Original subtitles

So, I think that the most important thing when we are thinking of any

types of solution is speak about the value that it creates, right?

And usually I would say, look, if you want to create value, the simplest

way to create value is solve a problem.

And when you look at the AI today, of the generative language AI,

then the main thing is to ask yourself, so what is the use case?

What is it being used for?

And in some cases, it could be very valuable, but in many other cases,

we haven't found it yet.

Now, what I would like to say is, look,

building, creating value is a long journey, right?

And if you start a startup today, it might take you 10 years until you

become successful.

It's a long journey.

Now, people often tend to confuse and saying, okay, wait a minute, Chad

GPT is since November, right?

And now we are in August.

So, this is nine months, right?

And in nine months, they become so successful.

Wait a minute, they're seven years old.

It took them a long time to figure out their product market fit.

And I would claim for a second that they are not there yet because there

isn't a use case that people keep on using all the time, right?

Building a startup, the most significant part of the journey is to figure

out product market fit.

And product market fit is about value creation.

So, if you don't figure out product market fit, you will die as simple

as that, right?

You actually never heard of a company that did not figure out product

market fit.

They simply died.

That's it.

But when you think of company that did,

and for a second, I would say, think of all the applications that you're

using every day, right?

From searching Google to using WhatsApp, Waze, Uber, Netflix, Instagram,

whatever it is, and ask yourself, what is the difference between any of

those today and the first time that you've used that?

And the answer is that there is no difference.

We are searching Google today the same way that we searched Google for

the first time in our life.

We are using Waze today the same way, or WhatsApp, or Uber, or whatever

it is.

So, once a company figure out their product market fit, they don't change

that anymore.

And there is one metric for product market fit, and this is retention.

If you create value,

they will come back as simple as that.

If you don't, then they don't, right?

And so, if you haven't reached the retention, that means that you're not

creating value.

That means that you're not a product market fit yet, and you still need

to do iterations and iterations and iterations in order to improve that.

What people don't know is how long does it take to reach product market

fit.

We just mentioned OpenAI, right, with GPT, and say that that was about

six years, right?

It was four years for Waze, five years for Microsoft, 10 years for Netflix.

It's a long journey to get to product market fit, and if you don't, you

will die.

You know, it's easy, because when you solve a problem, you create value.

So, the simplest way to create value is solve a problem.

And I would say, think of a problem, think of a big problem, something

that it's worth solving, something that the world will become a better

place if you solve that.

And then ask yourself, so who has this problem?

Now, if you happen to be the only person on the planet, you know what,

go to a shrink.

Way cheaper and faster than building a startup.

But if a lot of people actually have this problem, what you really want

to do next is go and speak to many of those people and understand their

perception of the problem.

And only then go and build the solution.

Now, if you follow this path, you start with the problem, you get the

perception of the problem for users, and then you build the solution.

And your solution works, it's guaranteed that you are creating value.

If you start with the solution, you might be building something that no

one cares.

Now, when you focus on the problem, what happens is that the problem is

going to serve as the North Star of your journey.

And when you have a North Star, you're going to make less deviation from

the course.

You increase the likelihood of being successful.

But it's also going to make your story way more compelling.

If I will be here in 2007 and we will speak about Waze, I will tell you,

oh, I'm building an AI crowdsource-based navigation system, and everyone

is going to say, oh, yeah, very interesting.

No one cares.

If I will tell you that I'm going to help you to avoid traffic jams,

then you do care.

So it's about how you tell the story.

It's also about how you tell the story.

But you have to think problem from the first day.

Because when you do, then you ask yourself, you remain focused.

You ask yourself every day, if I'm making a progress in addressing that

issue that I would like to address.

And then when you have this North Star, then you are actually going to

achieve that faster.

In addition, it makes your story way better.

I was under the impression that that's your role, right?

So as stars at university, then part of what you are looking to encourage

is entrepreneurs to build more startups that are actually creating value

and solving problems and so forth.

But let me say the following, right?

If you,

you know, all the people in the world, they see their own environment

and they're saying, OK, we have a lot of problems, right?

We have a lot of problems in Israel.

And if you will be in the US, then you will say, oh, we have a lot of

problem in the US.

And if you're in Brazil, then we have a lot of problem in Brazil.

So everyone sees their own problem.

And it's a good starting point, right?

But many countries have a lot of problems.

Many of the problems, by the way, they are similar in multiple places.

Throughout the days of Waze, you know, people would tell me every place

that I would go, they will tell me, oh, traffic jams here is really bad.

You don't get it.

It's worse than anything else, right?

And I would hear that every place that I go.

By the way, here in Sao Paulo, you might be right.

It's really bad.

It's going to be very challenging.

You know, I have a chapter in my book that is called Going Global.

And the funny part is that I wrote this chapter and then erased that and

wrote it again and erased that again because not always you think global

from the first day.

If I would be starting my startup here in Sao Paulo, then I would focus

on Sao Paulo.

And when I'm successful in Sao Paulo, then I would go to Rio, Curitiba,

Porto Alegre, or Brasilia, or Salvador, and so forth.

And by the time I would start to think about other markets, it might be

too late for me.

So you have to, if you want to become a global player, you have to think

global from the first day.

And you have to ask yourself, okay, assuming I am successful here,

assuming I'm demonstrating the value creation here, where is the next market?

Now occasionally people would say, okay, the U .S.

is going to be the next market.

But wait a minute.

Not everything that we are building here actually creates the same value.

So even though that there might be similar problems, the nuances of the

problems could be very different.

And the result is that you might want to look for countries that are

more similar to Brazil in order to go there.

The most similar country to Brazil is Indonesia.

280 million people, about the same GDP per capita, suffering from the

same challenges that you have here.

You know, building a startup is a journey that I can describe in three

different dimensions.

The first one, this is going to be a roller coaster journey with ups and

downs and ups and downs, and way more ups and downs than any other

business that you can think of.

The second dimension is this is going to be a very long journey.

And in particular, the longest part is that when you try to figure out

product-market fit, and it could be years until you get there, and

meanwhile nothing works, right?

Everything that you try and nothing works.

But the third element, which is maybe the most important, this is going

to be a journey of failures.

We're trying to build something new that no one did before.

And the result is that we are trying.

We're trying what we think is going to work.

We are actually, we are 100 % sure that it's going to work, but it's not.

And so we are trying another thing and another thing and another thing

until we find one thing that does work.

When you realize that this is going to be a journey of failures,

then there are two immediate conclusions.

The first one is that if you're afraid to fail, then in reality you

already failed because you're not going to try.

That is one of the major barriers in Latin America in general, in many

countries, by the way, not just Latin America.

Also in Brazil, people are afraid to fail because if you will fail, then

maybe people will call you a loser.

Maybe the regulation will be such that you actually owe money for people

that trusted you and so forth.

So the fear of failure is relatively high in Brazil.

And what we need to do is lower that because if we are lowering that,

then we will have more entrepreneurs that will actually go into this journey.

The second part that you need to realize is that if this is going to be

a journey of failures, then you have to fail fast.

The faster that you fail, you still have plenty of time and plenty of

resources to try another version, to try another go-to-market approach,

to try another partnership and so forth.

And the more attempts that you are making, you increase the likelihood

of being successful.

That's it.

Very simple.

This is statistics, right?

The attitude in Israel, the fear of failure is way lower.

It's way lower in Israel and in the Silicon Valley.

And these are, by and large, the two places that fear of failure is low.

Everywhere else is higher, right?

In some places, it's a little bit higher, like maybe Berlin or London.

In some places, it's really, really high.

And that could be in a few places in Asia, right?

So obviously, if you fail in Japan, then this is definitely not good.

And for a second, I would say Latin America in general and Brazil in

particular are improving.

There are way more entrepreneurs today than there were 10 years ago.

You know, I spoke with many entrepreneurs that their startup failed.

And I asked them why.

What happened?

And about half say the team was not right.

And I kept on asking, okay, what do you mean the team was not right?

And what I heard is that, you know, we had this guy not good enough and

this guy not good enough.

So not good enough was the main reason.

Another reason that I heard quite often was that we had communication

issues, something that I actually called ego management issues.

And then I asked them the most interesting question.

When did you know that the team is not right?

All of them knew within the first month.

All of them knew within the first month.

There was one that told me before we even started.

Then he said, wait a minute.

If you knew within the first month that the team is not right and you

didn't do anything, the problem was not that the team was not right.

The problem was that the CEO did not make hard decisions.

Firing someone is a hard decision.

There is a chapter in my book that's called Firing and Hiring.

When I sent the book proposal to different publishers, some of them told

me, look, it should be hiring and firing.

And I said, no, no, no, no.

Firing is hard decision.

Hiring is easy decision.

Now, the biggest issue is very different.

The nature of the beast is when this is a small team, when there are 10

or 20 or 30 people and there is someone that shouldn't be there, everyone

knows.

Everyone knows and the CEO doesn't do anything.

And that's the nature of the beast.

Now, when this happens,

the result, by the way, is always the same.

The top performing people would leave.

And so now you have an organization, there is someone that shouldn't be

there and he's still there.

And the top performing people are leaving.

And that's the beginning of the end of your journey.

Now, one of the most important conclusions is that when you are a hiring

manager, when you are going to hire people, every time that you hire

someone new, mark your calendars for 30 days down the road and ask

yourself one question, knowing what I know today, would I hire this person?

Now, if the answer is yes, then go to this person and tell them that

they are exceeding your expectation and you are very happy with them

being in this company.

And if you are a startup that you have equity part or equity plan, then

give them more equity.

But if the answer is no,

fire them immediately.

Fire them immediately because from this point on, they are creating

damage to you as a leader, to the team, because everyone knows, and to

themselves.

They are not going to be successful and they deserve to be successful.

And therefore, they need to be sent to someplace else that they might

be successful there.

It's a problem everywhere, right?

It's not just the technology company, right?

And you know, there were many years that until 2021, that the large

corporation, large technology corporation didn't fire anyone, right?

Now, you ask yourself, is this possible?

Is this possible that everyone is excellent?

And the answer is no, it's not possible.

But if the business is growing so rapidly, then you don't care.

The reality is that you do care because the second that you run into

some business challenges, then all of a sudden, the fact that everyone

knows is becoming an issue.

There is a story in my book, there is nearly half a chapter that speaks

about DNA of companies, right?

And the story goes back into 1999, and three friends of mine started a

startup called HumanClick.

No one heard about this company.

But about a year later, they were acquired by LifePerson.

LifePerson today is a public company.

Now, usually, if you're an entrepreneur and your startup is being acquired,

and they ask you to stay for two or three years, then what happened is

that the first year, you're trying everything in your power to make

integration work.

And then the second year, you're starting to look for someone to replace

you.

And then the third year, you're starting to work on your new startup, right?

And these three friends of mine stayed there until 2007.

And I asked them, why?

What happened?

And they told me that was the best working place we ever had.

And I decided that we're going to build Waze that way.

So Waze is going to be the best working place we ever had.

And we define what it means for us.

And we define, and we actually execute upon this plan.

Later on, when I left Waze and built more startups, all of them following

that methodology.

All of them are following the methodology that we are basically going

to spend a lot of time here, and we want to enjoy the time that we are

here.

And the enjoyment is not about success.

Part of it is about success.

But by and large, who do you work with?

And so the people become the most significant part of the journey.

And as a leader,

when Waze was acquired,

75 % of all the employees had equity.

75 % of them became millionaires overnight.

And that was the guidelines to all the companies, right?

So be extra generous with equity, because these people are going to build

a company.

It's not you.

You are just a leader.

They are the builders.

As an entrepreneur, you don't know.

You will never give up.

That's maybe the most important behavior of an entrepreneur, is never

giving up, right?

And so they will not give up.

From someone from the outside, I would say, look, there are two reasons

why you should quit.

One is that the problem disappeared.

If the problem is no longer there, then the mission of your journey, the

destiny,

is no longer valid, and you should quit.

The other one is that if the team is not right, then you are unable to

change that.

Say that you have, you know,

poisonous investors or board, and you are unable to change that, then

you shouldn't stay.

But that, I would say, from the outside.

If you would ask me if I would do that in my own company, no, I will

never quit.

If you are an entrepreneur, you don't.

You simply don't.

That's it.

You get 300 % into the startup and about plus minus zero for the rest.

So Israel had an amazing ecosystem for startups, right?

And when you think about ecosystem, then there are essentially four

cornerstones that you need to address.

The first one is entrepreneurs, and the way to address that is actually

through the media and encourage entrepreneurs and lower the fear of failure.

And then you have more entrepreneurs, right?

And so this is one part.

The other part is investors.

And in order to encourage investors, in particular, foreign investors

to invest in an ecosystem, then you need to make the regulation that

it's easy for them and they don't pay taxes and so forth.

So these two are easy to deal with.

The other two are a little bit more complex.

Engineers.

Not enough engineers in Brazil.

Not enough engineers in Brazil.

And we need to encourage to have more engineers.

We need to encourage younger generations to go and study engineering.

And there are many ways that we can do that, but we have to do that

because otherwise we're simply not going to have enough engineers.

And the fourth element is experience.

And we are starting to see some successful Brazilian entrepreneurs

building companies, and we want them back into the Brazilian ecosystem

to guide and mentor other entrepreneurs to build it.

I'm not Brazilian, but hopefully my book will actually do that significant

impact on the Brazilian ecosystem.

And all those in Israel are actually very good, right?

So we have a lot of engineers, and there's never enough engineers, but

we have a lot of engineers.

We have experience that is coming back into the country and guiding and

mentoring and coaching the younger generation.

We have very solid ecosystem for investors that they don't pay taxes in

Israel.

And at the beginning of the journey of Israel to become Startup Nation,

the government actually had a fund that they were matching foreign

investors, right?

So if you're an investor and you invest in a company one dollar, the

government put another dollar, which essentially leverage your own dollar.

And of course, lower fear of failure brings a lot of entrepreneurs into

the ecosystem.

But Israel have one unique, one unique advantage or difference, and this

is the mandatory military service.

Israel is, you know, in a tough neighborhood.

And guess what?

When you grew up in a tough neighborhood, you grew up tough.

That's it.

And so you go to do your military service at the age of 18, and you

realize you mature faster, right?

You face challenges that are way more significant for most other people.

You realize that giving up is not an option.

You learn how to work in teams.

You figure out leadership.

You understand how does a good leader looks like and how does a bad

leader looks like and so forth.

And you face challenges that are way more significant for someone else

at the age of 18.

And the result is that you complete your military service three years

later and you take all this experience with you.

And so I'm not suggesting that you should have tough neighborhood.

That's definitely not suggested.

But if you already have that, then mandatory service is actually serving

well the society.

You know, I think that I learn something new every day.

I learn from my wife.

I learn from my children.

I learn from my CEOs that I'm guiding and mentoring.

I learn every day something new.

Ask why.

Ask yourself why.

Because this is how you get to understand someone else's perception,

someone else's point of view.

If you don't, then you don't know, right?

So they will say something, and you don't know why, and you have a

different point of view.

And that's it, right?

And you are not learning anything new.

If you ask why, then you realize that, wait a minute, there is a different

perspective.

There is a different point of view.

There are different reasoning for that, and you might want to adopt part

of it.

I think that three of my startups have created huge impact on ESG, right?

So Waze, obviously, reducing traffic jams.

So we improved the ratio between number of passengers to number of

vehicles, which essentially reduced traffic.

And these days, also Citri that is dealing with actually monitoring and

empowering three growers to have better yield, and as a result, better

impact on the planet.

But for most other companies, ESG sounds like a penalty, right?

So, okay, now we have a problem.

We need to deal with that.

And I think that in general, as society, if we want to change behavior,

then we need to change behavior of the single person.

And this is not necessarily through regulation.

This is through incentive.

So I'll just give you an example, right?

There are researchers in mobility that basically say, okay, you know what?

We are going to make the city center without cars, right?

And if you are entering into the city center with your car, then we're

going to penalize you, right?

We're going to charge you 100 reals, right?

If, however, and the impact is going to be only for a short while, because

the result is that people would later on treat that as a new tax and

this is it, and they would go back into the previous behavior.

But if you create incentive and you tell them, you know what?

We are not going to penalize you.

But if you're not, we are going to bonus you with additional money.

Then you change behavior.

So change of behavior have to start from the user and not from the objective.

And in many cases, we are looking at the objective and say, okay, the

simplest way to do that is X, right?

No, because we want to change behavior.

If you want to change behavior, then you need to create an incentive for

the users to change behavior.

Yeah, this one.

Of course, this one, right?

It's, you know, I think that I, it took me two years to write, actually

one year to write the book and another year of editing.

And I realized that writing a book is a journey.

And it all goes back to the perspective, right?

When I'm building a company, then what I have in my mind is the user.

And the value that I can create for them.

And usually it will start with the problem.

So their problem.

And therefore, this is the user that I have in my mind.

When I wrote the book, I had the same thing, right?

So I had the reader in my mind.

And I tried to create that to be valuable for the reader.

What we should be looking for is those books, right?

And those that actually relevant for you and look at you as the target

audience and not as just the general specific, non-specific one.

And those books are going to be those that you are going to take some

insights from them and probably implement and improve your life.

So first of all, thank you.

So I think that at the end of the day, one of the biggest challenges for

many startups is and for anyone that is building a new product is the

user perspective, right?

And so we tend to think that we are the users and we are amazing sample

of one person, right?

There is actually a chapter in my book that's called sample of one person

because of that, right?

And in order to build something valuable, then you need to understand

the users.

And the only way that you can understand users is that if you watch them

and ask them why.

That's it.

You watch new users, you see their behavior, and then you ask them why.

And this is how you are going to make progress in your product development

and in understanding the market and in understanding users.

That's the only way.

There is no other way.