47 min
Episode 59 - with Natan Linder, Co-Founder & CEO of Tulip, Co-Founder & Chairman at Formlabs The Human Founder
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- Entrepreneurship
How do you build 2 successful startups and how significant are the mindset and desire along the way?
Natan grew up next to his granddad's wood shop, always building things with his hands. At the same time, his dad, who was an engineer, taught him about programming, and he started doing that at an early age as well.
As a teenager, he was interested in getting stuff done with more people, so he started his first company at the age of 17, and caught the Entrepreneurship Bug. Still being a highschool student, he came to experience a totally different world of meetings and thinking as the COO of the company, the things he only saw in movies before.
After he graduated high school, he served in the Air Force Intelligence, where he did operational and technical roles, which meant a lot of responsibility on his hands. When he finished his service, he stepped out to a different world - it was the end game of the “.com” era, and he found himself writing a lot of code.
He was drawn mostly to embedded systems - he liked the combination of hardware and software.
One friend sent him to the IDC, because he was interested in their scholarship for entrepreneurship, tech and leadership and asked Natan to take the application forms for him. As he helped his friend he thought to himself - why wouldn’t I fill one for myself as well?
At the time Natan was studying political science at the Open University Of Israel - Jean-Jacques Rousseau was as exciting to him as c++, but at the end - he found himself getting the scholarship and reevaluating his direction. He decided to do his Bachelor Degree in computer science.
He met Eyal Toledano in this program - a good friend and his co-founder. Both of them were in love with mobile, and searched together for what was most interesting for them.
Natan managed to work during his studies full time. They were working on getting downloadable apps on mobile phones in the early 2000, when mobile phones mostly knew how to send text messages and do very simple things. Then came the 2008 crash, and while they had great ideas, they couldn’t raise money.
Samsung reached them, as they had no R&D in Israel at the time, and although they were dreaming of making a company of their own, Samsung managed to convince them to join.
And so, at the age of 23-25 - Natan found himself being the GM for the mobile division for Samsung in Israel, an experience which he describes as his Grad School.
Moving to the US
After 5 years in Samsung, Natan decided he wanted to try and build a company of his own.
He came to the conclusion that for that he needed to become a VC or work in a VC, which in retrospect he suggests not to do.
He met Harel Margalit. and joined JVP as EIR, where he had a lot of freedom to do what was interesting to him, when his wife was accepted to do her MBA in MIT - an opportunity of a lifetime.
It was a no brainer, and he decided to put his work aside and come with her.
That’s how he landed in Boston. At first, he was confused and didn’t quite know what to do after working in tech for a decade, but he knew this could be a fresh start for him. He thought he might try MIT as well, the Media lab specifically.
At the same time, he started working with Prof. Rodney Brooks, whose company is responsible for iRobot & rumba, and pioneering robotics in general. Meeting Prof. Rodney was like meeting Michael Jordan for a basketball fan, as he was a very impactful and known figure in the worlds of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Natan joined him in the new company he was building that signaled the dawn of collaborative robots, robots that would be safe to interact with humans and would be programmed by teaching.
He was 29 years old at the time, and after considering the tradeoffs he decided to join MIT, and his amazing journey there started, which ended with a PhD. He found new opportunities for himself from within the realm of the unknown. Natan explains that he appreci
How do you build 2 successful startups and how significant are the mindset and desire along the way?
Natan grew up next to his granddad's wood shop, always building things with his hands. At the same time, his dad, who was an engineer, taught him about programming, and he started doing that at an early age as well.
As a teenager, he was interested in getting stuff done with more people, so he started his first company at the age of 17, and caught the Entrepreneurship Bug. Still being a highschool student, he came to experience a totally different world of meetings and thinking as the COO of the company, the things he only saw in movies before.
After he graduated high school, he served in the Air Force Intelligence, where he did operational and technical roles, which meant a lot of responsibility on his hands. When he finished his service, he stepped out to a different world - it was the end game of the “.com” era, and he found himself writing a lot of code.
He was drawn mostly to embedded systems - he liked the combination of hardware and software.
One friend sent him to the IDC, because he was interested in their scholarship for entrepreneurship, tech and leadership and asked Natan to take the application forms for him. As he helped his friend he thought to himself - why wouldn’t I fill one for myself as well?
At the time Natan was studying political science at the Open University Of Israel - Jean-Jacques Rousseau was as exciting to him as c++, but at the end - he found himself getting the scholarship and reevaluating his direction. He decided to do his Bachelor Degree in computer science.
He met Eyal Toledano in this program - a good friend and his co-founder. Both of them were in love with mobile, and searched together for what was most interesting for them.
Natan managed to work during his studies full time. They were working on getting downloadable apps on mobile phones in the early 2000, when mobile phones mostly knew how to send text messages and do very simple things. Then came the 2008 crash, and while they had great ideas, they couldn’t raise money.
Samsung reached them, as they had no R&D in Israel at the time, and although they were dreaming of making a company of their own, Samsung managed to convince them to join.
And so, at the age of 23-25 - Natan found himself being the GM for the mobile division for Samsung in Israel, an experience which he describes as his Grad School.
Moving to the US
After 5 years in Samsung, Natan decided he wanted to try and build a company of his own.
He came to the conclusion that for that he needed to become a VC or work in a VC, which in retrospect he suggests not to do.
He met Harel Margalit. and joined JVP as EIR, where he had a lot of freedom to do what was interesting to him, when his wife was accepted to do her MBA in MIT - an opportunity of a lifetime.
It was a no brainer, and he decided to put his work aside and come with her.
That’s how he landed in Boston. At first, he was confused and didn’t quite know what to do after working in tech for a decade, but he knew this could be a fresh start for him. He thought he might try MIT as well, the Media lab specifically.
At the same time, he started working with Prof. Rodney Brooks, whose company is responsible for iRobot & rumba, and pioneering robotics in general. Meeting Prof. Rodney was like meeting Michael Jordan for a basketball fan, as he was a very impactful and known figure in the worlds of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Natan joined him in the new company he was building that signaled the dawn of collaborative robots, robots that would be safe to interact with humans and would be programmed by teaching.
He was 29 years old at the time, and after considering the tradeoffs he decided to join MIT, and his amazing journey there started, which ended with a PhD. He found new opportunities for himself from within the realm of the unknown. Natan explains that he appreci
47 min