Israeli VC on Sand Hill road

Where are the Women Venture Capitalists?

This is the title of a Forbes article that was written as the 2006 Midas List was published.  Among the 100 in this list, there are 5 women venture capitalists, all from the field of Life Sciences. (BTW – Yossi Sela, Gemini’s Managing Partner was in the list too - congratulations Yossi!!). 

So, where are the women?  The article gives some good insights, less women in engineering schools, less in executive operational positions, fewer Stanford MBA grads, etc., etc.  Basically, through out the steps required from one’s career to become more “VC compatible”, there are fewer and fewer women, hence the end result.  Even in the VC blogger community only 8 women VC bloggers (Venture Chicks), were identified.

When I joined the Israeli VC community in 1994, there were no women partners in the business. It took a few years but we have representation in most of the firms (with the exception of the Israeli branches of US firms, which among them have 0….. hmmmm…).  But still, it remains a very male dominated industry even here.

So, what to do about it?  Start when women are girls… Math is an important subject for boys and girls, encourage them regardless of gender. As parents, push your sons and daughters in the same way.  If one is not inclined to these subjects, so be it, but what a waste of all those smart, smart, smart women that were directed at more “women friendly” careers when they were young, which do not allow them to fulfill potential. 

I’m not underestimating the challenges.  I’ve “been there, done that”.  But I truly believe that if you point people in the right direction, eliminating other “considerations”, things will fall into place. 

Looking forward to 2026 Midas List….

technorati tags: forbes midas list venture capital women yossi sela gemini israel funds

 

 

Lgilab's second investment

LgiLab (Lightspeed/Gemini Internet Lab) announced it’s second investment yesterday – Increditrade. 

Life in the venture business if very busy these days; LgiLab is no exception.  These are exciting times to be investing, and at the same time, if your memory is not erased, there are some similarities to 1999/2000 (with the exception that exit values are not quite what they were then).  We continue to be very bullish on the Israeli opportunities in Internet, Enterprise, Semi, Security, etc.  Creativity is not lacking over here. 

Our collective challenge: build BIG companies, and use funds wisely in the process…

technorati tags: lgilab gemini israel funds lightspeed increditrade

Back to Work

Amazing how quickly my vacation passed…  was great fun, but now it’s back to business!

Looks like NetFlix has more to worry about than Israel

OK, perhaps I jumped the gun a bit, hoping that Netflix would offer their service in Israel.  It looks like Reed Hastings has his hands full, given BlockBuster’s competing offering, etc.  From Michael Arrington’s post, it seems that Netflix subscribers are now getting bigger and better services - vive l’competition. 

And THANKS for the comments  that have directied me to the Israeli equivalent… which BTW costs ~$44 compared to $17.99 offered by Netflix.  Now, we need competition here too!

technorati tags: netflix techcrunch michael arrington blockbusters

Balancing the blog

Given my last post about things that I miss, here’s a photo that offers a balanced view.  This past weekend, our family joined a few other families for the ever-so-popular “Tiul Mishpahot”, or in English “Family Hike”.  The families met near Latroun at 9AM Saturday, on one of those gorgeous sunny winter days, to hike in the hills and crawl through tunnels.  I suppose you can hike in Silicon Valley this time of year, but the tunnels we crawled through were dug sometime between the 7th to 10th centuries BC… this sunset is over the Ella Valley, where the famous battle between David and Goliath took place.  Recent developments include fine wine from vineyards in the area

technorati tags: beit guvrin family hike ???? ??????

I miss Netflix!

Moving back from Silicon Valley to Israel presents many challenges.  After awhile, things tend to fall into place.  We’ve finally reached that phase.  Next week, I’m back to work (time flies!) and we’ve pretty much resolved most relocation-related issues and are feeling quite at home.  This next phase is one in which you learn to appreciate things found in Israel, and miss things NOT found.  WE MISS NETFLIX!

There is a lovely DVD cafe in our moshav that offers a nice selection of DVD’s in addition to coffee, etc. However, we now have to remember to return DVD’s that we rent, or suffer late fees (which are history in the states, thanks to Netflix…).  This past weekend, I rented an American movie called “Conversations with Other Women”, which I highly recommend.  Only, the version we saw was dubbed in Thai, with English subtitles…. a strange experience to say the least.

I wish somebody would offer a Netflix service over here…. so, Reed, what do you think?

technorati tags: netflix conversations with other women reed hastings

Congratulations Orna!

Our own (Gemini Venture Partner) Dr. Orna Berry, was unanimously appointed to Chair the IVA (Israel Venture Association).

Congratulations Orna!!!

 

technorati tags: iva orna berry

Winter in Israel - it's not all bad

Friday, my “best friend from forever” was in town from Chicago.  They didn’t think it was too cold (or rainy) here, and were quite interested in going to …. “the beach”.  Given our middle eastern hospitality, I didn’t want to disappoint my guests, so we bundled up, and off we went.  The kids had a blast – as you can see in the pic - and then we had the rare satisfaction of catching a full double rainbow! (unfortunately, my wide angle isn’t wide enough, but I think it captures the feeling).

technorati tags: winter winter in israel

A break from the break

These days, when I take vacation, there’s a lot to remember.  Besides the usual stop the mail and newspaper, there’s turn on the “out-of-office” assistant (in my case, it’s already on), and then let those stumbling upon my blog know why I’m not blogging.  But, I forgot to post about it, so sorry for the silence…. and a belated

 Happy New Year!