Ifan David: This podcast was made possible by the kind support of Emmanuelle Arbib of IAM Capital, a global alternative investment group based in London, as well as the individuals, Alissa Bayer and Avatel Oisgild. Our next guest is a serial entrepreneur now involved in the fascinating world of food tech, committed to impact and creating vital and living cities and creating welcoming coworking spaces for women. Let’s hear how her journey unfolded. I’m Ifan David, and welcome to this 50 Faces focus series, which showcases inspiring Israeli women in tech and beyond. I’m joined today by Merav Oren, who is a serial entrepreneur, most recently of the ACT FoodTech Innovation Hub, which connects the culinary and foodtech worlds. As well as the founder of WNN, a coworking space and ecosystem for female entrepreneurs in Tel Aviv, and the first of its kind in the area. She is passionate about working with the public sector towards sustainability and impact, and also founded Urban Playground, which provides solutions to effectively manage public spaces. Welcome, Arav. Thank you for joining me today. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Great pleasure. So I introduced you as a serial entrepreneur because it seems that you’ve always had a knack for innovation, even very early on. Can you talk us through your career journey? And were there any surprising turns along the way? Sure. So let’s start a very long time ago because I’m 52 years old and I always say that my first business was when I was 8 years old. It was a garage sale. I lived with my parents in the United States. My dad, you know, we did relocation for 2 years and I did a garage sale. And the story tells that I didn’t want to come back home before I had $1 in my pocket. So it’s maybe funny, but I really think this is where I started to understand that I want to do business. My first real business was when I was around 26. I was working for a guy that he did all the huge festivals in Israel, the biggest beer festival, the biggest food festival, and so on. And I started working for him and we decided we wanna work on what then they used to call it sales promotion, okay? We did special events and so on. So I came to work for him. After 3 months, I kind of felt that the money was on the floor and all I needed to do was to pick it up. There was so much work to do. And I thought to myself, okay, so maybe I will be his partner. Now we’re talking about 25 years ago, a young woman, I was, as I said, I was around 26, hardly any women in that area. And I said to myself, okay, so I’ll go and ask him for 15% of the company that we will open together. And I went to talk before I did it. I talked to my husband and to some friends, most of them guys, because it was a business thing. And all of them said to me, what do you mean 15%? If you want to be his partner, you’ve got to ask him for 50%. And I said, no way, he’ll never take it. So they said, okay, so tell him take it or leave it. So I came the next day, I told him, listen, I want us to start a new company together. The name will be BTL because this is what we’re doing. BTL is Sales Promotion Special Events. And I want to have 50% of the company. He was kind of shocked. So I said, okay, so you can go and think about it and take it or leave it. He came the other day and he took it. Now, if I’ll fast forward a year or I think 2 years later on, I bought his part and I became the only owner of BTL. The company was very, very, very successful, millions of dollars. And the funny thing that today I think is funny, then I didn’t think it was funny. I suggested it as a matter of fact, is that after I bought my part, we both kept on saying that he’s my partner because all of our clients were male. All the CEOs of the big companies that were our clients were men. And for them, they thought I was his secretary. So it was good for me to say, you know, he was older than me and to say he’s still my partner. And for him, it was nice to keep saying that he’s my partner because, you know, he still owns this company. Today, 25 years later, it looks to me so weird, but then I really thought it’s, you know, it’s okay to say that. So anyway, that was a long time ago. Fast forward about, let’s go to 2008. I founded the company Urban Playground. You’re talking about that. I started working with cities. There was the company BTL, as I said, and then after selling it. And about a year after, I had what we call here a silent birth, which means I gave birth to a dead infant. And it of course stopped my life. I didn’t even understand what was happening to me. About 6 months later, I got pregnant again, and after that, I gave birth to my first child. Today I have 3 amazing children. But only after Jonathan, the first child, was born, I understood what happened to me a year ago. With that silent birth. And that made me kind of stop my life. I left the company. I sold it to McCann, to McCann Erickson. And the company was very successful, but I was at home for a year. And then if I fast forward in 2008, I started working with cities. And then again, the company was very successful. I was doing projects for Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Rishon Lezion, the biggest cities here in Israel. And then again, in 2012, I had breast cancer. So the amazing thing is that these things can happen only to women, these two things. But from both of them, what happened to me was that I understood each one of them made me stop almost for a year and think what I want to do. Am I happy wherever I am? I made great money in all my projects in the career, but I wasn’t really happy. I was doing stuff that I wasn’t sure this is what I want to do. So after my breast cancer, I was working in a co-work space. It was one of the first co-work spaces in Israel. We’re talking about 2015, today is 6 years ago, which was owned by a number of the biggest VCs in Israel. Very successful place. I didn’t even know what I want to do. And a friend, one of the owners told me, listen, just come here, think, come here, do your stuff and think what you want to do. And I noticed that there are hardly any women around me. It was a place for startups and there were hardly any female founders. So in that year, I decided that what I want to do is open a place just like Sosa, but that the only thing that would be very different is that you can work with us only if you have one female as a founder or CEO. So of course you can have guys in your team, but you have to have at least one woman as a founder or CEO. That’s what made me start with WMN, a co-workspace in the port of Tel Aviv. And with our first batch in 2002, 15 or 16, I don’t remember exactly, or 20 startups that each one of them had one— the CEO was a woman, the founder was a woman, and the team was of course women and men. And what was really, really amazing, and this is what started here in Israel, I think we were the first, as you said, the first co-workspace for women, and of course in the area, and one of the first in the world. So it started a big buzz around female founders in the tech industry. That’s a fascinating story. And I’ll say, I want to certainly go back to WMN, but just before that, just going back to some of your two health scares, well, one scare and one very sad event, did you find that you had support in the workplace around those issues or did you feel quite isolated at that time? No, I must say I had amazing support in both issues. In the breast cancer, I was working, as I said, for cities and from the mayor in Tel Aviv, in Richon Lezion, in Jerusalem, everywhere I worked, I must say I had amazing support. They all let me keep on doing my projects, although I couldn’t really work most of the time. I had partners in each one of the projects. And I really must say I had amazing support. And of course, I had great support from home. I think you cannot go through something like that if you don’t have— in Hebrew, you call it circles of support. I don’t know what’s the phrase for it in English. If you don’t have family, friends, and the workplace, as you say, support you. And luckily I had both of them in the silent birth and in the breast cancer. That’s very good to hear. The reason I asked is because there is some suggestion nowadays that female health issues can sometimes be more difficult to bring up in the workplace. And one in particular in mind would be menopause and some of the changes that maybe a woman will experience and maybe lower performance issues and just, just more stress. And that, that is only now being, is starting to be talked about, but it kind of links to WNM because the more I think females we have around us, the more people we will, I think, feel there will be a natural empathy there. And maybe it’ll be in time easier for these issues to be brought up. I totally agree. And I also want to say, I’ve always been asked, how do I feel as a woman? And why did I start WMN? And like you asked, I think I feel very dual because the fact that I did not have any problems or I had great support does not mean that this is how it works. As far as I know, and I know a lot, and I meet a lot of women, to be a woman entrepreneur, I always say to be an Being an entrepreneur is very hard. To be a woman entrepreneur is even harder. Usually if a couple, wife and a husband, have money, their own capital, and the wife would want to start a new business or the husband would want to start a new business, usually the money would go to the husband. They would not let the woman in the house take the money and start her business. It would always seem like to them like it’s more risky or, you know, the children would get affected and so on. So a lot of the things that I never felt are there outside all the time. Big time, unfortunately. Within WNN, what other resources do you provide to the women that are in your coworking space? Besides the fact of simply being around other women, which I think is profoundly helpful in itself, do you have networking circles, mentoring circles, events, anything else like that? Yeah, everything you said in together. I just want to emphasize today we don’t have a physical coworking space. Today we are a community. Our most amazing tool, as funny as it will sound, is a WhatsApp group of all the founders together that on a daily basis, you cannot imagine how much help they give each other. Of course, there’s the network and the events and everything, but the WhatsApp group is an amazing resource. We have a— unfortunately, in a WhatsApp group, you cannot add too many people. I mean, we’re 250 women, female founders. Just to understand, 250 could sound very small, but in Israel, there are around 1,500 female founders of startups, which is a lot. And 250 out of them are in the startup— in the WhatsApp group. And if I can tell you just questions that I’ve been asked the last day: how does the Innovation Authority help us get money? How do someone connect us to this and this investor? Could you please help me to write my appliance to the next accelerator? And so on. So I think it’s an amazing tool for female founders that cannot find it somewhere else. Of course, as you said, the network and the mentoring and the events and so on, but the WhatsApp group is very, very, very helpful. It’s funny, it’s sometimes it’s the simplest tools. I mean, it’s not sophisticated WhatsApp, but it’s in your pocket. It’s real time. You’re notified and you can respond while you’re multitasking, doing something else. So it is, uh, it’s funny that there has been no higher tech way to replace just the sheer convenience of that, but you’re not the first person to have mentioned very helpful WhatsApp groups. So maybe there’s an opportunity there. So just moving on now to the other ventures, such as food tech, can you explain what exactly food tech is, please. Sure. First, it’s those two words, it’s food and tech, which means innovation in food. But if I’ll be a bit more, a bit more than that, I’ll give some examples. It could be reduction of sugar in the food. It could be alternative protein because today, you know, people, if we’ll look to 30, 40 years from today, there won’t be enough food in the world for all of us. So everybody’s looking for different ways to get the food to make it much healthier. The millennials today, they really care about what they eat. Of course we do as well, but The younger ones are much more than that, and they want to know what’s in the chips that they eat or what’s in the milk and so on. So we work with startups and help them take their business to the next level. We usually work with startups that already have the technology. They’ve done already the, what we call the technology due diligence, and we help them take their business to the next level, to the go-to-market, to raise money and to get their product to the shelf. I can give you some examples just so we understand what we’re talking about. We’re working with a company that does milk from chickpea— milk, yogurts, and cheese from chickpea— and it looks and tastes exactly like real cheese and real milk and as if it came from the cow. Or we work with a company that does chewing gum, which is a sugar block. What does it mean? You chew it for 1 minute. A minute after you chew it, for the next 2-3 hours, anything with sugar that you put on your tongue, you will not feel the sugar. So what it makes is it blocks your craving for sugar. You can use it either for diet or for diabetes people and so on. Or we’re working with a company called Tutti Puffs. They do— they say they puff the unpuffable. Imagine that you can make it from avocado, from sweet potato, from other stuff that are healthy, and you can make popcorn out of them, which is amazing. So they have the technology to do that. Fascinating. So this is what we call food tech. It seems like a kind of a, like a Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory, but for healthy foods, especially that weird and wonderful chewing gum. And it works. I tried it. That seems really fascinating. So to take the pleasure out of sugar is one way to stop us from eating it, I suppose. So then now that you work with the urban farm and management of public spaces, what led you to be so passionate about working with the public sector in order to further some of your sustainability and impact goals? I think working with cities is the real way to make an impact because first of all, you know, cities, they have the real clients, the people who live in the city. And at least in Tel Aviv where I live, but in Israel and everywhere, they have a direct contact with their people. I can just give you an example of how much it makes an impact from something that happened today, which is amazing, I think. Here in the COVID-19, as you know, probably as all of us know, the kids didn’t go to school. We started going back to school just like 2 days ago here in Israel. And the ages 15, I think, to 17 are still at home. They are not going to school. And that is at least what the Ministry of Education has decided for the whole country, for Israel. And today the 15 mayors of the 15 biggest cities in Israel have decided that although this is what the Ministry of Education has decided, they are going to open the schools for those children. So my daughter, which is 15 years old, and that she knew that she’s not going back to school. Today they’ve decided that they are opening their school, so she has school to go. Now this is really, I don’t even know how to explain how huge the impact is on the people. And this is just a decision of the mayor. It’s something the city can decide. So if I’m working in the farm, I’m running the farm of the Urban Farm of Tel Aviv Municipality, and we are going now into vertical farming and, you know, all the local stuff that are making such an impact on the people that live here. We have plots in the farm and I see how much good it does for people. So I think something that’s really amazing. Is there much of a private investment opportunity in vertical farming in Israel? Yes, I think there’s a lot of opportunities for all the, what we call the agri-food, the agritech and foodtech industry. As a matter of fact, one thing that is a bit altogetherness, I would say it is that in the farm, we’re going to open also an open innovation hub for agritech startups. For urban farming and stuff like that. So at all we work with, there is what we call the PPP project, the public-private sector projects. So there’s a lot between the public and the private, and of course a lot of opportunities to raise money, but specifically not as the farm of the municipality, but, but the private sector. Let’s move back now to your personal story. And I think you came to my attention when you were quoted in an article around women in tech in Israel, and we discussed that coworking space was mentioned there. Looking back at your own career and your life journey, Are there any key people that had an influence on you and in what way? Of course. One was very, very, very long time ago. Her name is Sheila Sheckman. When I was around, I think 22, 23, I don’t remember exactly, after my army service, I went to the United States and I lived for 6 months with a few families in West Hartford, Connecticut. And Sheila was, and she still is, a good friend, amazing friend. But she then had a business there in West Hartford and I was just I worked for her for a few months, not for the money, just for the fun. And I learned from her so much. So I think she was my first business role model. I had along the way a few more, but if I can say what I learned from everybody together, one is to look always— again, in Hebrew, you would say to look at the full half of the cup. I think it’s to see the glass is half full. It’s very similar, I think, to say the glass is half full. Yeah. And to use positive words. Like when I write emails, I think really, I think about the words I use. I try to use only positive words and to be surrounded by positive people. That’s really important to me. But you know what’s the funny, again, advice that I got is, and I use it, is when I come to do business and when I come to ask for, I need to send you a quote for money for what I want to do, to think like a man. Because somehow at the end of the day, when I come to write the, okay, so how much money do I want to ask for it? And I say, if a guy was standing next to me, is this what he would ask for it, or would he ask for double the price? And I double the price, then it works. And is this a role, a kind of a role model, or sort of a role-playing that you do just with yourself, or do you have any actual male partner to do it with? No, no, no, this is something I do with myself. I just think in my mind, okay, listen, they asked you to give them a quote. How much do you want to ask for it? Now think that if this guy would— some guy, okay? One of the big shots of the industry would ask them, how much would he ask? And I’ll think what you were going to ask. So I do it with myself, but I change the numbers when I think of it. I’d like to ask whether you think that’s a problem that women often have is that they undersell themselves, underprice their value. And do ask for less than men. Is that something you’ve observed in watching women in tech in Israel or just in general? Totally. And I must say, unfortunately, even myself, as I said, sometimes, because I think, you know, a lot of times people ask me, what would you do different or what would you tell yourself a long time ago and so on? And I say, we have to believe in ourselves, but really, like when I want to take a decision, I tell myself, okay, listen to my stomach. What do you feel? And understand that it’s okay. And understand that you are worth the money that you’re asking for and understand that you are worth whatever it is that you’re asking for. When I was very young, I went to college, but I never— I don’t have a degree in anything. And I was very young. I always felt that maybe I’m not so good because of that. Not so good, but I never needed to ask for a job because I was always an entrepreneur. But the fact that I don’t have a degree somewhere in the back of my mind always felt not that good for me. But in the last at least 10 years, what I understood for myself— I call myself a multidisciplinary entrepreneur because I do everything. And being multidisciplinary is something very, very important, I think, today for the new world. And saying to ourselves, it’s okay, believe in yourself, whatever you’re doing. If you believe in yourself and you just run forward, it will work. I don’t know if run, but, you know, go forward with it, it will work. I think it’s something very important and I’m not sure it’s something we teach our daughters to think that way. That’s very interesting. I think certainly that having multiples, maybe potential sources of revenue is also important, having this diversified base of interests and you said for skill sets is very important. And you’re right, I’m not sure whether education is forcing people into a more specialized type of life and type of skill set than broad and diversified. But it certainly, your example would be a great one of why having multiple interests can be such a good balance in life. Talking about education, I think one of the most important things are for women to have role models, for all of us to have role models, but of course, especially for women that want to be entrepreneurs, they have to see role models. I think that my kids, and especially my daughter, grew up in a house that both of the parents, my husband and I, can do whatever we want. Nobody thinks that any one of us is better than the other, or any one of us can do something that the other cannot do. And I think it’s very important to grow up like that. Absolutely. I did not grow up like that in my house, I must say. I completely agree about role models. One thing you said earlier, I just want to ask you about. You mentioned having a positive outlook on life and surrounding yourself with people who energize you and who think positively. Does that mean that you remove yourself from people who have negativity or negative influence? Today I do. I didn’t used to do it all my life, but today I can tell you in ACT FoodTech, I have two co-founders, Carmite Doron and the chef Asaf Granit, which are two amazing people, really. And with Carmite, I spent most of my day, and she is such a positive person, and it is so important. And all of— we call them the circles of, uh, support— are positive people. I cannot be today with people that keep on saying ‘Oh, this is not going to work,’ or ‘This is not going to work,’ or ‘Don’t do that,’ or ‘Why could you do it?’ Because it takes all the energy out. And to be an entrepreneur, to be a creative person, I need to wake up in the morning energized, full of energy, and think how I’m gonna— I call it to like to eat the world. And in order to have good energy, you cannot have people around you that will tell you why you cannot do it. I know myself that I cannot do everything, okay, if I’ll be true to you and myself, I cannot do whatever I want, okay? But if I will believe that I can do whatever I want, I’ll probably be able to do 70, 80, 90% of what I want to do. But if I wake up in the morning and you’ll just explain to me why this is a horrible day and listen, this is so hard, we’ll never make it, and our competitors are doing this exactly the same, or they’re much better than us, then how can I start my day like that? Well, I think on that profoundly energizing note, It’s a good one to bring the conversation to a close. Thank you so much, Merav. You are a fantastic role model, and I think what we would describe as a true Renaissance woman. So I can’t thank you enough for responding to my outreach, and thank you for coming here and sharing your insights with us. Thank you, and thank you for having me. And it was really great, your outreach. I think speaking about optimism is, you know, it’s kind of right. It’s a cold call. You just send me an email and LinkedIn, whatever. And here we are. So believe in what you want to do. It will work. This is my end sentence. And thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure. I’m Aoifinn Devitt. Thank you for listening to our 50 Faces Focus series. If you liked what you heard and would like to tune in to hear more inspiring Israeli women in tech and beyond, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, and all views are personal and should not be attributed to the organizations and affiliations of the host or any guest.
Ifan David: This podcast was made possible by the kind support of Emmanuelle Arbib of IAM Capital, a global alternative investment group based in London, as well as the individuals, Alissa Bayer and Avatel Oisgild. Our next guest is a serial entrepreneur now involved in the fascinating world of food tech, committed to impact and creating vital and living cities and creating welcoming coworking spaces for women. Let’s hear how her journey unfolded. I’m Ifan David, and welcome to this 50 Faces focus series, which showcases inspiring Israeli women in tech and beyond. I’m joined today by Merav Oren, who is a serial entrepreneur, most recently of the ACT FoodTech Innovation Hub, which connects the culinary and foodtech worlds. As well as the founder of WNN, a coworking space and ecosystem for female entrepreneurs in Tel Aviv, and the first of its kind in the area. She is passionate about working with the public sector towards sustainability and impact, and also founded Urban Playground, which provides solutions to effectively manage public spaces. Welcome, Arav. Thank you for joining me today. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Great pleasure. So I introduced you as a serial entrepreneur because it seems that you’ve always had a knack for innovation, even very early on. Can you talk us through your career journey? And were there any surprising turns along the way? Sure. So let’s start a very long time ago because I’m 52 years old and I always say that my first business was when I was 8 years old. It was a garage sale. I lived with my parents in the United States. My dad, you know, we did relocation for 2 years and I did a garage sale. And the story tells that I didn’t want to come back home before I had $1 in my pocket. So it’s maybe funny, but I really think this is where I started to understand that I want to do business. My first real business was when I was around 26. I was working for a guy that he did all the huge festivals in Israel, the biggest beer festival, the biggest food festival, and so on. And I started working for him and we decided we wanna work on what then they used to call it sales promotion, okay? We did special events and so on. So I came to work for him. After 3 months, I kind of felt that the money was on the floor and all I needed to do was to pick it up. There was so much work to do. And I thought to myself, okay, so maybe I will be his partner. Now we’re talking about 25 years ago, a young woman, I was, as I said, I was around 26, hardly any women in that area. And I said to myself, okay, so I’ll go and ask him for 15% of the company that we will open together. And I went to talk before I did it. I talked to my husband and to some friends, most of them guys, because it was a business thing. And all of them said to me, what do you mean 15%? If you want to be his partner, you’ve got to ask him for 50%. And I said, no way, he’ll never take it. So they said, okay, so tell him take it or leave it. So I came the next day, I told him, listen, I want us to start a new company together. The name will be BTL because this is what we’re doing. BTL is Sales Promotion Special Events. And I want to have 50% of the company. He was kind of shocked. So I said, okay, so you can go and think about it and take it or leave it. He came the other day and he took it. Now, if I’ll fast forward a year or I think 2 years later on, I bought his part and I became the only owner of BTL. The company was very, very, very successful, millions of dollars. And the funny thing that today I think is funny, then I didn’t think it was funny. I suggested it as a matter of fact, is that after I bought my part, we both kept on saying that he’s my partner because all of our clients were male. All the CEOs of the big companies that were our clients were men. And for them, they thought I was his secretary. So it was good for me to say, you know, he was older than me and to say he’s still my partner. And for him, it was nice to keep saying that he’s my partner because, you know, he still owns this company. Today, 25 years later, it looks to me so weird, but then I really thought it’s, you know, it’s okay to say that. So anyway, that was a long time ago. Fast forward about, let’s go to 2008. I founded the company Urban Playground. You’re talking about that. I started working with cities. There was the company BTL, as I said, and then after selling it. And about a year after, I had what we call here a silent birth, which means I gave birth to a dead infant. And it of course stopped my life. I didn’t even understand what was happening to me. About 6 months later, I got pregnant again, and after that, I gave birth to my first child. Today I have 3 amazing children. But only after Jonathan, the first child, was born, I understood what happened to me a year ago. With that silent birth. And that made me kind of stop my life. I left the company. I sold it to McCann, to McCann Erickson. And the company was very successful, but I was at home for a year. And then if I fast forward in 2008, I started working with cities. And then again, the company was very successful. I was doing projects for Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Rishon Lezion, the biggest cities here in Israel. And then again, in 2012, I had breast cancer. So the amazing thing is that these things can happen only to women, these two things. But from both of them, what happened to me was that I understood each one of them made me stop almost for a year and think what I want to do. Am I happy wherever I am? I made great money in all my projects in the career, but I wasn’t really happy. I was doing stuff that I wasn’t sure this is what I want to do. So after my breast cancer, I was working in a co-work space. It was one of the first co-work spaces in Israel. We’re talking about 2015, today is 6 years ago, which was owned by a number of the biggest VCs in Israel. Very successful place. I didn’t even know what I want to do. And a friend, one of the owners told me, listen, just come here, think, come here, do your stuff and think what you want to do. And I noticed that there are hardly any women around me. It was a place for startups and there were hardly any female founders. So in that year, I decided that what I want to do is open a place just like Sosa, but that the only thing that would be very different is that you can work with us only if you have one female as a founder or CEO. So of course you can have guys in your team, but you have to have at least one woman as a founder or CEO. That’s what made me start with WMN, a co-workspace in the port of Tel Aviv. And with our first batch in 2002, 15 or 16, I don’t remember exactly, or 20 startups that each one of them had one— the CEO was a woman, the founder was a woman, and the team was of course women and men. And what was really, really amazing, and this is what started here in Israel, I think we were the first, as you said, the first co-workspace for women, and of course in the area, and one of the first in the world. So it started a big buzz around female founders in the tech industry. That’s a fascinating story. And I’ll say, I want to certainly go back to WMN, but just before that, just going back to some of your two health scares, well, one scare and one very sad event, did you find that you had support in the workplace around those issues or did you feel quite isolated at that time? No, I must say I had amazing support in both issues. In the breast cancer, I was working, as I said, for cities and from the mayor in Tel Aviv, in Richon Lezion, in Jerusalem, everywhere I worked, I must say I had amazing support. They all let me keep on doing my projects, although I couldn’t really work most of the time. I had partners in each one of the projects. And I really must say I had amazing support. And of course, I had great support from home. I think you cannot go through something like that if you don’t have— in Hebrew, you call it circles of support. I don’t know what’s the phrase for it in English. If you don’t have family, friends, and the workplace, as you say, support you. And luckily I had both of them in the silent birth and in the breast cancer. That’s very good to hear. The reason I asked is because there is some suggestion nowadays that female health issues can sometimes be more difficult to bring up in the workplace. And one in particular in mind would be menopause and some of the changes that maybe a woman will experience and maybe lower performance issues and just, just more stress. And that, that is only now being, is starting to be talked about, but it kind of links to WNM because the more I think females we have around us, the more people we will, I think, feel there will be a natural empathy there. And maybe it’ll be in time easier for these issues to be brought up. I totally agree. And I also want to say, I’ve always been asked, how do I feel as a woman? And why did I start WMN? And like you asked, I think I feel very dual because the fact that I did not have any problems or I had great support does not mean that this is how it works. As far as I know, and I know a lot, and I meet a lot of women, to be a woman entrepreneur, I always say to be an Being an entrepreneur is very hard. To be a woman entrepreneur is even harder. Usually if a couple, wife and a husband, have money, their own capital, and the wife would want to start a new business or the husband would want to start a new business, usually the money would go to the husband. They would not let the woman in the house take the money and start her business. It would always seem like to them like it’s more risky or, you know, the children would get affected and so on. So a lot of the things that I never felt are there outside all the time. Big time, unfortunately. Within WNN, what other resources do you provide to the women that are in your coworking space? Besides the fact of simply being around other women, which I think is profoundly helpful in itself, do you have networking circles, mentoring circles, events, anything else like that? Yeah, everything you said in together. I just want to emphasize today we don’t have a physical coworking space. Today we are a community. Our most amazing tool, as funny as it will sound, is a WhatsApp group of all the founders together that on a daily basis, you cannot imagine how much help they give each other. Of course, there’s the network and the events and everything, but the WhatsApp group is an amazing resource. We have a— unfortunately, in a WhatsApp group, you cannot add too many people. I mean, we’re 250 women, female founders. Just to understand, 250 could sound very small, but in Israel, there are around 1,500 female founders of startups, which is a lot. And 250 out of them are in the startup— in the WhatsApp group. And if I can tell you just questions that I’ve been asked the last day: how does the Innovation Authority help us get money? How do someone connect us to this and this investor? Could you please help me to write my appliance to the next accelerator? And so on. So I think it’s an amazing tool for female founders that cannot find it somewhere else. Of course, as you said, the network and the mentoring and the events and so on, but the WhatsApp group is very, very, very helpful. It’s funny, it’s sometimes it’s the simplest tools. I mean, it’s not sophisticated WhatsApp, but it’s in your pocket. It’s real time. You’re notified and you can respond while you’re multitasking, doing something else. So it is, uh, it’s funny that there has been no higher tech way to replace just the sheer convenience of that, but you’re not the first person to have mentioned very helpful WhatsApp groups. So maybe there’s an opportunity there. So just moving on now to the other ventures, such as food tech, can you explain what exactly food tech is, please. Sure. First, it’s those two words, it’s food and tech, which means innovation in food. But if I’ll be a bit more, a bit more than that, I’ll give some examples. It could be reduction of sugar in the food. It could be alternative protein because today, you know, people, if we’ll look to 30, 40 years from today, there won’t be enough food in the world for all of us. So everybody’s looking for different ways to get the food to make it much healthier. The millennials today, they really care about what they eat. Of course we do as well, but The younger ones are much more than that, and they want to know what’s in the chips that they eat or what’s in the milk and so on. So we work with startups and help them take their business to the next level. We usually work with startups that already have the technology. They’ve done already the, what we call the technology due diligence, and we help them take their business to the next level, to the go-to-market, to raise money and to get their product to the shelf. I can give you some examples just so we understand what we’re talking about. We’re working with a company that does milk from chickpea— milk, yogurts, and cheese from chickpea— and it looks and tastes exactly like real cheese and real milk and as if it came from the cow. Or we work with a company that does chewing gum, which is a sugar block. What does it mean? You chew it for 1 minute. A minute after you chew it, for the next 2-3 hours, anything with sugar that you put on your tongue, you will not feel the sugar. So what it makes is it blocks your craving for sugar. You can use it either for diet or for diabetes people and so on. Or we’re working with a company called Tutti Puffs. They do— they say they puff the unpuffable. Imagine that you can make it from avocado, from sweet potato, from other stuff that are healthy, and you can make popcorn out of them, which is amazing. So they have the technology to do that. Fascinating. So this is what we call food tech. It seems like a kind of a, like a Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory, but for healthy foods, especially that weird and wonderful chewing gum. And it works. I tried it. That seems really fascinating. So to take the pleasure out of sugar is one way to stop us from eating it, I suppose. So then now that you work with the urban farm and management of public spaces, what led you to be so passionate about working with the public sector in order to further some of your sustainability and impact goals? I think working with cities is the real way to make an impact because first of all, you know, cities, they have the real clients, the people who live in the city. And at least in Tel Aviv where I live, but in Israel and everywhere, they have a direct contact with their people. I can just give you an example of how much it makes an impact from something that happened today, which is amazing, I think. Here in the COVID-19, as you know, probably as all of us know, the kids didn’t go to school. We started going back to school just like 2 days ago here in Israel. And the ages 15, I think, to 17 are still at home. They are not going to school. And that is at least what the Ministry of Education has decided for the whole country, for Israel. And today the 15 mayors of the 15 biggest cities in Israel have decided that although this is what the Ministry of Education has decided, they are going to open the schools for those children. So my daughter, which is 15 years old, and that she knew that she’s not going back to school. Today they’ve decided that they are opening their school, so she has school to go. Now this is really, I don’t even know how to explain how huge the impact is on the people. And this is just a decision of the mayor. It’s something the city can decide. So if I’m working in the farm, I’m running the farm of the Urban Farm of Tel Aviv Municipality, and we are going now into vertical farming and, you know, all the local stuff that are making such an impact on the people that live here. We have plots in the farm and I see how much good it does for people. So I think something that’s really amazing. Is there much of a private investment opportunity in vertical farming in Israel? Yes, I think there’s a lot of opportunities for all the, what we call the agri-food, the agritech and foodtech industry. As a matter of fact, one thing that is a bit altogetherness, I would say it is that in the farm, we’re going to open also an open innovation hub for agritech startups. For urban farming and stuff like that. So at all we work with, there is what we call the PPP project, the public-private sector projects. So there’s a lot between the public and the private, and of course a lot of opportunities to raise money, but specifically not as the farm of the municipality, but, but the private sector. Let’s move back now to your personal story. And I think you came to my attention when you were quoted in an article around women in tech in Israel, and we discussed that coworking space was mentioned there. Looking back at your own career and your life journey, Are there any key people that had an influence on you and in what way? Of course. One was very, very, very long time ago. Her name is Sheila Sheckman. When I was around, I think 22, 23, I don’t remember exactly, after my army service, I went to the United States and I lived for 6 months with a few families in West Hartford, Connecticut. And Sheila was, and she still is, a good friend, amazing friend. But she then had a business there in West Hartford and I was just I worked for her for a few months, not for the money, just for the fun. And I learned from her so much. So I think she was my first business role model. I had along the way a few more, but if I can say what I learned from everybody together, one is to look always— again, in Hebrew, you would say to look at the full half of the cup. I think it’s to see the glass is half full. It’s very similar, I think, to say the glass is half full. Yeah. And to use positive words. Like when I write emails, I think really, I think about the words I use. I try to use only positive words and to be surrounded by positive people. That’s really important to me. But you know what’s the funny, again, advice that I got is, and I use it, is when I come to do business and when I come to ask for, I need to send you a quote for money for what I want to do, to think like a man. Because somehow at the end of the day, when I come to write the, okay, so how much money do I want to ask for it? And I say, if a guy was standing next to me, is this what he would ask for it, or would he ask for double the price? And I double the price, then it works. And is this a role, a kind of a role model, or sort of a role-playing that you do just with yourself, or do you have any actual male partner to do it with? No, no, no, this is something I do with myself. I just think in my mind, okay, listen, they asked you to give them a quote. How much do you want to ask for it? Now think that if this guy would— some guy, okay? One of the big shots of the industry would ask them, how much would he ask? And I’ll think what you were going to ask. So I do it with myself, but I change the numbers when I think of it. I’d like to ask whether you think that’s a problem that women often have is that they undersell themselves, underprice their value. And do ask for less than men. Is that something you’ve observed in watching women in tech in Israel or just in general? Totally. And I must say, unfortunately, even myself, as I said, sometimes, because I think, you know, a lot of times people ask me, what would you do different or what would you tell yourself a long time ago and so on? And I say, we have to believe in ourselves, but really, like when I want to take a decision, I tell myself, okay, listen to my stomach. What do you feel? And understand that it’s okay. And understand that you are worth the money that you’re asking for and understand that you are worth whatever it is that you’re asking for. When I was very young, I went to college, but I never— I don’t have a degree in anything. And I was very young. I always felt that maybe I’m not so good because of that. Not so good, but I never needed to ask for a job because I was always an entrepreneur. But the fact that I don’t have a degree somewhere in the back of my mind always felt not that good for me. But in the last at least 10 years, what I understood for myself— I call myself a multidisciplinary entrepreneur because I do everything. And being multidisciplinary is something very, very important, I think, today for the new world. And saying to ourselves, it’s okay, believe in yourself, whatever you’re doing. If you believe in yourself and you just run forward, it will work. I don’t know if run, but, you know, go forward with it, it will work. I think it’s something very important and I’m not sure it’s something we teach our daughters to think that way. That’s very interesting. I think certainly that having multiples, maybe potential sources of revenue is also important, having this diversified base of interests and you said for skill sets is very important. And you’re right, I’m not sure whether education is forcing people into a more specialized type of life and type of skill set than broad and diversified. But it certainly, your example would be a great one of why having multiple interests can be such a good balance in life. Talking about education, I think one of the most important things are for women to have role models, for all of us to have role models, but of course, especially for women that want to be entrepreneurs, they have to see role models. I think that my kids, and especially my daughter, grew up in a house that both of the parents, my husband and I, can do whatever we want. Nobody thinks that any one of us is better than the other, or any one of us can do something that the other cannot do. And I think it’s very important to grow up like that. Absolutely. I did not grow up like that in my house, I must say. I completely agree about role models. One thing you said earlier, I just want to ask you about. You mentioned having a positive outlook on life and surrounding yourself with people who energize you and who think positively. Does that mean that you remove yourself from people who have negativity or negative influence? Today I do. I didn’t used to do it all my life, but today I can tell you in ACT FoodTech, I have two co-founders, Carmite Doron and the chef Asaf Granit, which are two amazing people, really. And with Carmite, I spent most of my day, and she is such a positive person, and it is so important. And all of— we call them the circles of, uh, support— are positive people. I cannot be today with people that keep on saying ‘Oh, this is not going to work,’ or ‘This is not going to work,’ or ‘Don’t do that,’ or ‘Why could you do it?’ Because it takes all the energy out. And to be an entrepreneur, to be a creative person, I need to wake up in the morning energized, full of energy, and think how I’m gonna— I call it to like to eat the world. And in order to have good energy, you cannot have people around you that will tell you why you cannot do it. I know myself that I cannot do everything, okay, if I’ll be true to you and myself, I cannot do whatever I want, okay? But if I will believe that I can do whatever I want, I’ll probably be able to do 70, 80, 90% of what I want to do. But if I wake up in the morning and you’ll just explain to me why this is a horrible day and listen, this is so hard, we’ll never make it, and our competitors are doing this exactly the same, or they’re much better than us, then how can I start my day like that? Well, I think on that profoundly energizing note, It’s a good one to bring the conversation to a close. Thank you so much, Merav. You are a fantastic role model, and I think what we would describe as a true Renaissance woman. So I can’t thank you enough for responding to my outreach, and thank you for coming here and sharing your insights with us. Thank you, and thank you for having me. And it was really great, your outreach. I think speaking about optimism is, you know, it’s kind of right. It’s a cold call. You just send me an email and LinkedIn, whatever. And here we are. So believe in what you want to do. It will work. This is my end sentence. And thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure. I’m Aoifinn Devitt. Thank you for listening to our 50 Faces Focus series. If you liked what you heard and would like to tune in to hear more inspiring Israeli women in tech and beyond, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, and all views are personal and should not be attributed to the organizations and affiliations of the host or any guest.
