20VC: Israeli Resilience From Tech and Beyond with Michael Eisenberg and Adi Levanon
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 12 October 2023
⏱️ 44 minutes
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Summary
Michael Eisenberg spent 15 years as a General Partner @ Benchmark working alongside Bill and the Benchmark partnership. Following Benchmark, Michael co-founded Aleph, one of the leading Israeli venture funds of the last decade with a portfolio including Lemonade, Melio and HoneyBook, just to name a couple of Aleph’s unicorns.
Adi Levanon is the Founder & Managing Partner @ Selah Ventures, a solo-GP-founded venture fund investing $500k checks into AI-based solutions that enhance financial services, healthcare organizations, fintechs, and SMBs, with a focus on founders in the US and Israelis globally.
In Today's Episode on Israeli Resilience We Discuss:
- Where are we at today? What is it like on the ground, today?
- Have the international community reacted as expected? What more can be done?
- What does it mean to be called up for "reserve"?
- How are companies dealing with 25% of their teams being called into the armed forces?
- Are VCs investing still? Does work carry on?
- Whose reactions are exemplary and we should look to follow?
- Whose have been woeful and should be called out?
- What are the single biggest misconceptions of the situation?
- What can people do to help? What can be done?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back, 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and this is likely the most important episode that we've ever done here on 20VC. |
| 0:06.2 | The situation in Israel is nothing short of devastating and heartbreaking, and we have to speak up. |
| 0:11.5 | Paraphrasing Martin Neemola, they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. |
| 0:17.2 | Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me. |
| 0:21.6 | The time has come, we have to speak out against these atrocities. |
| 0:24.6 | And joining me for this very important discussion, we have a dear friend of mine, Michael |
| 0:28.6 | Eisenberg, co-founder of Aleph, and one of Israel's leading investors, and Adi Lavenon, founder and managing partner at Sela Ventures, |
| 0:35.6 | a solo GP founded venture fund, investing |
| 0:38.8 | into AI-based solutions. And we're going to head right into the show today. No intros, no fluff. |
| 0:44.0 | Let's just jump right into the discussion. I am so grateful to you both for joining me today. I think |
| 0:49.1 | this is probably one of the most important shows that I've ever done. So first, thank you so much for |
| 0:53.7 | joining me today. Thanks for happening to say, Eric, thank you so much for joining me today. |
| 0:54.8 | Thanks for happiness, Harry. Thank you so much. Now, honestly, I'd just love to start. |
| 0:58.5 | We said before we don't really have a structure to this. I just want to start by asking both of you, |
| 1:03.6 | are your family safe? And I just want to check in there first. So, you know, my family is safe. I have two sons who have been called up to reserve duty. |
| 1:12.7 | My son-in-law was called up yesterday. Actually, my third son who was not on the front line, |
| 1:17.0 | was called up also yesterday. And I have a son-in-law who was wounded in a previous set of battles |
| 1:21.8 | who's gone to the guard duty down in the south of Israel. Well, thank God, fine. |
| 1:26.8 | Unfortunately, as you know, Harry, I lost a cousin |
| 1:29.1 | of mine in battle on the first day when he went into protect the town called Kfar Aza, which is a |
| 1:35.4 | border town where tens of people were massacred, and he was literally the first Jeep in, and he was |
| 1:41.9 | unfortunately killed really in the first hour of battle. We had the funeral |
... |
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