Soluto’s acquisition, thoughts, and where I am today
I published this on my Facebook account yesterday:
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Last week was a very important week for me (in case you haven’t heard - it has been announced that Soluto is being acquired)
Most people don’t know that I’m actually not part of Soluto anymore for a few months now. I’m naturally still involved with everything that’s going on, and have great friends on the team, but I moved on.
I joined Soluto exactly 4 years ago. I knew the company from its inception (a year earlier) through my high-school buddy Ishay Green but in late 2009 an opportunity presented itself. The young startup recruited a successful entrepreneur as the CEO, a relatively unknown guy named Naftali Bennett. To be honest, since I didn’t know Tomer (Soluto’s co-founder) at the time, Naftali was the reason I joined. I wanted a mentor of his stature, someone I could learn from. A month after I joined, Naftali got an offer to be the CEO of the Yesha Council. Tomer retook his original position as CEO and was left with the keys to the spaceship. I joined for mentorship but found myself, together with Tomer, having to deal with the real world - alone. Gladly, Tomer proved himself as one of the best CEOs I could hope for, and gladly - we kicked ass. We released a first product, won TechCrunch Disrupt, got millions of users and amazing positive press, and the rest is history.
Lots of struggles, lots of wins, lots of difficulties, lots of fun, lots of friends, and two amazing girls born on the way
In the middle of last year as Tuly (my wife) was approaching the end of her PhD in neural computation (she’s the smart one in the family…) it was clear we would need to relocate for her postdoc studies. Tomer was amazing in letting me take this family decision and helped me build a position that’ll keep me part of Soluto in NYC (and I should mention our investors Adam Fisher and Saul Klein who backed us up on this non-trivial process). We decided I would focus on marketing & business development instead of technology & product management.
It started well but after a few months I found myself not enjoying my work, and frankly not excelling in it. I’ve had my share of marketing successes, and I do enjoy doing marketing, but at the end of the day I’m an engineer at heart, and what drives me is technology invention and product management. Tomer and I had long chats and eventually decided that the best thing to do is part ways.
In parallel, an amazing opportunity presented itself. I was introduced to a guy named Adam Neumann, the founder and CEO of a company called WeWork, that many know as a co-working space for start-ups in NYC. I thought it was a real estate company. As I got to know Adam and WeWork I was blown away by their growth, but even more so by the sheer love their customers have for them. It was clear that technology can play a huge role in the company’s explosive growth. So when Adam offered me to join as Chief Product Officer and lead the company’s technology a few months ago I said yes.
So today I’m very happy. Soluto’s huge win fills me with pride. I’m proud of building a product that’s worthy of being acquired by one of the most awesome companies in the world who plans to offer it to 230M people. I’m proud of recruiting an amazing team who will build the Soluto service into THE world leader in its field (yes I’m talking about you- Merav Moskovich,Ofer Padan, Einat Kovenski and Jess Swiatlo). I’m proud of my partner in crime and one of my closest friends for 15 years now (god we’re old) - Omri Haim, Soluto’s VP R&D, the balancing force in my Soluto life. I cannot mention all the names but I’m proud of each and every Soluto employee. I do have to mention my veteran friend Omer “Beki” Baki, Soluto’s first employee, Boaz Shetzer, my Natanya friend and management compadre, and of course Doron Bashan who makes all of this actually work. Last but not least I’m so proud of Tomer Dvir, my psychopathic boss for the past 4 years, one of the best CEOs I’ve ever known, who I learned so much from, who I had so much fun with, who made this journey unforgettable.
As I wasn’t part of the company when it was acquired, I was naturally not included in the company photo that was published in the newspapers. So I took the liberty of photoshopping myself in. Eh who am I kidding, I wish I knew how to photoshop stuff. I used PowerPoint, the tool of real winners.
Have a great day
Cheers,
Roee
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