A few things are going to change in my life in the short future. I have decided to increase the focus on my projects and will stop working at Gemini Israel funds at the end of the month, continuing to work with Lightspeed on a part time basis . Let me explain.
In a recent event i half joked when i was saying i was half investor, half blogger, half entrepreneur. Yes, that's a lot. Earlier this year i made an important decision (and a tough one) to stop TechCrunch France to focus on my day job and my own projects. But over time i realized that what i really want is to spend as much time as possible on my projects especially as some of them are taking a nice direction.
I recently answered to Chris Dixon asking, "Is now a good time to start a company?" that there is never a good time and always a good reason not to. But when you wake up every single day with the obsession to realize something, then it means this is a good time to start a company. This is precisely what i felt 7 years ago when i was in a comfortable job in a great company and quitted everything to start a new startup. This is also what i felt when i decided to move to Israel (a kind of restart in itself), and this is also what i felt when i was starting with TechCrunch.
Today i feel that again. And it means i will start again with a new focus.
From the 1st of October, i will focus on my projects but i will keep a foot on the VC ground and spend half of my time working with Yoni Cheifetz and the team at Lightspeed Venture Partners. So if you are working on interesting stuff you can still reach out to me.
I don't have enough nice words to say how much i enjoyed working at Gemini Israel Funds and i am ready to bet that nearly every single entrepreneur i met could sense that in our meetings. I specially enjoyed working with Daniel Cohen who trusted from day 1 an unknown french guy, recently arrived in Israel, to take a top job in one of the best VC firms in Israel. Together (Gemini, Lightspeed and myself) made some great investments some of which i am really proud (and a new one to be announced with Gemini very soon). But i also enjoyed a lot working at Gemini. The VC business is often criticized, maybe rightly so. Looking from inside is a total different story. The DNA of this fund is unique thanks to the personality of the great people who compose it. I want to thank them for their trust, patience, and friendship. I think i enjoyed working in a Venture Firm and it is likely one day i'll come back to that full time.
One important detail: Although the Internet lab (the project i was hired for about 3.5 years ago) as such is over, Gemini and Lightspeed will continue to make early stage (seed) investments as they did before i joined. Life goes on the right way.
So what's next?
So what are the projects i am working on? Some of them have been made public on this blog (you can find links on the right side of this blog). But i prefer not to give too many details at this stage
You know where to find me. More updates soon.