible on managing their time, on their own, and can set for themselves goals, task lists, in other words managing themselves. I am pretty good at all of that -- and often excel at it. But all of those skills and tools don't ameliorate the fact there is only one person "telling" you what to do next -- you.

The position is essentially a lonely one -- there is no one really setting an agenda, reviewing achievements. You can seek out praise and feedback, but it doesn't naturally come to you.

In the past I have written about the seed-stage start-up CEO as a benevolent dictator, which inherently is not a warm and fuzzy role -- to get warm and fuzzy you need your team to reflect it back to you.

In a distributed work force the problem is more acute -- often you are really alone (physically). Sure can engage on ______ (name your favorite social networking platform) but that still has not replaced the water-cooler effect.

And yes there are endless team collaboration tools (some better than others, see Zula) but they are only as good as the use you make of them. And again, event the best is still a tool for bridging the gaps -- but gaps remain.

Is there a way to be less lonely? Sure, but takes pushing yourself. Engage your investors more, make them feel like you really are listening to them -- so while not a formal board the communication is two way. Create forums for shareholders to connect on a regular basis. Take on a mentor. Schedule regular mentorship time (no matter how experienced we all could use help from someone not ourselves).

There is no magic formula -- the position is inherently lonely. So don't let yourself slip into endless FB/Twitter sessions -- you have work to do! You are supposed to lead! (talking to myself as well of course).

 

The Blessed Need for Physicality and Snow in Jerusalem

Today I was due to celebrate together with the Israeli wine industry -- it was going to be the first formal wine event I would attend as a partner in Jezreel Valley Winery. The event was scheduled to take place at the Crown Plaza hotel in Jerusalem. As half the Zula team lives in the Jerusalem area, I thought beautiful combination of Zula product meetings by day, wine event by night. (also was due to pick up cable to charge my electric car, but that's for another post).

And then in started snowing in Jerusalem. Every few years, same drill -- few snowflakes and the city stops. Close the highways! cancel school! Remain calm!

Truth be told, there is some sense in the hysteria, as Israeli drivers are, well, Israeli drivers to begin with, and putting slippery white stuff turning quickly to black grimy slush is not a good formula for safe roads in the nation's capital.

Zula staff stayed home. That's fine, we are a distributed work force to begin with, and we are developing solutions for teams to communicate when not sitting together -- so not such a big deal.

But a wine event with no people? The organizers took the decision to postpone to next week.

I did not travel to Jerusalem.

All of this is a reminder of how much the physical, the "real," plays a part in our seemingly almost completely virtual lives.

Could we have a virtual wine event where we all drink our wines at home and discuss? Perhaps, but with today's tech still can't pass a glass of wine over Facebook Messenger. Or WhatsApp. Or even Zula (but we are working on it!).

For some things we need to physically come together. To smell together, to taste together. To simply be together.

As someone who grew up in NY with plenty of snow, no need to rush to experience it. But for many Israelis snow is exotic, radically different reality. They will go in droves, wait hours in traffic -- just to throw a snowball. And God bless them. After all the Playstations, X-boxes, immersive games, virtual communities, we know that humans still desire the physical touch of a snowball. Make a snowman -- a real one, not on Miniclip.

Living my life on the balance between the virtual and the real, always nice when Nature comes along and reminds us that all fall at the feet of a few cm (inches) of snow in Jerusalem, the capital of the world.

May we be blessed to continue to treasure our humanity, even as maximize the use of tools like Zula, that help us keep the connection going when we are not sitting together. And we can chat about how the good the wine was that we drank together, and look forward to the next time we drink together.

Snapchat as Sex Appeal, Facebook has Become Boring Infrastructure (and wants to be sexy again)

I finally watched the Steve Jobs movie on a flight to California (most appropriately). Just before read through a Facebook comment thread to a blog post that my friend and Zula colleague Hillel Fuld wrote on the noise surrounding the supposed acquisition offers that Snapchat founders have turned down ($3 billion from Facebook, $4 billion from Google, but whats a billion amongst lunatics)(and yes, I am lunatic too, anyone working in industry is certifiable). Back to Jobs -- what he was about was radical innovation. That is what inspired him -- to use technology to move people. Change how they look at the world. And yes, in an extremely well designed and sexy wrapper. 

I am not going to get into whether or not Snapchat is worth $3 or $4 billion. When ever I am asked about the value of a company (including my own) I always say a company is worth what somebody is willing to pay. There is no objective value in our business (tech start-ups). 

What Snapchat does have right now is sex appeal -- and that is more valuable than a certain amount of users, business model, or defendable technology. Snapchat in particular has no technology (unless you think disappearing ink is "technology"). They do have have a "certain amount of users" (love quoting myself) but all that is vastly overshadowed by their current sex appeal -- and they are probably at their height of sexiness. And that, more than anything, is what Zuckerberg and friends are starting to lose. You see, when Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook he had sex appeal in spades (of a geeky, techy sort). In fact, Facebook got its start trading on sex appeal, which is what initial profiles and usage was all about on college campuses. 

Now Facebook has become, shudder the thought, a boring profitable, successful long-term company, with quarterly earnings, board meetings, strategy. Yup, sounds a lot like IBM. And that is not the rep Zuck wants...he wants to still be the 23 year old phenom with the new shiny thing everybody wants to touch, to own. 

Google long ago became part of the fabric of the web, as have Amazon, and a few other user-known companies, along with a whole set of lesser known companies that make up the infrastructure of what most people think of when thinking about the Internet. And at least in the Western world, the internet has become for most of us part of our lives, much the same way other "technology" companies developed into core utility elements. Some of them started out as owned by the public (even in capitalistic societies such as America). Think Ma Bell, for those of you old enough to remember the original government owned and operated phone company. It was like the mail -- boring service that simply worked and was there. You paid something for it, but you didn't really know if it was profitable or exactly how it worked. Similar to how electrical power is still supplied in many markets, tightly controlled by the governments (which will change, but not the subject right now). 

Utility companies were even traded on stock exchanges -- you didn't buy the stock so much for appreciation as for dividends, dependable, like municipal bonds. 

But utilities, infrastructure companies, are inherently boring. Lots of money flowing around, but not sexy. If you can figure out how to siphon off some of that money, you might be able to buy your way into sexiness, or pay people to tell you are sexy -- but the underlying asset -- boring. 

Facebook is slowly turning into just that -- infrastructure.  When at Zula we needed to decide on two possibilities for signing on (using your credentials from third party to automatically create a Zula account for you) we chose Facebook and Google. We made the assumption that almost 100% of our potential users would have an account with at least one of those companies -- we are looking at them (Facebook and Google) as providing a utility to us, the new sexy guys. 

Without Intel none of what we consider the Internet would be possible, but nobody would call Intel sexy. Dependable, solid, smart, thoughtful, yes. But not sexy. And their stock price reflects that lack of sex appeal. 

So now back to the Snapchat debate. Bottom line: people are prepared to pay a lot for sex. And sex appeal is one degree removed. Snapchat has it, Facebook is losing it, Google lost long ago (and to be clear -- I love Google and constantly praise them, and I actually think they are sexy, just in the public eye they are...Google). 

Do I think Snapchat founders should sell to one of the "utility" players? Well, if Snapchat thinks that they too will become a core part of the fabric of the Web, and they want to be running the company when that happens then no, they shouldn't sell. I personally don't see Snapchat having what it takes to go the distance, but companies also evolve. Perhaps they will...but during that journey they will need to develop business model, start generating revenue, deliver a return on investment -- in other words, grow up and become a boring company. My recommendation to Snapchat founders: sell when you can. You will not be sexy forever. 

Running, Biking And Wine Making As Team Sports

As many know, I am pretty passionate about both biking and running. Much to the dismay of my triathlon training daughter, swimming [still] is not my thing. But running and biking have been part of my life since I was a child. And over the past few years have become a winemaker (www.jezreelwinery.com), while returning to being the CEO of a start-up (www.zulaapp.com).

 For me, running and biking were, until recently solitary activities. A form of meditation on the move. When I run a marathon I usually am alone, especially in Israel where there could be big distances between people (was not the same experience in New York City Marathon, there I was surrounded by people, but like many in New York still felt alone much of the time).

Only for a short time did I have a regular running partner, but that started as a favor to someone to help her get her running legs...and inspire her. But most of the time I run alone, lost in my own thoughts. In our move to Hanaton I started to bike every shabbat morning with a group of people, but aside from the comfort of knowing that if I had a problem someone would be nearby to help, continued to be an individual sport. As we bike off-road, most of the time on single-track trails, really is still a one by one experience.

 Over the past two years, together with my co-founder Jeff Pulver, have explored what it means for teams to work together, and thinking through how to help teams communicate better. Because so much of what we do is team work in our business lives -- and the world is changing fast, as is our needs to keep our communication with team members constant and effective.

 So how does this connect to running and biking, you ask?

 A few weeks ago I decided rather than drive my daughter and her friend to triathlon practice and leave them there (and have other parent come get them) I would simply stay and work-out with them. So far not the swimming part, but the running and biking. What I have discovered is a whole different approach -- that of a team. In one training session we were actually taught how to physically help other team members push up a hill on bikes -- the ultimate form of team work. In the running I discovered a similar experience, with the coach dividing us into groups and having "team leaders" set the pace, and challenge us to run together at the same pace, each one inspiring the other, and keeping a check and balance system in place as to speed and endurance.

Working out with my daughter's triathlon group has made me realize that what was for me a individual experience can be strengthened as a team activity.

Hey -- didn't the title say something about wine?

Yup, parallel to my entree into the world of triathlon team training was the harvest season for the wine industry in Israel. While my partner Yehuda runs the winery operation on a daily basis, he consults with me about most issues. At the beginning of the harvest season he said to me we need to bring on another pair of hands -- that with the jump in activity (we have enough wine in barrel now for over 60,000 bottles!) we needed to add to the team. It struck me that wine making is also very much a team business -- making  (and drinking it) alone is somewhere between very challenging to depressing. But working as team we can make magic (and do!).

I will continue to live my personal ying/yang of individual/community. But thanks to triathlon practice and wine making I have new respect for the value of teams.

Who is on my team? Dealing with outdated concepts of work, play, and life

As many of you know, I have been focused the past year on team communication, and very proud that soon Zula, Inc. will release iPhone and Android based service to the world (more platforms to follow). Like all good ideas, this one is not alone. Almost a year ago, when Jeff Pulver and I took a decision to pivot what we were working on to center on the need for a new paradigm in team communication, not many people were talking about it. Now there are some nice competitors to look at, which is better than being alone, believe me. But when I look at some of our competitors, I am bemused that many forward thinking people still are stuck on outdated concepts of team, and of work. For that matter play and life, and how they intersect with work. Too many are still looking at hard divisions between work and play. Also coming out with products for team communication that require you to be part of the same "organization" as your team members. But life is not so binary anymore. We don't only belong to one team, to one organization. We "know" people from many different touchpoints, whether it be Facebook, LinkedIn, and yes, even G+ (there are a few diehards out there). Teams get formed on a constant, ad hoc basis, and for many of us we spend much of our time interacting with folks who do not have the same domain name in their email address. In other words, teams today are not internal creations -- they are dynamic situations, with team members being invited through the different mediums of our digital lives.

Why Do They Beep As They Pass My By??

For the past four years I have been lucky to have easy access to trails in nature, both for running and biking. But sometimes I need to go for short distances on the main roads, and have experienced an interesting phenomenon. A good percentage of the drivers in these parts (Northern Israel) will beep as they pass me by -- at first I thought it was a reflex time delay, that they mean to beep to alert me they are coming but the actual beeping only happens once they are already passing me. I actually don't like drivers who beep me from behind, as it is usually more startling than helpful, but the intentions are clear, to provide me warning that a car/truck/bus is approaching from behind. But why when passing me? Running yesterday I finally came up with a theory. Completely unscientific, as I have not had the luxury of actually speaking to any of the beeping drivers, but here is my optimistic hunch. The beeping when passing is a sign of identification and support. Even though we are theoretically competing over the same thoroughfare, the drivers want me to know they are with me in spirit, and perhaps even are envious. They are telling me: "Brother, we are with you." This all reminds me of what it is like to be the CEO of a start-up in a space that is quickly becoming competitive. There is limited bandwidth in the world for successful start-ups in the same product space -- top few companies will usually make it, the few after that will drift along, and then massive amount of start-up roadkill... So who are the drivers that beep as they pass me by in my role as CEO of a start-up? An interesting group. There are the other CEOs -- the more experienced know that coopetition is always good, and keep an open channel to the CEOs of competing companies. Just in the past two weeks I have communicated with the CEO of two well funded companies in the messaging space. Yes, we are competitors, but we also identify with each other. Other beepers along the start-up highway are VCs that are not quite ready to invest -- but want to remain in the loop. No, they are not just afraid to say no (well, that too at times) but rather are ready for you to pass them by on the road to success, because they just around the bend we might meet up again. Or the next time we are on the road together. So they beep -- they make connections, introductions, offer (at times) useful critique. And then there are the journalists covering the space, the analysts, and more. All jostling on the same road, and as we pass each other we "beep." This is all when it works according to my rules of coopetition. For those are pur capitalists -- well, they don't beep when pulling alongside. They just run you over! May you blessed to find many of those that beep as they pass by! Shabbat Shalom.

I didn't mean to Link(edIn), but...

"Can ______ access your contacts?" is part of the the modern mobile version of next...next...next of PC and web apps. Last week I was talking to Zula team about particular point of UI and referred to LinkedIn's iphone app design, and was told I was using old version. Checked, and yes, heaven forbid, I was using an outdated version. So I went to App Store and updated. Got a pop up message from LinkedIn asking "Can LinkedIn access your contacts?" Now, as LinkedIn is all about creating and managing network of contacts (yeah, they do lots of other stuff, but at core is the network) I just assumed in the past I had given LinkedIn permission to acccess my contacts. I also assumed that such a "successful" and well known company would be careful about unintentional spam -- and that the permission to access my contacts was designed to allow me to proactively invite people in my contacts to be linked to me. Wow...was I wrong. A few seconds (literally) after I hit yes to LinkedIn's request, my phone and ipad started to go crazy with notifications from people accepting my request to connect on LinkedIn. Seems the folks over there at LinkedIn took my "yes" as permission to upload my contacts and blast a LinkedIn connect request to every last person who somehow ended up in my contacts database. I am talking about people I may have traded one email with, folks I haven't spoken to in 15 years, and other random entries in my contacts... As a result of the LinkedIn spam attack in my name I gained hundreds of new LinkedIn "connections." And days later they are still rolling in. How does this make me feel? Well, at first was embarrased, then realized that it was even worse, for many recepients of this spam felt like I was reaching out on purpose, and many questioned why. Others were happy to hear from me. Many pitched me their current start-ups. And some just said hello. All in all a somewhat harmless experience, but shows off the shallowness of the average LinkedIn network. I was also astonished at how wide the LinkedIn network has become...a majority of my contacts have LinkedIn accounts. And I am not just talking about the VCs and entrepreneurs I know, I also mean the gardener I haven't used in 5 years, my son's nursery school teacher, and many more. Like Facebook, LinkedIn has succeeded in becoming part of the fabric layer of our digital lives. It doesn't mean I actually need to use it, but it does mean that the value of LinkedIn is almost priceless, because after such a wide net is cast, the company can take their time monetizing. We are all there already! Now that I have another ~600 connection am I better off? Well, can't hurt. And that is the key here. As long as a mistake like I made is harmless, LinkedIn and similar companies will continue to expand their networks. This also assumes that I do not share or expose information on LinkedIn that I have any concern about people seeing. As I almost never use LinkedIn, that assumption in this case is correct. I long ago realized that there were so many holes in the fabric of Facebook that their "privacy" controls were meaningless, and adopted the policy of only sharing what I was 100% proud of anyone seeing. Thus I don't care that much about who are in my FB friends list. But even so, if I have absolutely no idea who is sending me FB "friend" request I tend to ignore it. As I saw with LinkedIn, some people will accept anyone (hey, they accepted me...). Bottom line: no real harm done with inadvertently allowing LinkedIn to spam my contacts, but did remind me to be more careful with what I say yes to -- and impressed me with wide network LinkedIn has created and how quickly many jump to accept every new connect request. My hope for the world is that some good comes from all of these "connections."

Riding the Wave/Rising Above the Noise

This past weekend I spent time with my younger children at the beach. It was a perfect day, water refreshing, sunny but not scorching, and waves just the right size for my almost-6 year old and ten year old sons (Mishael and Nachum). Shefa, my two year old daughter, was with me... But back to the boys. Within a few minutes, they had mastered the art of the boogie board, and wave after wave served as an endless God given ride, more fun than anything Walt Disney or Six Flags Adventure ever dreamed up. As I watched them, and allowed Shefa to dip her feet in the waves, I was reminded how much of start-up life is trying to catch a wave -- and then stay on top. As many of you know, I have been part of the start-up ecosystem long enough to see wave after wave, sometimes catching a ride up but also at times crashing down, and yes even a "wipe-out" or two (or more, but that's a different discussion). Back to wave catching. Obviously when there are many waves, easier to catch one. On the other hand, it means there is great turmoil in the market -- and thus no time to rest between waves, to plan properly -- simply need to react. And of course there is the "fear" that there is even better wave coming... The kissing cousin of "Riding the Wave" principle in start-up life is "Rising Above the Noise." When there are many waves, there is noise in the system. All the surfers come out at once, and all of a sudden it gets crowded and noisy. Noisy in a real sense, and noisy in the way that the endless ocean all of a sudden feels crowded. Now, in the back of your mind, you know that it can't stay this way -- eventually some of those surfers will get tired, and will go home. But what about you? As an entrepreur, do you have the stamina to keep paddling, and the skill set to rise above the noise, to get noticed by the cheering throng on the beach -- so that they start rooting for you to catch the best waves, to stand up on your board and make the magical seem effortless. In an another post I will take apart a recent rejection I received from a potential investor regarding crowded market and differentiation, but for now let me bless all of us that we manage to keep our heads above the water, catch a wave we like, and ride it in. For those of us serial entrepreneurs -- same blessing, but repeat. :-)

Catching The Wave (or the next one...)

So I am not the first VC/Entrepreneur to write about "catching the wave." A big part of start-up success is timing. Being pre-mature or late to the game are ingredients for failure. Perfect timing is a lot like surfing -- need to catch the wave so you go soaring with the tide. Of course, like with surfing, catching the wave is not enough -- it is just the beginning. But an essential beginning.

But I want to take the analogy a bit further. Sometimes you manage to stay at something long enough (or return to it after a hiatus) and you can actually experience second or third waves.

I have been involved in start-up life on a professional basis since 1994. Almost twenty years (pretty scary thought!!). I am now seeing the second and sometimes third waves within specific industries. I am blessed to still be active, and with enough strength (mental, emotional, and physical) to continue to "catch the wave."

As an example, as some of you know, I co-founded a start-up last year with my good friend Jeff Pulver, called Zula. We are focused on how teams communicate, and developing a platform to allow for team/group conversations to continue beyond the conference room. But more on that in a later posting...Important part of the story is that Jeff and I are engaging a field that we first worked in 18 years ago. We have participated in and witnessed multiple waves (and sometimes tsunamis) within the communications industry. It doesn't make the surfing any easier, but it does give us the perspective that waves do not come one at a time, and often difficult to tell exactly when to push off and hang ten. But try we do.

A friend called me the other day to say I needed to come pick up a box of stuff I had left in his store room when we moved up to Hanaton. I skimmed through the contents of the box this morning, and found presentations I delivered for Delta Three back in 1998 and 1999, as well as business plans for other start-ups. When looking through the Delta Three presentations I reminded myself just how pre-mature we were, although we still managed to catch early waves in the changing landscape of how people communicate.

I also reminded myself how visionary we were were -- the problem is vision does not allow for success. I can envision a wonderful wave, but if I don't get my tuchus off the beach there is no chance I will succeed to fly through the surf.

Of course surfing doesn't come naturally to all of us, and even for those that it does, intense training and planning is required to face the big waves.

May we all be blessed to catch the waves we want, at the time we want, and ride them to shore. Again and again.

Getting Your Timing Right

Yesterday a friend came to visit me...someone I have known practically all my life. Every so often we do a check-in. He commented that I (and also Haviva) are usually a few years or more ahead of the curve... Now he was saying this both as an observation and to some degree a compliment. But reminded me how important it is in start-up life to get timing right. Being the "first" to do something is not always the best practice. When I started in the world of VoIP, most consumers barely had a PC, internet connectivity was a new thing and far from what we enoy today, and most important, most people did not have speakers or a microphone attached to their PC...so obviously voice over internet in 1996 was a bit challenging in the consumer market. Things change fast -- by 2003, when Skype launched, there was a critical mass of people with broadband internet, speakers and microphones were standard. The timing was right. In 2006 I funded a cross-platform app store for mobile apps. The iphone and AppStore did not yet exist. Mobile devices were a huge pain in the neck, with hundreds of variations of operating systems. We did not succeed. A very short while later the iphone launched, and was successful to some degree because of the AppStore. In politics works the same. If you "launch" your political movement before the stars are aligned you will not succeed...I remember the many years that Women of the Wall struggled to get attention...now a front page story and the Prime Minister leading the way to a radical reshuffling of how the Jewish world will relate to the Western Wall. When I became a vegan over ten years ago soy milk was not even thought about, today at every Aroma or Starbucks it is the choice of many. And I was so pleased to see at an Aroma in Haifa yesterday that they now have vegan pastries! Vegan has become cool! Of course, being way ahead of the trend for healthy eating has obvious benefits to me on a personal level -- launching a product too far ahead of the curve usually does not yield good results. All in all, living beyond the bleeding edge works for me personally, but when I am managing or investing in a start-up these days I give a lot of thought to timing -- and hopefully will get it right more often than not!

Remember, forget, Remember. Repeat.

My day so far -- started (after getting kids to school/nursery) with early morning meeting at the winery on marketing strategy, spinning out potentially [yet another] start-up inspired by problems discovered in wine industry. Then got into my electric car, drove to Tel Aviv for UI (User Interface) meetings with my Zula team. Later I am due to participate in comensation committtee meeting of NoProblem Baord of Directors, then back home to Hanaton, later tonight community meeting...

Bottom line, a life full of life, of innovation, of newness, of planning for tomorrow. Not a lot of time for remembering or dwelling on the past.

But on Highway 6 this morning I stopped along with millions of other Israelis as we heard the siren calling the country to attention. For two minutes we stopped, and we remembered. Of course there are those who participated in longer ceremonies today, as we commerate Holocaust Rememberance Day. But many, if not most Israelis are busy. We have way too many holidays and commemeration days as it is, last week Passover, next week Israel Memorial Day and immediately after Independence Day. Few weeks later Shavuot.

So how in 2013 with all of our instant everything, do we deal with the commandment to remember?

I think by putting our brains on a cycle. We remember, for a moment, sometimes for more, and then we forget. Because as I stood there for two minutes (length of average YouTube posting), I said to myself that if I remembered all the time, I could not function. I would simply be overwhelmed, by both the horrors and wonders of the past.

We are a people of the book -- for thousands of years the main way of memorializing -- of making sure that we do not forget. What does a book look like in 2013? 2014? How will we remember?

I don't have any answers, but I do know that somehow we need to keep on with our cycle of Remember/Forget/Remember...repeat. Alway searching for the balance of memory and action, of tradition and modernity.

I conclude with the call that has echoed for decades: Never Again. Some things should not be repeated.

Who are the peers of Rabbi/Rav Menachem Froman?

As a "start-upist," as we say in Hebrew, a person who starts things, I am used to going against the trend. I am experienced in looking at reality and believing I have the power to change that reality. And thank God, I have had the fortune to be involved in some major shifts in reality over the past few decades.

Yesterday a great light went out in the world -- Rabbi Menachem Froman, the "Rav" of Tekoa, but so much more than that, passed from our world.

Rabbi Froman was the utlimate start-upist -- he did not accept anything as the way it should be, and until his last days fought to change our reality, and our perceptions of reality.

Rabbi Froman's "weapons" were his love for all people, his fierce intellect, his smile, his hugs, his joy in life.

I had the blessing to meet Rabbi Froman a few times over the past twenty years, and have followed his activities with great interest, fascination, respect, admiration, and love.

Rabbi Froman was prepared to go anywhere, and meet anyone, if he felt it would help make our world a better place.

My only critique of Rabbi Froman is that he was so good, that he outshone anyone else around him, so we are left not knowing who his peers are, who will carry on his legacy...in that sense Rabbi Froman left the perception that he was a one-man show, a start-up built around a cult of personality. Not so different than another of my teachers, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who only after his death gained the respect he deserved in his lifetime -- and only after he left our world did we stat to understand the depth of his message. 

18 years after the passing of Carlebach I feel like it is just yesterday that I spoke to him, heard him sing, passed him on the street. I did not have the same personal relationship with Rav Froman, but thanks to the immediacy of digital media (yes, Rav Froman was on Facebook) felt close to him. I pray that we take sparks of peace that Rav Froman created in his lifetime, and fan them together in flames that light the way to a future of love and joy throughout our region. 

I leave you with this relatively recent interview with Rav Froman, worth the time:
http://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/interviews/rabbi-froman-complete-interview

Start-up CEO as Benevolent Dictator

Those that have worked for me and/or with me, know that I strive to reach consensus around major decisions in the life of a company. I find that to keep a start-up team motivated, you need to keep everyone feeling like partners in the major decisions.

But, what happens when the drive to consensus fails?

That's the real test of a start-up CEO, to keep the company moving forward even though there will be at least one disgruntled team member (and in an early stage start-up, every team member is critical...there are no "nice to have" people).

The real challenge is to take decisions, sometimes against the "majority" (in a start-up of three people majority will always leave one lonely person out in the cold).

Sure, a start-up can be run as a partnership, with equal voting to all co-founders, but often cap tables and real-life don't work so smoothly. In addition, there are day-to-day decisions that cannot wait for everyone to come to agreement, and yes, at times leadership is required../

One way to define the responsibility of a start-up CEO is to be a benevolent dictator. Most of the time striving for consensus, most of the time empowering team members -- but sometimes the need for a dictator arises, to take decisions and move the company forward.

This gets really tricky when the company is co-founded on an egalitarian basis, and roles are settled upon -- I argue that the naming of one of the co-founders is not only a title, but an imbuing one member of the team with greater "powers" than the rest. The social contract that is often unspoken, and certainly not written, is that the CEO will lead. The only way to lead is if the power to take decisions comes along with the title.

But start-up CEOs be warned: dictators can be overthrown. use your powers wisely.