What do you think of crowdfunding [financing a venture by pooling small amounts of money from a large number of investors] and how do you place yourself in this market? Are you changing your own business model accordingly?
Crowdfunding is fabulous and I buy a lot of products like that. I’m using this great Jewish clock on my Pebble smartwatch that I bought at their website [mypebblefaces.com/apps/3300/9380/]. However, on Kickstarter, you need to have a product that’s almost ready to go, and hardware is expensive to build. So we invest in the pre-crowdfunding round. For example, we were one of the first investors in FormLabs, an affordable 3D printer, which is one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns. We invested in 2011, a full year before their launch on KickStarter. They raised $19 million a few months ago.
We may also invest just after the conclusion of a KickStarter campaign, because very often the company needs a little more money to manage their orders.
We just invested in a number of new projects that will soon be launching on IndieGogo and Kickstarter, such as mypodo.com. It will be awesome.
How involved do you get with the companies you invest in? And where are the majority geographically headquartered?
The breakdown is43 percent in the U.S., 28 percent in France, eight percent in Israel, eight percent in the UK, and 13 percent in the rest of the world. I help our startups as much as I can – that’s 50 percent of my job. But most of the time they all ask the same questions and need the same kind of help or introductions. My profile on Angellist is angel.co/jberrebi.
You’ve had tremendous successes but there have been some bumps in the road, such as your experience with Zlio. What did you learn from that?
Gam zu l’tovah – this is also for the good. My friend Ilan, who was the Zlio U.S. manager, wrote about it and says he followed my advice, which was “Don’t worry, good things will happen after this tough experience.” Since then, he founded a company, Producteev, which he sold for a great price to Jive Software, and I became one of the most active angels in the world, so everything is O.K. I told you, God is driving.
The real mistake at Zlio was not the concept but rather our dependency on Google. We didn’t want to rely on Google and we didn’t work on any SEO optimization, but in the end it was our main source of traffic. When you are an Ecommerce player, it’s too difficult to live without Google.
I’ve learned to build and invest in businesses that are not dependent on anyone. Today that’s becoming more and more difficult. We are almost always dependent on Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Twitter. The best companies will be the ones that don’t rely on them.
What do you say to a haredi yeshiva boy interested in entering the business world?
First I advise him to talk with his rabbi and to be sure he’s not losing something in the process. I explain to him how difficult it is to make a parnassah and that many avreichim are living a better life than many working people. But after telling him that I will try to help him find the job that’s right for him. There are plenty.
The most important thing, though, is to understand that when we are working we need to serve God exactly like when we are learning. We have to be very careful to be respectful, not to steal from anyone, and not to treat employees, partners, or customers like dogs. When you are selling something, sell it at the right price, as we learn from the laws of ona’a in Baba Metzia. When you are lending money, try to do it without interest, or write a real heter iska. God will help us if we remain true to Torah, and this is the real nissayon for someone in the workforce.
