The Jeff Pulver Blog
Notes, comments and observations

A Qik Look at Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends) in Tel Aviv:

Earlier today I hosted a breakfast at Cafe Aroma in Tel Aviv. The following video clips were originally broadcast live during the breakfast.

Tags: Qik, Social Media, breakfast, Tel Aviv, Jeff Pulver

I’m spending this week in Tel Aviv and I look forward to spending time catching up with a number of (early) early-stage startups.

This morning I hosted a successful Keiretsu meeting which brought together many of the Israeli startups I’m involved with.

Tomorrow morning I am hosting my 4th “Real-Time Social Networking Breakfast” event in Tel Aviv this year. This looks like it may be my largest breakfast to date (out of 30 that I have hosted in 16 cities) as over 200 people are registered for the event. Tomorrow afternoon is a typical afternoon for me in Tel Aviv with meetings scheduled in a non-stop stream of back-to-back meetings.

I am not aware of any other city anywhere in the world where one can smell the entrepreneurship in the air. Every time I visit Tel Aviv I continue to be amazed by: the people I meet; the ideas I hear about; the innovation which is happening; and by the positive energy in the air. The people I know who are involved with startups in Israel are living the 24/7 lifestyle of working non-stop. Just about anything and everything is possible. All it takes is an open mind, vision, inspiration and opportunity.

I enjoy visiting Tel Aviv and the opportunity to catch up with my friends who collectively have become my source of inspiration for a lot of the work that I do. These are some of the people who have helped establish Tel Aviv as the Hi-Tech Startup Capital of the World.

Tags: Tel Aviv, startup, Jeff Pulver

This week while I am in Israel I will be meeting with and will be pitched by a number of hi-tech startups with dreams. Many times during these meetings I feel like I’m a technology scout looking for the “next big thing.” I look forward to attending these meetings as it is one of the ways I am able to keep track of the latest trends and fashions inside of the Israeli hi-tech startup space which I find particularly fertile for some reason. It is through the process of being pitched and pitching that I am exposed to both innovation and opportunity. And after hosting 25-30 often back to back full days of such meetings during a visit, I usually find myself unusually inspired about the future of the future and I especially enjoy the opportunity to meet some pretty amazing dreamers and doers people along the way.

While there are a number of things I take into consideration when making a decision about whether I should invest in an early-stage startup, one of the key components of any startup are the people, sometimes better known as “The Team.”

The Team is what will make or break a startup. As a serial entrepreneur who dreams and as an investor, I have an appreciation for what makes a great team. Some of the startups I tried to raise money for and failed in raising money for was due as much as to The Team that I had as much any other external factors. When building a team for a startup it is as close to gut check time as one gets.

Relevance Matters, Sometimes

My advise in pitching a startup team is that if for example you have a great idea that will transform the advertising industry, you might want to have someone on your team has advertising experience, at least from a business development perspective. If you are going to transform the end user experience for selling widgets, make sure someone on your team is an expert about widgets or at least has experience working in the widget industry. The point here is that there are times where it is helpful in having someone with relevant experience in the industry your startup is trying to disrupt.

This said, when I am the one responsible for building a team, there are times where I am also going to be the one to contradict my own suggestion about relevance because also believe in trying to do the impossible. Sometimes when I am working on a startup, I look for people who have NO experience in the field we are targeting because I believe in the power of one is more then the power of none and that the power of No! and Cant can over power the blind ambition (also known as passion, obsession, intensity etc) of people who don’t know they can't do something. In many cases these are the people who change the world as we know it - its not the technology that changes the world its the people who use it. So there is blind ambition factor to think about too.

So when I do my own startups, I look to get the best possible team together that I can. I look for people who are smart, focused and driven. I look for people who are both smarter then me and passionate. People who understand both their own strengths and their weakness and people who mesh well together. And I look for people whose dreams and vision for the startup is on par with my own. When building a startup the role I generally end up with is Chairman but I am willing to assume any that role whenever necessary in order to launch the company.

Check Your Ego at the Door

When you pitch a startup to investors, be prepared to check your ego at the door not your passion. Prospective investors have a habit of being critical of everything that is said and it needs to be understood that sometimes prospective investors will share with you something which turns out to be the best advice for the future. It is sometimes hard to take it in because if they are talking about you and your team it is a natural reaction to become immediately defensive. A friend of mine is fond of saying "we are real good at seeing other people but when they see us we think they are talking about somebody else.” But if you can get past that, be prepared to be a good listener - you know what you know, you don't know what you don't know so you might as well listen and then ask questions regarding their advice and you may learn better ways to pitch your vision and for other people who they know who you might want to consider reaching out to join YOUR team.

There are times when you will pitch your company looking to raise money and the person you pitched ends up giving you some pretty good advice. And there are other times when you ask someone for advise and you end up getting their money for your startup. I have experienced both on my own.

What I look for in a Founding Team:

These days when Im making a decision about a early-stage startup opportunity to invest in, I put the people first, consider their vision and then weigh-in on my take on their ability to be a disruptive force in their chosen market space. I look to connect with the founders and find out the inspiration behind the company they are creating. I try to understand the problem they are solving and the opportunity they are seeing. And I ask them about their exit strategy.

I look to see how as a team everyone gets along, work off each other and I try to get a feel of their creative energies. I look for teams where each member is watching each others back and a core team whom I feel will be together for the long term. I look for people who are both smart and creative who can be focused when necessary and whose personality allow themselves to be open to change directions and re-map themselves when needed. They need to be prepared to make mistakes, hopefully good mistakes, and understand that the business they are starting may morph itself several times before being the business which is the one they end up doing. This means I avoid people who come across being too structured. If the founders are not malleable, chances are I will take a pass. In the end I find myself investing in people first, and their ideas second. Invention is often something you discover when working on something else so I always keep an eye out for what I am missing - and its sometimes the obvious that i don't see.

Out of Sight - Out of Mind

As an investor, I am sometimes an internal advisor to the company whether the founders realize it or not. As such, I try to only get involved in companies where I feel I have something positive to contribute. I have learned a hard lesson of just investing in companies who wanted money, but otherwise had no interest in me. Over time, those investments have become my out of sight investments. And the lesson learned was that I have to be out of my mind to let such investments be out of my sight. So these days I look to only invest in companies whose mission is something I can relate to from the start. And if the team isn’t open to hearing my suggestions / ideas, they are not going to be getting my attention or my investment.

A Team of One

In my case, it is possible for the team to be one person. But when it is just one person, I am looking for a real superstar. Someone who has the ability to lead, the ability to code, the ability to express themselves and the ability to raise money, while simultaneously being able to juggle and about a dozen other responsibilities. And while I have been fortunate to discover superstars everyone once in a while, most of the other times when I am meeting with someone who has the vision for the business but is not the person who is able to implement it, I suggest they add such a person to their team. I have met my share of genius developer who I don’t feel would be a great leader and is not the person who will be able to connect with investors. In these cases I strongly suggest the person look to find a co-founder or two of equal standing.

Getting Funded - Both an Art and a Science

Personally I feel more comfortable investing in someone who has been successful in the past and whose passion and vision is strong for the opportunity presented is strong. But I have also invested in my share of unknowns who turned out to be pretty amazing people once they were given the opportunity.

Getting your startup funded is as much an art as it a science. It is hard to really understand all the elements that are necessary in order to get funded. But when you are the one making the investment decision, sometimes you just know three to five minutes into the pitch that this is the company you want to get involved with. You resonate with what is being said and you want to be part of this opportunity and look forward to helping to grow the company over time.

Please don’t be discouraged if I or someone else takes a pass on your startup, All it means is that someone isn’t interested at that moment but chances are you are one step closer to getting funded. And should your vision for the opportunity morph, you can always contact prospective investors again.

I'm Jeff Pulver and I am looking forward to being pitched. :)

Tags: Tel Aviv, startup, Israel, Jeff Pulver

“...Well I’m on my way
I don’t know where I’m going
I’m on my way I’m taking my time
But I don’t know where...” - Paul Simon

There are times where the person on that row boat is me and there are times when the person on that row boat is YOU. These are the times where we can find ourselves on our way, we don’t know where we are going and are not necessarily in any rush to get there. But we are on our way somewhere because we recognized the need to do something.

Sometimes we find ourselves in places and in times when we need to do something to introduce a change in our lives. And these are the times we have to get on the boat and start going somewhere.

How often do you find yourself rowing between places and ideas? Sometimes we need to take the time to be alone and reflect. Other times we need the opportunity to think forward and project who we are and where we are going. It all depends upon where your mind is and how you approach the situation.

There have been times in my life where I saw an opportunity and I went for it, alone. I didn’t start out alone but I ended up alone because no one else wanted to take the risk of traveling in my boat. And while not every opportunity I have seen has ended up a success as I see success, I would much rather have tried something and failed then never tried at all. And I recognize everyone sees success in their own way. One of my friends talks about making good mistakes and for him, success is a mistake that is also a learning experience.

I have also experienced the feeling of sitting idle as if I was waiting for something to happen. And when this happens my mind usually wonders over to Newton’s First Law of Motion - “Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.” There are times for me to be idle and other times to put myself in motion. And with that said, I would like to believe I am someone who at times is willing to jump into the boat of life and start rowing myself towards a dream.

How about YOU? How often do you find yourself on that same row boat? Are you someone who keeps yourself in motion or do you also find yourself sometimes sitting idle waiting for someone or something to put yourself in motion?

Tags: Entrepreneurship, leadership, Entrepreneur, Jeff Pulver

Please consider leaving a comment. Share a thought. Share your experience. And feel free to find me on twitter and continue this conversation.

Luna Farm is in Sagaponack, NY

(photo taken on Aug 23, 2008 with a Nikon D300 and a 28-200mm zoom)

(photo taken on Aug 23, 2008 with a Nikon D300 and a 28-200mm zoom)

Friends who use twitter on a regular basis now have an opportunity to speak with their friends on twitter. All that is needed is broadband connectivity and a visit to http://phweet.com.

Yesterday I used Phweet for the first time using my Macbook and I’m now a fan. It is great to see a new application promoting the End-to-end principle.

The next time you see me on twitter, feel free to give phweet a try and let’s talk.

Tags: Social Media, Social Communications, phweet, voip, twitter, Jeff Pulver

Please consider leaving a comment. And feel free to find me on twitter and continue this conversation.

Back when I was in high school, I remember sitting in class and listening to a teacher ask a question and not being the person who raised their hand to answer the question even when I thought I knew the answer. It was only after hearing others in my class get the question wrong when I would consider raising my hand and sharing what I believed was the right answer. If I was called on, I generally knew the answer but I rarely wanted be the one to volunteer it. All these years later I ask myself why did I behave like that in high school? I suspect part of the answer was that I was afraid of being me. I was uncomfortable with who I was and the last thing I wanted to do was to be noticed at a time when I would rather blur myself into the sidelines and be invisible to those people around me rather than be seen. And maybe I was just a “little” shy.

And maybe this is something everyone goes through when they are growing up. I’m not sure about this since I never asked anyone else about it. But given the chance to repeat this experience all over again, if I was going to re-live my high school experience, chances are I would act the same because that is who I was at that moment in my life. I was lonely, I was shy and I didn’t have a clue about a lot of things. (I was a geek and didn’t know it.) O.K., I still don’t have a clue about some things but when I was growing up there wasn’t a book of clues for me to read which informed them about the realities of life. For some yes there was Catcher in the Rye but not everyone in my world could relate to the world of Holden Caulfield. And looking back I don't think I could have really appreciated the power of being able to read "the book of clues" for high school students.

Then one day I woke up and understood that getting noticed is sometimes o.k. It is one of the ways we get to define ourselves. And I was comfortable about it. And I realized these awakenings are all steps in the continuing evolution of how we become the person we are.

Part of growing up included getting comfortable with myself. Understanding my faults, my weaknesses and getting to know myself as a person. And this isn’t something that happened over night or during the course of a day or a week or a month. No for me it is something that slowly transformed me over time. And something I think about even today.

There are times in our lives when we don’t know who we are or what we want to be and this happens for some of us more often than we know. There are times when the only person I ever talk to about this is me. This is the inner dialog in my mind that doesn’t always result in an answered question. Sometimes the person we think we are and the person we want to be are two different people. Sometimes we get lucky and there is a chance to blur our different selves together. Other times we need to deal with the reality of who we are verses who we have become. And along the way we need to be aware of what is going on around us.

My advice is when you find yourself during one of these periods of self discovery is that you should not afraid to be YOU. You are the one person directly responsible for your future. Be proud of who YOU are.

Once you are comfortable with who you are and where you are and where you want to be you are in the best position to assume the responsibility of being yourself. The rest is up to YOU.

Tags: Entrepreneurship, leadership, Entrepreneur, Jeff Pulver

Please consider leaving a comment. Share a thought. Share your experience. And feel free to find me on twitter and continue this conversation.

(photo taken on Aug 8, 2008 with a Nikon D300 and a 28-200mm zoom)

Next week while I am in Israel, I will be attending a number of events including:

August 27th - Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Tel Aviv.

August 28th - The Tel Aviv-Yafo Entrepreneur Meetup Group - I’m the guest speaker. Details: http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1174/.

August 31st - amuta2.0 - Social Media for Not-for-Profits (in Jerusalem). I’m speaking at this event and I’m hosting a social media breakfast. For details, please see: http://amuta20.com/events/.

When I’m not at these events, chances are that I will be meeting with (early) early stage startups. While my meeting schedule is just about fully booked, if you are aware of an interesting hi-tech Israeli startup that I should know about, please feel free to send me a message.

I am looking forward to catching up with a number of my friends during my upcoming trip.

Tags: Tel Aviv, startup, Israel, Amuta2.0, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

I praise TRAI for proposing to open up the Indian market to VoIP.

Yesterday in a big win for the VON Coalition and VoIP enthusiasts around the world, the Indian regulator TRAI issued its recommendation on "Issues Related to Internet Telephony." The VON Coalition filed a comprehensive set of recommendation in June of this year in this proceeding arguing that they should open their market to VoIP and it appears that they have followed the thrust of their recommendations. TRAI is recommending a framework that essentially allows unrestricted VoIP offerings in India. Previously (among other problems), VoIP services were unable to make calls directly to the Indian public switched telephone network (PSTN).

They found that their existing regulatory framework was slowing the adoption of VoIP and preventing broader adoption of broadband - and thus find that they need to remove regulatory barriers to VoIP availability and adoption.

Key recommendations include:

- ISPs have been permitted to provide unrestricted Internet telephony (Termination of Internet telephony calls on PSTN/PLMN and vice-versa).

- National Long Distance (NLD) operators shall be permitted to connect to ISPs through public Internet (Internet cloud) for unrestricted Internet telephony.

- ISPs and NLD shall have mutual agreement for unrestricted Internet telephony.

- NLD shall make suitable commercial and technical arrangements with access providers (PSTN/PLMN) for unrestricted Internet telephony.

- No change in existing IUC regime.

- TEC shall identify distinct number resources for Internet Telephony subscribers.

- Telephone numbers from identified blocks shall be allocated to ISPs, UASPs, BSOs & CMSPs for Internet telephony.

- Emergency number dialing is not mandated to ISPs. (they note on page 55 that "Imposition of restrictions and mandatory obligations may kill the initiative to provide unrestricted Internet telephony before a service can commercially pickup"

- All ISPs interested to provide unrestricted Internet telephony shall install Lawful Interception equipment.

- Quality of service (QoS) for unrestricted telephony has not been mandated.

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With all this said, its important to note that this is not yet a fait accompli. These recommendations now go to the Department of Telecom (DOT) which has been known to disagree with TRAI before - but I expect these will be adopted. It is great to see such a sign from the country that is often the "back office" to the rest of the world is likely to begin opening its door to the benefits of VoIP.

Finally, one of the most populous countries in the world is on the move to advance VoIP.

Special thanks to everyone who has been working on making this happen.

Tags: voip, India, TRAI, VON Coalition, Public Policy, Jeff Pulver

A few years ago, a friend told me: “Jeff, sometimes you first need to make a difference before you make money.” Looking back, I know what he said was true.

Several times in my life I have experienced a period of time where my passion for a product, technology or a service became a personal obsession which eventually turned into a revenue producing opportunity for myself (and for others.) Usually I discovered this new found passion when I was totally entrenched doing something else. Looking back, it seems that this just another one of my personality traits, something in my DNA.

I first remember having this happen to me back when I was a teenager where my passion for music drove me to become a DJ which eventually gave me my first source of income in high school and college. It happened again when I was working at an accounting firm and I started using Lotus 1-2-3. While working at the accounting firm, I founded a software publishing and consulting business focused on servicing the financial services industry. Back in those days “Lotus” was my obsession and about every 5th word of mine had sometime to do with Lotus and spreadsheets. In 1995 it was my passion to communicate and my usage of Vocaltec’s Internet Phone as a hobbyist which put me down the path I took which eventually lead to me working full time in the emerging Voice over IP industry.

Never during the transition of passion to obsession do I question myself as to why I am spending my time being obsessive, nor do I ever ask myself “what’s in it for me?” before moving forward in a specific direction. In fact most of the time the direction I go in is never planned. It wasn’t totally random either. I more or less allow myself to respond to the opportunities as they present themselves and from there I just do whatever l feel is the appropriate thing to do.

Yes I do believe in earning a living. And yes I do believe and respect business models. But sometimes what excites me more is the opportunity to be disruptive and to challenge the status quo. Especially when I’m following my heart. Maybe more to challenge the status quo and bring about change than I even realize.

I remember having a big argument with my father during Thanksgiving weekend in 1995 about Internet Telephony and my passion/obsession with it. My father’s feeling that “now is the time you need to cash in on the work that you are doing” and my response that “now isn’t the time to cash in. That time will come later.” And it did.

Sometimes it is your passion which will open up doors of opportunities others who are blinded by just the opportunity to make quick money can never can see. Sometimes you will have the opportunity to do things others either can’t or won’t do. It is what you in these situations that will (sometimes accidently) put you in a position to stand out. In my case, it was my founding of the VON Coalition in March, 1996 in response to the ACTA petition while working full-time on Wall Street that created an opportunity and platform for myself. I started the VON Coalition to defend the nascent VoIP industry because I felt it needed to be defended. No one asked me to do it and no one told me to do it, I just did it. Once I got fired from my day job, I was able to leverage my passion with VoIP and spend time with the community of people who had a vested interested in the future of communications. (In this case, getting fired was a good thing.)

What I’ve learned and experienced is sometimes your next big opportunity doesn’t always present itself clearly. Sometimes you have to make the opportunity yourself. And sometimes you need to put yourself in a position so you can benefit from such opportunities. In order to do this, you need to have a clear perspective on what you truly believe in and then be in a position to allow yourself to act accordingly. This isn’t something you can ask someone else to do for you. And this isn’t something you necessarily need to ask anyone’s advise about because chances are no one will see the opportunity as clearly as you do. This is one of those times where you need to believe in yourself because if you have doubt in yourself, you can’t do it.

When you are able to take advantage of the opportunity you see, be prepared for a pretty amazing ride. And should you get lucky along the way, just accept it. I used to feel defensive about being lucky. I have since learned that “being lucky is o.k.”

Whenever you can find yourself working in the field of your passion, enjoying the work you are doing and in a position to earn a living because of it, for many people this is a great place to be. And a place I look to get to myself whenever I am able to give myself to the opportunity to be there.

And yes, sometimes you first need to make a difference before you make money.

Tags: Entrepreneurship, leadership, Entrepreneur, Jeff Pulver

Please consider leaving a comment. And if you are someone who also discovered a way to turn your passion into your reality, please feel free to share your story. And feel free to find me on twitter and continue this conversation.

Tags: sunrise, Miami Beach, Jeff Pulver

(photo taken on Aug 17, 2008 with a Nikon D300 and a 28-200mm zoom)

On Wednesday, August 27th I will be in Tel Aviv and hosting my fourth Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends) in Tel Aviv from 0900-1100. With more than 180 people already signed up, this looks like it will be my largest breakfast networking event to date.

To RSVP, please visit this event on Facebook.

Everyone attending this breakfast will receive a "Personal Social Networking Toolkit." Friends can learn more about my “Personal Social Networking Toolkit” by watching the video below:

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Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Tel Aviv, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Pulver