A lot has been said recently about autonomous vehicles. But before we see fully autonomous vehicles on the road at scale, there is another important revolution that is already happening across all vehicles, both autonomous and non-autonomous — the connected car revolution. A connected car is simply a car that has an embedded wireless connection, which allows… Continue reading Connected Cars: A Multibillion-Dollar Opportunity
Category: Uncategorized
Don’t let your first large customer kill your startup
Being a CEO of an early stage startup is tough. You have to find a way to efficiently reach customers and convince them buy your product. At the same time, you are continuously tweaking the product, battling to prove product-market fit. At the back of your mind, you know you have limited time to demonstrate… Continue reading Don’t let your first large customer kill your startup
The startup’s version of “Beat and Raise”
One of the best ways for a public company to increase its share price is by beating quarterly earnings estimates and raising full year guidance. This is what is routinely referred to as the “beat and raise.” In simple English, beat-and-raise means that the past was better than expected and the future is going to… Continue reading The startup’s version of “Beat and Raise”
Can revenue reduce your startup’s value?
Deciding when to raise money and how much to raise are among the most crucial decisions a startup CEO makes. The “textbook answer” for the questions above is to raise enough capital for the company to achieve an accretive milestone. After hitting that milestone the company can go out again and raise more money at a… Continue reading Can revenue reduce your startup’s value?
What makes (Israeli) startups succeed?
It has been a good year so far for our Israeli-based portfolio companies with four exits totaling more than $1.2 Billion. Early this year, Altair was acquired by Sony Semiconductor for $212M, which was the first acquisition ever for the Japanese company in Israel. Then Oracle announced the acquisition of virtualization company Ravello Systems, and… Continue reading What makes (Israeli) startups succeed?
We are Hiring an Associate for our Israeli team!
Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) is looking for an Investment Associate who will join our team in Israel. He/she should be smart, curious, personable, and ideally have tech background. Elite tech unit, Tier-1 startup, or tech giant (Facebook/Google etc.) work experience is a big plus. Top tier Consulting or Investment Banking experience will work as well. The candidate should speak fluent… Continue reading We are Hiring an Associate for our Israeli team!
Key lessons from CloudLock’s $293M acquisition
Cisco just announced it is acquiring CloudLock, an Israeli Cloud security startup, for $293M. This is a great outcome for the CloudLock team and the investors. Bessemer first invested in CloudLock in January 2014 when the space it was operating was still very nascent. Below is the blog post we posted on our website in January 2014 that explains why… Continue reading Key lessons from CloudLock’s $293M acquisition
Israel should be the first country to support driverless cars
Vehicles that drive themselves are no longer just fantasies. Driverless Cars, also called Autonomous Vehicles (AV), became mainstream in 2010 when Google unveiled a car that drove itself on California freeways. Today, every major auto manufacturer and several large tech companies are working on developing autonomous vehicles. It is no longer a question of if,… Continue reading Israel should be the first country to support driverless cars
The one metric early stage startups should ignore
Too often founders of early stage companies build a three year revenue plan which gets the company to profitability. These are companies that are barely generating revenue yet somehow decided to focus on profitability. While in theory, getting to profitability is an important milestone for a company, it typically comes at a much later stage in the company’s… Continue reading The one metric early stage startups should ignore
Israeli startups- don’t waste time on Israel
Israeli startups are typically built from day one to target the global market, and predominantly the US. It’s impossible to build a decent size business targeting the local market since Israel has a small population and is surrounded by dissimilar and mainly hostile neighboring countries. However, in the very early stages of a startup Israeli founders often target the local market. First, most… Continue reading Israeli startups- don’t waste time on Israel
Venturing Startup Nation 