0:00:00 - (Ben Woolf): No one's investing in an idea unless you're a proven success with multiple exits. Otherwise you have to build it and you have to do it. Israel is not a place that you can scale. If someone makes a product here, the idea is that it's going to be sold abroad. I think it's just this. It's a roll up your sleeve nation. You roll up your sleeves, get to work again because it's direct. If it's bad, everyone's going to tell you it's really bad.

0:00:26 - (Andrew Kazlow): Welcome to the Diligent observer where we help angel investors see what most miss. I'm your host, Andrew, and every week we explore what works, what doesn't, and why through conversations with experienced startup investors and operators. My guest today is Ben Wolfe, a UK born Kellogg Northwestern trained founder and operator who started his career in banking before diving headfirst into the startup world where he lived both the highs of a successful exit and the hard lessons of building from scratch.

0:00:54 - (Andrew Kazlow): Ben went on to work in VC and in high tech strategy consulting and today he Drives growth for Israel365 Media Intel Aviv now in this episode we explore why Israel punches so far above its weight in R and D. What the roll up your sleeves and prove it investment culture means for angels evaluating deals from this part of the world and where Ben sees the biggest opportunity for outside investors. I hope you enjoy learning from Ben as much as I did.

0:01:31 - (Andrew Kazlow): Ben, thank you for being with me today.

0:01:33 - (Ben Woolf): Thank you for having me, Andrew. Really appreciate it.

0:01:35 - (Andrew Kazlow): Okay, so Ben, we were just talking about this and I am continuing to be impressed by how varied your background is. I feel like you have a really thoughtful perspective. Perspective on a number of categories. I mean night vision and glasses and it's startup building and investing and I mean all these things. You've also lived in a pile of different places, which is really fun. So a lot of places I'm excited to go with this conversation. Where I will start is what are you currently excited about?

0:02:05 - (Ben Woolf): I'm excited about a lot. I'm also pessimistic about a lot too because sometimes we see these, you know, I did one sector of my focus for a long time was automotive and for years, you know, they talk about driving driverless cars and trucks, fleet systems, software systems and radar leader, night vision, all sorts, you know, for companies like Waymo and Daima. And it's a real slow burn and is a very, it's a very exciting industry and we're now seeing the cars, right? You go to LA and other areas.

0:02:45 - (Ben Woolf): But so I'M always a little pessimistic about how long things will retake. And I know for myself, you know, when I'm using AI platforms I'm trying to create certain agents and it's still hard, but in general I'm really excited about the direction AI is going. I'll be honest, I could not have forecasted what happened in the last two years. And I think a lot of us didn't. A lot of us thought we knew what AI was and then all these softwares came out from the major companies and we didn't have a clue at what we actually going to do.

0:03:17 - (Ben Woolf): And now I'm. All I'm trying to do is think how big can I ask questions? You know, am I held back by my own mental limitations of what they're providing me? Because we ask AI to do things like we're used to in Google Search, but we need to get out of that mindset and ask really big questions and ask really tough questions and create systems and get it to create systems for us and be bigger and bolder on that.

0:03:41 - (Andrew Kazlow): Can you give an example of, of like how that plays out practically a good example you gave of the, you know, the search engine, you know. Oh, okay. It's just there. What are some other ways you're thinking about kind of asking bigger questions?

0:03:53 - (Ben Woolf): Well, think about when general research is Find X Company Find and then you're searching for an email and you're searching for some data on the company or a person who works there. Right. Instead now and then I'm using that for, you're saving into an Excel to a CRM system and then once it's in the CRM system then you automate emails, et cetera. Now you can ask it for the whole process. I can build a customer profile with parameters that I set all in the same prompt.

0:04:28 - (Ben Woolf): Then also include, I want you to research a hundred of these in one go. Then I want you to find the contact information of each one of these. Then I want you to write the email for each one of these and I want you to connect my Gmail and prep them and put them into my, into my CRM or into my communications and then I want you to be sending those emails. You know, how can we think larger for it to actually run the whole operations of what we're trying to do and think bigger in that sense more than just a Google search.

0:05:01 - (Ben Woolf): So it's more agentic. Agentic AI is interesting and I'm looking forward to when it really gets going. And I think we're not there yet. I think we're still in a transition phase. We're excited about the visual aspects of AI also. AI, not just in business, but also for medicine, for finance. I think people don't need as much help from financial institutions. When you can just get Gemini or ChatGPT to calculate everything for you, your whole investment portfolio, forecast it with all the interest rates and everything you need and then you can find everything for you. You know, it's, it's very cool.

0:05:41 - (Andrew Kazlow): Cool and terrifying and mysterious all at once, depending on where you sit and what part of that equation you know you are from a consumer standpoint. To your point, I mean, incredible. The level of firepower available to you that once was not if you are the financial institution or you're the financial advisor or the healthcare professional, you have a whole other set of concerns which are important to talk about as well. So yeah, to your point, we're in the early innings and I share your excitement, I think along with many startup investors.

0:06:13 - (Andrew Kazlow): Well, tell me more about your current ecosystem. So you over the years have been very involved in the Israeli business ecosystem and that's not something that many of our listeners are familiar with, certainly not something that I'm familiar with. So I'd love to just hear a little bit more about how that conversation is playing out vocally there in Israel in the business scene, if there's any nuance. And obviously there's some interesting geopolitical things happening right now that are potentially worth talking about. But from a business standpoint, I'd love to just hear more about what's happening on the ground right now and how AI is transforming the Israeli ecosystem.

0:06:53 - (Ben Woolf): Israel is very unique in its high tech sector. First of all, it's. We believe we're in the top three of R& D per capitol in the world. We're in the top five most successful startups in the world on the nasdaq. The company, we have, some of the largest companies all have R and D centers in Israel, think tanks and acquisition wise we've had some of the most and largest acquisitions around the world. What's unique about Israel and its tech ecosystem is first of all there's this culture in the country which is very different to the UK and the US which I'm just referencing them because I'm more familiar with them, you know, than I am Europe or Asia and other continents where because the country is, was founded in a complicated way and there was war, it meant that the culture is very focused and it's. There's a word In Hebrew called tlas, which is essentially cut the.

0:08:12 - (Ben Woolf): Cut the crap, if I can say that. And it means get straight to the business. What's the meaning? Potatoes. What's the main thing here? I don't need. And they don't need the fluff. No one needs the fluff. They want. How am I getting results? What are the results? Can we make it? Let's make it. And it became part of the culture to, to push. And there's an urgency because all of these things are happening in the political landscape.

0:08:41 - (Ben Woolf): It creates a lot of urgency amongst the people to, to push forward and drive things forwards. And what is also unique about Israel, beyond the culture is the relationship with the military. Military and defensive technologies and the army are wholesomely integrated into the technology ecosystem. So if someone starts a company, you have access to the front line of technologies and resources and companies and they are proactively engaged in helping startups to grow, to do R and D tests, to try different models.

0:09:28 - (Ben Woolf): And that creates a very powerful unity within the country. It's not just a startup and a corporate startup and a corporate and government and military all working together so that can create some really incredible technologies. And because it's a country that's very focused, we have R and D centers for Microsoft, Intel, Nvidia as well as companies have started here that are fueling knowledge into the country as well as the education systems are again, tightly knitted. It's a small country, so everything is very close and very knitted. Everyone will know everyone.

0:10:10 - (Ben Woolf): And a lot of these really amazing companies are from guys who served in the army in the highest levels and then they got into university and they, because they went straight into the army, they become very serious guys. They don't. They go to university, they're not really partying, they are getting a study from these professors and then going out because they want to just pioneer. So there's also this vision, and I think as part of the country, this vision of we want to help the world. And I know again, I'm separating politics and I don't want to discuss that because I want to think about the business sector and the tech sector and how we think and how the country thinks in that area is we want to help progress the world forwards, we want to help the world progress in health, to have better medical care, that you can take care of yourself.

0:10:59 - (Ben Woolf): We want the world to have better agriculture, more trees, more forests, more oxygen, better ways of sustainable farming, sustainable living, sustainable being. We want better cities. So we want better autonomy, we want better Transportation systems and not just within a city or a country, but also exporting and importing. You know, there are areas we're really bad at. We're really bad at clothing, retail, e commerce.

0:11:32 - (Ben Woolf): Those are not strengths of Israel. We are not good at those. We don't manufacture those things but we're really good with these other things which are very fundamental. You know, we're very good also with law and finance. We're okay. We're not the best at finance. We don't have, we're not a financial hub to say, to say the least. Not like New York or, or London actually or Frankfurt. And I think that's, that's what makes the, the atmosphere very unique that we live within that culture and then there's that unity and then there's a bigger vision with what we're trying to do. And then because we've had very successful in high tech, the VC here is venture capital is quite good and they always, they tend to take a look at business economics and try to really understand how these economics of this company will affect the world. Not just to increase the amount of revenue and money within an industry, but how it will disrupt that industry also. So I've spoken to startups or venture capital firms that they've seen amazing startups that could make a lot of money but they realize that the money that company makes will reduce the money in the industry because it's. So you got to think how is it creating a blue ocean that removes competition and drives the industry forward or is it disrupting it in a way that's unaffected? You know, this, this considerations to make in a larger macroeconomic scale diverging.

0:13:03 - (Andrew Kazlow): It's good, it's good. So what's interesting to me Ben, about as you're sharing, I mean you have literally built startups in Chicago and in London and now here. Like you have sort of experienced this in very different ecosystems. Like what I think this overlap between military driven thinking with this culture of just get it done, get to the point, very direct. Walk me through what it looks like, what it feels like to actually start a startup, not necessarily a small business but like a startup high growth type company in Israel that in your experience is different and unique and distinct. I could guess at a few things but like versus doing it in Chicago, for example, like what, what makes that experience feel so different? If I was to do, do that in Israel, I think some of it's

0:13:59 - (Ben Woolf): a bit harder in some ways. The US way of I love you, I love the way USA does business and I Loved living there. And I love the optimism and being so optimistic and having big visions and unbridled optimism over here, like, yeah, that could be huge. Let's do it. Here's cash. Make it happen. Just describe Silicon Valley, man. You know, you're the guy, go do it. Go make that amazing thing and just do it, you know, And I grew up in the uk, which is very conservative, very pessimistic.

0:14:35 - (Ben Woolf): They're a little bit held back, they're reserved. So the way they think about things, they think, okay, well, if you do that, when will I get my return on the money? Will you spend the money wisely? Is it going to come through okay? You know, they're a little bit slower as well, versus again, the US idea of just, just funnel it in and just go for it. If you blow the money, blow the money, putting 150% effort in, because that will open the door to something else.

0:15:01 - (Ben Woolf): And, and I ultimately love one and I love the other two. The other is really valuable and the other is also very valuable. That together, combined, they could be the powerhouses. Israel, I guess it doesn't, it doesn't have the optimism so freely. You know, we look at big ideas and think, okay, this is a really big idea, but it really has to be calculatable. You have to be able to somewhat prove that's a very big idea and you really need to prove it.

0:15:33 - (Ben Woolf): I think the, and getting investment is always a challenge and it's, it's a relationship and it's a growing pitch deck or growing product or growing market of, or customer base. Right. But Israel is a little bit more on the conservative side, somewhat similar to the uk, I think, where they want to see how you're going to get those returns and what it's going to look like. But they really want practical and they want to know very much against the competition.

0:16:09 - (Ben Woolf): How do you really, really stand out against competition? And any investor is going to be looking at competition to understand the landscape fully. But I've been in many potential investments that we moved on with, but we didn't do just because we felt that someone else was doing it and it wasn't special enough. They really look for unique, special techno and they look for really intellectual, technological, big data. You know, big data is a really big field here.

0:16:45 - (Ben Woolf): They really love that. To see that it's technologically advanced in a way that other people just not thinking about it, going about it a different way, and again, cutting those corners means that when you're looking at investments and looking at these companies they tend to be pretty simple ideas in mind. I'm going to do this, this and this. There isn't the fluff that other companies are bringing in other countries. I find they're very direct.

0:17:11 - (Ben Woolf): So again that directness creates better companies and the investors are looking for that.

0:17:16 - (Andrew Kazlow): So would you say there's a bias for more later stage opportunities? Is it harder on the earlier stages? Idea stage, very early traction?

0:17:25 - (Ben Woolf): Yeah. You got to, you got to build it, you've got to push it out to people, you got to get customers. There isn't much. Look, if you're a second, third time founder and you've had some successes, someone's going to give you, you'll get money from someone. That's not, if you're a first time founder, you have to build it and prove it. No one's investing in an idea unless you're a proven success with multiple exits.

0:17:55 - (Ben Woolf): Otherwise you have to build it and you have to do it. And I think in America sometimes people will invest in the idea. In the UK they'll invest in a, a well thought out plan and here they'll invest in the, have the prototype that's been built and been used and tested and now they want to invest in being prototype V2.

0:18:19 - (Andrew Kazlow): So that's a huge gap like that, that transition kills 90% of startups like won't even make it to that point. So how is like in your experience, how is the local community thinking about incubating and cultivating those ideas? Does that happen elsewhere and then they come to Israel when they're ready for that kind of scale up investment or how is, how is, how come it is getting to that point?

0:18:45 - (Ben Woolf): Locally there are incubators and accelerator programs but again to get into them, very rarely some will be at an idea stage then come in. I think it's just this, it's a roll up your sleeve nation. They, you roll up your sleeves, get to work, make it happen, go out there and embarrass yourself, get in front of people, get people to sign up, get them to try it. If it again because it's direct, if it's bad, everyone's going to tell you it's really bad.

0:19:20 - (Ben Woolf): And I know that as a, as a founder you go through a process of people saying oh that can't be done or that doesn't sound right or doesn't work. They don't necessarily do that if, if they think that. I've met many people or friends who have started companies where some people thought didn't really understand what the business concept was, but investors were open to it. They were open to like, okay, maybe I just don't understand it, and that's my problem.

0:19:53 - (Ben Woolf): But it's for me to try to understand, but it's also for you to try and prove it to me. I do. Personally, I believe that it needs to be very simple, clear and understandable. I need to see clear business models of how they're going to make money, whatever the technology is, whatever they're doing, and how they're going to scale and market this product. And also the consumer behavior. How will consumers relate to this product? And if they start saying there's five steps to get to X, then there's no point. It needs to be very easy and flow with the way people think and behave in life.

0:20:27 - (Ben Woolf): And, um, you don't want to teach people too much so they can be a little. They can be open to ideas. But again, the directness there weeds out the people and you just gotta roll up your sleeves and do it. That's. That's all it is.

0:20:42 - (Andrew Kazlow): A quick note before we continue the conversation. Alongside the Diligent observer podcast and newsletter, I also run an outsourced operations service specifically built to serve Angel Networks. My team handles things like, like initial screening, social media, newsletter prep, platform management, and a whole lot more. The kinds of things that either aren't getting done or shouldn't be done by busy community leaders.

0:21:04 - (Andrew Kazlow): If that sounds interesting to you, send me a note. Now back to it. So what else do you feel like? People often, particularly in the business community, tend to misunderstand about, like the Israeli way of business startups. I mean, I'm getting very clearly the roll up your sleeves, get it done, get to the point. Come on. Like, what do you feel? What else do you feel like? Particularly in the US for most of our audiences, folks don't understand about how business is done in Israel, particularly kind of in the startup and investment ecosystem.

0:21:32 - (Ben Woolf): Israel is not a place that you can scale. If someone makes a product here, the idea is that it's going to be sold abroad. There's very few real big startups. I mean, there are companies in Israel that grow within Israel, but those are lower down. If it's a, if it's a tech company, it's. Or yeah, anything within the field, it's always to be sold abroad. No matter what it is. That's always the context. We can test it. R and D, do that all here and then to sell across.

0:22:08 - (Ben Woolf): Doing business. Business is really hard. The general. Again, I'm. I didn't grow In Israel. I have Israeli parents, so I grew up with Israeli parents giving me that mentality. But then I grew up as an Englishman that moved to America and then traveled across Europe. So I kind of, I lost my whatever sovereign identity one has. I don't have a sovereign identity. But I, I, I'm here now. Israelis are really hard to work with.

0:22:39 - (Ben Woolf): They're either really amazing or, or difficult. So really amazing because there I sit with friends of mine from I, he was, he used to work at Google and now he run, he's a CEO of one of these high tech companies. I sit with him for an hour. He's just a powerhouse. He's so quick, so fast, so efficient. It's, and it's all just getting it done. And half an hour of him is more productive than three hours of a regular person.

0:23:10 - (Ben Woolf): It's really just, and we're working collaboratively on a document at the same time, just smashing it out so quickly. And it's so clear and concise. That's very helpful. So that side is unbelievably amazing. Then the other side is this. There's a lot of stubbornness and somewhat harshness. So Americans are very, can be very sensitive and it's kind of how you say something rather than what you say sometimes. And it could be they want to be nice, they want to have the small talk. You want to do this, you want to look at something nice and you want someone to be kind and spend money, whatever it is here, they don't care. And they don't care about that. They don't care if they're doing it nicely or not nicely. They don't care if they're spending money on it. They don't care if you're having a burger from a cheap place or an expensive place. They don't care what you're doing.

0:24:04 - (Ben Woolf): Right. Okay. So they, there are subtleties and sensitivities that Israelis over the years have got much better at. And they understand that you need to treat people the way they want to be treated. And that's to, to make them feel comfortable and that's easier for business. But also there's restrictions, governmental restrictions when an investor wants to invest in Israel. There's a lot of legal areas that need to be well understood to ease investments into the country.

0:24:32 - (Ben Woolf): It's not as simple in some ways. And I think also they're just, it's a different culture. So not everyone knows what exists. I had an argument with someone that there isn't 247 banking here. I can't call someone 247 and they said, well, that doesn't exist anywhere. And I said, well, in the UK and the US I can kind of call the bank whenever I want and get help from someone. And they're like, no. And then he goes, no, you can't.

0:25:02 - (Ben Woolf): Well, I lived there my whole life, I've been telling you I can. He goes, no, no you can't. I was like, okay, sure, I can't. Fine. So there's an interesting dynamic.

0:25:15 - (Andrew Kazlow): So hearing you say that, I mean, one of the things that's fascinating to me is that a venture ecosystem has evolved at all in the Israeli context. Like given, given that of like this. Because venture is a very, is a relatively new concept, at least in its current wrapping. The concept of investing in high risk, high return opportunities has always existed. You know, tons of examples throughout history of how this has been done. But in the modern context of like investing in startups that are probably going to fail but just might become ludicrously impactful, that is sort of a modern idea. So why do you think this has evolved and where do you see kind of Israeli early stage investment ecosystem going from here?

0:25:59 - (Andrew Kazlow): I'm hearing a ton around this defense emphasis and the R and D expertise and so certainly imagine that as a key component of this next phase. But I guess there's a few questions in here. How did we get here from a, from a cultural identity standpoint, given how modern this idea is and that deeply entrenched, wonderful stubbornness, as you say. Yeah. And where do you see things going from here?

0:26:28 - (Ben Woolf): The stubbornness works on the other way too, by the way. If they believe something can happen, there's no convincing otherwise. It's. They're just going to continue doing it, which has its benefits. I think that it's just essential part of the ecosystem here. And Israel in some ways can be a little bit behind in terms of, you know, we don't have one day delivery, but we are on the forefront of other areas.

0:26:57 - (Ben Woolf): And I think because the country, you know, again, I don't want to get political or historical. It's a new country, but it's not a new country. So the historical foundations are here for thousands of years. But in the last 70 years we finally came back to what is the homeland of Israel. And the people that entered the country and came back into the country, they were largely a mixture of, of different groups.

0:27:36 - (Ben Woolf): It was groups from. And it was intellects too. Doctors, professors, financiers. From the first wave of immigration was probably like Spain, Morocco. You've got Russia, right? And again, scientists, professors, then you had immigration from large parts of Europe and there were also people already living here as well. And then those who came from the other Middle east, the Jews from other Middle Eastern countries, were also kicked out. They had to come here as well. So it's like every part of the globe sourced back to the center here.

0:28:20 - (Ben Woolf): And they lived in tents. You're talking about highly regarded people now living in tents. But they didn't live in tents. Thinking, what happened to me? They're thinking, what do we do with this? You know, one of the first major things that happened in the country was the coastal line where Tel Aviv is from the north down to the south. Tel Aviv is in the center. Part of it was marshland that you couldn't build on and you couldn't grow crops on.

0:28:51 - (Ben Woolf): They realized, scientists then realized if you plant specific trees from the north to the south, it dries up the swamp. And by drying up the swamp, you can build foundations. By building foundations, you can build a city. You know, most of the land was desert. Now most of the land is forest, right? The irrigation systems that were created. And to fund all of this, you needed money and investment. So there was always an intellectual capacity within the country.

0:29:26 - (Ben Woolf): And over the years, the finance has been catching up with that process and meeting it hand in hand. And then, you know, the, the educational institutions, I think, you know, Einstein was the chairman, was one of the chairman of Hebrew University, which one of the first universities in the country. So there's a lot of very interesting factors to what you're saying. It's not so simple to think. It's a lot of context when you think about a larger picture.

0:29:56 - (Ben Woolf): And it's a necessity. Venture capital is a necessity. We need to keep pushing the boundaries. And it's not just venture capital from the VC standalone position, it's also venture capital from the corporate R and D arms. So Corporate R&D's are investing in companies and people to do certain things. And I know that again, Google in Israel, when they want to test something internally, I know Google have, for example, I believe it's, I will, I'll get it wrong, but it's in this context, within a month you get X amount of hours to create your own product.

0:30:36 - (Ben Woolf): And a lot of companies have that mentality of you as an individual. You're not just working for me, but you can create your own product. And that's kind of encouraged in a way to a degree. Obviously you need people working in the company. You want to improve them. But there's a lot of people that come out of companies, start their own company and then another company will acquire them and then integrate them back into a team. And that also funnels more money into venture capital, R and D spending.

0:31:01 - (Andrew Kazlow): Oh, it's fascinating. And as you think about kind of the next phase, what are the things that you feel like the finance ecosystem is pulling towards as we look forward? Do you think there will be more movement towards earlier stage, supporting more of these concept stage ideas, or is it going to be continuing to level up what we're already great at, which is scaling up technologies that have been proven, building out this R and D network?

0:31:26 - (Andrew Kazlow): Where do you see sort of the pull in the local ecosystem?

0:31:31 - (Ben Woolf): I was thinking about that question earlier. Not in the same way, but in the context of the global issue of job hiring right now, where the, the gap between graduate junior to manager or senior associate and with that in that realm is kind of disappearing. So you're not gonna, you where you have people who are higher up now who are retaining their jobs and in their jobs they're gonna, are they going to make new companies or what's going to happen to this younger generation who aren't going to be making companies or are they going to be making companies and they, are they going to be good companies because they didn't work anywhere and they need to get jobs. So how is that gap going to cause an issue in the, in the startup ecosystem?

0:32:18 - (Ben Woolf): I think I need to speak to a greater economic economist to get a good sense of that. But I think here at least the way universities are positioned is they pivot very quickly and they bring a lot of real world examples into things and they, there's a lot of work towards that. It's always trying to foster intellect and I think there'll be just a continuation of it. And I think external investments into Israel is a really incredible time to do, was incredible time to do it beforehand.

0:32:56 - (Ben Woolf): Those who invested in Israel 10 years ago would be sitting very well right now, even if it was just in the Shekel and how much, how successful the Shekel has been on the global currency, on the Forex. And I think outside investment is going to be huge, continue to do so because again, in each industry now that we have AI and we have all the major research centers are in the country, it's a really great place to foster new innovations and new ideas and again an encouragement of the individuals to do it. And there are workspaces, accelerators, programs, university programs, all pushing people to start companies to create their own ideas and then to facilitate that process and maybe it'll just get more streamlined.

0:33:54 - (Andrew Kazlow): As I understand it, this is a key part of your work. Recently you've just transitioned into a role that's really focused on helping connect the world with what's happening in Israel. So I'd love if you could share just a little bit more about your current work, why you made this transition, coming out of tech and startup land. What drew you to this and how are you helping? Because if I'm listening to this, I'm an active investor. Let's say I've got some tech company, they're in the defense space or they've got a Jewish founder or somebody that's from Israel on the team. Like this has been really helpful for me to be able to assess that deal more effectively, understand them a little bit better. But let's say I really want to come check out what's happening on the ground, see some of this locally and experience the.

0:34:36 - (Andrew Kazlow): What was the word to the point? The Taclet. I want to experience the Takhlis myself.

0:34:43 - (Ben Woolf): Yeah, that's right.

0:34:45 - (Andrew Kazlow): How do you help me do that?

0:34:47 - (Ben Woolf): You just got to come here, just got to come ultimate to the non Jewish world. Like really the, the entire ecosystem of the world. Investors should come just experience it and see it. And I guess that's, you know, I moved into working with Israel365. I was running the B2B division of a high tech company and I wanted to be in a company that I felt was doing something more impactful to the greater good. And I, I guess I'm in a more comfortable position in which I can do that.

0:35:23 - (Ben Woolf): I don't, you know, rather than, you know, these investment bankers or something working till 3am every night. I'm not doing that. I have my family, I have my wife. I, I want to have not a work life balance per se. I'm a workaholic. So I work a lot. But a balance in which I can be there to see my kid grow up, spend time with my wife and be of a company amongst really wonderful people who have the best intentions for the world and the best intentions internally without kind of any toxic kind of areas there. But.

0:35:56 - (Ben Woolf): And the company does amazing things in for profit and nonprofit. Nonprofit. Creating forests, helping build cities, I think, you know, helping 30,000 people who needed food again because of the war, helping soldiers where they need different things, helping fundraise for a whole load of different charities, you know, whether it's cancer support or again food banks for low economical areas. Loads of wonderful things. And then a whole for profit arm which is this incredible news channel and bringing really great education to the world. And then a whole media channel and media arm which has incredible capabilities in terms of video, ui, UX and forefront of marketing and innovation, VR, augmented web based, all sorts of things. We're very open to doing all sorts of areas and bring out clients.

0:36:55 - (Ben Woolf): And then my being there and the discussion that we've created, this building, this, this tour and the idea of bringing more investors to the country who aren't Jewish, who are in the evangelical Christian world. Now I'm not as well versed in that area as my colleagues are at this point, but from what I understand, there are hundreds of millions of people who believe and understand Israel is, is a, is an important factor in the world, which is I can appreciate because I think in some areas of the world, who cares about any other country aside from your own country and what you're doing and what you're living on.

0:37:36 - (Ben Woolf): Why do you have to care about anything? But we're in a global ecosystem now.

0:37:40 - (Andrew Kazlow): Well, and you are the post child of that. Having you explained your background to me. Time Jewish parent, Israeli parents, grew up in the uk, time in Chicago, now back in Tel Aviv. Like you're the poster child of it's a global world.

0:37:57 - (Ben Woolf): Yeah, yeah. And I always, I was a digital nomad before digital nomad was a word. I was working abroad, Skyping people and every time they were like, Skype, why am I doing this? And I would Skype people from any place, any country, anywhere, and just sit somewhere and do it. That was a lot of fun. But what are we saying? The. Yeah. So there's hundreds of millions of people who care about Israel as a country and understand its importance in a spiritual and historical, philosophical, ethical, moral, all these areas.

0:38:40 - (Ben Woolf): They understand its importance and they donate money to causes to help the country and to help bring people and build it, build the economy. Why not invest? Why not invest? And I think it's just that there's. They don't know, I think a lot of investors, wonderful investors, wonderful people with great morals, great ethics, great values, have been very successful and could contribute a crazy amount of good through Israel.

0:39:14 - (Ben Woolf): And there's a discussion that I'm having with different government ministries and VCs and stuff about Africa as well in that process. Because there's also. I've met many companies that help Africa and other, other parts of the world. Why not invest? And I think they just don't know. I think they don't know that how capable and successful Israel is because Israel is always for the and understandably for for the last years it's been existing right now, the Jewish world and what's close to home, Israelis, Jews abroad and so forth. But there is so much larger than that and the country knows that and country tries to integrate that and tries to bring that in as best as possible.

0:40:00 - (Ben Woolf): So I see that there's actually a huge and massive potential there. And especially because, you know, if we can create a great technology, someone invests from abroad, create a great technology here, they bring it to their country, whether it's the US Or a European country or somewhere else or Asia, anywhere, they could bring that to their country and keep just creating wonderful business together that really moves the world forwards.

0:40:25 - (Andrew Kazlow): Love it. I love it. Well, links to Ben's background will be in the show notes and would encourage anybody to reach out. Ben, thank you for taking the time to share some of your story experience perspective with us today. I look very much forward to our next conversation and I may just have to come visit soon.

0:40:45 - (Ben Woolf): Likewise. You definitely got to come visit. We'll set you up.

0:40:51 - (Andrew Kazlow): Thanks for listening to this episode of the Diligent Observer. I'm your host, Andrew, and if you're an angel investor looking for essential angel intel in five minutes every week, I think you'd enjoy my newsletter. I send my best stuff, interesting deals and more straight to your inbox so you never miss a thing. Subscribe today@thediligentobserver.com.