Power to the Perceptive
I took a gap year and spent time working in the desert backcountry as a guide.
Hiking teaches you about real camaraderie.
You get to know the people you’re walking side-by-side with on a different level.
There are no screens and no distractions.
Time works differently in the wilderness and allows for connections.
“Moving around all the time makes you feel like the world isn’t static.”
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As a kid, I was on a debate team that traveled internationally. The art of argumentation, if you want to be great at it, requires you to see situations from multiple perspectives… including the contrarian point of view. I was in charge of rebuttals, which require peeling apart weaknesses. In hindsight, it’s easy to see how that experience plays into my interest in cybersecurity. Cyber and defense teams that have been on the attacking side do an even better job at defending and protecting.
Growing up I split my time between the U.S. (Connecticut and Wisconsin) and a small village just south of Tel Aviv in Israel. Given my love for Israel, I made a decade-long commitment and joined the country’s national intelligence academy. Eventually I secured a coveted slot in the security focused Unit 8200. If you’re not familiar with it, 8200 is the engine of Israel’s startup culture. (Fun Fact: Astrix, which CRV sits on the board of and led the Series A in, was founded by a team that was also in Unit 8200.)
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My time in the unit as a data scientist and in various intelligence analysis roles commanding a base of 300 soldiers and officers taught me a lot about what it means to lead and be part of a close knit team. Eventually, during my final year in the army, I became chief of staff to the head of Israel's intelligence organization.
Uvda, which translates from Hebrew to “Fact,” is one of Israel’s longest running investigative TV shows. A chance meeting with Uvda’s chief correspondent in an elevator during my time in the army led me to the next phase in my career and an exciting few years as a journalist where I covered everything from financial crime, corruption in Argentina’s government and to covering an Iranian judoka (or judo player) that to this day is one of my favorite stories.
Saeid Mollaei is a world champion and an Iranian athlete who just wanted to be the best at his sport. He wanted to compete against the best in his field, but sadly, because of geopolitics, his country didn’t want him to compete against Israeli components. Despite that, Saeid defied his country and came to Tel Aviv to face his opponent.
“I love the conviction people have when they want to be the absolute best, with no limits and making it so no questions can be asked when it comes to their stature as number one in their field. It’s a powerful trait and I look for that same kind of tenacity in founders I partner with.”
I love the cross roads between storytelling as an art form and the impact it has. Impact is what ended up drawing me to Silicon Valley. I attended Stanford which, funny enough, is where I first met my CRV colleague, Ipshita Agarwal.
“Security is a space I’m passionate about, but it’s a crowded arena. I’m keenly interested in meeting founders and entrepreneurs who have creativity and tech prowess, but they also need to have a unique angle and have to be disciplined in the same way extremely talented judoka are.”
Outside of work, scuba diving is one of my favorite things to do. When I was little, I’d dreamed of being an astronaut or a fighter pilot, but color blindness prohibited me from those fields. Diving is the closest thing to flying for me because you can move in all directions. I recently went on a diving trip in Thailand and the coolest thing I saw was a huge whale shark.
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If I can’t be in the water, you’ll find me cooking up a storm with my partner. I did a year of cooking school and in addition to being an investor, I also happen to be an award winning cheesecake baker.
