Aggaeus

André Levy is the Chairman of Protégé International Group and Lodestar Licensing, and one of the rare operators who has lived every chapter of modern commerce: expelled from Egypt, rebuilt in the UK, forged his career across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, opened markets by hand, survived corporate politics, and then created global brands—ROUTE 66® and The Wild Geese—rooted in story, truth, memory, and identity

This conversation is a masterclass for any founder, creator, or brand builder who wants to understand how products become myths—and why consumers attach meaning to things long before they ever read the label.

Haggai and André travel through:

• How to build trust in markets where trust is currency

• Why ROUTE 66® felt “real” even before it launched

• The Wild Geese: the Irish diaspora, pride, heritage, and identity woven into a bottle

• The secret: a brand must feel true—before it feels new

• How André turned cultural insight into €200M in annual revenue

• Why corporates fail at innovation—and why entrepreneurs win

• The only real test of a brand: does it spark a story in the buyer’s mind?

If you care about storytelling, consumer psychology, emerging markets, spirits, branding, licensing, or the entrepreneurial psyche—you will love this one.

CONNECT WITH ANDRÉ

LinkedIn

Protégé International Group

Lodestar Licensing

CONNECT WITH HAGGAI

LinkedIn

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Kardz.Biz – “A business card too good to give away”

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INQUIRIES

💼 Sponsorships / Business: [email protected]

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Some links may earn affiliate commissions. Offers, terms, and availability may change without notice.

Aggaeus content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should conduct your own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions.

We may feature companies, products, or entities in which Aggaeus, its affiliates, or the author have invested or may invest, or with which they have had, have, or may have a financial, professional, or other relationship.

Before Alexander Shilman was writing checks into frontier biotech, neurotech, AI infrastructure, and semiconductors, he was something rare in venture: a behavioral scientist trusted by governments, corporates, early-stage teams—and even prime ministers—to decode how humans actually behave under pressure, uncertainty, and change.

That vantage point became a superpower.

Alex spent a decade inside rooms most people never see—fixing real-world problems from cyber-risk to national policy—and quietly building a portfolio of early teams through his behavioral consultancy. Startups came to him to understand users; corporates came to him to understand people; and investors came to him for signal.

Eventually the “consulting portfolio” revealed itself for what it was: deal flow. And the gap in Israel’s deep-tech funding landscape revealed itself for what it was: a generational opportunity.

Today Alex is the Founder & Managing Partner of New Gate Capital, one of the very few funds in Israel purpose-built for deep tech at the point where technology is real, market signal is emerging, and team dynamics either become a moat—or kill the company.

Haggai and Alex go deep into the intersection he sits on uniquely:

behavioral science × human decision-making × deep-tech investing

…and why understanding humans matters more than understanding code.

This conversation is a full tour through:

• How foundational biases—social proof, sunk cost, uncertainty aversion—shape product, sales, culture, fundraising, and failure
• Why anomalies in data reveal more than dashboards ever will
• Why change-coping ability is the #1 predictor of startup survival
• How teams break when tech threatens identity (from factories to hospitals)
• Why AI brings a “perfect psychological storm” and how societies can prepare
• Why Israeli founders can close deals literally from tunnels—and what the world misunderstands about Israeli entrepreneurial agency
• And what deep-tech VCs will look like in a world where AI writes most of the code

Alex also walks through two of New Gate’s standout portfolio companies—a cancer-drug delivery breakthrough from Technion, and a neuro-signal platform processing emotions in real time—revealing how he evaluates founders, risk, and resilience where uncertainty is the norm.

If you want to understand where venture capital is actually going, why deep tech is the last defensible frontier, and what makes a team fundable when the world gets unpredictable—this episode isn’t optional.

Connect with Alexander

LinkedIn

Website

New Gate Capital

Connect with Haggai

LinkedIn

Follow Aggaeus

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YouTube

Subscribe to the Podcast

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Apple Podcasts

Sponsors

Kardz.Biz – “A business card too good to give away”

Inquiries

Sponsorships/Business: [email protected]

Podcast: DM on Instagram

Some links may earn affiliate commissions. Offers, terms, and availability may change without notice.

Aggaeus content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should conduct your own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions.

We may feature companies, products, or entities in which Aggaeus, its affiliates, or the author have invested or may invest, or with which they have had, have, or may have a financial, professional, or other relationship.

How many times can you rebuild your life? Andreas Foeldenyi has done it—again and again. From losing everything after 9/11 to teaching in obscure classrooms just to pay the bills, to becoming Co-CEO of one of Switzerland’s largest private education groups, Academia Group—his story is a masterclass in grit, reinvention, and the art of turning collapse into momentum.

Andreas’s career has spanned continents and contradictions: teacher turned entrepreneur, pianist turned CEO, Swiss executive turned NGO founder in Vietnam. He’s built companies, sold them, lost them, and built again. Now, as he transitions from CEO to multi-board investor and mentor, he reflects with raw honesty on the rollercoaster behind the résumé—and what it really costs to keep starting over.

In this conversation, Andreas and Haggai Klorman Eraqi go deep on:

• The emotional and financial toll of losing everything—and the mindset to recover.

• Building and selling startups across Europe and Asia

• Why “luck” is built, not found—and how to manufacture opportunities through volume and stamina.

• What private education and integration in Switzerland can teach the world about inclusion.

• The difference between intelligence and wisdom—and why humility comes late but stays for good.

It’s an unfiltered look at ambition, failure, and resilience—from someone who’s lived the full cycle, more than once.

Connect with Andreas

LinkedIn

Connect with Haggai

LinkedIn

Follow Aggaeus

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TikTok

YouTube

Subscribe to the Podcast

Substack

Spotify

Apple Podcasts

Sponsors

Kardz.Biz – “A business card too good to give away”

Inquiries

Sponsorships/Business: [email protected]

Podcast: DM on Instagram

Some links may earn affiliate commissions. Offers, terms, and availability may change without notice.

Aggaeus content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should conduct your own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions.

We may feature companies, products, or entities in which Aggaeus, its affiliates, or the author have invested or may invest, or with which they have had, have, or may have a financial, professional, or other relationship.

Before GO-OUT powered payments and operations for sports teams and music festivals across 14+ countries, it started with a 15-year-old kid in Jerusalem who hacked NBA 2K to play with his hometown team. That same mix of curiosity, grit, and obsession drove Yotam Cohen, now Founder & CEO of GO-OUT, to bootstrap a global company that unites ticketing, payments, and data for organizations that were never built to act like tech firms.

No VCs. No safety net. Just relentless execution and a belief that sports teams and festivals shouldn’t need ten different tools to run their day.

In this conversation, Yotam and Haggai Klorman Eraqi dig into:

• How GO-OUT grew from zero to 14 countries—bootstrapped and profitable.

• The “Halloween crash” that nearly killed the company (and how they rebuilt stronger).

• Why bootstrapping builds better founders.

• How to listen to customers and ship fast—sometimes in the same day.

• The emotional reality of founding: anxiety, failure, and learning to separate the company from yourself.

• The founder vs. CEO paradox: dreaming big vs. running the day-to-day.

• What’s next for GO-OUT—and why they’re now competing head-to-head with the giants they once chased.

It’s a story about turning chaos into clarity, building from instinct, and betting on execution over excuses.

Connect with Yotam:

LinkedIn

GO-OUT Website

Connect with Haggai:

LinkedIn

Follow Aggaeus:

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TikTok

YouTube

Subscribe to the Podcast:

aggaeus.com

Apple Podcasts

Sponsors:

Kardz.Biz – “A business card too good to give away”

Inquiries:

Sponsorships/Business: [email protected]

Podcast: DM on Instagram

Some links may earn affiliate commissions. Offers, terms, and availability may change without notice.

Aggaeus content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should conduct your own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions.

We may feature companies, products, or entities in which Aggaeus, its affiliates, or the author have invested or may invest, or with which they have had, have, or may have a financial, professional, or other relationship.

At Walmart, he turned a paper-napkin idea into a fintech product used by 18 million people.

At StubHub/eBay, he helped scale global marketplaces.

Now, as VP Product (Growth & Incubation) at GoFundMe, Hai Habot is reshaping the giving economy—proving generosity can be productized, operationalized, and scaled.

Hai and Haggai Klorman Eraqi unpack how to build like a startup inside very large companies—where budgets, politics, and legacy systems collide with urgency, ambition, and customer need. You’ll hear how GoFundMe mobilized hundreds of millions in disaster relief within days, why most “innovation labs” stall, and the exact ways intrapreneurs win support, funding, and ship.

In this episode

• The giving economy explained: individuals, nonprofits, corporate giving, and donor-advised funds
• From idea to impact: Walmart Mexico’s digital wallet and the 18M-user journey
• The 3-circle method for finding high-leverage opportunities (customer × company × feasibility)
• Intrapreneur tactics: coalition-building, budget strategy, and selling new bets internally
• Disaster response at scale: how GoFundMe verifies, routes, and deploys help fast
• Career advice for builders: when to push, when to partner, and how to communicate for buy-in

Connect with Hai

LinkedIn

GoFundMe Website

Connect with Haggai

LinkedIn

Subscribe to Apple Podcast

Follow Aggaeus

Instagram

TikTok

YouTube

Sponsors

Kardz.Biz – “A business card too good to give away”

Inquiries

💼 Sponsorships/Business: [email protected]

🎙 Podcast: DM on Instagram

Some links may earn affiliate commissions. Offers, terms, and availability may change without notice.

Aggaeus content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should conduct your own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions.

We may feature companies, products, or entities in which Aggaeus, its affiliates, or the author have invested or may invest, or with which they have had, have, or may have a financial, professional, or other relationship.

A roof that gets colder under sunlight. A paint that cools a building without electricity. A startup that turned a laser-lab theory into a factory product sold to Amazon, Volkswagen, and AB InBev.

That’s not sci-fi—it’s SolCold, and it’s the kind of “impossible” physics that only becomes real when someone refuses to quit.

When Yaron Shenhav was a master’s student in electronic engineering, he couldn’t shake a paradox: why do we burn energy to create cold? That thought—plus an overheated apartment—sparked a decade-long obsession that became a new class of nanoparticle coatings. These materials absorb sunlight and emit higher-frequency light back out, releasing heat in the process. In other words, they cool themselves with sunlight.

Today, Yaron’s company has grown from a crazy idea to a $14M-funded deep-tech startup with 27 employees and global pilots. SolCold’s film-like coating has been tested on rooftops, containers, beer silos, and even car sunroofs—cutting temperatures, saving energy, and keeping systems online during heat waves.

In this episode, Yaron and Haggai dive into the science, the near-death startup moments, and the mindset required to push physics into production. They unpack how SolCold went from crowdfunding in Israel to cooling Amazon warehouses, Volkswagen vehicles, and global breweries—and why lowering the world’s temperature might start with a thin sheet of film.

⸻

In this episode

• The physics of cooling with sunlight: why “upconversion” matters
• From laser labs to factory floors: the making of a deep-tech startup
• Competing head-to-head with billion-dollar coatings companies
• How SolCold works with Amazon, AB InBev, and Volkswagen
• Why startup culture matters more than lab breakthroughs

Connect with Yaron

LinkedIn

SolCold Website

Connect with Haggai

LinkedIn

Follow Aggaeus

Instagram

TikTok

YouTube

Sponsors

Kardz.Biz – “A business card too good to give away”

Subscribe toApple Podcasts

Inquiries

Sponsorships/Business: [email protected]

Podcast: DM on Instagram

Some links may earn affiliate commissions. Offers, terms, and availability may change without notice.

Aggaeus content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should conduct your own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions.

We may feature companies, products, or entities in which Aggaeus, its affiliates, or the author have invested or may invest, or with which they have had, have, or may have a financial, professional, or other relationship.

Walk into a chicken hatchery that hums like a data center. Engineers aren’t checking feed—they’re tuning frequencies that tilt hatch rates toward hens and save billions in waste. A few kilometers away, a stadium tech lets people with hearing loss sit anywhere and hear perfectly through their own phones. In a care home, adaptive music calms dementia patients enough to reduce medication.

That’s not sci-fi. It’s the world David Fridman is helping build.

David grew up in Chile, moved to Israel, helped launch the country’s first carrier-backed ISP, and co-founded a cyber-intelligence company that later IPO’d in London. After a post-COVID reset, he returned to a first love—music—but treated it like infrastructure. He began teaching musicians to ship products, not just songs, then co-founded MusicTech Innovation Lab to connect artists, researchers, and builders.

Fast-forward: he’s mapping 300+ Israeli music-tech startups, ran MusicTech Tel Aviv with 500+ operators and investors in the room, and his accelerator’s nominees won at Music Ally’s global awards. The thesis is simple and powerful: sound isn’t just entertainment—it’s a toolbox for health, accessibility, education, safety, and new kinds of creativity.

In this episode:

* Why “music tech” now means health, safety, accessibility, and education—not just streaming

* Inside Israel’s surge: 300+ startups, an accelerator, and global recognition

* The discovery crisis: how to find (and fund) artists when 100,000+ tracks drop daily

* AI, ownership, and ethics—and how founders can build useful, defensible products

* Operator tactics: selling to venues, hospitals, and brands; what investors actually back

Connect with David

LinkedIn

MusicTech Innovation Lab

Connect with Haggai

LinkedIn

Follow Aggaeus

Instagram

TikTok

YouTube

Sponsors

Kardz.Biz – “A business card too good to give away”

Subscribe on Apple Podcast

Inquiries

💼 Sponsorships/Business: [email protected]

🎙 Podcast: DM on Instagram

Some links may earn affiliate commissions. Offers, terms, and availability may change without notice.

Aggaeus content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should conduct your own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions.

We may feature companies, products, or entities in which Aggaeus, its affiliates, or the author have invested or may invest, or with which they have had, have, or may have a financial, professional, or other relationship.

Before ARYA, Offer Yehudai had already built and sold two adtech companies ($86M, then $650M). With co-founder Tomer Magid, he launched a premium couples-wellness concierge—part human, part AI—that tens of thousands of U.S. couples now pay for monthly. They charged from day one and, using a no-code MVP (Typeform/Airtable/SMS), hit $1M ARR before writing a line of code. That traction grew into double-digit millions in ARR—all while staying premium-only.

Then came the wall: 197 investors said no. Taboo category. Commerce. “Paid from day one.” Offer kept going—refining onboarding and ads, tightening CAC payback, and building a “Costco-style” limited-SKU supply chain. The right yes finally landed, and ARYA accelerated.

What you’ll hear

• The dinner that sparked ARYA—and why routine (not romance) is the real enemy

• How a scrappy no-code concierge reached $1M ARR fast

• Why they refused freemium—and how that improved retention and payback

• Scaling intimacy: concierge + AI that times, tones, and personalizes guidance

• Commerce without “becoming a store” (few SKUs, direct brands, better margins)

• Fundraising in a taboo: 197 rejections—and what finally flipped the room

Connect with Offer:

LinkedIn

ARYA

Connect with Haggai:

LinkedIn

Follow Aggaeus:

Instagram

TikTok

YouTube

Sponsors:

Kardz.Biz – “A business card too good to give away”

Subscribe on Apple Podcast

Inquiries:

💼 Sponsorships/Business: [email protected]

🎙 Podcast: DM on Instagram

Some links may earn affiliate commissions. Offers, terms, and availability may change without notice.

Aggaeus content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should conduct your own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions.

We may feature companies, products, or entities in which Aggaeus, its affiliates, or the author have invested or may invest, or with which they have had, have, or may have a financial, professional, or other relationship.

When Dan Comyns ran product & growth at Nexar, he helped turn “try-before-you-buy” from a risky idea into a repeatable system—and learned a simple truth: conversations beat campaigns. A scrappy experiment calling shoppers who’d abandoned checkout crushed every benchmark. That insight became Sellence: an AI sales OS that lets B2C brands talk 1:1 with every interested buyer (SMS/WhatsApp), follow up like your best rep, and escalate to humans when it matters. Even though Dan just started the company, he’s already working with brands across insurance, finance, real estate, and high-consideration e-commerce.

So how did he get here? Dan walked away from a safe PM track with no idea, stacked a graveyard of dead concepts, then followed the data: sell manually first, write the playbook with real conversations, and only then automate. He and his co-founder built multi-agent AI around that playbook (intent, negotiator, follow-up memory), added human guardrails where nuance matters, and kept shipping.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Turning abandoned intent into revenue: manual first, then automate

• Designing conversations, not campaigns—across SMS/WhatsApp/voice

• Quality that holds up: engagement signals, purchase attribution, human QA

• Where humans still win (nuance, culture, timing)—and how AI amplifies them

• Onboarding that works: consented phone numbers, simple hooks, clear playbooks

• Building in uncertainty: leaving the safe path, finding partners, fundraising as motion

Connect with Dan:

LinkedIn

Sellence

Connect with Haggai:

LinkedIn

Follow Aggaeus:

Instagram

TikTok

Youtube

Sponsors:

Kardz.Biz – “A business card too good to give away”

Subscribe on Apple Podcast

Inquiries:

💼 Sponsorships/Business: [email protected]

🎙 Podcast: DM on Instagram

Some links may earn affiliate commissions. Offers, terms, and availability may change without notice.

Aggaeus content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should conduct your own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions.

We may feature companies, products, or entities in which Aggaeus, its affiliates, or the author have invested or may invest, or with which they have had, have, or may have a financial, professional, or other relationship.

When most founders talk “hard ops,” they don’t mean motorbikes, canoes, and villages without roads. Abigail Urey, Co-Owner of LIB Solar, does. Over the last six years, her team has become Liberia’s largest solar provider—operating in all 15 counties and serving 30K+ households and small businesses—by blending rigorous finance with on-the-ground ingenuity.

Abigail walks us through the real work: recruiting community agents, designing pay-as-you-go plans for low-income customers, building a collections network with mobile money, and packaging end-to-end systems (lights, radio, fan—and yes, TVs and solar refrigerators). The result isn’t charity; it’s a business that lets kids study at night, shops sell cold drinks, and micro-markets store meat—while staying cash-disciplined enough to turn down the wrong capital.

We get into modeling uncertainty when data is messy, acting fast when cash flow wobbles, catching fraud before it spreads, and the mindset that keeps you calm when every day brings a new surprise. It’s a masterclass in financing impact without half-measures.

Connect with Abigail:

LinkedIn

LIB Solar

Connect with Haggai:

LinkedIn

Follow Aggaeus:

Instagram

TikTok

Sponsors:

Kardz.Biz – “A business card too good to give away”

Subscribe on Apple Podcast

Inquiries:

💼 Sponsorships/Business: [email protected]

🎙 Podcast: DM on Instagram

Some links may earn affiliate commissions. Offers, terms, and availability may change without notice.

Aggaeus content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should conduct your own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions.

We may feature companies, products, or entities in which Aggaeus, its affiliates, or the author have invested or may invest, or with which they have had, have, or may have a financial, professional, or other relationship.