Lightning Round: Aliyah and Venture Capital

Come and join Olim in Tech for its second Lightning Round event. We are honored to be joined by Michael Eisenberg (Aleph VC) and Olaf Sakkers (Maniv Mobility) who will share their experiences of being Olim in Venture Capital and then answer questions from the audience. Space will be limited, so please reserve a spot as soon as possible. We will try to begin as close to 6:30 as possible, so please arrive early to get seated!

FREE TICKETS

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lightning-round-aliyah-and-venture-capital-tickets-37189166799

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Michael Eisenberg:

Michael Eisenberg is an Equal Partner at Aleph, an early stage venture capital fund with over $330MM under management. Aleph serves Israeli entrepreneurs who want to build high growth, scalable, global businesses. Since its founding in 2013, Aleph has invested in 12 companies including WeWork, Geoquant, Lemonade, Windward, Honeybook, COLU and Nexar.

Prior to Aleph, Michael was a general partner at Benchmark Capital which he joined in July 2005 and continues as the partner responsible for Benchmark’s Israeli portfolio. Michael has focused on Internet and software-enabled-services investments since 1995 and has invested in and sat on the board of Israel’s leading companies and start ups, such as Shopping.com (Nasdaq SHOP, acquired by EBAY), Conduit, SeekingAlpha, Gigya, WeWork, Wix (Nasdaq WIX), Answers.com (Nasdaq ANSW), Tradeum (acquired: VERT), and Picturevison (acquired: EK).

Michael writes a blog called “Six Kids and a Full Time Job” on Medium on topics ranging from politics to technology, Judaism and macro-economics, He was a contributor to Themarker.com (Hebrew) and is the author of the Hummus Manifesto, the seminal piece on Israel’s innovation scene. In 2016, Michael published two books: “The Vanishing Jew” (Hebrew Version (״ככה יעשה ליהודי”), English Version by Sela Meir Publishing, ) on Jewish Identity and Megillat Esther; and “Ben Barukh”, a commentary on the Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Brakhot.

Michael also serves on the Board of the Shomer Hachadash and Yeshivat Har Etzion and lectures frequently on the topics of Venture Capital, Israel and Entrepreneurship. Michael lives in Jerusalem, Israel with his wife and eight children.

Olaf Sakkers:

Olaf is a Partner at Maniv Mobility. Maniv, Israel's first venture capital fund dedicated exclusively to the new mobility future, has deep connections throughout the global automotive industry, as well as in the policy and technology communities. Investing primarily in early-stage Israeli startups, we seek out ideas around automotive connectivity and data, autonomous vehicle technologies such as sensors and software, and novel business models. With a wide portfolio of sector leading startups, we actively use our experience, networks and resources to help our founders turn their ideas into great companies.

Olaf joined Maniv in 2014 after completing his IDF service. While in the IDF, he began researching autonomous vehicles and the opportunities presented by this technology for Israel's startup ecosystem. Besides being involved in all aspects of Maniv's activities, Olaf has written extensively about autonomous vehicles, including a widely read piece about business model disruption in the automotive industry. He also compiles Maniv's popular newsletter, a regular summary of the latest new mobility & autonomous vehicle news with contextualizing commentary. Olaf holds a BA from Princeton University.