"There is an opportunity to take advantage of this crisis and grow from it"
"There is an opportunity to take advantage of this crisis and grow from it"
Ofer Katz from Fiverr and Sapir Hadad from SAGA talked about the importance of being a team of founders leading a startup as part of Calcalist and Poalim Tech’s Growth+ project
Ofer Katz, President and CFO of Fiverr, and Sapir Hadad, co-founder and CEO of SAGA, emphasized the critical role of a strong founding team in a startup's success during their recent meeting as part of the Growth+ project of Calcalist and Poalim Tech.
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.
Ofer, tell us about a crisis you encountered at the beginning of your journey and what you learned from it that can help young entrepreneurs.
"In the beginning, we were a small group of people. The dependence on each person was significant, and when one of the key people left, it seemed that it would be impossible to continue or that we would need to go back two years. But reality proved otherwise. This highlighted two aspects: first, the role of an entrepreneur is to dive in and take the reins; second, a higher level of involvement should be created to prevent such situations. There is great strength in having a team of four people who mutually support each other. This makes the enterprise much more resilient to crises, for example, if one person is in crisis or going through a tough period. It's much more complex to be a CEO or a solo entrepreneur. An entrepreneur I met once said that a single entrepreneur who succeeds is praised by everyone, but when they fail, they are alone for a very long time. There are always failures—no entrepreneur is immune to losing clients, missing goals, or struggling to raise funds on time. In the end, being together both intellectually and experientially is better."
Sapir, what is the biggest difficulty you encountered this year?
"This startup was only recently established, but in my previous startup, the political situation had already started to affect customers from abroad who were hesitant to engage with us. The main difficulty was understanding that many factors outside my control impact the system. Now, I'm still at the beginning, so I feel that I have an opportunity to take advantage of this crisis and grow from it. But in the previous startup, there were many questions about what we were doing and what would become of us."
Ofer, what did you advise on this matter?
"We mainly talked about the product and what the right product is; we are not yet in the sales phase."
What did you learn from each other?
Ofer: "I was surprised to see young people thinking completely outside the box, looking two or three steps ahead, and taking the risk of doing something with a high level of uncertainty. Their adventurousness is limitless. I am in a larger company today, so the level of risk we take is different. What Sapir wants to do is inspiring."
Sapir: "Ofer surprised me with his perspective, experience, quick understanding, and the ability to give the right feedback at the right time. It's inspiring."
Tell us about something interesting or surprising you found out about each other.
Ofer: "I admire entrepreneurs who modestly and quietly, under the radar, raise money, produce a product, bring in customers, and ultimately create value for the first investors. It's amazing to see how, after this cycle, the spirit or energy doesn't change—this curiosity and the way you realize it anew. The fact that you are four people working together is impressive."
Sapir: "I was surprised by how comfortable and non-threatening Ofer is. He is not arrogant and allowed me to be myself."
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.'
