I’m a venture capitalist at Bessemer Venture Partners's Tel Aviv office fulfilling a mission to bring American venture standards to Israel and Israeli innovation and irreverence to America. I discovered Israeli venture capital while studying abroad in 1996, when business plans still arrived in manila envelopes and the office had a shared dial-up Internet connection. I don’t have an engineering degree or an MBA and didn’t serve in an elite military unit. I studied political science and economics, then worked in think tanks and drove battle tanks…in that order. I’ve written more poetry than code and never managed more than a handful of people, who were always chosen for their independent style. As an early-stage investor, I take a long-term view to partnership, investing only in entrepreneurs that I’d like to work with through the inevitable ups and downs of the startup journey. When I invest in a team, they are people I want to succeed with and the people who I don’t mind failing with if that’s the company’s fate. I derive immense satisfaction watching entrepreneurs I’ve backed grow into the industry leaders the next generation of entrepreneurs wants to emulate. And with 22 startup exits in my career, I’ve taken as much pride in helping my most challenged startups eke out a profitable outcome as I have in witnessing the winners exceed everyone’s wildest expectations. The best way to reach me is through someone who already knows me as you won’t find me at conferences or meetups unless I’ve been cajoled into attending. I try to write blog posts with a long shelf life, which is a great way to understand my thinking on investing and building companies. For the time being, I still have more people in my family tree than I do on LinkedIn, and I hope to keep it that way so only connect to me if we’ve met or if you’re distant family. Exits: Altair Semiconductor (acquired by Sony Semiconductor), Allot Communications (ALLT), Axis Network Technology (acquired by Ace), BillGuard (acquired by Prosper), Cogent Communications (COGT), Dune Networks (acquired by Broadcom), Dynamic Yield (acquired by McDonalds), Fiverr (FVRR), Intucell Systems (acquired by Cisco), Habana Labs (acquired by Intel), Leaba (acquired by Cisco), MyHeritage (acquired by Francisco Partners), Native Networks (acquired by Alcatel), Otonomo (OTMO) Prospera Technologies (acquired by Valmont), Ravello (acquired by Oracle), Sedona Systems (acquired by Cisco), Soluto (acquired by Asurion), Storwize (acquired by IBM), Traffix (acquired by F5), Wandera (acquired by Jamf) and Wix.com (WIX).