http://idcee.org/p/tom-bronfeld-elevator/ Tom is focused on strategic corporate partnerships outside Israel for Elevator as an investment vehicle and its’ portfolio companies. Before founding Elevator, Tom was a co-founder at Bites TV, a second-screen television platform that enhances the live television experience. Tom is an alumnus of IDC Herzliya and the Zell entrepreneurship program. He holds a B.A in Communications. http://idcee.org/p/ori-glezer-elevator/ Ori focuses on strategic corporate partnerships in Israel for Elevator as an investment vehicle and its portfolio companies. Before founding Elevator, Ori was a corporate lawyer at Ron Gazit, a firm specializing in commercial litigation. Previously, he was VP of Business Development for 2Plus Wireless Solutions, a Wi-Fi infrastructure developer and Linksys’ Israel distribution partner, where he oversaw a 15M deal with Bezeq. Ori also co-founded Shark Group, one of Israel’s leading companies in the fields of international business and marketing research, content creation and management. Pic's are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/idcee/sets/ More @ http://idcee.org Follow us on: YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialIDCEEChannel Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IDCEE Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/IDCEE-3940138 Twitter: https://twitter.com/idcee_eu Google+: http://gplus.to/idcee Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/idcee/collections/

2. What is Elevator?
Based in Tel Aviv, Elevator is an
investment vehicle that focuses on seedstage companies.
Elevator identifies talent, breeds it and
elevates it to the next level.
2

3. Elevator offers seed-stage internet startups with capital,
mentorship and sponsorship. We help to bridge the gap between
these companies and the global market, primarily, New York.
Portfolio companies work for four months at our offices in Tel Aviv
before spending the final month of the program in NYC.
Over the past 18 months, Elevator has invested in and accelerated
15 companies. 85% of those companies have raised follow-up
financing.
3

4. Elevator in Numbers
5-Month
$180,000
program customized for earlystage companies with a focus
on everything that is currently
lacking in Israel
investment in each
company for 8-15% of the
company’s shares
value-add services (office
space, legal, accounting,
education, design,
marketing)
Product-Building
1 Month
Heavy focus on product
building (and design), and
go-to-market
4
$20,000
of the program is spent in
the most relevant export
market– NY, SV, Berlin, Sao
Paolo and more
Milestone
Investment
terms are established
regarding the potential for
follow on investments with
the portfolio company

5. Elevator is Vertically Focused
Internet
Cyber Security
Fin-Tech
Education
300 mentors from
startups, corporations,
VCs, angels and thought
leaders
Creating the first
CyberHub by accessing
the security industry’s top
talent
First fully funded
corporate outsourced
innovation
General and technical
skill “for-profit”
entrepreneurship
education.
In Israel focused on
“under-employed” but
“high-skill” demographics
such as ultra-Orthodox
Bank Leumi
Ron Shvilli
85% of Elevator companies to date have raised follow-on financing
5

6. Start Up Nation
Israel is an export nation because it has
no domestic consumer or business
market.
• Export Market
• Less than 8 million consumers
• Risk taking culture
• Its cooler to work for yourself
6

7. Early Stage Startups:
The good the bad and the unknown
Team
7
Idea
Timing
Obstinacy
Capital

8. TEAM TEAM TEAM
Spread the talent and have as
much as you can in-house
A Team
B Team
C Team
Technical Co-Founder
1 strong technical cofounder – all around
player
General Co-Founder
Design UX/UI Co-Founder
Experience in the target
market Co-Founder
8
Marketing Biz-Dev
Outsourced tech team

9. Idea
It seems like the best problems to solve are ones that
affect you personally:
•
•
•
•
•
Apple happened because Steve Wozniak wanted
a computer
Google because Larry and Sergey couldn't find
stuff online.
Hotmail because Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith
couldn't exchange email at work.
You can't build things users like without
understanding them.
The most successful startups seem to solve a
problem their founders had because the problems
you understand best are your own.
“instead of copying the
Facebook, with some
variation that the
Facebook rightly ignored,
look for ideas from the
other direction. Instead of
starting from companies
and working back to the
problems they solved, look
for problems and imagine
the company that might
solve them.”
– Paul Graham
9

10. Timing
•
Launch first and fast. Fix mistakes later.
Flickr started off as a massive multiplayer online
game (Game Never Ending) before realizing people
really just wanted to share and tag their photos.
Viagra was originally made to help people with
hypertension - not erectile dysfunction.
•
10
You can now fail faster and cheaper than ever
before. So take our advice and get out there. You
won’t know what works until you start testing what
doesn’t.
“If you are not
embarrassed by
the first version
of your product,
you’ve launched
too late”
- Reid Hoffman

11. Open Your Eyes
Don’t get too attached to your original idea.
• Your idea is not is your wife – you can leave it.
• Don’t be stubborn, if it doesn’t work - fail fast.
• On average startups pivot 2.5 times before finding the
right track.
11

12. Rollercoaster– The story of Swayy
Reached 7000 users. realized that in order
be a major player in the publishing industry
you need to have deep pockets. it was the
classic chicken and egg problem - they
couldn't grow without having a partnership.
with more than 12,000
users and initial funding
decided to shut down
Summer because they
didn't believe it can
grow to be a substantial
business
Accepted to
Elevator
First Class
Launched a
private beta
May
2012
Starting
point:
Summer
June
2012
Launched Swayy
in a public beta
with premium
packages for pro
and business
users. First attempt
to monetize.
Sep
2012
Launched a
public beta
and reached
3,000 users
Nov
2012
Jan
2013
Mar
2013
Launched Swayy in
a private beta
MVPs to a few new ideas
they had at the time, softlaunched them, got some
users on board and realized
whether it can generate
revenue fast enough
May
2013
July
2013
Sep
2013
8000 customers
(including top brands
and companies such
as NewsCred,
Minnesota
Timberwolves, yotpo
etc)

13. Capital
•
•
Validate your idea cheaply.
•
Show your investor how you “de-risk” the investment
•
Raising money from a lot of people, means there are a lot of
people who want their money back + interest.
•
13
Talent is money
It is harder to change direction once you raise significant capital.

14. If you are gonna do it you
better be All-In
14

15. 15

16. THANK YOU!
16