Only The Paranoid Survive Yossi Sela Managing Partner, Gemini Israel Funds

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Only The Paranoid SurviveYossi SelaManaging
Partner, Gemini Israel Funds
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• Paranoia (par-a-noi-a) n. 1. an abnormal tendency
  to suspect and mistrust others.
• - Oxford American Dictionary

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• "When it comes to business, I believe in the
  value of paranoia. I believe that the prime
  responsibility of a manager is to guard
  constantly against other people's attacks and to
  inculcate this guardian attitude in the people
  under his or her management."
• - Andy Grove, Founder, Intel

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Gemini Israel Funds

• First First Yozma Fund, now over 550M under
  management. We helped build the 3rd largest VC
  industry in the world.
• Focus Israel, ICT, Seed
• Success 50 hit ratio
• Repeat People that work with us, do it again
• Team Work with Partners and Experts, some are
  entrepreneurs, some Global players

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Speakers

• Dr. Hugh Bradlow, CTO, Telstra Corp. Ltd.
• Managing Director of the Telstra Research
  Laboratories since 1998, responsible for the
  research and development of new technology and
  product innovation for Telstra
• Eran Gersht, Managing Director, Poalim Ventures
• Joined Poalim Capital Markets in 1997, and was
  instrumental in founding the Poalim Ventures
  Group, which has more than 300 million under
  management
• Dr. Niel Ransom, CTO, Alcatel
• Joined Alcatel in 1997 as general manager
  of the Local Networks Business Unit. Previously,
  he worked for BellSouth as senior director of
  advanced technology systems
• Dr. Richard Schwartz, President and CEO, Solomio
• Founder of Diffision (acquired by Vignette Corp)
  and Ansa Software (sold to Borland International)
• Yossi Sela, Managing Partner, Gemini Israel Funds
• Former Vice President, Marketing at DSP Group
  (NASDAQ DSPG)
• Nahum Sharfman, Co-Founder, Shopping.com
• Former Co-Founder and CEO of CommTouch
  Software Ltd. (NASDAQ CTCH).

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Seven Things for an Entrepreneur to be Paranoid
About

• Paranoia 1. Fund raising
• The struggle between detailing your company
  Vision and giving away your trade secrets,
  selling your soul for funding and exposing your
  know-how and source of competitive edge to the
  vultures
• Paranoia 2. Competition
• Business Intelligence (more than trojan horses
  and phishing)
• Partnerships with Large Companies
• Exposing early allowing to replicate efforts
• How you create attraction to offering without
  giving out secrets
• Paranoia 3. Market change
• Market/ direction may change by the time you
  launch (e.g., Optics), or
• Other players with more attractive products may
  arise
• You may not have the ability to recover from
  failed partnerships, and
• Moving on to new markets and channels will take
  time and money

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Seven Things for an Entrepreneur to be Paranoid
About

• Paranoia 4. IP
• Patented or not, exposing or surprising with IP
  for the benefit of your company only vs. open
  technology
• E.g., competitive edge vs. standardization and
  interoperability
• Paranoia 5. Sales
• How to sell to Fortune 100 Companies?
• Making them want to work with you, particularly
  in the face of incumbents, is a real challenge
• Gemini CIO Advisory Board
• Paranoia 6. Product Launch
• A product is never complete
• You launch when you decide to launch
• weighing market access and first mover advantage
  against risk of recalls, bugs, and negative
  reputation

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Paranoiacs Can Reduce their Risk

• Paying attention to your environment can have a
  positive, not negative, impact
• Working Systematically
• Different stages different concerns
• Always high intensity in a competitive market
• Entrepreneurs and Large Players/market makers