Fiftyfaces Focus - Inspiring Israeli Women in Tech and Beyond: Recent Episodes
Aoifinn Devitt & Maeve McQuillan
A series focused on inspiring Israeli women in tech and beyond - describing their career trajectory, their perception of diversity in the Israeli tech sector and what supports have made a difference as they reach for their goals.
Maram Hussein at the time of recording was Investor Communication Lead at Vintage Investment Partners and a Board Member at Kav Mashvean. She started her career as a tax researcher, moving to an auditor role before assuming her current role. In recent months she established an initiative to integrate more Arabs in the Venture Capital, Investment Banks and Consulting firms. She now lives in California.
Our conversation starts with Maram's university study in finance and accounting and the obstacles she encountered when applying for a first position in accounting and auditing roles. She eventually was successful, and describes how challenging it was to find peers, mentors and role models in the industry who had a similar lived experience to herself, an Arab living in Israel.
Maram discusses the break that saw her find a fulfilling role in venture capital and the awakening she experienced when she realized that she could do something to contribute to the social capital of other Arabs seeking to break into the field. She established an affinity and networking group designed to provide a network, leads and other coaching to young people seeking to enter the industry.
Maram's motto - is you don't hire for skills you hire for attitude, you can always teach the skills, and reflects on the resilience she learned from her mother, one of her original role models.
In 2023 we are taking our Inspiring Israeli Women in Tech Fiftyfaces Focus Series to the next level. We are going global. In this mini-series we give you a taste of the kind of stories and concepts that we will be bringing together - comparing and contrasting experiences around the world.
In this series we hear from Maram Hussein about what it was like to be one of the only Arab Women in her tech career, and how she had to look hard for mentors and to build a network. This experience taught her to change the playing field for the next generation - to create an affinity group and networking opportunities to ensure that mentorship and best practice could do its usual work.
We move then to the Bay Area, where we hear from Ashwini Asokan, founder of Mad Street Den about the transformative power of AI, and why it is more than "Brains, Bots and Bullshit" (the title of a successful video talk she provided). She talks about the importance of blending AI with an understanding of human behavior, through her study of anthropology, and stresses why humanizing AI will be the way of the future.
Finally in this mini-series we hear from Ahryun Moon about her experience founding a scheduling company and what it is like to be one half of a Couple-Preneur. She speaks openly and honestly about the "Female Founder Discount" and how affects everything from company valuations to the ultimate success of that company because of the negative economics that it can create.
We will continue this series in 2023 with an exciting new collaboration. Watch this space in 2023.
Ahryun Moon is Founder and Head of Company Strategy at GoodTime.io a company designed to boost employee productivity by making scheduling meetings easier. This is not her first time founding a company – she also founded Etch Keyboard and previously worked as a financial accountant and financial analyst.
We start with her upbringing and the hackathons that awakened her interest in tech and problem solving. When she noticed that recruiters were spending the bulk of their time on scheduling meetings, she went "under cover" at large companies in Silicon Valley in order to scope the extent of the problem. This was the seed that generated GoodTime.io, and we turn then to her experience as a founder, raising capital, developing an all-remote team and being productive in a "Couple-preneur" arrangement (her husband is also a partner at GoodTime.io).
We dig deep into what Ahryun terms the "female founder discount", why this persists and the way that it erodes company value and prospects. This is a passionate discussion that uncovers the inequities that continuing and we pick apart how to address them.
Ashwini Asokan is the founder and CEO of Mad Street Den, an Artificial Intelligence company, powering Retail, Education, Healthcare, Media, Finance & more with its image recognition platforms, Vue.ai and Blox.ai. Headquartered in the Bay Area, California, the company has offices around the globe. She previously worked at Intel, where she led IXR’s Mobile Portfolio, which explored the future of mobile technology and designed compelling mobile experiences that people will love.
While at Intel Ashwini spent time working on the Mobile Portfolio where she combined teams comprising designers, anthropologists and software engineers. We talk about the importance of including anthropologists to understand the sometimes varied use case of technology, and we explore what insights this can provide.
We move then to talk about a video in which Ashwini refers to AI as “Brains, Bots and Bullshit” and dissect what this in fact means, and what can be done to improve how AI is used and developed in the future. You can find this video here:
Mind the product talk
https://www.mindtheproduct.com/need-product-people-save-ai/
And an video about Ashwini’s entrepreneurial journey here:
NatGeo video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJlrH1sD7u0
As an entrepreneur who has worked through capital raising, Ashwini has a host of insights into the playing field for capital and some of its shortcomings. We look at the steps she took to shore up her own business venture and how her training in the arts taught her the choreography needed to stay the course. We examine the importance of the social sciences, of learning how to “fail up”, build muscle and stay the course, particularly as a woman in the competitive field of tech. Finally, we look at the importance of eating protein, in more ways than one.
Charna Ambers is founder of CB Design NY, which specializes in corporate brand and marketing design for clients across a range of industries, including in particular healthcare, lifestyle, and real estate.
Our conversation starts with her upbringing in upstate New York, her first roles and how she came to the decision to launch her own firm. We talk about her vision for branding and design, and how she builds her network. We delve in particular into her LInkedIN strategy, and how she was an early adopter on the platform and has ultimately garnered more than 30,000 followers.
We speak then about her use of a business coach and how that has been pivotal in growing her business and in offering the sounding board and advice needed to navigate through changing times.
This podcast is brought to you as a bonus episode featuring inspiring women in tech and beyond with ties to Israel.
Hilla Bakshi is the founder of Hameetupistiot and works as a marketing and business development co-ordinator at Women on Stage. Women on Stage is a global platform which showcases, books, and trains women professional speakers for any tech event, conference, meetup, or webinar.
In our interview, we discuss how Hilla came to champion women in hi-tech. Hilla describes how her growing awareness that she was usually the only female in the room inspired her to ask why. We talk about what she learnt when she asked that question and how it inspired her to launch a community for female professionals.
Hilla also discusses with me what she learnt through working with WomenonStage and the transformative effect it had on the participants’ confidence, their storytelling and their ability to rebrand themselves. Finally, Hilla opens up about having stage fright, the agility of dreams, and her future goals. HaMeetupistiot has an active presence on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/meetupistiot/?originalSubdomain=il linkedIn. You can also check out Hilla’s work here https://www.womenonstage.net.
Efrat Fenigson was featured as one of StartIsrael’s 2021’s most promising marketing leaders in Israel who is focused on social impact. Efrat is currently the CMO at Mindspace and is the co-founder of the G-CMO forum. She is also, among many other things, a feminist, activist, and Videocast host.
In our interview we discuss how Efrat started out as a programmer in Australia and chucked it all in to take a risk and start her own business there. She talks us through her journey from running that business to becoming CMO at Mindspace. Efrat discusses why marketing appeals to her and how she uses the skills learnt there to engage in social activism. Hear how marketing skills, and the ability to distill information into simple, digestible form and tell a story, can be useful in other walks of life.
We also explore the importance of identifying your values and knowing what your redlines are so that you choose the right job or purpose in life. Throughout the interview, Efrat returns to the themes of failure, fear and uncertainty, and the importance of challenging those insecurities in order to grow. She also talks very openly about feeling her own fears and vulnerabilities, life's ups and downs, and how she relies on the people in her own life to help gain insight into herself. This concept of getting feedback from valued friendships is one that she believes is key to continue to grow and build self-awareness.
Hosted by Maeve McQuillan.
Avigail Bar-Timor Rosen is currently a Business Operation Associate at Payoneer. Prior to this she was a community manager at "Women in Hitech”, which has more than 14 thousand members. Avigal continues to promote and work for the representation of women in the Israeli tech industry.
In this podcast we talk about how hard it can be to know what you want to do in life. Avigail describes how her journey to discovering her career path was not a straightforward or easy one, and how she took many different turns in her quest to find a job that spoke to her. She touches on how difficult that period of searching was and how in the end she learnt that it’s not about a job title, but about knowing your values and what you want. We also talk about the practical steps that she took in order to find her career and the importance of networking, mentors ,and coaches.
We touch on the theme of money and how for women it’s hard to ask for their worth or even admit their goal is to make money as this can still be frowned upon by society. Avigail’s own experiences have made her passionate about promoting women in hi-tech.Through her involvement in various women’s organisations, she’s helping women see their worth, ask for their full value and encourages them to promote themselves within their careers in order to continue forging ahead.
There are more details about Avigail's affinity groups here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/meetupistiot/?originalSubdomain=il and here https://women-in-tech.org/il/.
Hosted by Maeve McQuillan.
Rachel Zalta is Global Lead at the Creative Shop @ Taboola in Tel Aviv. She originally studied psychology, and has a strong interest in online trends and persuasion and is an expert on online behavior. She was born in New York City and moved to Israel when she was 6 years old.
Rachel was one of the first guests that I approached for our Inspiring Israeli Women in Tech Series and is a perfect person to finish our third series. I was quickly fascinated by her blend of psychology and technology and how she was a fount of insights into how we behave online and what triggers certain behaviors.
In a world where we are increasingly bombarded by messaging, tailored advertising and in which brands are constantly evolving to be more "on trend" it is interesting to see what works and what doesn't in winning our "engagement".
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Adi Eckhouse Barzilai is co-founder and CEO at DeeDa:Do, based in NYC, and was the founder of RealFace, a company focused on bringing back human perception to digital processes.
In this conversation we discuss her journey from sitting with an inspired idea to finally taking the plunge and leaving the security of her well paid job to set up RealFace. She emphasizes how vital it is to work with partners who share the same core values as you and the importance of surrounding yourself with talented people who you can learn from. Adi talks about RealFace getting acquired by Apple and the bittersweet nature of selling a company that you built with a view to longevity. She also speaks candidly about embarking on her new startup DeeDa:DO and what she wants to do differently this time around. An eternal optimist, Adi believes that it’s absolutely necessary to look at the world through rose-coloured glassed if you’re going to be an entrepreneur and touches on the importance of creating your own narrative when faced with setbacks.
One of Adi's other interests is chess, and as a former chess champion she is passionate about teaching chess to girls. We hear about the program she has set up to do that in NYC and the importance she places on STEM subjects and making them accessible to all.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Maya Tutian Matosevich is Global Marketing Director at Dassault Systemes, a French company and is based in Israel. She has had a long career in marketing within the software sector, where she has developed business plans and sales strategies on a regional and a global basis.
Our discussion covers her successful career - how she established herself as a leader in global marketing and developed a global team and client base. An excellent example of her ability to pivot and respond to the changing needs of her clients is the "business must go on" campaign that was initiated in response to the Covid-19 disruptions. This innovative campaign relied on fresh thinking and pivots to reframe business in a new reality without face to face meetings and the usual tools to build relationships.
Just as business must go on, so must life, and our conversation then turns to the sacrifices that are made in the name of careers and how working mothers in particular are often pulled in many different directions. We acknowledge the strain this can take, but also admit that high powered careers are not cost-free.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld
In our podcast, Dafna describes how she grew in a family of entrepreneurs and discusses her time in the Israeli army where at the age of 18 she became a lieutenant overseeing a group of 20 men. This experience shaped Dafna and made her understand what she was capable of. So much so that when Dafna moved to America in her twenties, she realised that she needed to set up her own company, as no one in the US quite understood her skillset and potential. Hence, D|Rolls was born.
A great believer in coaching, Dafna used it to help build both her business and navigate her role as CEO. Although D|Rolls business headquarters are in Boston, Dafna and her family moved back to Israel after 10 years. Initially, Dafna found the challenge of being a long-distance CEO fraught, but ultimately she used it as an opportunity to change and learned the importance of letting go a little. Dafna, who is a big supporter of female entrepreneurs, also shares her insights into why they sometimes give up too soon and the importance of hanging on in there. A firm believer in optimism in both business and life, Dafna discusses the value of persevering in the face of obstacles, the necessity of having a good support system, and the beauty of being above forty.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Naomi Krieger Carmy is a Senior VP at Social Finance Israel, an Israeli not-for-profit organization that issues Social Impact Bonds. She has had a global career that has spanned roles in investment banking, economic development and policy, and has recently had a particular focus on furthering innovation through the UK Israel Tech Hub a public/private venture to promote business and tech collaboration between the UK and Israel. Her most recent role prior to the current one was as VP and Head of the Societal Challenges division at the Israel Innovation Authority, where she was was responsible for policy, programs and funding for R&D of impact tech and development of human capital for the innovation ecosystem.
Our conversation starts with her education and time in the Israeli army, tracing her path from economist to investment banker to policy expert. We then turn to her more recent work focusing on some of the human capital challenges that come with companies in stages of fast-paced innovation. We examine what these challenges are and what works to address them, in particular to get more gender balance into such organizations.
We close with a discussion of the growing of social impact bonds, what kind of impact is targeted and how it is measured. This is an area we are likely to hear much more of in coming years and this podcast is an excellent primer.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Shanna Fuld is the founder and CEO at the Israel Daily News Podcast. She has worked as a freelance reporter, and creates her own content including the Israel Daily News Podcast, The Israel Weekly Newswrap, Women in Israel and The Corona Business Report.
Our conversation traces how a chance meeting with Wolf Blitzer in Tel Aviv kindled the flame that was already alight in her for broadcast media. We follow her journey in education and then in the business and some of the long hours and high expectations that it entailed. Shanna is open-eyed about the personal cost that the early years in a media career can involve and we examine what it means to have "grit" and whether it is always appropriately celebrated.
She provides some useful advice for young people entering the area, and helps to separate "grit" and being on one's "grind" from selling oneself too short. She also provides some useful insights into pay negotiations and the varied type of life experience that can provide skills that persist.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
We are delighted to be back for Series 3 of our Inspiring Israeli Women in Tech and Beyond series, which is co-hosted by Aoifinn Devitt and Maeve McQuillan.
We meet with six more inspiring guests, who introduced us to topics as diverse as social impact bonds, looking at technology through the lens of a psychologist, how your mindset as a founder must include optimism, but can also change as you mature, and the kind of freedom that that bestows. We speak with a successful founder who is now developing a group to teach chess to girls globally, with a media guru who debunks some myths about the essential importance of grit and hustle in the early years, and with a successful marketing executive who reflects on her own choices and some of the sacrifices they entailed.
Tune in from next week to hear from:
Shanna Fuld, who is the founder and CEO at the Israel Daily News Podcast. She has worked as a freelance reporter, and creates her own content including the Israel Daily News Podcast, The Israel Weekly Newswrap, Women in Israel and The Corona Business Report.
Maya Tutian Matosevich, who is Global Marketing Director at Dassault Systemes, a French company. Maya is based in Israel. She has had a long career in marketing within the software sector, where she has developed business plans and sales strategies on a regional and a global basis.
Naomi Krieger Carmy, who is a Senior VP at Social Finance Israel, an Israeli not-for-profit organization that issues Social Impact Bonds. She has had a global career that has spanned roles in investment banking, economic development and policy, and has recently had a particular focus on furthering innovation through the UK Israel Tech Hub a public/private venture to promote business and tech collaboration between the UK and Israel.
Rachel Zalta, who is Global Lead at the Creative Shop @ Taboola in Tel Aviv. She originally studied psychology, and has a strong interest in online trends and persuasion and is an expert on online behavior. She was born in New York City and moved to Israel when she was 6 years old.
Dafna Rolls Ish-Shalom, Founder and CEO of DRolls Associates, a Boston-based business development firm founded in 2002. She has over 20 years of experience in business development and sales, and lecturing at business organizations and universities about entering the US market, defining target market, building the right database, reaching decision makers, and US culture gaps.
Adi Eckhouse Barzilai, Experienced Entrepreneur, CEO and marketing executive with 10 years of marketing and business development experience from top consumer goods companies (P&G) and large public corporations (Syneron Medical/Unilever) to founding and selling a technology company.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Rachel Fabian-Edelman is a community manager at Citi Accelerator & Venture Investments, which is responsible for investment in a range of start-ups. She started her career in MobilEye, a mobility company and one of Israel’s most successful start-ups, that is now a part of Intel. She has a passion for connecting and amplifying the voices of women in the profession, and has started a local women’s network, and is also committed to animal rights.
Our conversation traces Rachel's career path through a successful start-up, how she grew through stretch assignments and with the help of management who spotted talent and nurtured it. We compare that to later experiences with less successful start-ups, and discuss her own business of dog training that she set up. There is a fun question about any aspects of dog training that she would apply to leadership and dealing with people.
We discuss the people in her life who inspired her, in particular her grandfather who ran a successful business. My typical final question at the end of the podcast was altered beautifully by Rachel as advice she would give to her daughter. Have a listen to find out what she says about ambition, pursuing dreams and believing in yourself.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Keren Fanan was in her most recent role the Chief Commercial Officer at Gett, where she led the company’s international SaaS strategy and its B2B unit across over 1000 cities. Prior to that, Keren launched and scaled two "startups within a startup". She previously held a series of business development and product manager roles. She has been a Board Member of Women in Tech Israel since November 2020.
Our conversation starts and ends with the reminder by Elon Musk that ordinary people can choose to become extraordinary, and it is that ambition and that self-belief that has led Keren not just to advance in her career but also to lift up other women in the tech community.
We discuss Keren's journey into her role, and the traits in particular that were useful in scaling start-ups within a start-up. We talk about her experience of taking family leave during her career – and what she found to be key to successful integration of work and family life and transition between the two.
There is more information about Women in Tech Israel here: https://women-in-tech.org/il/
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Galit Desheh is the owner of DG – Diversity Growth Consulting and Strategic Social Change, organizations which work with companies to create an inclusive environment and diverse workforce. She previously worked as Educational Director at the Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Crisis Center and was Executive Director of Israel’s Women’s Network for over 3 years. She is a director of the “Power in Diversity” Initiative to diversify the high -tech industry in Israel and is also a lecturer.
We discuss how Galit has been interested in issues of gender for most of her career, going right back to her PhD topic, and how that led her to undertake a global comparative study of feminism (and to Northern Ireland). We discuss how her work at the Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Crisis Center changed her, and what she learned from working with some of the most vulnerable members of society.
We then translate that into working to improve diversity in organizations and how the concept of gender brave is so much more useful than "gender blind". We discuss best practice” to drive and maintain diversity and inclusion within organizations and where we go from here - once the "Mary Poppins" of the diversity consultant has left the building.
There is more information about Galit's initiatives on the following links:
http://powerindiversityisrael.com/
https://iwn.org.il/english/about-the-israel-womens-network/
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Michal Eisikowitz is the founder of CopyTribe, a copywriting university that offers multiple courses in different areas of copy + business management to copywriters, designers, and all creative professionals She is also the founder of Michal Eisik Media, which is the micro-agency serving select B2B SaaS + service providers with website copywriting + strategy.
She defines copywriting as about saying "I do!" to the perfect marriage of research + storytelling and Michal has a dynamic social media presence where she frequently shares her tips both as a founder and marketing strategist. Our conversation traces her roots where she trained as a speech therapist and then switched to copywriting where she connected with her passion for writing, creativity and communication. We discuss the similarities between the two disciplines and examine how a business can be built and developed through social media.
My favorite part of the conversation is our discussion of some of Michal's nuggets of wisdom, around conserving one's own time, protecting client time, pricing appropriately (for RoI and not by the hour) and optimal client service and communication. We also delve into work/family balance and Michal discusses how integrating her family obligations with her career have helped her to show more of her authentic self at work and in the industry.
There is more information about Michal's business on: https://www.michaleisikowitz.com/
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Merav Oren 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 WMN, a co-working 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.
Our wide-ranging conversation covers her earliest inroads into being an entrepreneur, and some negotiating skills learned on the job that taught her how to properly assess her worth and, more importantly, ask for it. We then explore the value of creating an eco-system of like-minded and supportive women, and how this can allow ideas to flourish and really take root. Merav is passionate about cities and we discuss how managing public space is so essential to enabling cities to thrive.
We then turn to food-tech, which is where the conversation turns futuristic and mind-blowing - we talk about the kind of innovations that the ACT Foodtech Hub is seeing, how they will change how we eat and ultimately transform our relationship with food and nature.
There is more information about the ACT Foodtech Hub here: https://www.theacthub.com/
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Dalit Heldenberg is a vice president at GLOAT, a talent marketplace, and has had a close to two decade career in hi-tech. She is committed to helping people thrive at work, and is a co- founder of LeadWith – Women Leading tech, which is a non-profit organization focused on empowering and promoting women in technology careers at all levels in Israel, as well as the Israeli chapter of Girls in Tech.
Our conversation tracks Dalit's early entry into her career, and how she from the very beginning pushed boundaries to pursue an initial position and then a shift to a project manager role. We discuss how she coped with rejection, and the support circles she built around her in order to create a supportive network for debate and discussion of issues at work. We turn to her juggling of family obligations with a demanding career, which was the genesis of another industry organization, Lead With, which creates a network and set of supports for women including one called Lead With Babies, where mothers are welcome to bring their babies to industry-focused seminars and events.
Besides those groups already mentioned Dalit is involved with groups particularly focused on encouraging young women to enter STEM and related areas - these include Cracking the Glass Ceiling, and 8200 Impact and she is an active mentor within the the tech community. She follows people who change the conversation around women in the tech workplace and is committed to doing this herself.
There is more information on Dalit's affiliated groups on the links below:
Link to LeadWith FB page - https://www.facebook.com/LeadWith/
Gloat - https://www.gloat.com/
8200 impact - https://impact.8200.org.il/
sodkot - https://www.sodkot.co.il/
Girls in Tech - https://girlsintech.org/
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
We are delighted to be back for Series 2 of our podcast series focused on Inspiring Israeli Women in Tech and Beyond. In this series we are joined by Dalit Heldenberg, who has had a close to two decade career in hi-tech. She is an active mentor within the tech community and is a co- founder of LeadWith – Women Leading tech, which is a non-profit organization focused on empowering and promoting women in technology careers at all levels in Israel, as well as the Israeli chapter of Girls in Tech.
We then meet with Merav Oren, a serial entrepreneur and founder most recently of the ACT Foodtech Innovation Hub, which connects the culinary and foodTech worlds, as well as WMN, a co-working space and ecosystem for female entrepreneurs in Tel Aviv, and the first of its kind in the area.
Keren Fanan was the Chief Commercial Officer at Gett, where she led the company’s international SaaS strategy and its B2B unit across over 1000 cities. Prior to that, she launched and scaled two "startups within a startup". She has been a Board Member of Women in Tech Israel since November 2020.
We speak with Galit Desheh, who is the owner of DG – Diversity Growth Consulting and Strategic Social Change, organizations which work with companies to create an inclusive environment and diverse workforce. She discusses the profound effect her time as the Educational Director at the Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Crisis Center had on her journey and was Executive Director of Israel’s Women’s Network for over 3 years. She is a director of the “Power in Diversity” Initiative to diversify the high -tech industry in Israel.
Michal Eisikowitz, the founder of CopyTribe and Michal Eisik Media, serves clients globally and is a well-known force on LinkedIn. With her we discuss essential life lessons about protecting time, balancing work and family and finding a powerful voice.
Our sixth guest is Rachel Fabian-Edelman, who is a community Manager at Citi Accelerator & Venture Investments, which is responsible for investment in a range of start-ups. She has a passion for connecting and amplifying the voices of women, and has started a local women’s network, and is also committed to animal rights.
Our discussion are rich with mentions of mentors, love and loss, hard lessons, the supports we build around us, and the wisdom we wish we had learned earlier. Tune in from next week.
This podcast series was made possible by the kind support of Elissa Bayer, Avital Eusgeld and a new supporter, Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group based in London. Elissa, a private wealth path breaker, featured in our original podcast series and her podcast is here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5pFiYmdyxlHq8mzbc5c0hJ?si=tMEUnBcVS2mQLk7ZJAvvwA while Emanuel, a business owner and investor, is featured here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6g0IND5sLVYQp2EApR0GVY?si=mYiK1naOSHO5lssXKMrrIg
Helen Gottstein is the founder of Loud and Clear Training, a communication and presentation strategy business where she serves global clients from her Israel base. She has had a long career in training women to get heard, inclusion and diversity training and presentation skills. Today, she shares her tips both as a founder and women’s advocate.
Our conversation starts with Helen's youth in Australia and what influenced her in becoming a feminist at the age of 19. We trace that journey through her move to Israel, and her ongoing advocacy for and training in communication skills. We discuss the concept that visibility = career and examine how women can enhance their own visibility by becoming spokespeople for their firms and generally elevating their standing within the organization. We look at the particular challenges of staying visible and being heard in online meetings, when etiquette has been disrupted and new rules take shape.
One of Helen's themes is to look widely for where bias exists - and how sometimes it is internalized and held by women against women. Her encouragement to check this, and to reach outside our comfort zone - even if that is where the "terror" happens, is energizing, just like one of her executive training sessions would be. Helen has an active presence on LinkedIN and you can learn more about her live sessions there and on her business website: https://www.loudandcleartraining.com/
This podcast series was made possible by the kind support of Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Miriam Isaac is a freelance UX designer and consultant who works with a range of companies across the US and Israel. She has worked as a graphic, and later web, designer for over 10 years. Miriam has a particular interest in mentoring young women within the religious community who have an interest in entering the design arena and in directing them to where they can learn the skills required. She was born in London and moved to Israel when she was 18 years old.
In our candid interview we talk about the obstacles and prejudices Miriam encountered both within her religious community, and later in the Tel Aviv tech world where religious women are in the minority. Miriam talks about the difference between having a job and a career and how, when faced with the challenges mentioned above, she turned to social media in the hope of finding work.
There she soon discovered that being a religious woman was no longer an obstacle to getting hired and so was soon able to establish a thriving career online as a leading UX designer. She also discovered a new and supportive community. We discuss how her presence on social media has inspired other religious women to take the leap into the professional world and also the vital role social media plays in terms of offering representation to minorities. In the interview, Miriam offers refreshingly honest advice to women in both the workplace and beyond, and opens up about battling imposter syndrome in the workplace as well as how her views have changed over the course of the Covid-19 lockdown.
This podcast series was made possible with the kind support of Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Avigail Levine is head of marketing and ecosystem relations at Samsung Next TLV in Tel Aviv. She originally studied law, and spent the first years of her career in legal roles, and moved into the tech industry in 2013, where she has held a series of roles including head of portfolio development at a venture capital fund. She is a co-founder and advisor at Restart, whose goal is to help wounded soldiers reintegrate into “real life” after a life changing event. She is also a fellow podcaster at Ma Batafkid, where she broadcasts about non-techie roles in the start-up ecosystem.
Our discussion covers Avigail's decision to leave law and build a career in tech, even if it meant starting at a lower level on the career ladder, and how she advanced through the area. I had first learned about Avigail's role in venture capital through her quote in this article: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/more-women-are-needed-in-israels-vc-community/ and reached out to her in a cold-call. She graciously agreed to share her story.
We move to discuss the stats regarding female founders and venture capitalists in Israel and why representation is not what it should be. We then examine what is changing and how affinity groups and enabling women to find their voice, even through podcasting, can improve the landscape. Finally we discuss two of Avigail's other passions, her charity helping wounded soldiers and her own podcast series, as well as some famous tech figures who have inspired her with their biographies.
This podcast series on Inspiring Israeli Women in Tech and Beyond was made possible by the generous support of Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Fran Jakubowicz is CEO at SunHouse Marketing, a firm that generates leads and conducts social media and digital marketing for clients across verticals including Medtech, Pharma, Fintech, Startups, Law, Consumer Goods, Education and SAAS. She previously held a range of director of marketing positions across firms in Israel and Canada, and is a passionate advocate for entrepreneurs across Israel.
In our discussion Fran discusses her own career journey, and how she bounced back from a sudden career setback that sprung from a recession. The silver lining of this setback was that it served as a catalyst to boost her own entrepreneurial plans, and she shares some thoughts on dos and don’ts when starting one's own business.
We also discuss the importance of mentoring, the value of being mentored throughout one's own career and as well as the joy she derives from working with upcoming entrepreneurs. Fran also offers insights on how women should learn to know their value in the workplace and gives invaluable advice on what she would have told her younger self.
There is more information about Sunhouse Marketing at: https://www.sunhousemarketing.com/ and Fran has a vibrant social media presence on Linked In where you can find her post not just industry tips, but some occasional links showcasing the beauty of Israel.
This podcast series on Inspiring Israeli Women in Tech and Beyond was made possible by the generous support of Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Helena Baker grew up in London and has a background in journalism and copywriting. Since moving to Israel in 2019 she has founded English Speaking Network, one of Israel’s premier networking group. She describes herself as a Pro Schmoozer and LinkedIn Queen.
In our discussion we talk about the early days of her career, why she was motivated to strike out on her own and what drove her move to Israel. We discuss her experience as a business owner, and whether being a female business owner has presented particular challenges.
Helena's forte is networking and she generously shares some tips on effective networking, how it can work for different personality types and how Linked In can be used as a networking and business building tool. We also discuss a few tips for for online etiquette, which has been stretched (perhaps to its limit) during our Covid-19 existence.
This podcast series focused on Inspiring Israeli women in tech and beyond was made possible by the support of Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.
Elinor Swery is a Solutions Engineer at Rookout, based in Tel Aviv. Rookout empowers engineers to solve customer issues faster, by making debugging easy and accessible in any environment.
She describes herself as working at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds, and has a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Auckland. Born in Israel, she moved to New Zealand at the age of 10 and moved back to Israel two years ago.
Our conversation traces what Elinor loved about the field of mechanical engineering, her travel and research and how ultimately she was driven towards the application of technology and developing solutions. We discuss her move to Israel and adjustment to some cultural differences from New Zealand, as well as her experience in settling in to a new company in a time of Covid.
Finally we recognize the people in her life who have inspired her, and words of wisdom she lives by - including the urge to get outside her comfort zone on a regular basis. Find out why, by tuning in!
Welcome to our new Fiftyfaces Focus series in which we interview inspiring women in the Israeli tech sector and beyond. The original Fiftyfaces Podcast focused on diversity in the world of finance and investment - we know that the tech world has similar issues of representation.
In order to explore this we went to “startup nation” Israel, a burgeoning tech hub - where, with a population of around 8.5 million, it has the largest number of startups per capita in the world. In this first series we meet with six inspiring women from across the tech arena and adjacent areas. We learn about their career journeys, what motivates them, why female founders sometimes struggle to attract investment capital, where gender bias exists and the kinds of supports and networks that they find most beneficial.
We hear secrets of networking from a "LinkedIN Queen", what lies outside one's comfort zone, the empowering journey of a religious woman into Unix design, the unique challenges of fundraising in the venture industry, how one female founder saw her business rise from the ashes of a devastating setback and techniques to build and sustain more visibility in one's career.
Co-hosted by Aoifinn Devitt and Maeve McQuillan, this first series features Elinor Swery, Helena Baker, Fran Jakubowicz, Avigail Levine, Miriam Isaac and Helen Gottstein.
From next week, please subscribe to our special Fiftyfaces Focus series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.