What’s New at F2

Recently we were asked how the latest conflict affected the market in Israel. We believe that the answer is the same for our startups at F2 as it is for the Startup Nation. In a word, the answer is resilience. Coming right off the back of the pandemic, the conflict once again tested Israel’s resilience and forged our determination.
Overall, the first quarter was an incredibly productive period for the fund, with interest and investment in Israeli deep technology and our core sectors higher than we have ever seen it before. Read moreExplorium Raises $75 Million Series C
In machine learning, a feature is a property or characteristic of the phenomenon being observed. Feature engineering — the process of using domain knowledge to extract features from raw data via data-mining techniques — is often arduous. According to a Forbes survey, data scientists spend 80% of their time on data preparation, and 76% view it as the least enjoyable part of their work. It’s also expensive. Trifecta pegs the collective data prep cost for organizations at $450 billion. Explorium automatically extracts, engineers, aggregates, and integrates the relevant features from data to power sophisticated predictive algorithms, evaluating hundreds before scoring, ranking, and deploying the top performers. “We have a saying at Explorium — ‘No matter how many gadgets you have in the kitchen, you need the right ingredients to cook a good meal’, Maor Shlomo, CEO, Explorium
Read more about Explorium’s funding roundParametrix Raises $17.5 Million Series A
First-of-its-kind downtime insurance offering, Parametrix, announced that it has raised $17.5M in funding. “The business world’s dependence on cloud solutions is rapidly accelerating. To help them hedge this external risk, we created a new category in the insurance market by introducing reliable protection from the cloud downtime incidents that inevitably occur“, explains Yonatan Hatzor, CEO at Parametrix Insurance. “I am very proud that FirstMark and F2 Venture Capital have joined our journey, and excited to move together into our rapid growth phase during which we will expand our operations around the world.”
Read more about Parametrix funding roundOOM Recognized as a Cool Gartner Vendor
Leading Insurtech company for new mobility, VOOM, has been named a Cool Vendor in Gartner 2021 Cool Vendors in insurance. “We are honored to be recognized as a Gartner Cool Vendor,” said Tomer Kashi, co-founder and CEO of VOOM. “Our mission is to ensure that both insurance providers and customers have the right technology in place to experience the most flexible insurance options possible. We believe that InsurTech has the potential to change mobility and many other aspects of our lives.”
Read more about Cool Gartner recognitionOriient Partners with Leading DIY Store Chain in Germany
toom Baumark, a leading DIY store chain in Germany with over 300 stores, has chosen Oriient’s AI-powered realogram generation to enhance customer experience and streamline operations. Oriient will provide in-store navigation: improving brick-and-mortar shopping journeys, cutting costs by accelerating stocking and packing rate, and optimizing the layout.
Read more about their partnership
Monday Files for Wall Street IPO
GP backed company Monday.com, a team management software platform, has filed confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a Wall Street Initial Public Offering (IPO). “Bloomberg” reports that Monday.com is working with Goldman Sachs Group on the listing. The IPO could take place as soon as this quarter, though details are under wraps.
Read more about the IPO
HoneyBook Raises $155M at $1B+ Valuation
Junction alumni HoneyBook has raised $155M at $1B+ valuation for their workflow management system. They will use their new capital to continue product development and “dramatically” boost their headcount across the San Francisco and Tel Aviv offices. “We’re seeing so much demand for additional services and products, so we definitely want to invest and create better ways for our members to present themselves online,” explains CEO Oz Alon.
Read more about HoneyBook’s round

Read More : Finding the Perfect Co-founder: A Practical Guide

You have a brilliant startup idea, you have professional expertise in the field, and you have the drive to succeed. Now you need to find a co-founder, and you have no idea where to begin.
Finding the right co-founder is arguably the most significant first step to your company’s success. Their victories will be your victories, their losses will be your losses, and you will rely on each other for your well-being, professionally, financially, and emotionally.
It is also well-documented that one of the leading causes of startup failure is the wrong team, so you can say finding the right partner for your venture is kind of a big deal.
As a Startup Psychologist in an early-stage Venture Capital firm who focuses on founder dynamics, I am at the apex of the co-founder crises that many companies go through during their journey and have guided countless startups through the co-founder search. Through years of experience, I have learned the ins and outs of how best to scout your startup soul mate.
Know What You Need
Before you begin sniffing around for a co-founder, understand what it is that you are looking for. For this you need to get to know yourself, your skills, and most importantly, your weaknesses. In other words- you must know yourself in order to accurately choose your founder.
We have the psychological tendency to look for the known, the secure, for it is the things we know that we can control. However, that perfect co-founder is meant to complete you and have the skills that you lack for a minimum viable product (MVP) to be possible, as soon as possible.
If you studied computer science for four years next to your buddy Jim, although you may be tempted to rope him in to your startup (he always had the best mid-class snacks after all) this would be a fiercely weak move. You already have a tech background, what you need for that MVP is someone to fill in those essential gaps, be it an expert in sales, operations, or whatever other vital skills you are lacking. As Eran Ben-Shushan, the co-founder and CEO of the successful events platform, Bizzabo, says, “don’t double park on skills.”
Although you are looking for someone who is different to you in terms of what they do best, it is also important that you find someone who is similar to you in terms of values, life goals, mindset and whose company you enjoy. Chemistry is a core factor for success.
This is a person who you will be spending endless time with and bad blood between co-founders can kill a company before it has taken its first breath.
These seemingly contradictory pieces of advice are summarized perfectly by entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Peter Thiel: “Everyone at your company should be different in the same way — a tribe of like-minded people fiercely devoted to the company’s mission.”
Put the Word Out
Founders often have an obsession with privacy and “stealth mode” lest someone steal their idea and run with it. While this fear is understandable, it is not entirely reasonable and can greatly harm your ability to find the right co-founder.
The chances of finding the perfect co-founders amongst your close circle of friends are not high, so putting yourself and your company out there to reach a wider audience is essential, be it through LinkedIn, Twitter, email, or sharing your news with family, friends and new acquaintances.
This does not mean you have to spell out your business thesis from start to finish, but giving general details of the space you are in and the role you are looking for is unlikely to result in competitors popping up left right and center. After all, it takes a very specific person to execute on an idea, and you are that person.
The Courting Period
Once you have put yourself and your startup on the radar, prospective partners will begin to turn to you. Of these prospects, there are three levels of connections- those that you know personally, those that you know through a mutual acquaintance, and those that you don’t know at all. The due diligence process will, of course, alter depending on the level.
The first step when it comes to a virtual stranger will be a courting period, much like going on first dates. This should be two to three times and should occur face to face, in different contexts. One of these meetings should take place at their or your home, the other at a bar or restaurant, and so on. This will help you assess their character in different conditions as you see the changes in the way they conduct themselves.
During these meetings, the more that you lay out on the table, the easier and healthier it will be for you and your company down the line. Topics to be brought up include roles, vision, lifestyle, and what you are looking for as you enter this endeavor (exit? M&A? IPO? ). You should assess where they are in life, are they ready to devote themselves fully to this project? Where do they put their energy?
On top of making sure that your values and vision align, it is also a great time to ensure the chemistry is there and whether you will be able to share an office with this individual without tearing your hair out when things get rough (and they will get rough.)
Time for Reference Calls
After initial conviction, if the courting period went smoothly and you