Why Israel Keeps Producing Billion-Dollar Consumer Companies with Danny Cohen and Oren Chernoff

**Danny Cohen** (0:00)
People have this view that AI, the core platform, will take all the market, and I think that will not happen. Unlike enterprise, the majority of consumers will not develop their own apps. No matter how easy that is, there are people that will always buy other people's software.

**Mike Gelb** (0:15)
Danny Cohen grew up watching Israel become a start-up nation. Now alongside Oren Chernoff, he's betting the country's next breakout wave will be consumer. Through Sticker Ventures, they're backing a new generation of Israeli founders, building profitable, globally-minded consumer brands and apps, designed to win far beyond Israel's borders. Today, Sticker Ventures is helping redefine what consumer innovation from Israel can look like.

**Oren Chernoff** (0:37)
We deeply believe the best distribution tends to win, not necessarily the best product and consumer, so we look for those types of entrepreneurs.

**Danny Cohen** (0:43)
I think the reality is great marketing alone will not get there if the product is shit, right? Because if they're just product people and that's all they are, they'll just never pass the first year into the real market.

**Mike Gelb** (1:00)
Danny and Oren, thank you both so much for coming on the podcast. I am so excited to have this chat with you. How are you both doing today?

**Oren Chernoff** (1:11)
We're pumped. Long time listener, first time caller.

**Mike Gelb** (1:15)
Oh my gosh. Well, thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate it. And I'm excited to talk all things Israel, all things consumer and Sticker Ventures. So I'm really, really excited for this conversation.
I want to, if you can give us like a brief history on the Israel as it pertains to technology and startup innovation. Why has Israel dominated when it comes to technology startup innovation? From your perspective.

**Danny Cohen** (1:47)
Sure. Maybe I'll take that because I was a little bit older, so I was there when things, I don't know if things started, but I was there when they emerged.
Mike, hope you're okay. You're okay there. I'm good.

**Mike Gelb** (2:00)
I'm great. I'm locked in.

**Danny Cohen** (2:02)
A couple of drivers that were significant for Israel Tech. Probably the obvious one is that without taking size or opinions, we live in a difficult neighborhood. We have a pretty strong military investments. One of the things is that the military is based on technology and innovation. When people leave the military, the IP that they develop or the knowledge is theirs, usually they take that and create a wide range of products. It turns out that what is applicable in the army is usually applicable to many, many other areas. And the empowerment that you get in the army transmits itself to a startup thing. So that is one.
The other two, and we won't take much into it, but Intel, which used to be the darling of Silicon Valley, they opened up an R&D center in Israel in the 70s, and that drove, that was the first of many of these R&D centers that started to come because of talent that moved from Israel to Silicon Valley and back. And that kind of open road between what used to be the only technology hub and Israel really generated later on R&D centers from Microsoft and then later on Google and Meta and so on. So the combination of the military, those multinationals and I think the third thing maybe is Israelis are very innovative and they want to, they always think their boss is an idiot and they should do, they could do a better job. So that kind of, that combination together creates the magic.

**Mike Gelb** (3:33)
Amazing, amazing. Yeah, I appreciate that summary. I don't know, Orin, if you have anything else to add on this.

**Oren Chernoff** (3:41)
Yeah, I think the one thing is I'm an immigrant to Israel and I moved in 2018 from the States. But for folks who have gone through the army, and then they do university, when they go to university, university in Israel is three years. It's like vocational university. There's less liberal arts than in the States, less mandatory classes. You already have a lot of identity about who you are, what you want. But like people benefit from business school, you have the military network and then your university network. So you're really starting your career a bit older. And the last thing I'd say is, people are willing to take way more risk here than in the States, way more risk. So the fear of starting a company that might not work, I don't know, that failure is celebrated if it doesn't work out, but also people are less risk averse in Israel than they are in the States.