In this exciting episode, Frank La Vigne and Andy Leonard sit down with Aviad Harell, managing partner at Team 8, to explore the transformative power of technology in today's business landscape.

Aviad shares his mission to eliminate day-to-day bureaucracy and leverages technology to automate processes, drawing from his vast experience in the tech industry. Beyond business, Aviad reveals his passion for traveling in South America and his book recommendation, "The Mom Test," which acts as a guide for proper idea validation.

As the conversation unfolds, we explore how venture capital has evolved from a hobby to a disciplined, professional field, much like the maturity models in software development. Aviad details Team 8's innovative approach to venture capital, partnering with founders early in their journey, sometimes before even fully forming ideas. This unique model includes building a robust support system of 85 professionals to ensure the success of the startups they invest in.

Discover the importance of critical thinking, loving the problem more than the solution, and the journey from idea to execution.

Hear Aviad's insights on why execution is more crucial than the original idea and his belief in adaptability, quoting the famous military adage, "No idea survives contact with reality."

Show Notes

04:56 Founders seek validation, partners provide early support.

07:57 Teammate model founded on deep cybersecurity understanding.

10:51 Query about venture capitalist process's modernization and perception.

15:28 Entrepreneurship challenges led to significant personal growth.

19:07 Unintended tech consequences changing finance and daily lives.

22:47 Interested in different applications of agile methodologies.

27:22 Fascinating insights into approaching venture capitalists today.

30:31 Passion for skill, idea improvement, crucial teamwork.

31:23 Seek advice, consider other ideas, and collaborate.

36:26 Entrepreneur becomes angel investor, supports Tel Aviv.

37:52 Considered new company, resisted VC, became investor.

43:58 Automating bureaucracy, taxes, and legal document review.

47:53 Focus on problem, not solution; meaningful feedback.

50:38 Data-driven episode with Aviad Harrell from Team 8.

Mentioned in this episode:

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Hello and welcome back to Data Driven. In this episode,

Frank and Andy interview Aviad Harrell, managing partner

at Team 8. Aviad sheds light on team 8's unique

model of partnering with founders even before they have fully formed

ideas, emphasizing the importance of critical thinking,

understanding problems intimately, and having a systematic process for

success. Aviad's insights into the evolution of venture

capital capital and the AI revolution are sure to intrigue and

inspire. Now on to the show.

Alright. Hello, and welcome back to Data Driven, the podcast where we explore the

emergent fields of AI, data science, and, of course, data

engineering. With me on this epic road trip down the information

superhighway of data.

Andy Leonard. How's it going, Andy? It's going pretty good, Frank. How are you,

sir? I'm doing alright. You and I are both suffering from the

pollen wave that has hit, Virginia, Maryland.

We're at least half of Maryland. The southern the the kind of coastal

half. I was in Pittsburgh. Out of town, and I was up in you were

north. I was in Pittsburgh, and Yeah. Everyone up there is complaining about

allergies, but, yeah, it wasn't at the degree. It didn't bother me. And then it's

literally as soon as I crossed interstate 81, in

Hagerstown, boom. Like, it just hit like a wave.

But with me, with us today is

Aviad Harel. He is a, management partner

at team 8, and, he's gonna tell

us all about what team 8 is because I've heard it used, I've heard it

referenced, but I'd like to know more. Welcome to the show, Aviad. Hi, Frank.

Hi, Andy. Happy to be on your show today. Cool. Good to have you.

So It was my pleasure. You are, you're an

investor. You're, an adviser, and

you have a history of of being a founder, actually. You you

were a founder and COO of

Sisense. So tell us about what is team 8? Let's start

there. Yep. So team

8 is, is a VC to begin with. It's

an Israeli based VC, quite large one,

but, it has, a spill. It's a VC with

a spill, and I'll try to explain what, makes it, unique.

We at Teammate, we really like to partner with

founders very early in their journey.

Sometimes before they have a very established idea of what they're going to

build, we usually look for founders

that, we we become big believers

in in their capabilities, and

we are also interested in founders that are interested in the

same verticals that we are interested.

Part of our day to day is to build

thesis for ideas. What does it mean? We don't like to be

passive. We don't like to sit on our on our chairs and waiting for,

founding, teams to come to us and pitch us ideas. We

do that, and we like that, but we also really, really

like to be very active on the ideation part. So even

before we find founders, we work very hard to build our own thesis in

our, in our specific verticals that we're interested

in. But we're building the thesis in a way

that is like we are going to start that company.

So we come up with an idea. We connect to

the market, to specific companies that potentially can become design

partners or even customers, of that idea, and

we try to validate that idea together with them.

If we were able to validate the idea

in in in a very systematic way, and we have a very

elaborated, book of processes, how we, validate

our teasers. And then we also found the right

founders that, we feed them, they feed us, and they feed the

teasers. Then we usually don't just bet

on them, we triple bet on them. It starts with the size

of the check. Usually, we invest in

precede, rounds. We invest 2 x to

5 x of the average check size in these founders and

ideas. We do not invest

in many companies every year. We invest in only very few

because we want to give them our full attention. And lastly, at

team 8, we have, an establishment we call

the, the platform. It's actually a group

of 85 professionals on the payroll of teammate that

includes, developers and product people and

sales people and business people, that they have two purposes

in, teammate. 1, help us in, validating

thesis, and secondly started

it. So from the

perspective of the founders, if we decided,

to partner with them, we give them large

checks very early on in the process. They give they get

the bandwidth of, the managing partner such as

myself and my, partner, and they're augmented,

at day 0 with the platform, the 85, professional,

part of, teammate. This is a very expensive motion.

We were able to execute on that motion

if and only if we're able to build a very strong conviction

on the problem, the solution, and the founders. So

we do very little, but the little we do, we

triple bet on that. So this is this is

my way to explain the difference, or the

different motion of teammate versus a more typical VCs.

Right. And, you know, VCs, at least in America at

least in the Valley, the Valley model, it sounds like you're very different than the

Valley model. It seems like you're you're kind of, like, a step or

2 ahead of you you bet. And that's not fair to the valley based ones.

Right? Like, because there there's a stereotype. Right? Like, and and I'm sure they're they're

painfully aware of the survey. But it sounds like you don't just invest in the

idea, but you also invest in the people. Right? Correct. Correct.

I I I would not be, very quick to say that,

the Silicon Valley VCs do not invest in people. They do invest in

people, But, we invest

in people very early. Right. And,

we take bigger chances because we build bigger conviction

more than average at least on the problem statement and the solution for that.

Mhmm. Nice. That makes a lot of sense.

No. And I don't mean to track the value of these. It's

just it's a different what you're doing is is I think being people first,

if that's if that's a a a good way to think of it. How did

you come to that I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. We're big

believers in, people. You know?

I think the number one, attribute to success of a

venture is the people we partner with and the

market. Right? These are the 2 most important, attributes, to

that. So we try to partner with the best founders we can. Now best

founders we can partner with is a combination of few qualities.

1st, the the people, and secondly, they're matched

to the teases, to the idea that they are after.

Interesting. Interesting. How did you

come to that model of being kind of a people first approach as opposed

to what I've seen as more of a product

based approach or an offering based approach?

Yeah. So first, teammate, was

founded way before I joined. I joined a little bit over a year ago, so

it's not a a model I invented. But I think,

this model, was

created based on few things. 1st, I think

the people that founded team 8 basically,

had a very good understanding of a specific vertical they started

with and cybersecurity. Teammate was found by

the x 8200, commander. It was the the

intelligence, technical intelligence unit out of IDF.

And, he and his team came with,

a set of understanding deep understanding of, the

vertical, and, they wanted to

be very active in regards to what they're going to build and not just

wait for, ideas to come to them. So they started to build few teasers,

and they part of the process of building or or building a

factory to build, startups, they also started

to, meet or date potential, founders.

And, they had a very good initial success, And I think this

is what, set, set the structure going on

forward of, how, things are, taking

place at Team 8. Well, that whole that whole seeking

out people, I know I know that's what other, VCs do.

But most of the time, you know, those of us on the outside of the

market, hear of people going to pitch

their ideas in a shark tank kind of way. Is that on my side

or your side? So that on my side, that's what

I hear. You know, my understanding is Got a little bit dumb. Invested.

So you got a little bit disconnected. Technical glitches. Yeah.

So from my side, what I see as a person on the outside is

that usually engagement with venture capitalists

involves someone like me going to someone like you

and sharing an idea and creating a pension oh, I'm sorry.

I still see him. Oh, no. I still see you. Can you

still hear me, Andy? I hear both of you. Yeah. And I've had a couple

of glitches over here, but that's kinda normal. Am I back in

sync? You look like you are.

Okay. Can you hear me? Typing. I can hear you. Can you hear

me talking when and see my mouse moving into the system? You for,

few to, 10 of seconds. Okay. Can you hear me now?

Daphne says she can hear me. Okay. Weird. Oh,

well. Sorry about He's moving. Yeah. I can see

I think the video is good. You come in and go. I'm trying to check

my network. It seems okay. Yeah. It's probably me.

I'll let my team Teams. I like blaming Teams. Hold on. Frank, you know what

I you got the gist of what I'm about to do. Yeah.

So I will I will ask in behalf of Andy because it's okay. So

from the outside, right, and and to be clear, last time I had any kind

of interactions with, venture capitalists would have been the dotcom

boom. Right? So this is, like, a lifetime ago. And,

one of the things is, like, when when we when people tend to when people

on the outside of the industry, they tend to think of something like Shark

Tank. Right? Where a a a, entrepreneur

goes to a bunch of venture capitalists, and they do a pitch deck or a

pitch. Has that changed? Like, what is what is what is kinda normal for the

industry now?

Can you still hear me?

Oh, wow. Okay. He's not moving, so you come and go.

Okay. Yeah. Let me prep a Google Meet

just in case.

I think now it's a little bit better. Now it's better.

Yeah. Maybe we should turn off cameras just to be We

can. Yeah. Sorry about that, guys. No worries.

Alright. How's that? Can you I can

hear you perfectly. Yeah. Excellent. Alright.

This is gonna happen over the course of 8 years of podcasting.

Alright. 1st time. Go ahead, Andy. We'll we'll take it from the top.

Okay. So my question was, you know, I'm I'm a person outside of,

venture capital. I've not interacted with, with with

venture capitalists at all. And my understanding has

been that the way you engage with a venture capitalist

is you do a pitch deck. You go to a meeting that's a lot like

the TV show Shark Tank, and they ask

questions and you give answers. And, you know, at the end

of that, they you know, the venture capitalists go thumbs up,

thumbs down. And what I hear you saying, it sounds like that, yes,

you're doing that, but you're also actively seeking out

founders and that that's a bit different from what we've

what we've expected. Okay. I think Cool. I think I think you

described it, well. We seek out founders sometimes even

before they have ideas. And in parallel, we also seek

ideas regardless of founders. Now that's an interesting

approach going after the that you know, I've never heard anybody say

that before, that you're looking for, I guess, you're looking

for leadership or, enthusiasm or

intelligence or some combination of all of the above. You're you're

looking for a person, and then y'all are all

gonna get together, you and that person and your team,

and you're gonna come up with an idea for that person to

lead. Is that accurate? It is. It is. I just,

even make it more, more,

concrete. We look for entrepreneurs. Right? Entrepreneur

is a little bit, of mixture of of, everything you listed,

earlier. Uh-huh. But it also has the x factor.

You know, someone that, will be able to get,

in the room from the cracks in the floor. Right?

So that x factor is a must,

a must be, fairy dust on the qualities you described earlier.

But, yeah, we're focused on that. Interesting.

Interesting. What is what is kind of like

because last time I interacted with any kind of venture capital would have been during

the dotcom boom in the late nineties. Yep. How how has the industry

changed since then? Well, this is this is

a a a great, question. So,

I'll try to answer it from, my own experience. So,

before I joined team 8, I was a

founder of, business intelligence and analytics company called Sisense.

I started it 18 years ago. It's a long

period of time when I say it, like that, and I spend there 15 years,

holding, all the various position, you can,

think of. I remember few things

from the early days of, Sisense. 1st,

it feels like it was way

less professional than it is today. In the

sense that when me and my cofounders

wanted to start a Sisense, we were completely clueless.

Right? We were completely clueless of what it means to start a

company. We were completely clueless what it means to build a product.

We were completely clueless of what it means to define a product

or to build a team or to raise money.

Today, many years after, I meet

many teams and I see that the level of understanding,

and, the knowledge that the teams, the founders that I

meet today have is a few orders of

magnitude, higher than what I had when I

started. So this is one thing. Secondly,

the first money I raised to my company was half a

$1,000,000, I think. It was a long time ago.

It's a different ball game today. Yeah. It used to be a lot of money.

It used to be a lot of money, and I gave

a big equity chunk for that half a1000000 dollars

worth of, funding. Today, it's a different ball game.

This is pay more for much smaller part

of, of, the company. So this is

a a second, difference. And lastly,

I think the ecosystem is much more mature. The

ecosystem of startups and that, that

cradle the the the founders and support them. Right? I'll give you a

few example. When you want to start,

a venture and you raise money from any VC

by the way, many many VCs are really good

VCs in, provide you,

air coverage of building your, company. They will,

introduce you to relevant potential, customer or design partners.

They will help you with future found of running funding.

Sorry. They will introduce to you

potential, key hires to your company. They used to

do it in the past, but, in in much less systemized

manner. So I think that on one

in one way, it's easier or more systematic,

to be a founder these days. However, it's more competitive

than it used to be back then. Interesting.

What do you think has driven that the kind of the evolution? Just a

few aside from inflation and being that, you know, half

$1,000,000 isn't what it used to be. Well, I I think many

factors. 1st, you know, the industry

matured in in I don't know. 20

years ago, there weren't so many tech

startups out there. And as a

derivative of that, there wasn't so so

much of, institutional money to be invested in

it. It wasn't a thing to invest in start up. It was, more of

a hobby. Now it's more, matured

and incorporated in many ways.

So the the industry, like many other industries, matured

along, the way. Now, secondly,

the world is becoming more tech, savvy or more

tech driven, compared to what it was, 20 years

ago. Right? That's true. Look at the Fortune,

500, companies. Who are the companies that now lead the Fortune

500 compared to who led the Fortune 500,

least 20 years ago? Yeah. It's definitely tech heavy

now. Yep. Yes. Absolutely. No. Those are

good points. Those are good points. It's interesting to see how

just unintended consequences of, you know, things becoming more

tech, heavy has changed things like the, you know,

the S and P and, as well as the weighting of

the Dow Jones, but also kind of our daily lives, but also,

you know, the better venture capital industry. Like, it's a it's more sounds like it's

more of a proper discipline now as opposed to, you know,

a hobby. Like, you know, kinda like we said, it was kinda,

but now it's more of a professional discipline with with with

proper kind of structure and form

around it, I guess, would be a good way to put it. Yep. I agree.

I agree. It's I think it's fair to describe it that way. Yeah. I

like the way you're approaching it. It's very systematic. It it

feels, you know, it feels kind of appropriate

in that there's, that there's a framework that

you're following, a system that you're following, kind of a, like Frank

said, a disciplined approach to it. And, it it feels

self similar. So you're investing in technologies.

Maybe you're looking for or maybe part of what you're looking for

is someone who has the ability to

perhaps create methodologies to solve business problems,

technical problems. And, you know, and and in

doing that, you're applying this methodology that you've already built,

you and your partner. I think it's,

the right way to put it. In a way,

if you want to become better in what you're

doing, you must have a system. Doesn't matter

which discipline you're involved with. But if you want to constantly

improve, you must have a system. Because without a system, you won't be

able to look back in a retrospective and understand in a

systematic manner what worked and what didn't work and

how to improve it. So in order to have the the the the

the base ground to analyze what worked and what didn't

work, you need to have a a a framework, a systematic framework that

will help you to do so. So you're describing an

advanced, or mature. There's a capability maturity

models that are applied in software all the time. And what you're describing sounds

very, very similar to that. And it's,

you know, the same sort of thing that I recall from an article that

I I read. I wanna say it was back in the nineties. And it was

about the team that developed software for the Space Shuttle,

for NASA Space Shuttle here in the US. And

one of the things that, that they would do, an approach that they

took was if there was a

failure in the code, they didn't

go fix the failure. They went back to their process

and found where that failed and let that failure in the code

through. So it's it's funny that you

describe it that way because of 2 things. 1st, I think the the

people you referred to are very smarter than I am, and they

build much greater things in a in a bigger unknown,

environment. But, in in in

regards to that, internally at team 8,

the the system we've built to how to IDA,

to how to validate, to how to build a company,

we actually, we actually call it the machine and and for a

reason. We try to build a machine, that will help

us build great companies. That that really

sounds impressive, and I'd love to know more about that. And I

know we're, and I know we we have a limited amount

of time, but I I'm fascinated by that application,

you know, of this in a different field because

I've seen, people try to attempt other methodologies

that do great in software. My my number one experience was

with the scrum agile method. Yep. And I was at a

business where that was introduced, and we all learned it. I learned it there for

the first time. But then I saw the the

business, part of that try and adopt,

and and, you know, adapt from and adapt it to,

applying it to business principles and business decisions. And in that

particular instance, it failed miserably. And it was

like I don't know what they did differently because I'm I wasn't that

high up in the business. I was a low level manager. But

but seeing that having that experience, seeing that fail

was eye opening. And it's really cool to see

somebody applying this in a to a to a business model

and especially to, venture capitalism and the

funding of founders and the building of ideas,

and taking an idea from actually taking it from before the

idea even exists, just finding a founder

and then building an idea and then building that idea

to some product or service. That that's just very impressive

to me. It's exciting to hear that that's happening. It sounds like the movie

inception. Right? Like Doesn't it? Yeah. You get it? That you

can move before it's really a fully formed idea. You kinda nudge

it along. Yeah. So so you know what? Let let let

me give you a manifestation of, this process that, relates to

our discussion, today. One of the things that,

we build, at teammate as

assets that we use to, to execute upon that

motion is what we refer to as the villages. We

have a couple of them. We have the CISA village, the system

information security officer village, and,

the data village. The Cisco village obviously is

a network of, great CISOs from

across the globe. Many Fortune 500, companies CISOs

are part of, that network. And in the data village, we have,

CDOs and and head of, data operations in different

companies all across the globe. And the reason why we

build these, networks that, we work very hard to maintain

and to create engagement in these networks, it's not only because of

the of the social, for

exactly

for exactly what we've talked to. For example,

recently, and we do it on a on a cadence. We reach out

to our network to learn about their day to day

and top of mind issues and challenges that they

face in the real life. And, we use

that, as an input for us to map

the world and understand which areas are,

mostly painful for, the the,

network, members of ours. And it's a great

indication for us to start investigating whether there is a potential to

build a company there. Right? So this is one thing. And the

second part of it, is later in the process. So,

let's say we build a thesis. Let's say I came up with a thesis in

a data infrastructure, vertical. Now

I really like, my thesis, but, nobody cares about the fact

that I like them. I need the network to like them. Right? Because they're their

potential, buyer eventually. So I take

the thesis that, we processed internally at, at,

team 8 that we worked on it, and I bring it to their table.

I want to hear a candid feedback from, these,

village members, what they think about it, and, why,

we don't know what we're talking about or the opposite. Why this is the the

best thing since sliced bread?

Right. Right. Yeah. It's it's almost like it takes a village,

you know, or takes Exactly. You know? Exactly. The approach.

Interesting.

No. This is fascinating. Like, you know, it's it's it's fascinating to see kind of

how this this world works as someone who is kind of, you know, on

the outside and kind of I watched our tank. There's actually a

knockoff version of the show called elevator pitch, which I've

seen. You know, it's not my client's

getting shark tank, but so what

would be your advice to entrepreneurs?

Like and and, like, what would be your advice for

them in general? They have an idea. And what would

be your advice to them to, like, say, hey. I wanna execute

on this idea. Like, what how would they best approach a venture

capitalist in today's kind of terms? Right? Because it used to be you have to

write this huge document way back, then it became, oh, you see the PowerPoint

deck. Right? I'm pretty sure it's evolved to something else now. What what what

what would be your advice to somebody in that position? So,

I'm trying to address this, question, holistically and not,

tactically. First, I think

that, having a founder that, operates

in that specific domain for some time is very important.

To have an intimate relationship with a problem, I think it's a get

great indicator, for a great,

problem understanding and potentially to solve that problem. So this

is one thing. Secondly, critical

thinking. Right? Sometimes all of us,

fall in love with our ideas. Right?

And and and this could be the the one of the the

biggest detractors or or company destroyers

out there, to fall in love with what you do. I mean, you should fall

in love with it, but you should also be very judgmental

about everything you do and question every step

you take. For example, I give you the example. We come up with a

thesis that sounds to us or feel to us very

good, and we have, a lot of confidence with that. It's

nice, but it doesn't mean a lot. I need the actual market,

the actual, friction of the market,

to indicate the same thing. So we try to be

as critical thinkers as, possible.

The people, we talked about it. Building your,

founding team is crucial, for your

success. And, it's one of the those things

that I believe that you should build a team in a way that 1

+1equal 3, meaning the sum of the people,

or the the the value of the group is bigger than the sum of, the

people. And to make sure you have a a good distribution of, skill

set in that team, you have someone that is more business oriented, someone

is more technical oriented, someone is more, focused on a

product. These are great indicators or

initial great indicators for, a good founding

team, and and and and a good venture.

I I love that approach. I love the overlapping bends,

for both passion and for skill.

The thing you said earlier, though, that that really, that I wanna

go back to is the idea of an

idea, if you will. So, yes, people can,

I think, approach with a a great idea? And I see this all of the

time on a much smaller scale, just managing teams of individuals

that people will look at a a solution or look at a problem that needs

to be solved and come up with a solution that

is okay. Maybe not great, maybe it'll solve it, but

it would be so much better if they just added a couple

of, you know, a couple of tweaks to that idea. And it could

be too. That that's one part

of it. The other part of working with others, and this is the crucial part

of that, building that team that you're talking about. And it's my experience

with it is that, sometimes you need

somebody to look you in the eye and say, that's a bad idea.

And it really it can go a couple of ways from there. So one way

it can go, and I think this is often overlooked, so I'm gonna mention it

first, is that they may be wrong about that. It

may be a great idea, and somebody's got a passion for it, and they

want to, to build this thing. But here's an

option. You don't you can build it, but maybe you don't have to

build it right now. If you build this other idea, which

is, you know, what everyone agrees that you should build, now

everyone's engaged. You've got the power of all of those

blends of skills and passions, and you can

produce this product now. Go ahead and do that. Spend a few

years on it. Make your money, and then you can go off and build your

passionate project. And it could be that that also

succeeds. So that just I that's just that take

on it. I I really like that idea, though, the team. I

think anybody who's ever worked in a good team has enjoyed

that experience and seeks to repeat that experience because it

is truly an awesome thing. It's a great feeling when the

team clicks. I couldn't agree more

with you, Andy. One thing that,

was, I heard between the words of

what you said is something that I also relate to, and

this is the process. Right? We talked about the team.

We talked about, the perspective of being a judgmental or

critical thinker about everything you do. But one thing that I think

is overlooked sometime is the process itself. I mean,

I hear on a on an average week at least

20, 30 new ideas. Right? Ideas

are at best at best, 20% of the success of

a new start up at best.

80% if not more, it's all about the execution of

the idea. Right. The execution of the idea. And,

there there are many many layers to this statement.

You start with the idea. Right? But, then reality

happens. Right? And you see that, yeah. And

then you see that the idea well, the the the origin

of the idea is right, but, you need to constantly

navigate the idea, the product vision,

you know, with the conjunction of, the reality. And Sure.

The best teams, others are the ones that

can navigate, in a very up,

open and critical thinking way the product

from the the initial idea to the actual,

embodiment or the actual manifestation of the product that it that

they will, end up with. So the

process itself is super important in my mind.

Yeah. I I so agree with that. We have a there's a a famous

military statement, but what you said reminded me of a modification of

it. It's like no idea survives contact with

reality. Mike Tyson is

also known for for a similar quote where everybody has a plan until they

get punched in the face. That's right. But I think I think that

ties into something, you had said earlier, Adiad, was, you know, like, you you you

wanna love your idea and you wanna fall in love with your idea, but I

don't think you want your love to blind your common sense.

So here is a a a quote I really like, to use.

Don't fall in love with your solution. Fall in love with the problem.

Right? Make sure you have yeah. Make sure you're

you're very, very familiar with the problem.

You really relate to it, you understand it in a very intimate

manner, the right solution will evolve, will

evolve throughout the process if if if you're a strong leader.

Right. Wow. Yes. That's good. That's

really good. That's a quotable. Definitely. I

know we're short on time, and, normally, we do all these questions, but I think

we can do an abbreviated one. I think the first question I'd have for you

is how did you get how did you find your way into into

being a VC? Right? Like, did did it find you or did you find

it? So probably a little bit of both. So,

as I mentioned, before I joined T9, I was, I spent

15 years in a company I founded, a AI analytics

company. And it was a great success. Right? When I left the company, it was

at 100 and $60,000,000 of reoccurring revenue, and we had

more than 800, employees, globally. But

I did it for a very long period of time, 15 years. And I

started that company out of college. It's almost, the the cliche

of, founding up, a startup. You're

doing brilliant. Yeah. And I wanted to to

to, you know, to experience few other things.

So when I started to have these existential thoughts, I informed the board

of directors of, my company, and it took some time until I departed.

But, during my last

few years at Sisense, I also became an

active angel investor. So I tried to start,

giving back to the community of, entrepreneurship in Tel Aviv,

by meeting founders and offering them my candid

support and advice. That's it. And, I started to do

that. And every once in a while, I met up, founders or a

team that I got really excited, from. And,

I I I asked them if I can also invest some of my

own money. And this is how I started my, angel investment,

journey. When I departed from teammate,

You mean Sisense? Yep. Sorry. Sisense.

I, had a lot of free time on my plate. So,

naturally, I became more and more active

in my angel investments. If you ask

me when I when I left, Sisense, if I'll, if I

want to become a VC, the answer would have probably been

no way. I'm a founder. I'm a founder. I'm going

to start a new company. And, I was very close

to start up, a new company, after Sisense,

but the reality is that it didn't happen. Now

I can talk for hours about the psychological,

reasons for that, but it didn't happen. And,

I I can think of why not, but, eventually,

after, I became, quite, active

angel investor, I met the teammate, people.

And, they talked to me for quite some time, and I remember the first

few talk, that they asked me about the, about potentially

working together. I told them I will never become a VC.

But after some kind of, relationship for a long term,

they came to me and told me, but, Aviad, you you were saying you're

not you don't want to be a VC, but you actually invest in companies for

your living. This is what you're doing currently. So join us. Don't

fool yourself. Look at the mirror and join us, and it made

sense. And, this is how I became a,

a VC. You understand? That sounds

like, Frank and I talk often about divine appointments, and

it sounds very much like like one of those. You happen to run into

the these people and it happened or, you know, your first

reaction was not positive. That's great.

Our next question is, what is your favorite part of your current

gig? Very easy answer. Working

with great founders. By far, meeting the

teams, identify that these are great,

great entrepreneurs. This is what makes me tick. And

spending as much time, with them. I don't care doing what? Spending

time with them? This is my favorite part of, my current gig. That

is awesome. Very cool. We

have 3 complete the sentences. When I'm not working, I enjoy blank.

Well, it's a little bit embarrassing because, I don't have

many hobbies. I really like, I really like, working.

I I mean, obviously, my family. I love my family. So if I have spare

time, I'm gonna I'm gonna spend it with, my wife and,

kids. But if I'm not doing that, I'm probably working.

No. I'm right there with you. Don't be embarrassed. You're I

I don't know if you're in good company, but you have a lot of company.

That's right. That's right. That's right. That's an interesting way to phrase

it. So our second

complete sentence, I think the coolest thing in technology today

is blank. Oh, so many cool new things in

technology. I think the most prominent one is the

AI revolution we're all experiencing. It's

disrupting so many verticals, and

very, very quickly, probably more, or faster than

anything I've seen in the past. I thought when the

cloud movement started, I don't know, 10 years ago, I thought this

is the the quickest, evolution or revolution

in technologies that I've seen. Nothing compared to, the speed

of AI, and and how quickly it changes so

many

in it's in I thought we had reached kind of, a

certain plateau of pace. But then when

Chat GPT came out, I mean, it did just, like, just

accelerated. You know? What do you think made Cheggipt,

becoming the pivotal thing in the perception of everyone that

is, the reason for the the

change in perception around AI? I

personally think is the way that it was presented.

It has you know, there's 2 factors to

it. 1, it's a chatbot. Right? So people can kinda relate to that. Right? That's

it the the the and big deal. Right? There's been chatbots around for number

of years. But I think the real thing that blew people away

was it destroyed the notion that AI can't be

creative. Well, this is very close to what I think.

Mhmm. I was dazzled. I mean, I heard

about bots. I played with many bots in the past. But the first

time I started to play with JetJPT, I was dazzled by the

quality, how good it was. And it was light

years, better than anything else, any other

chatbot that I've seen, and and it was very apparent that this is a

revolution for me at least. That was that was my reaction. Right? So

when it came out, I was presenting because we we launched a product to Red

Hat about the same time and at at AWS reinvent.

Right? So I was kind of in AWS reinvent

land. And I go I get to the airport at

Vegas because early because when you wanna leave Vegas, you do you wanna

leave. Right? So I get to the airport early, and I'm like, you

know, I a lot of people I know have been, like, raving about chat GBP

and saying how great it is. And I'm like, alright. Alright. So let me just

ask it. How do I start how do I get started with SageMaker? I think

that was the original question I asked it. And I had a expectation of,

well, you do this, you do this, you do this. But, like, the the the

answer behind it was so coherent and so cogent.

Like you said, it was light years beyond my expectations.

And I'm continually amazed at, like, what it can do. Right? Like, it

and it blows my mind to this day and this is, like, what's

going on 2 years later. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Alright. Andy, you want the the next complete the sentence or has the allergies

gotten you?

Alright. I will I will ask you for him so we stay on some kinda

sketchy. Sneezing. He's probably sneezing. Alright. Complete the sentence.

I look forward to the day when I can use technology to blank.

Take away the vast majority of my day to day

bureaucracy. Right? Dealing with the bank and taxes.

And I think we're getting quickly towards that.

Quickly towards that. I'm involved in a company that,

is actually building, disruptive technology in,

filing your taxes every year. And they do it, yeah, doing

it automatically in a in a very good manner.

I met up, founding team in in legal deck that they

build, a technology that can summarize

thousands of, legal document very, very quickly and just

do, the red lines very, very quickly and replace,

you know, the the tedious work of, endless, hours of,

lawyers in that regard. So I think we're at the right direction

towards that, but, it's a brave new word, I

think. I don't know what the tax code is outside the US, but

in the US, it's very convoluted and confusing. Yep. So if you can have an

AI that you can explain it to you like you're 5, you know what I

mean, that would be very useful. There are a few very exciting

technologies that, are after that goal, so stay tuned.

I will eagerly be awaiting that.

So share something different about yourself. It's a family podcast.

Like, it's a it's a family podcast in the sense of,

we went into this before. Like, when I drive to where

my my my wife's family is, it's about 3 hours. It's about 1 Joe Rogan

episode away, but I can't listen.

That's influence. Right? You measure time and distance based on your

podcast. Right? That is true.

But, so I don't listen to

it because I have kids in the car. So what that's

the rationale behind it. So what's your, you know, what

what's, you know would you answer that? Yeah.

So first thing that comes to mind that, not many

people know about me, I, really love traveling,

and I used to to backpack in South

America for almost a year. Oh, wow. A while

ago. A while ago. But backpack by myself

as a decision. I wanted to backpack by myself in

South America, and I did it for 11 months. Wow.

That is very interesting. You must have gotten a lot of, like, clarity on

things. Like, just along with your thoughts. It feels amazing. I

have to admit. That's awesome. So, Audible is a sponsor.

And if you go to the data driven book dotcom,

you can sign up for a month. And if you decide to

subscribe after that, then Frank and I get to buy a coffee.

It it works out well because we both like coffee. We treasure every

cup. Is there a a good audio book

or just a a book that has influenced you,

impacted you? Yeah.

Actually, there is one. It's called the mom's test. I don't know if you heard

about it, but a few of the thing,

that, we talked earlier relate to that book. And the mom

test is a book about how, this is

my interpretation of it, how to properly validate

ideas. Right? In a very, as I mentioned, a very

critical thinking way and doubtful way,

that I usually advise, founders that I meet to read. I

think it's very valuable. Interesting. Okay. I

see it on Audible. I tested the link earlier, the

data driven book.com, and it took me right over to Audible like it was

supposed to, and it's by Rob Fitzpatrick. Is that accurate?

Okay. The mom test. I love that title. Yep.

Very cool. You know, in a in a nutshell in a nutshell,

when, when you question people about idea, it talks

about few things we we've mentioned is to focus on the problem and not the

solution. Right? If I'll tell you, hey, guys. I have an idea for a great

app on your iPhone that organize your icons. I don't know. What do you think

about it? And you'll probably say, oh, it's cool. That

feedback is meaningless. I learned nothing from that feedback.

Right? Right. So how you structure the questionnaire? How you structure

the discussion in order to properly validate the problems, the solution, and

such is at the at the core of this book, and I think it's

super valuable. Well, I love it when authors read their own work,

and he does. And so I grabbed it. It's, about

almost 4 hours long, and that's that makes it kind of a

short audiobook, which is also, perfect. I love that as

well. So I appreciate you, recommending that, and I'm going

to read that, and then I'm gonna connect with you on LinkedIn so I can

give you feedback on that, on what I would do at work. I would love

that. Well, this has been an

amazing show, Frank. Absolutely. I I it

was it was a pleasure, Aviat. Yep. Where where

people reach out to find out more about you? That's what I was gonna

say. You're most welcome, and I'm very accessible. If

you want to talk again, just, have my email. Send me an

email. I travel a lot to the US. So next time on, on the

East Coast, I get to New York a lot. So if you're there, I'll be

happy to meet for I'll buy you coffee. You said you like coffee.

That would be outstanding, sir. Thank you so much. So if,

where can people learn about your, the company you're working with now?

Sorry. Say it again. So where where might

people learn more about the, the group you're working with now? Team

8. Team 8. Yes. So, we can

do multiple things. 1st, check our website,

teammate, dot v c. You can read all about

this team 8, the motion, the the portfolio companies, the

founders, and such. And,

if you need more information, I'll be more than happy to share with you, you

know, marketing information and everything you need.

So that is for our listeners team, the word team, and then the

number 8 dot v c. Correct.

Pretty awesome. Okay. Excellent. Andy and

Frank, I had a blast. Thank you very much. Same we did

too. Same Learned a lot of you. Yeah. Great great

conversation. Thank you so much. Well, excellent. You. With that, we'll

let the nice British AI lady finish the show. Well, that's a wrap on

another episode of data driven. We hope you enjoyed our chat

with Aviad Harrell from team 8 as much as we did. If you

found this episode insightful, please show your support by

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Until next time, keep learning, keep innovating, and as

always, stay data