LGiLAb: 1st day tomorrow at my new job

All those who read that blog know i quit ICQ less than a month ago to take up a new venture. Venture is the right word as i am joining the Venture Capital world.

What i am going to do there? well this is an environment i have been dealing with in the past when i was working for a french fund and help them with their porftolio activity but also when i was entrepreneur raised about 3 million euros in first web1.0 wave.

But here it is a completely new story. 2 of the most respected funds in Israel (Gemini who was behind Commtouch) and in the US (LightSpeed who was behind DoubleClick for example or more recently Kosmix) have decided together to create a new structure dedicated to investment in new israeli internet start ups.

 

This fund will act more as an angel fund where we will invest in early stage companies. It will be called LGiLab: LightSpeed /Gemini Internet Lab (sorry no logo and website yet but that s on my todo list) for which i was appointed General Manager. My job will be to source the new deals, close them with the board of this fund and help participations in their daily operations just like an angel would do.

This is clearly a big challenge. The kind of i could not let go and the kind of that made me left a good job at AOL/ICQ where i was feeling i was missing something. As i clearly said in my blog several times before web2.0/internet is not what is should be in Israel and clearly the action today is going on in the US and China. My Techcrunch activities also let me anticipate that this is not a fashion or a trend and that this wave of entrepreneurship is going to be big. Israel should be part of this wave.

I really look forward to it as well as working with the amazingly skilled people on the board of this fund (watch some big announcement soon). I think we all really are thrilled at this project and wish to make a true difference.

Tomorrow is my 1st day.

And by the way if you are israeli with a bright internet idea searching for funding use that blog to let me know (or post an email at businessplans@LGiLab.com)

Comments

[alain]

A big "merde" for tomorrow...
amities.

[Yehuda]

Congratulations Ouriel.
Well, the next big thing is actually gonna come from Israel, not China...LGiLab will be part of it, and you Ouriel will be meeting the team tomorrow...

Enjoy.

[Franck Poisson]

Congratulation for this fantastic move Ouriel !
a quick one: I guess you're not only focused on Israeli companies ? Let me know.