Ventures from The Valley

In this episode of Ventures from the Valley, our host, Victor Orlovski, is joined by Spencer Gerrol, Founder and CEO of SPARK Neuro, a company on a mission to transform the future of brain health. Spencer has dedicated his career to translating theoretical science into real-world applications using biometric technologies. Join us as we dive into Spencer's career journey as a businessman, his passion for understanding the human brain, and the exciting advancements in brain-related technologies. Discover the fascinating world of neuromarketing, brain-computer interfaces, and the potential to enhance human capabilities. Don't miss out on this insightful conversation that explores the mysteries of the human brain and its impact on our lives.
Victor and Spencer cover the following topics in this episode:

• Childhood Dreams and Early Curiosity
• Natural Leadership and Interest in Human Factors
• Combining Engineering and Psychology
• Spencer’s Love for Research and Neuromarketing
• Experience of Founding SPARK Neuro
• Fascination with Brain Technologies
• Applying Brain Activity to Understand Human Behavior
• Future Plans and Brain-Computer Interfaces
•  Understanding Thought Processes and Complex Systems
• Balancing Work and Personal Life

Spencer has dedicated his career to translating theoretical science into real-world applications using biometric technologies. Driven by his cognitive science and human factors background, his efforts have resulted in securing over $35M in funding for SPARK Neuro from leading investment funds.
Spencer has been recognized for his work in leading publications such as CNN, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal, and he was named a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum. He has delivered speeches at TED, the United Nations, and The White House, where he was honored for founding one of the top 100 companies by young entrepreneurs.
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In this episode of Ventures from the Valley, our host, Victor Orlovski, is joined by Michael Pechatnikov, Co-Founder and CTO of a Stealth Startup. Together, they touch on the following topics:

• Michael's entrepreneurial journey and experiences with starting and selling companies
• The realization that working and building companies is his passion
• Michael's venture into managing wealth and exploring investment opportunities
• Challenges faced in finding managers with consistent alpha and closing the fund
• Importance of the ideation phase and focusing on market size
• Michael's plans for the future

Michael is the Co-Founder and CTO of Stealth Startup (September 2023—present). A stealth startup is a startup company that operates in stealth mode, i.e., avoids public attention. This may be done to hide information from competitors or—as part of a marketing strategy—to manage public image. The phenomenon is well-known in the venture capital (VC) community. 
He is also the Founder, Managing Partner, and Chairman at Sharpe Alpha Capital (May 2015—Present). Sharpe Alpha Capital is a market-neutral, algo-driven Fund of Fund that targets an uncorrelated portfolio of consistent alpha-generating managers worldwide. The managers are selected from a database of about 10,000 active funds using a proprietary algorithm. The model seeks to distinguish alpha from beta and identify managers whose performance results from skill rather than luck.
Previously, Michael was the Founder and CTO of VisionMap (which Rafael acquired) and Telmap (which Intel acquired).

Ventures from The Valley is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Ventures from the Valley, our host Victor Orlovski is joined by Alex Mashrabov, founder and CEO of Higgsfield AI. Together they ask the big questions including: 

• Can you run a GenAI business without VC Investment? 
• Which is better, closed-loop models or open source?
• How can your business challenge an already-crowded market?
• Should AI be regulated?

Alex is the CEO of Higgsfield AI, the open-source machine learning framework designed for training large models with endless parameters. When he isn’t in the office, he’s also a successful Angel Investor for more than fifteen businesses including GPTZero, Intone, Scale.ai, and Airtable. 
If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.
This episode is brought to you by R136 Ventures.
Ventures from The Valley is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Ventures from the Valley, our host Victor Orlovski is joined by Alex Freedland, co-founder and CEO of Mirantis. Together they discuss:

• Alex’s beginnings in America as a young soviet immigrant
• His business ventures, including Mirantis
• The threats and opportunities of Open Source technologies
• The future of Blockchain and Crypto

Alex Freedland co-founded Mirantis in 2011, and was their CEO for six years before stepping back from his duties in 2017 - only to return to the CEO role in January of this year. Mirantis helps organizations increase developer productivity and ship code faster on public and private clouds. Their main industries are Financial Services, Governments, Healthcare and Manufacturing. When he isn’t in the office, Alex is also an advisor and investor for Session AI, a pioneering business of in-session marketing.
If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.
This episode is brought to you by R136 Ventures.

Ventures from The Valley is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Ventures from the Valley, our host Victor Orlovski is joined by serial entrepreneur-turned-investor Liad Agmon.
Together, they discuss: 

• The fascinating/ frightening rise of online personal data
• How LLMs are evolving marketing and data strategies
• The dangers AI can pose to humanity
• Transitioning from entrepreneur to investor 

Liad Agmon is the chairman of the Israel Climbers Association, and Managing Director of Insight Partners - the Global Software investor. His first business, Onigma, was founded in the early 2000s and sold to McAfee. His second company, Delver, was acquired by Sears Holdings in 2009. His third company, Dynamic Yield, was acquired by McDonalds in 2019 for $300 million - a company that R136 Ventures were a proud investor of.
If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.
This episode is brought to you by R136 Ventures.
Ventures from The Valley is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of Ventures from the Valley, our host Victor Orlovski is joined by Shahar Fogel, the former CEO of Rookout.
Together, they discuss: 

• The qualities of an excellent Product Manager
• How Shahar built an effective sales machine from scratch
• The challenges of building revenue in a highly competitive market
• The juggling act of pleasing shareholders and employees
• The difficult decision to sell a business to a competitor. 

Shahar Fogel is the former CEO of Rookout, a live data collection and debugging platform that was acquired by Dynatrace. After leaving the Israeli Army, Shahar found himself working his way up through the ranks of Tech product management at businesses including Connectik and Brandtix. 
R136 Ventures were a proud investor of Rookout, and Victor and Shahar’s conversation gives a fascinating insight into the investment and build-up of this business. 
If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.
This episode is brought to you by R136 Ventures.Ventures from The Valley is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this first episode of Ventures from the Valley, our host Victor Orlovski is joined by Mark Gazit: the co-founder, former CEO, and current senior advisor at ThetaRay.
Together, they discuss: 

• The fight for cybersecurity in Fintech
• The past, present, and future of AI
• De-Globalization of Fintech 
• How to be a CEO of a startup
• Workable strategies for board management and investment

Mark Gazit has been at ThetaRay for eleven years now, having previously been their CEO and President. ThetaRay is an AI-powered transaction monitoring SaaS solution for international payments for banks and big business alike. Before he started there, he’d had a hand in four other startup businesses across the valley and the Middle East.
If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts, instructions on how to do this are here.
This episode is brought to you by R136 Ventures.Ventures from The Valley is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so