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