"My advice to startups: Don't be afraid to make mistakes"
"My advice to startups: Don't be afraid to make mistakes"
As part of the Growth+ mentoring project of Calcalist and Poalim Tech, Tal Jacobson from Perion and Tal Kirschenbaum from Ledge met and talked about crises and collaborations
Tal Jacobson, CEO of Perion, which provides technology services for digital advertising for advertisers and publishers, met with Tal Kirschenbaum, CEO of Ledge, which develops a system to help financiers in technology companies automate and manage their finances, to discuss overcoming crises and leveraging collaborations.
The project involves a series of 1:1 meetings between experienced entrepreneurs and early-stage start-up companies, with the goal of providing advice, support, and knowledge on entrepreneurship, creativity, managing start-ups, and building companies for growth.
Tal Jacobson, can you share a crisis you encountered at the beginning of your journey and what you learned from it that can help young entrepreneurs?
"One of the things I remember most from the beginning of my career is when I managed the marketing for a large company and made a mistake. I sent a newsletter where everyone could see each other's email addresses. People started sending 'Reply to All' responses, and it became a mess. I went to the CEO that day and told him I resigned, apologizing for the blunder. He told me that if I wanted to avoid making mistakes, I should do nothing. 'Sometimes, when you do things, it comes with embarrassing mistakes. Just get better, organize yourself, and get back to work.' I learned from this not to be afraid to make mistakes, to take ownership of them, to be determined to correct them, and to be very honest about everything that happened. This mindset has driven me all these years."
Tal Kirschenbaum, what was the biggest difficulty you encountered in the last year?
"The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank caught us by surprise, both as a company that held our funds there and as a company that serves financiers in technology companies managing funds there and needed help on what to do and how to respond. We were among the last groups to withdraw our money and transfer it to another bank in Israel. The regulator intervened and backed the companies in a very impressive and fast way. It was a very stressful weekend for a young company."
Tal, what advice did you give the other Tal?
Jacobson: "We talked a lot about how to create collaborations that give the organization a significant boost. This is relevant at every stage, for both startups and more established companies. It's about looking for strong collaboration anchors that can enhance the company's value. Companies don't work in a vacuum; they need partners and anchors around them."
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What did you learn from each other?
Jacobson: "It almost doesn't matter what size company you run; the challenges are the same. As a CEO, you usually have to think on two levels all the time: the daily tactical level and the long-term strategic level."
Kirschenbaum: "Tal emphasized the importance of all kinds of force multipliers. It can also be the people you surround yourself with, from whom you can draw experience and different ways of thinking."
Michal Kissos Hertzog , CEO of Poalim Tech, who initiated the Growth+ project, said: "Within the project, I thought quite a bit about the situation of the entrepreneurs, about the fact that they are in the middle of such an intense activity of getting a startup up and running in days when everything around is about war and the challenges don't stop coming. And since the road from a start-up to a large and successful company is often long, this emphasizes to me the importance of maintaining balance: knowing how to take breaks, spend time with loved ones and stay healthy in body and mind, in order to succeed in the very intense effort required in a start-up."
