The Exchanges

Q We covered a lot of ground there. That was amazing. Um, I'm going to follow a number of threads of things you just touched on. You talked about product market fit briefly. Uh, what was the moment you felt product market fit with Waze? I don't know if I've ever heard that story.

A We started in Israel and Israel is a small place and we ended up with, um, being very successful in Israel. And then we said, wait a minute, Waze crowdsource all the data, right? Not just, uh, traffic information and speedcats and so forth, but also the map data itself. So we can start from a blank page. And the users, while they drive, they create the map, and they create traffic information, and so forth. And so we figure out that we can start anywhere, and we made Waze Global at the end of 2009. And we expect that to work the same way that they did in Israel, but it didn't. It was not enough. It was not good enough in the US. It was not good enough in Western Europe. It was not good enough in, in Latin America. It was not good enough in Asia. It was not good enough anywhere that matters, right? It was actually good enough in about four places in the Czech Republic, in Slovakia, in Latvia, and Ecuador, and that's about it. Rest of the world, not good enough. So what we did is, um, we spoke with the drivers. Look, they wanted us to be successful. We basically said, we, the drivers, are going to fight traffic change together. So common enemy, togetherness, all goodness, everyone wanted that to work, right? So people downloaded the app and it simply was not good enough. So they churned, right? Because if it's not good enough, you're not coming back. We spoke with them. We asked …

AI assessment note: “We built the next version addressing everything that they've told us.”

Q chapter about something that every single founder is going to go through. You actually have this quote I'll read that I think is a good summary of Why this is so important that building a startup is a journey from one crisis to the next. Let me just start with this question of why did you decide to add this chapter? Why is this so important to update your book?

A You know, end of the day, um, recent years have demonstrated major significant crises throughout the world, right, from COVID to, um, to interest rate, to inflation, to wars, to, and then I realized that, wait a minute, this is something that I haven't spoke about during my, my first book, and it's time to write, to rewrite a new addition to that, or, or a new chapter that will be added into the new release. And so this is about crisis. And, uh, and in addition, you know, my publisher told me that, oh, you should have a, um, a paperback. It's, um, it's gonna sell more and more people are going to read it because it's easier to read. So I do have the, the new edition already. It's will be published, um, in about a month. Um, and, um, and it does include the new chapter and it's a paperback.

AI assessment note: “I realized that, wait a minute, this is something that I haven't spoke about”

Q Important words. Final question. Is there a problem you're starting to fall in love with? More recently, maybe tinkering with a new startup idea, or are you done with starting companies?

A Um, I'm probably will never be done. Um, I have, um, you know, 10 different startups in, in multiple areas. One of them, uh, Pontera helps people to retire richer, uh, which is, uh, one of the biggest challenges in In the world in general, but also in the US, um, if I would ask a hundred people on the street that have four one K plans, uh, what is your four one K plan invested at? 95% of them will tell me, I don't know. I do know, by the way, in the default, whatever was the default when they joined, right? Now, obviously, if you didn't do anything and you think it's right, no, it's not right. It's probably simply not enough. Um, so this is a big problem. Um, I have one in the medical space that is trying to create, um, um, I would call that the, the AI of the medical knowledge. So trying to improve doctors, um, and in particular in clinical decisions. That is going to change the world. But if you would ask me, then I will, um, give you some examples, right? So, so mobility is still a problem, right? You look at many areas in our lifetime and mobility is still, uh, every year it's instead of getting better, it's getting lesser. So mobility is still a problem. Um, and, um, Medical services, right? US medical services are five to 10 times more expensive than they are in Germany. Now it's not that they're better. They're simply more expensive. So obviously you ask yourself, okay, …

AI assessment note: “I'm probably will never be done. Um, I have, um, you know, 10 different startups”

Q That's empowering. I like that. Okay. Uh, just, okay. Two more questions. One is I want to close the loop on the Waze story. So you talked about how Google launched a competitor, basically free turn by turn directions. That was the business you were building and you essentially had to change direction. What did you actually do? How'd you decide and realize this?

A So we didn't change. We, we, Back in 2010, we were simply not good enough. We were still in the product market fit iterations and iterations and iterations, and we were not good enough, and we kept on building, and we kept on iterating and iterating and iterating, um, but we almost ran out of cash, right? And, and then we had, um, you know, this, uh, uh, lucky day that Microsoft decided to invest, and so is, uh, Qualcomm and, uh, And you know, the funny part is that I had this dialogue with Qualcomm Ventures, and they told me, um, that they are not sure why is that important for them, and I read someplace that they did not invest at Twitter at fifty-five million dollars, and this is exactly what I told them. May I remind you that you did not invest in Twitter at fifty-five million dollars valuation? This is where Waze is today. And, um, you know, obviously a different story, but that was, um, the, the fear of missing out, the FOMO.

AI assessment note: “So we didn't change. We, we, Back in 2010, we were simply not good enough.”

Q changes in the market. It's, uh, easy to say, okay, you need to cut burn. You need to go raise money down rounds. It's so hard to do, to lay people off, to do all these challenging things for your company. Can you again, just help people understand why it's so important to act fast? You talked about optionality goes away, just like what actually happens there if you don't?

A So, so I'll give you an example, right? So let's say that you have, um, um, you're almost run out of cash, right? And you have, um, um, you believe that you're gonna raise capital in the next two months. And, um, and if it's not, then you run out of cash, right? So, so One of the things that you might want to do is extend the run rate. One other thing that you might want to do is actually tell the people that we will be running out of cash in two months. And number one, I want you to help me even if we run out of cash because there are good chances that we eventually will be able to raise capital and recover that. And number two, in order to Um, you know, in, in order to, to get your support and believe in the company, I am going to offer you more equity. So the more equity is of something that I will do twice, right? Once today, once you realize that this is going to be challenging. And then again, if we need to ask people to reduce their salary or, or do something dramatic around that. Um, and the first one is actually preventive, um, preventive action, right? So, so you, um, share the know-how, you share, you share the, the, the, the, you know, the challenges that we are going to face, and you demonstrate generosity, not out of, you have to, but you demonstrate that. And then you, and you essentially dramatically increase their loyalty and their commitment. And when you will…

AI assessment note: “the first one is actually preventive, um, preventive action”