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URL for this post: https://tinyurl.com/msyftzkj
1. Doing consumer apps.
The failure rate here is 100x of b2b rates, nearly a lottery. 2. Raising VC money too early. It shifted all our focus from "happy users" to the headcount, media coverage, conferences, LOIs, partnerships, networking and the next funding round. 3. Hiring too early. Employees and contractors are like an average nanny for your kid. They do the bare minimum, they dont take any risk. But not taking risks means no innovation. Only founders have enough incentives to take risks. SO the founders should do all the work until they gain traction. 4. Ignoring SEO. None of the people in my network did SEO. We all thought it was something for later and we kept postponing it forever. Paid ads were easy and predictable and having too much money in the bank basically spoils you. 5. Ignoring content marketing. Never took blogging seriously. Big mistake. I thought blogging is a full time job, but it's actually possible to spend an hour a day on it and still do a good job. 6. Social Media Marketing. This is my biggest regret. I started using X just 2 years ago. Nearing 100k followers now. What if I started 20 years ago? Could I have 1M followers now? I think so. 7. Skipping idea validation. I'd always assume for the audience. Anticipate what they need. It almost never turned out to be true. My best projects were those I thought will fail and failed projects had my highest hopes at the start. 8. Hiring managers. I haven't yet seen any useful manager in a startup. They might be useful for corporations, but for startup I should have hired only doers. 9. Chasing Investors. For every startup I'd spend 40% of my time fundraising. I'd succeed in most of the cases, but at what cost? I haven't done a single outreach to investors in 2 years, but I get VCs knocking my doors, because I have good traction and they search for such projects daily. So, don't chase VCs, just make users happy and VCs are gonna find you. 10. Hiring specialized developers. Nothing is less efficient than a team of specialized developers for a startup (frontend, backend, db, devops, design, qa..). Today I have 1 fullstack dev doing 5x more progress on a project than a team of 12 back then. Avoid "teams" at all cost until at least $30kmrr. 11. Hiring people I don't wanna hug. My cofounder, an old Danish man said this to me in 2015. If you don’t wanna hug the person, it means you dislike them on a chemical/animal level. Every time I ignored this rule, I paid the high price later. 12. Betting on partners. I partnered up with large billion dollar corporates many times with different startups. They promise huge stuff, millions of users, but end up just wasting your time, destroy focus, shift priorities, make you spend zillions on ramping up security and compliance, and eventually bring in no users/money. 13. Shiny objects. I fell for crypt0 hype. Got super rich, then lost it all. Years wasted. Almost got depressed by seeing how scammy and greedy humans can be, even saw best friends losing their souls there. 14. Holding on a bad project for too long. I kept believing in projects after years of no traction. I thought that one day something magic will happen and things will go up. It was just a waste of time, money and my prime years. 15. Went to tech conferences. Totally waste of time. Most people there are the “good” employees of corporations who were sent there as a perk for being loyal to the corporation. All decision makers are on the stage and you never meet them as an attendee. 16. Scrum is a Scam. If I had a team that had to be nagged every morning with questions as if they were children in kindergarten, then things would eventually fail. The only good stuff I managed to do happened with people who were grownups and could manage their stuff on their own. We would just do everything over chat as a sync on goals and plans. 17. Outsourced development & marketing. The vendors were good, but the outcome was not good. Startups are so difficult that there is almost no chance someone from outside can do a good job for them, because it's just yet another assignments for those folks and they key goal is to make it look professional, the process and things, they never gonna disagree with your stupid ideas, they will just bow. 18. Started with a free tier in b2b. Free projects attract totally wrong crowd with irrelevant feedback and drive your project away from where it should head. Freemium is okay, at some point. But always start with paid (30day refund no questions asked). 19. Code from scratch. My team would spend first 3 months coding basic things like auth, admin panel, cruds and etc. It was a huge waste of time. The moment I started using boilerplates, the speed went up 10x. Eventually I built my own AI Coding IDE optimized for code reusage, and it was the best decision of my life. 20. Spent little time with my family & friends. I worked way too much. Didn't take holidays at all. Missed so many weddings and birthdays. It was very destructive for my creativity. Once I started having some off(to do other active things), I became way more creative. Quality >Quantity. Most readers won't ever make it to the end, so I'll skip the 21...99.
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by Arona Maskil, Founder of TrainingCQ.com URL for this Post: https://tinyurl.com/c4skv5n8 Your AI assistant just crafted a perfectly polite email for your Japanese client. It uses honorifics, references past meetings, and sounds… impressively fluent. But there’s a problem: the Email asks for a quick decision. Rushing a decision isn’t just bad manners—it’s a deal-breaker in Japan. AI can translate languages. But it can’t read the room.  The AI Boom in Global Business AI tools like ChatGPT, DeepL, Grammarly, and others rapidly transform global business communication. International teams now rely on AI to:
But it’s not human. AI is trained in language, not cultural dynamics. It knows what words to use, but it does not know how to navigate tone, hierarchy, or unspoken expectations. Culture Isn’t Coded When working across borders, how you say something can matter more than what you say.
These aren’t just details, they’re deal-makers or deal-breakers. Why Human Skills Still Matter A client once told me their AI-generated Emails saved time—until they noticed silence from their Japanese partner. Eventually, they realized the tone was too pushy. What they thought was clarity came off as pressure. Once we trained the team in cultural agility—using our BRIDGE Flow Model™, they adapted their tone, slowed their pace, and rebuilt trust. The result? A pilot deal that had stalled suddenly moved forward. AI can assist. But it can’t replace:
 3 Tips for Global Teams Using AI
1. Use AI as a tool, not a crutch. It’s excellent for drafts, but don’t rely on it for delicate or high-stakes communication. 2. Train for cultural agility. Equip your team with the skills to interpret tone, timing, and nuance across cultures. 3. Don’t confuse translation with communication. AI can translate words. Only people can build relationships. Final Thought: AI Can’t Replace Insight As AI becomes more powerful, the human edge becomes more valuable. The most successful global teams are those that invest in both advanced tools and human understanding. That’s why we developed “ChatGPT Can’t Read the Room,” a high-impact session that helps professionals navigate the cultural pitfalls that AI cannot predict. Interested in equipping your team with cultural intelligence in an AI world? Let’s connect. Contact us on 052-3340445 or visit our website: TrainingCQ.com URL for this post: https://tinyurl.com/26ywjsyc  Hi, Startups! If you are not attracting as many customers as quickly as expected, here are some important insights from Sramana Mitra, founder of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M). https://1m1m.sramanamitra.com/ "Are you struggling with attracting customers? There’s a very good chance that your Positioning is off. Positioning drives Product Market Fit (PMF). You HAVE to get it right. Let’s discuss how. These are the key components of Positioning: - Segmentation - Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) - Business Model - Pricing Model - Bottom-up TAM - Competition Positioning drives Fundability. So you better figure it out before you go chasing investors. Also, if you are getting repeated rejections, I suggest you stop seeing investors and first figure out the WHY. I can explain the WHY and what to do about it. You can come discuss with me at my weekly roundtables. I will give you actionable feedback. If you need help in figuring out your Positioning and Product Market Fit, join 1Mby1M Premium. In general, going to investors without customer validation is a very bad idea. In this age of AI, investors EXPECT that you will bootstrap and validate to a high degree before seeking funding. Customers too are getting used to rapid product prototyping and MVPs that are more well-formed and mature. If you can get to $1M in revenue without seeking funding, you are a King. Remember the 1Mby1M Mantra: Do not go to VCs as Beggars. Go as Kings. So tell me more. Are you an entrepreneur struggling with PMF? Positioning? Funding? Speak soon, Sramana Founder, 1Mby1M"   Part 2 in the Series: The Service Providers of Israel’s High-Tech Ecosystem by Arlene Marom URL for this post: https://tinyurl.com/y39wft9y  Meet Arona Maskil, Founder of TrainingCQ – a company that helps Israeli startups understand and adapt to cultural nuances, preventing costly mistakes as they expand into new global markets. Arona believes that cultural agility is as critical to startup success as product-market fit. From Growing Up Multiculturally to a Cross-Cultural Career Arona was born in the US, raised in Finland and Germany, and made her home in Israel. In addition to multiple languages, this multicultural experience taught her about the subtleties that go unsaid – how culture shapes expectations, behavior, and trust. Her two-decade career included serving as the Director of Education USA at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, part of the Fulbright Foundation, where she created Israel’s first intercultural training model — adopted by embassies worldwide and several Israeli universities. Today, Arona continues to train professionals, speak at international conferences, and help global teams turn friction into collaboration.  TrainingCQ's Unique Services Arona founded TrainingCQ to turn lessons learned into practical tools. From misreading silence in Japan to mismanaging feedback with US clients, the company’s training prevents the cultural misunderstandings that kill deals and strain partnerships. TrainingCQ’s motto is: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast. But only if you're not hungry enough to learn it.” Understanding how deeply ingrained cultural habits can be, they don’t just do checklists at TrainingCQ; they do culture in motion. Their proprietary B.R.I.D.G.E. Flow Model doesn’t freeze culture into fixed traits. Instead, they train teams to adapt across trust-building, communication, decision-making, risk-taking, and teamwork in real time. They go beyond awareness to action: fundamental skills, real stories, tangible impact – giving global teams the skills to collaborate, communicate, and negotiate across cultures – without losing their edge.  Is TrainingCQ Right for You? TrainingCQ works with B2B, Tech, Cyber, Defense, SaaS, and other startups going global – especially those navigating markets like the U.S., Europe, and Asia. If your team struggles to “read the room” abroad and has difficulty scaling internationally without losing deals to miscommunication, Arona and her team could be just what you need.  Contact Details:
Mobile: + 972-52-3340445 Email: [email protected] URL: https://www.trainingcq.com/ Social Media: LinkedIn, Facebook  Part 1 in the Series: The Service Providers of Israel’s High-Tech Ecosystem by Arlene Marom URL for this post: https://tinyurl.com/4ndjd6zx  Meet Ori Ainy, Founder of BEAM GLOBAL, who helps Israeli B2B high-tech and startup companies penetrate global markets and successfully compete with global corporations. Drawing on his 25 years of experience in executive marketing, sales and business development positions and his marketing consultancies, he guides startups and small B2B software companies as they take their first steps and implement their expansion activities in global markets. Services Ori helps clients plan, execute and cross the international marketing chasm, offering a wide range of services. Experienced with both marketing strategy as well as sales processes and tactics, he conducts market research, builds strategies, devises smart plans for international marketing, and plans and prepares B2B marketing infrastructures. Utilizing his rich network of global contacts throughout the B2B software industry, Ori can also execute these plans, providing outsourced international sales management services, locating distributors and channel partners, managing distribution networks, and helping clients to find reliable business partners – while saving them precious time and resources. His proven strategic marketing procedures and techniques open up new marketing channels, providing clients with diverse opportunities for penetrating new markets. Ori can help you make decisions regarding critically important issues including whether to sell directly or via channel partners, which territories to target, what your pricing model should be based on, how to define your unique selling proposition – or any other aspects of global go-to-market strategy. For those in need of financial assistance, Ori can also help with grant applications.  Ideal Clients Several types of companies are positioned to best utilize Ori’s expertise: - B2B software companies that are already established in Israel and are looking towards growth abroad, with plans for an international launch of new or existing products - Startups that are developing a product, have completed development and are ready to launch, or have made initial sales of completed products - Product or software development companies focused on the global sale of off-the-shelf products  About Ori
Ori consults and lectures on international marketing for the Israel Export Institute – which has published his guidebook, “Taking Your First Steps in Export”. In addition, Ori conducts seminars for exporters at the Israeli Chamber of Commerce, lectures at MindCET – an EdTech innovation center, and is a mentor and judge on Mass Challenge’s startup evaluation panels. He has an MBA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. While the international sales arena provides extensive opportunities for growth, it also poses certain risks and obstacles, and therefore, according to Ori, learning from others’ mistakes is a smart way to start. He, therefore, freely shares his experiences and insights with clients and via his webinars and blog posts – helping Israeli B2B software companies avoid making the mistakes others have made. Ori believes – and has a track record to prove it – that even small and medium businesses with limited resources can become successful in international markets and compete with large international corporations by gaining global exposure and projecting an image of up-and-coming professional, big-league players that have the potential to lead in their fields. Contact Details Website: https://beamglobal.co.il/ Blog: https://beamglobal.co.il/blog/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oriainy/ Email: [email protected] Tel: 052-241-3373  By Arlene Marom URL for this Blog Post: https://bit.ly/3JWZRKu MurMurSaga is a first-of-its-kind social platform that is rewriting the rules of content creation – enabling users to become part of truly unique stories. Combining elements of role-playing games and interactive stories, the platform provides a fresh approach to social networks and storytelling – a gateway to a world overflowing with limitless possibilities. Stories YOU Control  Implementing advanced AI, MurMurSaga’s distinctive approach creates dynamic and personalized interactions for every user, producing an endless stream of one-of-a-kind stories. Unlike traditional networks and story-reading platforms, users actively participate in events, make decisions, create their own universes, and influence the course of their own adventures. An Experience to Be Enjoyed by Everyone  The platform is for people of all ages who are seeking a positive and interactive space, a doorway into a new reality, where they can be the heroes of their own fantasies and enjoy the breathtaking artwork created by AI. Every story comes alive with fabulous AI-generated avatars and images – and music underscores every moment, woven into the unfolding story to create an immersive and everchanging experience. Share Your Quests  The platform allows you to share your stories with the vibrant MurMurSaga community of both real and AI users – forge connections and team up to jointly create unforgettable epic journeys and unravel mysteries that transcend the boundaries of reality. Make a name for yourself in MurMurSaga’s rich tapestry, amass achievements and titles, and unlock your potential while creating new chapters, new sagas, every day. MurMurSaga’s Founder/CEO MurMurSaga is the dream of Igor Ruvinskii, a programmer currently studying at Tel-Ran. Igor has a wealth of ideas and plans – and a prototype of his project – which he is developing single-handedly with immense enthusiasm. Igor’s dream is to create a space where people can sit back and relax, forget the troubles of the day, and experience an unparalleled stream of adventures of their own making in which they are the central characters.  Project Status With the prototype completed, Igor is now actively seeking partners, mentors, and investors to join him on this exciting journey.
Contact Details Website: https://murmursaga.com/ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/igor-ruvinskii-62517765/ Email: [email protected] AJINOMATRIX: Digitizing Taste, Flavor and Aroma for the Food Industry with AI-Based Software6/11/2021  by Arlene Marom URL for this Blog Post: https://bit.ly/3BVxDsK Overview The global food industry faces rapidly evolving consumer demands that require a continuous stream of new and enticing products. In order to keep up, digitization is being introduced into many aspects of the industry. However, until now, capturing the secrets of taste and smell have eluded food scientists. For the past two decades, Francois Wayenberg, the Founder of Ajinomatrix, has been fascinated by this challenge. As an economist from the University of Brussels, he was determined to make an impact on this aspect of the food industry while working at a large Japanese trading company focused on food R&D – and initiated what would eventually become Ajinomatrix. Over the years, based on accumulated knowledge and experience, the company’s future capabilities were honed. For over 20 years, Francois Wayenberg’s research network was involved in fundamental and theoretical sensory research standardization. Today, leveraging years of ground-breaking insights, Ajinomatrix is a startup company that provides a wide range of services through a blend of SaaS and an extensive open source platform.  The Solution Committed to simplifying the user experience, the company solves a number of critical issues for the food industry. First and foremost, using today’s most advanced AI, Ajinomatrix has digitized the senses of taste, flavor and aroma – making sensory science simple. Among other things, digitization overcomes a problem faced by the chemical reproduction of flavors – enabling permanent, precise copies of the flavor, without any degradation. Interfacing with consumers, tasting panels and sensors such as e-noses or e-mouths, Ajinomatrix’s AI-based software digitally measures the senses of taste and smell, delivering easy-to-interpret data that can be shared and reused across the industry, and enable fast, accurate decisions. Ajinomatrix provides customizable applications that create the sensory measurements required by each organization. Evaluating and analyzing data throughout all management and product development processes, the company enables clients to digitally quantify sensory measurements. This accelerates marketplace releases, ensures higher success rates with less product rejection, and prevents costly failures. Products can be localized based on their sensory profiles, and ingredients can be substituted to meet specific objectives and applications. Overcoming the industry’s tendency to store information in disparate data silos – resulting in inefficiencies and wasted resources – Ajinomatrix’s sensory software digitally integrates the various silos and consolidates them into a single data warehouse, transforming them into a simple, easy-to-use output file for smart, rapid decision-making. The software will eventually standardize measurements and create a global model that will render files that will become compatible – once taste and scent measurement become digital. Target Markets Ajinomatrix targets medium to large food and beverage companies, food scientists, flavor and fragrance companies, organoleptic labs, food wholesalers and manufacturers of sensors – with a business model based on co-development.  The Team
Along his journey to establishing Ajinomatrix, Francois Wayenberg has won international awards including from UNESCO, worked with NASA, and took part in experimental projects in Israel. An inventor and serial entrepreneur, Founder Institute graduate, and industrial collaborator at the AI Lab at the University of Brussels, he has also managed to author 24 books, write poetry, and work as a cinematographer. Joel Bellenson, CPO & VP of Research, brings 30 years of executive experience in agriculture and biochemical businesses. The companies he has co-founded have attracted over USD 100 million of investment. A Fortune 500 company acquired one of his companies. He took another to the public market. He was CEO & Chief Scientist at DigiScents, which DNA-sequenced the human neuroreceptors for fragrance and flavour and developed the first digital scent synthesizer from primary fragrances and flavors. He was also the CEO & Co-founder of DoubleTwist, the first to annotate the Human Genome, and was the Inventor, Founder and Manager of the DNA Core Facility Robotic Equipment and Services at the Stanford University Medical Center. Christian du Jardin, CMO, brings 20 years of business expertise in senior marketing, strategy, and communication roles in blue chip companies in the food and beverage industry (Unilever, Pepsico Restaurant International) in Belgium and Europe. Founder and managing partner in 2014 of Kera Way Consulting, he mentored C-levels and management teams facing growth and change challenges (reference clients include Deloitte, bpost, BNP Paribas AM, etc). He is AI Orange Belt-certified, author and keynote speaker of the book, Manager 3.0 – Seven Principles to Manage the Change Induced by AI (released May 2020 in French), and is a consultant/facilitator for the Digital Wallonia Program (2021). He loves and has made multiple trips to India, practices mindfulness, and in 2019, set up Centre Psyché, a multidisciplinary center to help people in situations of stress, burn-out and life transition. Current Status Ajinomatrix has a presence in a number of global locations including Jerusalem, Paris, Brussels, Tokyo, Barcelona, Kampala, and Mexico City. They have 35 qualified business prospects and 10 signed LOIs, as well as a number of pre-sales use cases. The company participated in Y Combinator’s School for Startups and the Founder Institute, and, from a group of 110 startups, they were considered by Mass Challenge to be one of the two most traction-generating companies. They recently participated in the Agri-Food Summit in Tel Aviv and will have a video address at EIT Paris with team members on premises. Future Plans Ajinomatrix has developed a new concept: It is creating unique positioning for itself as a hybrid startup and research foundation. The company plans to open research facilities in three global locations including Israel. In order to implement its LOIs and establish the first research facility, they are currently focused on a funding round, seeking €2 million. Contact Details Email: [email protected] URL: www.ajinomatrix.org Tel: +972-54-3514366  by Guest Author Sherwin Pomerantz URL for this Blog Post: https://bit.ly/2XRKkXN According to the latest data, Israel’s innovation technology sector broke a new capital funding record this week, reaching a total of $10.5 billion raised since the start of the year. In doing so, it matched the total raised throughout the whole of 2020, which was itself a record year, in less than half the time. According to the data, the significant rise in investments focused on the more advanced stages, with most of the capital (64%) invested in rounds C or later. 2021 has already set a record for the number of mega-rounds (investments of over $100 million) raised, with 30 having been completed so far compared to 21 mega-rounds throughout all of 2020. These rounds represent 53% of all capital raised, and for the first time, they account for more than half of the total funds invested. The marked increase in investments in Israeli tech companies (most of which originate from foreign investors) is even more pronounced when compared with investment performance worldwide. While Israel recorded an increase of 137% for the first five months of 2021 compared to the first five months of 2020 (according to Start-Up Nation Finder), the increase globally was only 89%. Europe recorded an increase of 123% over the same period, while the U.S. saw an increase of 91% and Asia saw an increase of 69%, according to PitchBook data. The bulk of funding went to cybersecurity, fintech, and enterprise solutions companies, with the top three sectors pulling an accumulated $6.2 billion or 60% of all investments. These sectors are all software, strongly B2B oriented, and saw huge increases in demand for their solutions over the last year as work practices changed. This activity attests to the continued vitality of Israel’s tech sector at a time when the world has its concerns about the economic recovery after covid. Clearly the investment community sees Israel’s economic growth as going in the right direction…..UP!  About the Author Sherwin Pomerantz has lived in Israel for 34 years and is president of Atid EDI Ltd., a Jerusalem-based business development consulting firm, the founding Chairperson of the America State Offices Association, and a former National President of the Association of Americans & Canadians in Israel. He has 24 years’ experience in assisting overseas companies and public entities in their export promotion and foreign direct investment attraction efforts.  Contact Details
Atid EDI Ltd., POB 45005, 91450 Jerusalem T: +972.2.571.0199 | M: +972.54.668.4803| F: +972.2.571.0713 | S: sherwinpomerantz E: [email protected] | W: http://www.atid-edi.com | Twitter: @sherwinp  by Arlene Marom URL for this Blog Post: https://bit.ly/2XQ5jtD Increasing the profitability of ecommerce businesses is no simple matter. Whether the goal is to boost store revenue, B2B leads, page views, CTR, or average session duration in media/content websites ‒ it’s costly, involves a steep learning curve, and requires time-consuming manual labor. A technological solution is clearly needed.  The twik Innovation twik ‒ the first real-time automated web-personalization engine ‒ solves this critical issue for business owners, ecommerce site managers, marketers, CROs, agencies in the ecommerce industry, and marketplaces (like Shopify). Using cutting-edge automation technology that requires no special knowledge or human intervention, twik enables online businesses to know their audiences, completely personalize their websites, and enhance their customers’ shopping experience ‒ leading to significantly increased conversion rates, sales, revenue, and ultimately, ROI. twik’s uniqueness doesn’t end with automation. The patent pending, GDPR-compliant system is implemented using only a single line of code. It doesn’t require a connection to third party systems. It doesn’t use cookies. And, it works in real time ‒ automating the personalization of every visitor.  The Company twik’s CEO, Roi Sorezki, has been involved with the Internet optimization and marketing community since 1997, when, as a teenager, he founded his first company, specializing in web development and design. Before founding twik, he was a serial entrepreneur and owner of an incubator that developed several startups. twik’s management team ‒ who were previously an employee, a client and an investor in his incubator ‒ are now the company’s CTO, CSMO, and CSO. Located in Tel Aviv, the growing company currently employs 20+ people as well as using the services of ten outsourced professionals. The company has participated in various webinars, has presented at events including Shopify, SummIT, PipelBiz, and Axis Innovation, and has won several awards for innovation in Retail and CX. Their first investors were friends and family, then corporate investors and angels, and currently they are engaged in negotiations with VCs for a Series A round.  An Evolving Focus Their journey has included several pivots ‒ from serving only enterprises to targeting SMBs as well, and from a freemium basis only to also supporting subscription-based packages. Today, twik has 10 thousand clients around the world, across multiple verticals (e.g., ecommerce, B2B, media/content websites), and ranging in size from micro mom-and-pop shops, to SMBs and large Forbes 1000 enterprises, with an installed customer-base that continues to increase by at least 1000 installs per month. twik’s long-term vision is to become a global leader, dominating the personalization automation industry across all major marketplaces and verticals.  Contact Info
Website: www.twik.io Email: [email protected] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twik.io LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/twik YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgtrcvW7kRcabERa8PgGYxw Twitter: https://twitter.com/TwikPlatform |
