Invested by Aleph

Michael Eisenberg

How can values create value? Join Venture Capitalist and Author Michael Eisenberg as he speaks with global business leaders to explore the values and purpose behind their businesses, the impact of technology on humanity, and the humanity behind digitization. Michael Eisenberg is Co-Founder and General Partner of Aleph, an early-stage venture capital fund with $850M under management in Tel Aviv, Israel. Aleph is an early stage venture capital fund focused on partnering with great Israeli entrepreneurs to build large, meaningful companies and impactful global brands.

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August 12 · 16 min
Almost Everything We Believed About AI a Year Ago Was Wrong – Seven Experts Who Still Can't Agree on Whether It's a Bubble, Who It Pays Off For, or What Comes Next
On this special episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg pulls together the sharpest AI arguments from the last year of the show and puts them in conversation with one another. You'll hear from Gavin Baker, Sarah Tavel, Micha Kaufman, Elad Raz, Eran Shir, Zach Greenberger and David Magerman - seven investors and founders who disagree about almost everything except the stakes. This is not a group of people arguing over the same set of facts. Because the field is moving so quickly, each of them is describing a different epoch of AI. Compute was supposed to depreciate quickly - instead, demand is growing. Inference wasn't supposed to be profitable - today it is wildly profitable. AI was supposed to be a game for frontier labs only - open source models are now competing with them. And AI was supposed to trigger mass unemployment - the latest numbers suggest the companies going all in on AI are hiring more people, not fewer. From David Magerman calling the financial bubble 10 to 50 times the size of the internet bubble, to Gavin Baker walking through the ROI math on trillions of dollars of GPU spend, to Micha Kaufman arguing that AI gives everyone the same superpowers and therefore gives no one an advantage, to Elad Raz on why the age of compute has replaced the age of energy - this is a fast, honest map of where the debate actually stands. They discuss: Whether AI is a financial bubble - and whether that even matters The $200 billion, $600 billion and now trillion-dollar ROI question on GPU spending What actually improved (and what didn't) between Hopper, Blackwell and Rubin Why inference is gross-margin profitable while model training amortization isn't pretty The employment debate: replacement, augmentation or temporary dislocation What AI does to junior work, mentorship and the pipeline of senior engineers Scaling agent capital instead of human capital - and paying developers to spend tokens Why building a "bridge" the labs will bulldoze is a treacherous strategy Why data and information theory still beat throwing everything into an LLM The unknowable economic returns to superintelligence Why the world moved from fighting over food, to energy, to compute Featured in this episode: Gavin Baker is the Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Atreides Management, LP. Prior to founding Atreides in 2019, Gavin was at Fidelity Investments from 1999 to 2017, most recently as the portfolio manager of the Fidelity OTC Portfolio. Sarah Tavel is a Venture Partner at Benchmark, where she invests in network effect businesses and applications leveraging AI. She was the first female General Partner in Benchmark's history. Prior to Benchmark, Sarah was a General Partner at Greylock Partners, and she joined Pinterest in 2012 after co-leading the Series A investment while at Bessemer Venture Partners. Micha Kaufman is the founder and CEO of Fiverr, the global freelance marketplace that helped define the gig economy. Since launching the platform in 2010, Micha has led Fiverr from a scrappy, bootstrapped startup into a publicly traded company offering millions of services across hundreds of categories. Elad Raz is the Founder and CEO of NextSilicon, a deep-tech company redefining high-performance computing and AI infrastructure. A graduate of the IDF's elite Unit 8200, Elad brings more than 20 years of experience in technology, entrepreneurship and executive leadership. Eran Shir is the Co-Founder, CPO & Chairman at Nexar. He is a serial entrepreneur and investor, and previously served as Entrepreneur in Residence at Aleph. Zach Greenberger is the CEO of Nexar, leading the company's mission to build AI for the physical world using real-world driving data. Prior to Nexar, Zach served as Chief Business Officer at Lyft and held leadership roles at Tesla. Since their episode aired, Nexar and Nauto have agreed to merge, with Zach leading the combined company. David Magerman is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Differential Ventures, a New York-based venture capital fund investing in deep technology companies that help power the data-driven economy. Previously, he spent the entirety of his career at Renaissance Technologies, widely recognized as the world's most successful quantitative hedge fund management company. If you want a clear-eyed view of the bull case, the bubble case, the labor case and the compute case - all in one sitting - this compilation is essential listening. Michael's hope is that you finish it with more questions than answers, and that you go deeper on the full episodes. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - "AI Is a Machine Gun We're Giving Children" 00:43 - Same Topic, Different Epochs 02:10 - How Wrong We All Were a Year Ago 03:12 - A Bubble 10 to 50x the Internet Bubble 03:46 - "OpenAI Isn't a Functioning Business" 03:58 - Hopper to Blackwell: Linear Scaling 04:31 - The Trillion-Dollar ROI Question 05:23 - "I've Never Seen Anything Like This" 06:13 - The Great Employment Debate 07:08 - It's Still the First Inning 07:33 - The Illusion of AI Superpowers 08:51 - Replacing Labor or Augmenting It? 09:13 - What AI Does to Junior Work 09:30 - Scaling Agent Capital, Not Headcount 10:28 - $300 a Day in Tokens Per Developer 12:01 - "We're Going to Bulldoze You" 13:15 - Data Beats Throwing It All Into an LLM 14:12 - Food, Then Energy, Now Compute 14:36 - The Unknowable Returns to Superintelligence 15:22 - More Questions Than Answers RESOURCES Watch the full episode with Gavin Baker - https://www.aleph.vc/content/gavin-baker Watch the full episode with Sarah Tavel - https://www.aleph.vc/content/sarah-tavel Watch the full episode with Micha Kaufman - https://www.aleph.vc/content/micha-kaufman Watch the full episode with Elad Raz - https://www.aleph.vc/content/elad-raz Watch the full episode with Eran Shir & Zach Greenberger - https://www.aleph.vc/content/eran-shir-and-zach-greenberger Watch the full episode with David Magerman - https://www.aleph.vc/content/david-magerman Follow Gavin on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinbaker-portfoliomanager/ Follow Sarah on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahtavel/ Follow Micha on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michakaufman/ Follow Elad on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eladraz/ Follow Eran on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eranshir/ Follow Zach on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-greenberger-a3a3444a/ Follow David on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-magerman-954b25174/ Subscribe to Invested here - https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph - https://www.aleph.vc/ Sign up for Aleph's monthly email newsletter - https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter - https://twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter - https://x.com/aleph?s=20 Follow Aleph on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ Follow Aleph on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir
July 29 · 1 hr 4 min
Daniel Lubetzky, Founder of KIND, on Reaching a $7 Billion Valuation, Why Builders Beat Destroyers, and How Many Nickels It Costs to Stick to Values
On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with Daniel Lubetzky — founder of KIND Snacks, Shark Tank investor, and founder of the Builders Movement — for a wide-ranging conversation about building enduring companies, the values behind them, and using business as a tool to bring divided people together. Daniel shares how KIND grew from a $10,000 idea into a multibillion-dollar brand with only $5 million in primary investment, why he named the company after his father Roman, a Holocaust survivor, and how a decade of failures with his first venture, PeaceWorks, taught him everything he needed to build KIND. He and Michael also go deep on the Middle East, the origins of the “oppressor vs. victim” framework, why good intentions so often produce bad outcomes, and how the Builders Movement is working to equip citizens to solve problems rather than tear each other apart. Drawing on Daniel’s journey from a Jewish school in Mexico City to Stanford Law School to the set of Shark Tank, this episode weaves together entrepreneurship, parenting, resilience, and the conviction that — as Daniel puts it — values create value. They discuss: How KIND grew from $10,000 to a multibillion-dollar company with just $5M in primary investment Why Daniel named the brand after his father, a survivor of the Kovno ghetto and Dachau The decade of failures at PeaceWorks that made KIND possible Why “values are only values when they’re tested and cost you something” Saying no to the zero-sugar fad — and the courage to know what you are not Builders vs. destroyers: the three Ds and the four Cs of a builder’s mindset Why he believes we’re raising a generation without the agency to solve problems What the Abraham Accords prove about challenging conventional wisdom Why he joined Shark Tank full-time — and the deal he thinks could be worth billions Fixing Section 230 and confronting the harms of social media Best known as the founder of KIND Snacks, Daniel is a social entrepreneur whose work spans industries, ideologies, and borders—always rooted in the same mission: to equip people to think flexibly, solve problems creatively, and build durable solutions to our world’s most difficult challenges. Today, through Camino Partners, Daniel and his team of investor-operators back leaders building businesses taking an enduring approach to enhancing consumers’ lives. He is also the founder of Builders, a movement helping people move beyond "us vs. them" mindsets. Builders equips citizens to uncover hidden common ground and build on it – with durable solutions that advance the will of the people. After five seasons as a guest on Shark Tank, Daniel joined the cast full-time in 2024. He is also the author of The New York Times-bestseller Do the KIND Thing. Daniel holds a BA in Economics and International Relations from Trinity University and a JD from Stanford Law School. A proud U.S. citizen who immigrated from Mexico at 16, he enjoys time with his family and a good magic trick. If you want to understand how to build a brand that lasts, why failure is the raw material of success, and what it takes to build bridges in a divided world, this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 – A Multibillion-Dollar Brand, No Investment Needed 01:47 – Why He Named It KIND 04:10 – His Father Roman, a Holocaust Survivor 09:19 – Moshe Pupik and the PeaceWorks Years 14:09 – The Night He Bummed a Ride From Michael Dell 17:34 – The Bus Ride That Set His Life’s Mission 20:39 – “I Wear My Failures Proudly” 22:22 – What the Abraham Accords Prove 24:59 – Builders vs. Destroyers 30:17 – Give Every Kid a Different Initial 33:00 – When Good Intentions Go Wrong 37:22 – Values Only Count When They Cost You 39:33 – Saying No to the Zero-Sugar Fad 41:26 – Why He Sold KIND 44:10 – Why He Joined Shark Tank 48:14 – How He Saved Neuro Gum 52:00 – Force-Feeding Manhattan, One Store at a Time 60:29 – Fixing Section 230 & Social Media RESOURCES Follow Daniel on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daniellubetzky Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20 ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir
July 1 · 1 hr 1 min
Yuval Ariav, Solo GP of Symbol Capital, on Pre-Consensus Investing, Why NextSilicon Could Be Israel's NVIDIA, and the $1.1 Trillion Market Hiding in Plain Sight
On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with Yuval Ariav, Managing Partner of Symbol, a first-check VC focused on pre-consensus investments in Israel. Yuval also teaches at Columbia University about the intersection of data, business, and society. Before starting to invest, Yuval founded Fundbox, an Israeli fintech unicorn, and headed Product and Engineering for Onavo, an Israeli analytics company backed by Sequoia and acquired by Meta in 2013. In this conversation, Michael and Yuval unpack what it means to invest before the consensus forms - and why the best venture opportunities often look strange, niche, or even wrong at first. They discuss why hot seed rounds can force bad decision-making, how a solo GP builds co-founder-level conviction, and why Symbol wants to become the go-to first-check fund for Israel's weirdest venture opportunities. The conversation goes far beyond venture capital. Yuval and Michael dig into Columbia, academia, social unrest, the collapse of critical thinking, identity politics, and what happens when technology lets money, influence, and opinion compound faster than society can absorb. Yuval also explains why he believes NextSilicon could become "Israel's NVIDIA," why Jiga is attacking a trillion-dollar procurement market most VCs ignore, and how theater production in New York unexpectedly helped him build a better venture network. They discuss: · Pre-consensus vs. non-consensus investing · Why hot VC rounds can destroy conviction · How Symbol backs weird Israeli startups early · Columbia, activism, and critical thinking · Why media shapes identity · How compounding power fuels social unrest · Why NextSilicon could become Israel's NVIDIA · Jiga and the trillion-dollar invisible procurement market If you want to understand first-check investing, Israeli venture capital, AI infrastructure, compounding social power, and the future of universities, this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - The 12-Hour VC Decision 01:13 - Pre-Consensus vs. Consensus Venture Capital 05:12 - Hot Deals vs. Real Conviction 09:28 - Backing Israel's Weirdest Startups 12:26 - Nearly Buying Symbol.com for $10K 16:29 - Turning Columbia Students Into LPs 19:11 - Theater Production as VC Networking 22:36 - Writing Brutally Short Investment Memos 26:44 - When Compounding Breaks Society 30:16 - Are We Already in Social Unrest? 32:03 - What Really Happened at Columbia 36:34 - Academia's Activist Costume 42:22 - Is Identity Downstream of Media? 50:22 - Could NextSilicon Become Israel's NVIDIA? 54:02 - The Trillion-Dollar Market VCs Ignore RESOURCES Follow Yuval on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuvalariav/ Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20 ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir
June 17 · 1 hr 8 min
Saar Safra, Founder & CEO of Beewise, on Why Bees are a Matter of National Security, the Honey Laundering Scandal, and the AI Beekeeper That Never Sleeps
On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with Saar Safra, CEO & Co-Founder of Beewise, for a fascinating and urgent conversation about the collapse of bee colonies, the future of food security, and why AI and robotics may be essential to keeping the world fed. Saar explains why bees are a critical input into global agriculture, how the 175-year-old wooden hive became a bottleneck for modern farming, and why Beewise built the BeeHome: a solar-powered robotic hive using computer vision, sensors, AI models, and real-time treatment to protect colonies in the field. Drawing on Saar's background across P2P payments, ad tech, PropTech, Microsoft, and multiple exits, Michael and Saar unpack how a software entrepreneur ended up trying to save bees - and why pollination may be one of the most overlooked infrastructure problems in the global economy. They discuss: · Why bee colony collapse threatens the global food supply · How pesticides, monoculture, disease, varroa mites, and climate stress are killing colonies · How Beewise's AI beekeeper monitors bees and applies treatment automatically · Why beekeepers see BeeHome as help, not replacement · The hidden world of honey laundering and fake honey · Why pollination is becoming a matter of national security · How mission-driven technology can lower food costs and improve resilience Saar is CEO & Co-Founder at Beewise and a seasoned entrepreneur. He started his career as a software developer; in 2001 he became CTO of Ad4Ever, which was acquired by aQuantive, where he served as GM & VP of Rich Media. In 2007, aQuantive was acquired by Microsoft, where Saar served as Director of Rich Media Solutions until 2008, when he left to found ActiveBuilding, a pioneer in PropTech. ActiveBuilding was acquired by RealPage in 2013. Across the five companies he founded or joined before Beewise, Saar has had three successful exits. He received his MBA from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. If you want to understand how AI, robotics, agriculture, food security, biodiversity, and entrepreneurship intersect - and why saving bees could mean lowering the cost of fruits, vegetables, and coffee - this episode is essential listening. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - 45% of Bee Colonies Die 03:06 - From Microsoft to Bees 06:51 - How Humans Broke Pollination 17:31 - The 175-Year-Old Hive Problem 20:10 - Trucking 200 Million Bees 25:04 - Bee Collapse Threatens Food Supply 29:35 - Pesticides, Disease, and Monoculture 32:47 - The AI Beehive Revolution 33:50 - Large Biological Models for Bees 35:14 - AI Stops Pesticide Poisoning 43:14 - Bees Are National Security 49:04 - Is AI Replacing Beekeepers? 51:17 - No Organic Honey in America 53:49 - The Honey Laundering Scandal 59:12 - Building Through Two Wars RESOURCES Follow Saar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saars Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20 ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir
June 3 · 1 hr 2 min
David Siegel, Former CEO of Meetup & Investopedia, on Solving the Loneliness Crisis, Rescuing Meetup from WeWork, and Why Israelis are Happier than Americans
On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with David Siegel, former CEO of Meetup, former CEO of Investopedia, former President of Seeking Alpha, author of Decide & Conquer, and founder of the Israel Tech Mission. David has spent more than 25 years building and leading technology companies, but his most passionate mission has been tackling one of society’s fastest-growing challenges: loneliness. As CEO of Meetup, he led the global community platform through a dramatic turnaround, transforming it from a money-losing business into a profitable company while helping millions of people connect around shared interests, passions, and causes. In this wide-ranging conversation, Michael and David explore the roots of the loneliness epidemic, why social media and screens may be making people less connected than ever, and what can actually be done to rebuild community in modern society. David shares lessons from leading Meetup through COVID, selling multiple companies, scaling organizations, and retiring from full-time operating roles at age 50. More on in the episode: Why loneliness is more dangerous than smoking How Meetup grew into a global community platform spanning nearly every country The surprising origin story of Meetup after 9/11 Turning around a WeWork company losing $20 million annually Why social media increased loneliness instead of reducing it The cultural and technological drivers behind rising social anxiety Leadership lessons from building and selling companies The power of decision-making and creating your own luck Israel Tech Mission and bringing global tech leaders to Israel Why David believes mandatory national service is the best solution to the loneliness epidemic What Israel gets right about meaning, community, and belonging David Siegel is the former CEO of Meetup, the largest platform for finding and building local community. He has had two exits over the last six years where he drove investor returns of 5x and 7x. Prior to Meetup, David served as CEO of Investopedia and President of Seeking Alpha. Today he advises CEOs, serves on boards, teaches strategy and scaling at Tel Aviv University, hosts the Keep Connected podcast, and leads the Israel Tech Mission, which has brought hundreds of global technology executives to Israel. If you want to understand leadership, community, loneliness, company turnarounds, and what creates meaning in modern life, this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:01 — Loneliness Worse Than Smoking? 02:03 — The Anti-Wall Street Career Path 05:04 — The DoubleClick Mafia Explained 08:23 — From HR to CEO 11:13 — How Michael Changed David's Career 13:27 — Adam Neumann's ‘27 Interviews’ 16:36 — Retired at 50. Then What? 18:08 — Meetup Was Born After 9/11 21:36 — Fixing A $20M WeWork Money Pit 24:02 — Revenue Is Not Evil 27:15 — Why Young People Are Lonelier 29:21 — Meetup's Biggest Product Mistake 34:22 — The DEI Debate at Meetup 40:08 — October 7th Changed Everything 59:57 — Mandatory Service Ends Loneliness RESOURCES Follow David on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmsiegel/ Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20 ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir
May 20 · 46 min
Oren Zeev, Solo VC Managing $3B, on Why Code Is No Longer a Moat, Surviving Navan's Worst IPO of 2025, and the Dangerous 10x Growth Mindset
On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with Oren Zeev, a one-man VC with $2.7 billion AUM. Over the last three decades, Oren has quietly built one of the most remarkable track records in venture capital, backing category-defining companies including Audible, Chegg, TripActions/Navan, Tipalti, Houzz, Riverside, and more. Operating without a traditional partnership or even an office, Oren runs Zeev Ventures largely from Café Venetia in Palo Alto — relying on speed, conviction, and founder relationships to make investments that others often miss. In this candid and wide-ranging conversation, Michael and Oren unpack the psychology of venture investing, why most partnerships create “negative feedback loops,” and why missing a great company is far worse than making a bad investment. Oren explains how he evaluates founders in a single meeting, what makes a company defensible in the age of AI, and why adaptability matters more than code. They also go deep on the incredible story of Navan: from an accidental street encounter that sparked the investment, to existential battles with Delta Airlines, COVID reducing revenue to nearly zero overnight, near cash collapse during hypergrowth, and surviving one of the worst IPO receptions of 2025. The conversation also explores: Why AI is both destroying and strengthening moats The mental model behind successful venture investing Why proprietary data matters more than ever Lessons from Chegg’s collapse in the ChatGPT era Founder-led companies vs. corporate “dinosaurs” Why venture capital is entering its greatest era Israeli founders, resilience, and building global companies The dangerous obsession with unsustainable hypergrowth Oren Zeev is the founder of Zeev Ventures, a solo venture capital firm managing billions in assets and backing some of the most important technology companies of the last two decades. Prior to founding Zeev Ventures, Oren was a General Partner at Apax Partners. He has been repeatedly recognized as one of the world’s top venture investors and is known for his concentrated, high-conviction investing style. If you want to understand venture capital, startup moats, AI disruption, founder psychology, and what it takes to build enduring category leaders, this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 – Intro 02:38 – Why Venture Partnerships Fail 04:42 – Missing 100x Companies Hurts More 07:00 – How Oren Decides in 24 Hours 10:04 – The Tiny Signal Behind Riverside 15:10 – Why AI Destroyed Chegg 18:27 – The New AI Moats 22:00 – Why Oren Is Bullish on Venture 25:04 – “Microsoft Will Kill It” Again 27:12 – The Accidental Navan Investment 31:08 – Delta Nearly Killed Navan 35:18 – COVID Sent Revenue to Zero 39:06 – Leadership Under Existential Pressure 44:18 – The Worst IPO of 2025 48:56 – Why Oren Still Believes Navan Wins 59:59 – The Dangerous “10x Growth” Obsession RESOURCES Follow Oren on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozeev/ Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20 ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir
May 6 · 1 hr
Elad Raz, Co-Founder and CEO at NextSilicon, on Outperforming Nvidia on Efficiency, the Architecture No One Thought Possible, and What Happens When the Memory Bottleneck Breaks
On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with Elad Raz, Founder and CEO of NextSilicon, for a deep dive into the future of compute - and why the AI revolution may be bottlenecked by the very chips powering it. In this technical and provocative conversation, Michael and Elad unpack what it actually means to “reinvent compute,” why today’s dominant architectures from Nvidia, Google, and Amazon may be fundamentally limited, and how NextSilicon is taking a radically different approach—one that replaces traditional CPUs and GPUs with a dynamically reconfigurable chip architecture. Drawing on Elad’s background in elite Unit 8200 and decades of experience in high-performance computing, he explains why most AI chips are solving for the present—not the future—and why the real breakthroughs may come from entirely new paradigms like dataflow computing. He also shares bold claims about performance, including running workloads up to 10x faster at a fraction of the power, and discusses NextSilicon’s role in building next-generation supercomputers for U.S. national labs. They discuss: - Why the world is entering the “age of compute” - What Nvidia—and the rest of the industry—may be getting wrong - The real bottleneck in AI: memory vs compute - Why faster AI often means dramatically higher cost - The difference between training, prefill, and inference architectures - Why future AI models may look nothing like transformers - The economics of chips, data centers, and trillion-parameter models - How NextSilicon’s architecture could reshape both HPC and AI Elad Raz is the Founder and CEO of NextSilicon, a deep-tech company redefining high-performance computing and AI infrastructure. A graduate of the IDF’s elite Unit 8200, Elad brings more than 20 years of experience in technology, entrepreneurship, and executive leadership. Before founding NextSilicon, he founded Integrity Project, which was acquired by Mellanox Technologies in 2014. Elad resides in Ramat Gan, Israel, with his wife and three sons. If you want to understand where AI infrastructure is really heading—and why the next wave may not belong to today’s incumbents—this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - Intro - “10x Faster, Quarter the Power” 00:35 - Secret Supercomputer in U.S. Labs 03:27 - “Reinventing Compute” vs Nvidia 05:27 - Why the World Needs Infinite Compute 08:23 - Throwing Away CPUs and GPUs 11:25 - 30x–100x Chip Throughput Explained 12:47 - “What Jensen Missed” 13:00 - Why Dataflow Failed—Until Now 17:23 - Top 500 Supercomputer Reveal Tease 25:22 - Why Faster AI Gets More Expensive 30:33 - “AI Chips Are the Dumbest Idea” 33:49 - Why Transformers Won’t Last 34:02 - “Fastest Compute on Earth” Claim 38:36 - NextSilicon Is NOT a Feature 58:03 - Compute Replaces Food and Energy RESOURCES Follow Elad on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eladraz/ Learn more about NextSilicon: https://www.nextsilicon.com/ Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20 ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir
April 15 · 58 min
Amir Fischer, Teen Venture Capitalist, on Raising $2M, Cold-Emailing Billionaires, and Why His Generation May Have the Most Agency Ever
On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with Amir Fischer, a 16-year-old investor, podcaster, and emerging venture capitalist who is building an entirely new investing thesis: teenagers backing teenagers. In this sharp and unconventional conversation, Amir explains how he started investing in public markets at age 10, built a $15,000-a-month ad agency at 14, cold-emailed 3,000 financial titans to launch his podcast, and raised a $2 million venture fund - legally set up in his mother’s name - to back the most exceptional teenage founders in the world. Michael and Amir explore what makes this generation different: growing up with the internet, adapting early to AI, and developing leverage far earlier than previous generations ever could. They also debate whether school is still the best use of time for ambitious young builders, why maturity matters more than intelligence, and how short-form content and algorithms are creating a “Great Bifurcation” between high-agency and low-agency people. They discuss: Why teenagers may be the most overlooked investment category in the world How Amir landed guests like Steve Cohen through relentless persistence Why some of the most talented teens are already working in crypto, AI, and trading The dangers of algorithm-driven short-form content How access to information is reshaping ambition, learning, and opportunity Where elite teenage founders actually come from Why Amir sees himself as a “kingmaker” for his generation Amir also reflects on identity, conviction, and the fear of mediocrity - and why young people should use their age as an advantage, not a limitation. Amir Fischer is the founder of Noar Ventures, a venture fund focused on investing in exceptional teenage founders, and the host of Generating Alpha, where he has interviewed some of the most prominent investors in the world. If you want to understand where the next generation of founders, investors, and capital allocators is coming from, this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - Intro 01:55 - Why Invest Only in Teenagers 03:22 - Maturity Matters More Than Intelligence 06:16 - The Teen Who Made $100M 07:15 - Dylan Field Said Drop Out 08:01 - Is School a Waste of Time? 09:43 - Use Your Age as a Weapon 11:33 - Teen Talent Stories Are Insane 16:00 - Started Investing at Age 10 17:56 - Built a $15K/Month Agency 19:30 - Cold Emailed 3,000 Billionaires 20:25 - How Persistence Landed Steve Cohen 24:02 - YouTube, AI, and High Agency 26:36 - The Great Bifurcation Is Coming 28:03 - Why Short-Form Content Is Dangerous 30:57 - Why Teen Founders Should Choose Amir 35:06 - Sometimes the Best Advice Is None 36:16 - Biggest Mistake: Moving Too Fast 41:20 - Why He Wants to Be Kingmaker 44:12 - Why More Jews Must Speak Up 46:47 - What Happens When Amir Ages Out 47:11 - Why This Generation Is Different 51:00 - What Being 16 Still Can’t Do 52:24 - Where He Finds Exceptional Teenagers 55:01 - The Secret Teen Networks Online 56:58 - Core Value: Be Genuine RESOURCES Follow Amir on X: https://x.com/AmirF15336 Subscribe to Generating Alpha Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@generatingalphapodcast Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20 ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir
March 30 · 57 min
Dr. Eli David, Top AI Researcher and Entrepreneur, on Free Speech, Woke AI, and Why We’re so Much Smarter Than Elephants
On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with Dr. Eli David, a leading AI researcher, entrepreneur, and one of the most outspoken voices in tech today. In this wide-ranging conversation, Michael and Eli explore the intersection of artificial intelligence, free speech, geopolitics, and the future of global power. From building and selling AI startups to amassing nearly a million followers on X through unapologetically unfiltered opinions, Eli shares why controversy, not consensus, drives both innovation and influence. They dive deep into the current state of AI - why today’s models are fundamentally inefficient, how “woke” training and RLHF shape model behavior, and why Eli believes the future of AI will come from radically different architectures and massive efficiency gains. The discussion expands into the global AI race, where energy - not algorithms - may determine whether the US or China wins. Beyond technology, the conversation turns sharply into politics and society: censorship vs. free speech, the role of social media as the modern town square, the implications of October 7th on global narratives, and why Eli believes the West is at a critical inflection point. They discuss: How Eli grew from AI researcher to viral X personality Why unfiltered speech outperforms polished narratives The hidden biases inside AI models and training systems Why current AI is powerful - but deeply inefficient China vs. the US in the race for AI dominance Free speech, censorship, and the future of online platforms Israel’s role in the global AI ecosystem and talent war Why startups and controversy share the same DNA Dr. Eli David is a leading AI researcher and entrepreneur who has founded several successful AI-based companies. In 2025, the State of Israel selected Dr. David as a national Torch Lighter at the 77th Independence Day ceremony - one of the country's highest civilian honors - in recognition of his pioneering contributions to AI. If you want to understand where AI is really heading - and why the biggest debates around it are no longer technical but ideological - this is an essential and unfiltered conversation. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - Intro 01:30 - From Unknown Founder to X Influencer 02:30 - October 7 Broke My Career - Then Blew It Up 03:30 - Posting War Footage Got Me Cancelled 04:30 - Why Macron Became My Favorite Target 05:30 - AI Humor Still “Too Soft” 06:30 - AI Is Rigged by “Woke” Trainers 08:00 - RLHF = Forced Political Bias 09:30 - Truth-Seeking AI Should Offend You 10:30 - Free Speech Has No Moral Authority 12:30 - Censorship Is Pure Power Struggle 14:00 - “Don’t Like It? Leave the Platform” 16:30 - No One Took Neural Nets Seriously 20:00 - AI Is Powerful - but Fundamentally Stupid 24:30 - China Winning AI Through Energy 28:30 - Experts Kill Innovation – Outsiders Win 33:00 - My Team is Smarter Than I Am 36:30 - Startups Require Delusion and Arrogance 41:30 - Iran Is the Real Global Threat 47:30 - AI Will Destroy SaaS… Eventually 51:00 - Israel Risks Losing AI Talent RESOURCES Follow Eli on X: https://x.com/DrEliDavid Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20 ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Dalit Merenfeld, Myron Shneider Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir
March 23 · 48 min
Ami Daniel, Co-Founder and CEO of Windward, on Global Supply Chain Disruptions, How Much Ransom Costs to Cross the Strait of Hormuz, Global Navies’ Capabilities, and How Long This Whole Thing Will Last
On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with Ami Daniel, co-founder and CEO of Windward, for a deep dive into one of the most important global trade chokepoints: the Straits of Hormuz. In this urgent conversation, Michael and Ami unpack how the closure and disruption of the Straits of Hormuz could affect the global economy, oil prices, LNG and LPG exports, container shipping, fertilizers, steel, food supply chains, and the future of maritime security. Drawing on Ami’s expertise in maritime AI and naval strategy, he explores why the Strait of Hormuz is far more than an oil story, and why its disruption impacts nearly every country, industry, and consumer in the world. They discuss: Why the Straits of Hormuz matter to global trade How Iran’s actions could reshape shipping routes, energy markets, and maritime logistics The role of naval power, mines, drones, and maritime chokepoints The ripple effects on Europe, Asia, developing markets, and the wider global economy Why this crisis could have lasting implications for inflation, supply chains, and geopolitical stability Ami Daniel is the Co-founder & CEO of Windward, a leading Maritime AI company transforming global trade through predictive intelligence and big data analytics. As a former naval officer, he brings deep maritime expertise and a passion for AI-driven risk management, compliance, and operational optimization. Under his leadership, Windward has pioneered AI solutions for governments, financial institutions, and commercial entities. His insights on maritime AI, sanctions, and supply chain resilience have been featured in major publications, including The New York Times, The Economist, and Financial Times. If you want to understand the intersection of geopolitics, maritime trade, oil markets, shipping intelligence, and global risk, this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - Intro 02:22 - “Not Just Oil” – Everything Is Hit 05:29 - Why Nobody Stopped Iran Earlier 07:40 - Mines, Drones, and Maritime Warfare 09:10 - Can Anyone Actually Reopen Hormuz? 09:20 - $500M Cargo Trips Becoming Normal 10:15 - Suicide Boats vs Global Trade 12:03 - Fuel Shortages Spreading Globally 12:50 - Modern Piracy: Iran’s Cash Playbook 14:30 - Hundreds of Ships Trapped in Gulf 15:40 - “Everything Is Stuck” – Global Supply Shock 19:38 - Why Oil Can’t Be Replaced 21:40 - US Quietly Allows Sanctioned Oil Trade 30:20 - 80% of Iranian Oil Goes to China 41:35 - One Mine Can Shut Global Trade Again RESOURCES Follow Ami Daniel on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amidaniel/ Learn more about Windward: https://windward.ai/ More from Windward research: Iran War at Sea: How the Conflict Is Disrupting Global Trade and Energy Strait of Hormuz Shipping Falls After Insurance Pullback Bulk Carriers Find New Route Out of Hormuz Strait Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20 ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Dalit Merenfeld, Myron Shneider Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir
March 9 · 11 min
Agency Under Fire: Israel’s Resilience, Innovation, and the Future of Techno-Geopolitics | An Invested Special Episode
In this special solo episode, Michael Eisenberg shares reflections from Israel during wartime. Speaking from Tel Aviv shortly after a siren sends residents to shelters, Michael offers a firsthand perspective on how Israelis are living, working, and building amid ongoing rocket attacks and regional conflict. At the center of the story is Israel's remarkable ability to produce agency at scale – and the cultural forces that drive Israelis to act, innovate, and support one another even in moments of crisis. Michael also steps back to discuss the bigger picture. As global conflict intensifies and geopolitics increasingly intertwines with technology, he argues that resilience, sovereignty, and technological capability will define the next era. From defense technology and artificial intelligence-enabled coordination to the continued momentum of Israel's startup ecosystem, this episode examines how war accelerates innovation and reshapes global investment and power. Part reflection, part analysis, this episode offers a window into the mindset of a nation under pressure — and why Michael believes Israel's culture of resilience, entrepreneurship, and initiative will play an outsized role in the technological and geopolitical landscape of the coming decade. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts!
February 18 · 1 hr 6 min
Zach Greenberger & Eran Shir on Nexar’s Dominating the AV Market, Real-World Data Moats & the Playbook for Building an Agentic Company
On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with Eran Shir and Zach Greenberger of Nexar. Eran Shir is the Co-Founder, CPO & Chairman at Nexar. He is a serial entrepreneur and investor. Previously, he served as Entrepreneur in Residence at Aleph, focusing on IoT, big data, cryptocurrencies, and network-driven market disruption. Before that, Eran led Yahoo's global Creative Innovation Center following the acquisition of Dapper, a dynamic advertising startup that he co-founded. He began his career as a physicist specializing in complex systems and networks, later founding the DIMES Internet research project and co-founding the machine learning company Cogniview. Zach Greenberger is the CEO of Nexar, leading the company’s mission to build AI for the physical world using real-world driving data. Under his leadership, Nexar powers one of the largest connected vehicle networks, generating hundreds of millions of miles of data each month to advance mapping, mobility, and road safety. Prior to Nexar, Zach served as Chief Business Officer at Lyft and held leadership roles at Tesla, focusing on strategic partnerships and new growth initiatives. Nexar provides a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) network that prevents road collisions and enables autonomous mobility. They do this through a global, connected, and intelligent network of mobile cameras on the road that use data to deliver valuable insights, so Nexar can ultimately build transformative products in vehicle autonomy and safety. Nexar's technology is being used by the public sector, autonomous vehicle makers, OEMs, fleets, and insurance companies. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - Intro 02:10 - Uber Is 10 Years Too Late 05:20 - Fancy AV Fleets Were a Mistake 06:03 - Nexar Got Paid to Collect 1.2 Billion Miles of Data 07:39 - Nexar Dominates Waymo in Data Collection 09:19 - Google Burns $50 Per Mile 09:38 - Tesla and Nexar: the Only Market Players 12:48 - 100,000 Uber Drivers Already Use Nexar 16:40 - LLMs Won’t Solve the Real World 19:25 - Synthetic Data is Not Enough 21:55 - Rare Edge Cases Caught on Camera 24:09 - NVIDIA Needed Our Data 33:27 - Inside an “Agentic” Organization 40:51 - We Pay Employees to Use AI 52:44 - Nexar’s World Model Outperforms ADAS 01:05:27 - Leading a Cross-Global Team RESOURCES Follow Zach on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-greenberger-a3a3444a/ Follow Eran on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eranshir/ Learn more about Nexar: https://www.nexar-ai.com/ Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20 ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring, Jackie Goldberg Design: Rony Karadi
February 4 · 1 hr 2 min
SpotitEarly CEO Shlomi Madar on How Their Dogs Can Sniff Early-Stage Cancer, Why Dogs + AI is a Critical Combination, and Whether Cancer Screening Should be Regulated
On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with Dr. Shlomi Madar, the CEO of SpotitEarly. Madar is a PhD-trained molecular biologist with more than 15 years of leadership experience spanning oncology, diagnostics, and healthcare business development. At SpotitEarly, he leads the company’s U.S. buildout, overseeing strategic partnerships, clinical collaborations, and fundraising. He has held multiple leadership roles at the intersection of product strategy, commercialization, and clinical execution in high-stakes healthcare settings, across several biotech and digital health companies. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - Intro 02:50 - Theranos vs. Dogs: Why This Is Real 04:56 - Three Minutes to Detect Cancer 06:41 - Why Beagles Beat Other Dogs 09:02 - AI Watches Dogs’ Every Move 13:01 - Dogs + AI Break 90% Accuracy 13:43 - Blood Tests Miss Early Cancer Detection 16:26 - Stage One Cancer = 90% Survival 17:26 - Why Grail Fails at Early Detection 18:55 - Early Cancer Smells Stronger 22:26 - Selling Cancer Tests Direct-to-Consumer 27:22 - $250 a Year to Save Your Life 29:33 - Different Dogs for Different Cancers 30:10 - “This One’s for Ty” 42:22 - AI Can’t Replace Biological Sensors 46:00 - Dogs Smelled Disease 100 Years Ago 48:55 - You Can’t Buy a Cancer Test 50:46 - Message to RFK: Save Lives, Save Money 53:00 - Missile Strike Hit Cancer Labs 55:44 - Saving Lives vs Building Profits RESOURCES Follow Shlomi on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shlomimadar/ Learn more about SpotitEarly: https://www.spotitearly.com/ Subscribe to Invested here: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20 ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Ron Baranov, Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring Design: Rony Karadi
January 21 · 1 hr 9 min
Lightspark Co-Founder David Marcus on Bitcoin Hitting 7 Figures, Lessons from Building and Losing Libra (Diem), Why College is Cancer & Fighting for Existential Values
On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with David Marcus, the CEO and co-founder of Lightspark. Most recently, he led all payments and crypto efforts on Meta/Facebook. In 2018, David started Diem (fka Libra). He joined Meta in 2014 to lead Messenger, which he took from under 200M monthly users to over 1.5B. Previously, he was PayPal’s President. A lifelong entrepreneur, David launched two companies in Europe and then founded mobile payments company Zong in Silicon Valley, which was acquired by PayPal in 2011. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - Intro 01:54 - Dropping Out of College 05:07 - Elite Colleges Are Radicalizing Students 07:45 - AI Makes College Mostly Obsolete 15:30 - Libra Threatened the Global Financial Order 17:36 - Janet Yellen Personally Killed Libra 18:55 - Why Centralized Crypto Always Fails 19:40 - Bitcoin Is the Only Neutral Money 23:38 - Bitcoin Can’t Work - Until Lightning 26:05 - Bitcoin Replaces SWIFT and Banks 30:11 - Stablecoins Are Corporate Control Tools 33:45 - Bitcoin Enables Real De-Dollarization 36:10 - Most Financial Crime Isn’t Crypto 41:30 - Bitcoin Is the Ultimate Bar Mitzvah Gift 43:10 - Bitcoin Will Hit Seven Figures 44:05 - US Education Is a National Security Threat 47:35 - Parents Are Letting Kids Be Radicalized 54:20 - Mark Zuckerberg Backed Libra Until End 56:10 - Why Governments Fear Neutral Money 57:30 - Politics Destroyed My Faith in DC 59:10 - Israel, Iran, and Regime Change Hopes 01:03:45 - Europe’s Point of No Return RESOURCES Follow David on X: https://x.com/davidmarcus Learn more about Lightspark: https://www.lightspark.com/ Subscribe to Invested here: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikeeisenberg ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Ron Baranov, Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring Design: Rony Karadi
January 14 · 22 min
Special Episode: A Lookback on Some of the Strongest Business Leaders of 2025
On this special episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg curates the most compelling conversations and sharpest ideas from across our 2025 episodes. From Gavin Baker’s contrarian argument that climate change is already economically solved, to Nas Daily’s declaration that followers - and organic reach - are effectively dead, this episode captures the ideas that sparked the most debate, reflection, and conviction. We revisit investing legends through Sender Cohen’s comparison of George Soros and Stan Druckenmiller, explore post-acquisition realities inside Big Tech with Noam Bardin’s unfiltered reflections on Google, and unpack how companies like Fiverr and Wix reinvent perception and scale by building boldly for their next ten million users. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - Intro 00:46 – Gavin Baker: Why Global Warming Is a Solved Problem 03:54 – Sender Cohen on George Soros vs. Stan Druckenmiller 06:52 – Nas Daily: “Followers Are Dead” 07:45 – Noam Bardin’s Letter After Leaving Google 11:11 – Gali Arnon: the Genius Strategy for Growing Fiverr 13:01 – Micha Kaufman: Companies Don’t Owe You Career Growth 17:19 – Omri Casspi: Life After the NBA 19:07 – Adam Fisher: Sacrificing a Million Users for the Next 10 Million RESOURCES Subscribe to Invested here: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikeeisenberg ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Ron Baranov, Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring Design: Rony Karadi
January 7 · 1 hr 21 min
David Magerman on Building Renaissance Technologies, Why AI is “An Automatic Machine Gun We’re Giving Children,” and Sacrificing Relationships for Success
On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with David Magerman, a co-founder and Managing Partner at Differential Ventures, a New York-based venture capital fund investing in deep technology companies that help power the data-driven economy. Previously, he spent the entirety of his career at Renaissance Technologies, widely recognized as the world’s most successful quantitative hedge fund management company. He helped found the equities trading group at Renaissance, joining the group in its earliest days, playing a lead role in designing and building the trading, simulation, and estimation software. David holds a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University where his thesis on Natural Language Parsing as Statistical Pattern Recognition was an early and successful attempt to use large-scale data to produce fully-automated syntactic analysis of text. David is also the founder and president of Tzemach David, an education-focused foundation working to make education in Israel more accessible to English-speaking immigrants. Outside of his foundation's work, he is a significant contributor to the OU-JLIC in Israel, Koren Publications, Lori Palatnik's Momentum Unlimited, The City of David, and Rabbi Shlomo Katz's Shirat David, as well as some other more under-the-radar projects supporting the development and strength of the Land of Israel. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - Intro 02:55 - Why Wall Street’s Smartest Fund Rejected Finance People 06:04 - If You Can’t Close, You’re Useless 08:42 - The Hedge Fund That Invented Google Culture 12:58 - We Got Rich Solving Problems That Didn’t Matter 15:55 - How Jim Simons Proved Economists Were Wrong 17:23 - Success Was the Only Thing That Made Me Happy 18:28 - Why My Team Was Afraid of Me 21:56 - The Day I Realized No One Actually Cared 25:42 - Why Renaissance Was a Moral Failure 27:51 - I’m Glad I Made All the Wrong Choices 39:08 - AI Has Always Been a Scam 41:53 - The Truth About AI Demos No One Admits 44:55 - We Gave a Dangerous Technology to Children 45:33 - This AI Bubble Makes the Dot-Com Crash Look Small 52:38 - AI Is Killing the Next Generation of Engineers 55:47 - We’re Raising a Workforce That Can’t Think 56:42 - Most AI Use Cases Are Stupid 1:03:39 - How Tech Makes Money by Hurting People 1:08:34 - Why “Startup Nation” Is the Wrong Story RESOURCES Follow David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-magerman-954b25174/ Learn more about Differential Ventures: https://www.differential.vc/ Subscribe to Invested here: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikeeisenberg ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Myron Shneider, Sofi Levak Video and Editing: Ron Baranov, Nadav Elovic Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring Design: Rony Karadi
Dec 17, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
Founding Partner of Uncork Jeff Clavier on Being the First Seed Investor, When Your First LP is Your Wife, Passing on Uber & LinkedIn and the ‘3 Asses’ Rule
On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with Jeff Clavier, the Founding Partner at Uncork Capital, a seed-stage venture firm in Palo Alto and San Francisco. Clavier founded Uncork Capital in 2004 (then called SoftTech VC) to provide active support and capital for companies in their first 18 months of life. Jeff has helped numerous companies reach successful outcomes, including Fitbit (NYSE: FIT), SendGrid (NYSE: SEND, Twilio), Eventbrite (NYSE: EB), Postmates (Uber), and Poshmark (NASDAQ: POSH). His current investments include ClassDojo, DroneDeploy, Shippo, Front, Loft Orbital, and Carrot Fertility. Jeff was born in France and graduated from Université Paris Descartes with an M.S. in Computer Science. He was formerly the CTO and an early employee at Effix, a fintech startup that sold to Reuters. In 2000, he immigrated to the U.S. and joined RVC, Reuters’ $450 million corporate venture capital fund, as a general partner. He recently wrapped up his four-year term on the board of the National Venture Capital Association. One of the early VC bloggers in 2004, Jeff is now a popular conference speaker and social media/TV commentator. When he is not spending time with Uncork’s portfolio companies, Jeff enjoys traveling, skiing, hiking, scuba diving, collecting wine, and hanging out with friends and family. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - Intro 03:52 - Is Seed Investing Just “VC Tourism”? 06:08 - Why Being a “VC Lifer” Matters 08:35 - How Uncork Wins 91% of its Term Sheets 11:59 - GP Fundraising is Harder Than Startup Fundraising 14:15 - Capital Bottleneck in Private Markets 16:38 - Now it Takes 15 Years to Prove You’re a Good VC 20:46 - The Real Choke Point in Venture Isn’t Seed 26:13 - The “Three Asses” Rule 29:00 - Gut Feel vs. Process 32:54 - Passing on LinkedIn and Uber 37:45 - How Do You Know if You’re Actually Good at Venture? 41:19 - Succession Planning: Stepping Back After 21 Years 46:09 - Uncork Can’t Depend on One Person 47:05 - From Venture to Winemaking 52:15 - Go Narrow First RESOURCES Follow Jeff on X - https://x.com/jeff Learn more about Uncork Capital - https://uncorkcapital.com Subscribe to Invested here: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikeeisenberg ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Myron Shneider, Sofi Levak Video and Editing: Ron Baranov Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring Design: Rony Karadi
Dec 3, 2025 · 1 hr 9 min
USVP GP Jacques Benkoski on What Entrepreneurs Get Wrong About Go to Market, Building Value as an Investor & Why ‘Crossing the Chasm’ is Outdated
On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with Dr. Jacques Benkoski, a seasoned technologist, operator, and venture capitalist with a career spanning research, corporate, startups, and international investing. As a partner at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), Jacques brings decades of experience investing in the U.S. and Israel across cloud infrastructure, enterprise software, and cybersecurity. A speaker and mentor, he has taught his Market Entry Strategy seminar to over 5,000 entrepreneurs and released an expanded version of these materials in the eponymous book to help entrepreneurs turn vision into execution, and scale with purpose. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - Intro 03:59 - Riding the Dot-Com Wave 08:09 - Joining USVP & the Israel Strategy 12:06 - Bubbles Are Good 14:50 - AI Adoption Will Follow Workflows, Not Replace Them 17:44 - 95% of AI Projects Fail - and That’s Normal 19:21 - Israel’s Biggest Founder Weakness 20:45 - Why Being Founder-Friendly isn’t Helpful 24:16 - The Wiz Effect 31:20 - Jacques’s Market Entry Strategy 38:49 - Why ‘Crossing the Chasm’ Is Obsolete 47:19 - War Doesn’t Affect Investment in Israel 52:00 - Israeli Trait That Hurts Sales 56:16 - The Galapagos Syndrome RESOURCES Follow Jacques on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacques-benkoski-ab9133 “The Market Entry Strategy” Book: https://a.co/d/etw96SX Subscribe to Invested here: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikeeisenberg ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Myron Shneider, Sofi Levak Video and Editing: Ron Baranov Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring Design: Rony Karadi
Nov 19, 2025 · 52 min
Carta CEO Henry Ward on the Death of CartaX, a Controversial AI Take, Only Hiring Missionaries & the EQ Mistakes That Break Companies
On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with Henry Ward, the CEO and co-founder of Carta. Carta is trusted by more than 50,000 companies, over 8,500 investment funds and SPVs, and over 1.6 million equity holders to manage cap tables, compensation, valuations, liquidity, and more. The company has been included on the Forbes World’s Best Cloud Companies, Fast Company’s Most Innovative list, and Inc.’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies. Prior to Carta, Henry was founder and CEO of Secondsight, a portfolio optimization platform for retail investors. He also held leadership positions at software companies including Reddwerks Inc. and BetweenMarkets. Henry graduated from University of Michigan with a BGS in Mathematics and Computer Science and holds a MSC in Market Finance from EDHEC Business School. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 – Intro 01:24 – The Value Proposition of Carta 03:56 – Disrupting Traditional Professional Services 09:18 – How Carta Implements AI 17:16 – The Future of Accounting and Determinism vs. Stochasticism 20:39 – Branding vs. Product Quality in Professional Services 24:46 – Competing, Copycats, and Execution at Scale 27:02 – Core Values: Transparency and EQ 28:48 – Missionaries vs. Mercenaries: Carta’s Hiring Philosophy 31:37 – How to Find Missionaries: Recruiting Strategies 34:55 – Writing, Transparency, and Thought Leadership 36:32 – Clock Speed: Becoming a Fast-Execution Organization 48:03 – Work–Life Integration and Parenting as a CEO 51:01 – Navigating Crises: Trust, Resilience, and the CartaX Shutdown 53:57 – Future Predictions: What Will Shock Us in 20 Years RESOURCES Follow Henry on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/heward/ Follow Henry on X - https://x.com/henrysward Subscribe to Invested here: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikeeisenberg ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Myron Shneider, Sofi Levak Video and Editing: Ron Baranov Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring Design: Rony Karadi
Nov 5, 2025 · 59 min
Nuseir Yassin, AKA Nas Daily, on Being the First Israeli-Arab to Build a Unicorn, the Death of Organic Content & the New Marketing Playbook, and the Cost of Advocating for Peace Between Jews and Muslims
On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with Nuseir Yassin - better known as Nas Daily. Nuseir rose to fame by taking on an ambitious challenge: creating 1,000 videos in 1,000 days. After graduating from Harvard, he made the bold decision to leave a stable engineering job in America to pursue content creation full-time. More than eight years, 68 million followers, and thousands of videos later, Nuseir has connected people from 197 countries through his signature one-minute videos across platforms.Today, while continuing to be one of the world’s most influential content creators, Yassin is the Founder and CEO of Nas Company - an ecosystem of businesses transforming how people connect, both online and offline. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 02:00 – The First 270 Failures and One Viral Video 03:40 – When Success Makes You a Target 06:20 – Redefining Winning 08:40 – The One-Minute Revolution 11:30 – Using AI to Bridge Cultures 15:23 – “I Feel Israeli”: Identity and Belonging 21:07 – From a Village in Israel to Harvard 24:47 – The Power of Saying Yes 27:18 – The Golden Age of Solopreneurs 29:28 – Building Nas.io and the Future of Work 33:30 – Finding Talent Where Others Don’t Look 38:00 – Why Organic Reach Is Dead 44:45 – Discovering Hidden Global Talent 45:54 – Founders, Investors, and Control 49:50 – The Hardest Videos to Make 52:00 – Creator. Entrepreneur. Bridge Builder. 56:00 – The Cost of Bridge-Building 57:50 – Gratitude and the People Who Believed First RESOURCES Follow Nuseir on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nyassin/ Follow Nuseir on X - https://x.com/nasdaily/ Subscribe to Invested here: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikeeisenberg ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom Producer: Myron Shneider, Sofi Levak Video and Editing: Ron Baranov Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring Design: Rony Karadi

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