Invested by Aleph

Michael Eisenberg
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How can values create value? Join Venture Capitalist and Author Michael Eisenberg as he speaks with global business leaders to explore the values and purpose behind their businesses, the impact of technology on humanity, and the humanity behind digitization. Michael Eisenberg is Co-Founder and General Partner of Aleph, an early-stage venture capital fund with $850M under management in Tel Aviv, Israel. Aleph is an early stage venture capital fund focused on partnering with great Israeli entrepreneurs to build large, meaningful companies and impactful global brands.

  1. 3h ago

    Almost Everything We Believed About AI a Year Ago Was Wrong – Seven Experts Who Still Can't Agree on Whether It's a Bubble, Who It Pays Off For, or What Comes Next

    On this special episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg pulls together the sharpest AI arguments from the last year of the show and puts them in conversation with one another. You'll hear from Gavin Baker, Sarah Tavel, Micha Kaufman, Elad Raz, Eran Shir, Zach Greenberger and David Magerman - seven investors and founders who disagree about almost everything except the stakes. This is not a group of people arguing over the same set of facts. Because the field is moving so quickly, each of them is describing a different epoch of AI. Compute was supposed to depreciate quickly - instead, demand is growing. Inference wasn't supposed to be profitable - today it is wildly profitable. AI was supposed to be a game for frontier labs only - open source models are now competing with them. And AI was supposed to trigger mass unemployment - the latest numbers suggest the companies going all in on AI are hiring more people, not fewer. From David Magerman calling the financial bubble 10 to 50 times the size of the internet bubble, to Gavin Baker walking through the ROI math on trillions of dollars of GPU spend, to Micha Kaufman arguing that AI gives everyone the same superpowers and therefore gives no one an advantage, to Elad Raz on why the age of compute has replaced the age of energy - this is a fast, honest map of where the debate actually stands. They discuss: Whether AI is a financial bubble - and whether that even matters The $200 billion, $600 billion and now trillion-dollar ROI question on GPU spending What actually improved (and what didn't) between Hopper, Blackwell and Rubin Why inference is gross-margin profitable while model training amortization isn't pretty The employment debate: replacement, augmentation or temporary dislocation What AI does to junior work, mentorship and the pipeline of senior engineers Scaling agent capital instead of human capital - and paying developers to spend tokens Why building a "bridge" the labs will bulldoze is a treacherous strategy Why data and information theory still beat throwing everything into an LLM The unknowable economic returns to superintelligence Why the world moved from fighting over food, to energy, to compute Featured in this episode: Gavin Baker is the Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Atreides Management, LP. Prior to founding Atreides in 2019, Gavin was at Fidelity Investments from 1999 to 2017, most recently as the portfolio manager of the Fidelity OTC Portfolio. Sarah Tavel is a Venture Partner at Benchmark, where she invests in network effect businesses and applications leveraging AI. She was the first female General Partner in Benchmark's history. Prior to Benchmark, Sarah was a General Partner at Greylock Partners, and she joined Pinterest in 2012 after co-leading the Series A investment while at Bessemer Venture Partners. Micha Kaufman is the founder and CEO of Fiverr, the global freelance marketplace that helped define the gig economy. Since launching the platform in 2010, Micha has led Fiverr from a scrappy, bootstrapped startup into a publicly traded company offering millions of services across hundreds of categories. Elad Raz is the Founder and CEO of NextSilicon, a deep-tech company redefining high-performance computing and AI infrastructure. A graduate of the IDF's elite Unit 8200, Elad brings more than 20 years of experience in technology, entrepreneurship and executive leadership. Eran Shir is the Co-Founder, CPO & Chairman at Nexar. He is a serial entrepreneur and investor, and previously served as Entrepreneur in Residence at Aleph. Zach Greenberger is the CEO of Nexar, leading the company's mission to build AI for the physical world using real-world driving data. Prior to Nexar, Zach served as Chief Business Officer at Lyft and held leadership roles at Tesla. Since their episode aired, Nexar and Nauto have agreed to merge, with Zach leading the combined company. David Magerman is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Differential Ventures, a New York-based venture capital fund investing in deep technology companies that help power the data-driven economy. Previously, he spent the entirety of his career at Renaissance Technologies, widely recognized as the world's most successful quantitative hedge fund management company. If you want a clear-eyed view of the bull case, the bubble case, the labor case and the compute case - all in one sitting - this compilation is essential listening. Michael's hope is that you finish it with more questions than answers, and that you go deeper on the full episodes. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS 00:00 - "AI Is a Machine Gun We're Giving Children" 00:43 - Same Topic, Different Epochs 02:10 - How Wrong We All Were a Year Ago 03:12 - A Bubble 10 to 50x the Internet Bubble 03:46 - "OpenAI Isn't a Functioning Business" 03:58 - Hopper to Blackwell: Linear Scaling 04:31 - The Trillion-Dollar ROI Question 05:23 - "I've Never Seen Anything Like This" 06:13 - The Great Employment Debate 07:08 - It's Still the First Inning 07:33 - The Illusion of AI Superpowers 08:51 - Replacing Labor or Augmenting It? 09:13 - What AI Does to Junior Work 09:30 - Scaling Agent Capital, Not Headcount 10:28 - $300 a Day in Tokens Per Developer 12:01 - "We're Going to Bulldoze You" 13:15 - Data Beats Throwing It All Into an LLM 14:12 - Food, Then Energy, Now Compute 14:36 - The Unknowable Returns to Superintelligence 15:22 - More Questions Than Answers RESOURCES Watch the full episode with Gavin Baker - https://www.aleph.vc/content/gavin-baker Watch the full episode with Sarah Tavel - https://www.aleph.vc/content/sarah-tavel Watch the full episode with Micha Kaufman - https://www.aleph.vc/content/micha-kaufman Watch the full episode with Elad Raz - https://www.aleph.vc/content/elad-raz Watch the full episode with Eran Shir & Zach Greenberger - https://www.aleph.vc/content/eran-shir-and-zach-greenberger Watch the full episode with David Magerman - https://www.aleph.vc/content/david-magerman Follow Gavin on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinbaker-portfoliomanager/ Follow Sarah on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahtavel/ Follow Micha on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michakaufman/ Follow Elad on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eladraz/ Follow Eran on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eranshir/ Follow Zach on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-greenberger-a3a3444a/ Follow David on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-magerman-954b25174/ Subscribe to Invested here - https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph - https://www.aleph.vc/ Sign up for Aleph's monthly email newsletter - https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter - https://twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter - https://x.com/aleph?s=20 Follow Aleph on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ Follow Aleph on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom  Producer: Sofi Levak, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic  Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar  Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir

    Almost Everything We Believed About AI a Year Ago Was Wrong – Seven Experts Who Still Can't Agree on Whether It's a Bubble, Who It Pays Off For, or What Comes Next

  2. Jul 29

    Daniel Lubetzky, Founder of KIND, on Reaching a $7 Billion Valuation, Why Builders Beat Destroyers, and How Many Nickels It Costs to Stick to Values

    On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with Daniel Lubetzky — founder of KIND Snacks, Shark Tank investor, and founder of the Builders Movement — for a wide-ranging conversation about building enduring companies, the values behind them, and using business as a tool to bring divided people together. Daniel shares how KIND grew from a $10,000 idea into a multibillion-dollar brand with only $5 million in primary investment, why he named the company after his father Roman, a Holocaust survivor, and how a decade of failures with his first venture, PeaceWorks, taught him everything he needed to build KIND. He and Michael also go deep on the Middle East, the origins of the “oppressor vs. victim” framework, why good intentions so often produce bad outcomes, and how the Builders Movement is working to equip citizens to solve problems rather than tear each other apart. Drawing on Daniel’s journey from a Jewish school in Mexico City to Stanford Law School to the set of Shark Tank, this episode weaves together entrepreneurship, parenting, resilience, and the conviction that — as Daniel puts it — values create value. They discuss: How KIND grew from $10,000 to a multibillion-dollar company with just $5M in primary investment Why Daniel named the brand after his father, a survivor of the Kovno ghetto and Dachau The decade of failures at PeaceWorks that made KIND possible Why “values are only values when they’re tested and cost you something” Saying no to the zero-sugar fad — and the courage to know what you are not Builders vs. destroyers: the three Ds and the four Cs of a builder’s mindset Why he believes we’re raising a generation without the agency to solve problems What the Abraham Accords prove about challenging conventional wisdom Why he joined Shark Tank full-time — and the deal he thinks could be worth billions Fixing Section 230 and confronting the harms of social media Best known as the founder of KIND Snacks, Daniel is a social entrepreneur whose work spans industries, ideologies, and borders—always rooted in the same mission: to equip people to think flexibly, solve problems creatively, and build durable solutions to our world’s most difficult challenges. Today, through Camino Partners, Daniel and his team of investor-operators back leaders building businesses taking an enduring approach to enhancing consumers’ lives. He is also the founder of Builders, a movement helping people move beyond "us vs. them" mindsets. Builders equips citizens to uncover hidden common ground and build on it – with durable solutions that advance the will of the people. After five seasons as a guest on Shark Tank, Daniel joined the cast full-time in 2024. He is also the author of The New York Times-bestseller Do the KIND Thing. Daniel holds a BA in Economics and International Relations from Trinity University and a JD from Stanford Law School. A proud U.S. citizen who immigrated from Mexico at 16, he enjoys time with his family and a good magic trick. If you want to understand how to build a brand that lasts, why failure is the raw material of success, and what it takes to build bridges in a divided world, this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS  00:00 – A Multibillion-Dollar Brand, No Investment Needed 01:47 – Why He Named It KIND 04:10 – His Father Roman, a Holocaust Survivor 09:19 – Moshe Pupik and the PeaceWorks Years 14:09 – The Night He Bummed a Ride From Michael Dell 17:34 – The Bus Ride That Set His Life’s Mission 20:39 – “I Wear My Failures Proudly” 22:22 – What the Abraham Accords Prove 24:59 – Builders vs. Destroyers 30:17 – Give Every Kid a Different Initial 33:00 – When Good Intentions Go Wrong 37:22 – Values Only Count When They Cost You 39:33 – Saying No to the Zero-Sugar Fad 41:26 – Why He Sold KIND 44:10 – Why He Joined Shark Tank 48:14 – How He Saved Neuro Gum 52:00 – Force-Feeding Manhattan, One Store at a Time 60:29 – Fixing Section 230 & Social Media RESOURCES Follow Daniel on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daniellubetzky  Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc  Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20  ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom  Producer: Sofi Levak, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic  Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar  Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir

    Daniel Lubetzky, Founder of KIND, on Reaching a $7 Billion Valuation, Why Builders Beat Destroyers, and How Many Nickels It Costs to Stick to Values

  3. Jul 1

    Yuval Ariav, Solo GP of Symbol Capital, on Pre-Consensus Investing, Why NextSilicon Could Be Israel's NVIDIA, and the $1.1 Trillion Market Hiding in Plain Sight

    On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with Yuval Ariav, Managing Partner of Symbol, a first-check VC focused on pre-consensus investments in Israel. Yuval also teaches at Columbia University about the intersection of data, business, and society. Before starting to invest, Yuval founded Fundbox, an Israeli fintech unicorn, and headed Product and Engineering for Onavo, an Israeli analytics company backed by Sequoia and acquired by Meta in 2013. In this conversation, Michael and Yuval unpack what it means to invest before the consensus forms - and why the best venture opportunities often look strange, niche, or even wrong at first. They discuss why hot seed rounds can force bad decision-making, how a solo GP builds co-founder-level conviction, and why Symbol wants to become the go-to first-check fund for Israel's weirdest venture opportunities. The conversation goes far beyond venture capital. Yuval and Michael dig into Columbia, academia, social unrest, the collapse of critical thinking, identity politics, and what happens when technology lets money, influence, and opinion compound faster than society can absorb. Yuval also explains why he believes NextSilicon could become "Israel's NVIDIA," why Jiga is attacking a trillion-dollar procurement market most VCs ignore, and how theater production in New York unexpectedly helped him build a better venture network. They discuss: ·       Pre-consensus vs. non-consensus investing ·       Why hot VC rounds can destroy conviction ·       How Symbol backs weird Israeli startups early ·       Columbia, activism, and critical thinking ·       Why media shapes identity ·       How compounding power fuels social unrest ·       Why NextSilicon could become Israel's NVIDIA ·       Jiga and the trillion-dollar invisible procurement market If you want to understand first-check investing, Israeli venture capital, AI infrastructure, compounding social power, and the future of universities, this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS  00:00 - The 12-Hour VC Decision 01:13 - Pre-Consensus vs. Consensus Venture Capital 05:12 - Hot Deals vs. Real Conviction 09:28 - Backing Israel's Weirdest Startups 12:26 - Nearly Buying Symbol.com for $10K 16:29 - Turning Columbia Students Into LPs 19:11 - Theater Production as VC Networking 22:36 - Writing Brutally Short Investment Memos 26:44 - When Compounding Breaks Society 30:16 - Are We Already in Social Unrest? 32:03 - What Really Happened at Columbia 36:34 - Academia's Activist Costume 42:22 - Is Identity Downstream of Media? 50:22 - Could NextSilicon Become Israel's NVIDIA? 54:02 - The Trillion-Dollar Market VCs Ignore RESOURCES Follow Yuval on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuvalariav/ Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc  Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20  ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom  Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic  Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar  Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir

    Yuval Ariav, Solo GP of Symbol Capital, on Pre-Consensus Investing, Why NextSilicon Could Be Israel's NVIDIA, and the $1.1 Trillion Market Hiding in Plain Sight

  4. Jun 17

    Saar Safra, Founder & CEO of Beewise, on Why Bees are a Matter of National Security, the Honey Laundering Scandal, and the AI Beekeeper That Never Sleeps

    On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with Saar Safra, CEO & Co-Founder of Beewise, for a fascinating and urgent conversation about the collapse of bee colonies, the future of food security, and why AI and robotics may be essential to keeping the world fed. Saar explains why bees are a critical input into global agriculture, how the 175-year-old wooden hive became a bottleneck for modern farming, and why Beewise built the BeeHome: a solar-powered robotic hive using computer vision, sensors, AI models, and real-time treatment to protect colonies in the field. Drawing on Saar's background across P2P payments, ad tech, PropTech, Microsoft, and multiple exits, Michael and Saar unpack how a software entrepreneur ended up trying to save bees - and why pollination may be one of the most overlooked infrastructure problems in the global economy. They discuss: ·       Why bee colony collapse threatens the global food supply ·       How pesticides, monoculture, disease, varroa mites, and climate stress are killing colonies ·       How Beewise's AI beekeeper monitors bees and applies treatment automatically ·       Why beekeepers see BeeHome as help, not replacement ·       The hidden world of honey laundering and fake honey ·       Why pollination is becoming a matter of national security ·       How mission-driven technology can lower food costs and improve resilience Saar is CEO & Co-Founder at Beewise and a seasoned entrepreneur. He started his career as a software developer; in 2001 he became CTO of Ad4Ever, which was acquired by aQuantive, where he served as GM & VP of Rich Media. In 2007, aQuantive was acquired by Microsoft, where Saar served as Director of Rich Media Solutions until 2008, when he left to found ActiveBuilding, a pioneer in PropTech. ActiveBuilding was acquired by RealPage in 2013. Across the five companies he founded or joined before Beewise, Saar has had three successful exits. He received his MBA from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. If you want to understand how AI, robotics, agriculture, food security, biodiversity, and entrepreneurship intersect - and why saving bees could mean lowering the cost of fruits, vegetables, and coffee - this episode is essential listening. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS  00:00 - 45% of Bee Colonies Die 03:06 - From Microsoft to Bees 06:51 - How Humans Broke Pollination 17:31 - The 175-Year-Old Hive Problem 20:10 - Trucking 200 Million Bees 25:04 - Bee Collapse Threatens Food Supply 29:35 - Pesticides, Disease, and Monoculture 32:47 - The AI Beehive Revolution 33:50 - Large Biological Models for Bees 35:14 - AI Stops Pesticide Poisoning 43:14 - Bees Are National Security 49:04 - Is AI Replacing Beekeepers? 51:17 - No Organic Honey in America 53:49 - The Honey Laundering Scandal 59:12 - Building Through Two Wars RESOURCES Follow Saar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saars Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc  Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20  ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom  Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic  Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar  Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir

    Saar Safra, Founder & CEO of Beewise, on Why Bees are a Matter of National Security, the Honey Laundering Scandal, and the AI Beekeeper That Never Sleeps

  5. Jun 3

    David Siegel, Former CEO of Meetup & Investopedia, on Solving the Loneliness Crisis, Rescuing Meetup from WeWork, and Why Israelis are Happier than Americans

    On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with David Siegel, former CEO of Meetup, former CEO of Investopedia, former President of Seeking Alpha, author of Decide & Conquer, and founder of the Israel Tech Mission. David has spent more than 25 years building and leading technology companies, but his most passionate mission has been tackling one of society’s fastest-growing challenges: loneliness. As CEO of Meetup, he led the global community platform through a dramatic turnaround, transforming it from a money-losing business into a profitable company while helping millions of people connect around shared interests, passions, and causes. In this wide-ranging conversation, Michael and David explore the roots of the loneliness epidemic, why social media and screens may be making people less connected than ever, and what can actually be done to rebuild community in modern society. David shares lessons from leading Meetup through COVID, selling multiple companies, scaling organizations, and retiring from full-time operating roles at age 50. More on in the episode: Why loneliness is more dangerous than smoking How Meetup grew into a global community platform spanning nearly every country The surprising origin story of Meetup after 9/11 Turning around a WeWork company losing $20 million annually Why social media increased loneliness instead of reducing it The cultural and technological drivers behind rising social anxiety Leadership lessons from building and selling companies The power of decision-making and creating your own luck Israel Tech Mission and bringing global tech leaders to Israel Why David believes mandatory national service is the best solution to the loneliness epidemic What Israel gets right about meaning, community, and belonging David Siegel is the former CEO of Meetup, the largest platform for finding and building local community. He has had two exits over the last six years where he drove investor returns of 5x and 7x. Prior to Meetup, David served as CEO of Investopedia and President of Seeking Alpha. Today he advises CEOs, serves on boards, teaches strategy and scaling at Tel Aviv University, hosts the Keep Connected podcast, and leads the Israel Tech Mission, which has brought hundreds of global technology executives to Israel. If you want to understand leadership, community, loneliness, company turnarounds, and what creates meaning in modern life, this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS  00:01 — Loneliness Worse Than Smoking? 02:03 — The Anti-Wall Street Career Path 05:04 — The DoubleClick Mafia Explained 08:23 — From HR to CEO 11:13 — How Michael Changed David's Career 13:27 — Adam Neumann's ‘27 Interviews’ 16:36 — Retired at 50. Then What? 18:08 — Meetup Was Born After 9/11 21:36 — Fixing A $20M WeWork Money Pit 24:02 — Revenue Is Not Evil 27:15 — Why Young People Are Lonelier 29:21 — Meetup's Biggest Product Mistake 34:22 — The DEI Debate at Meetup 40:08 — October 7th Changed Everything 59:57 — Mandatory Service Ends Loneliness RESOURCES Follow David on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmsiegel/  Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc  Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20  ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom  Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic  Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar  Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir

    David Siegel, Former CEO of Meetup & Investopedia, on Solving the Loneliness Crisis, Rescuing Meetup from WeWork, and Why Israelis are Happier than Americans

  6. May 20

    Oren Zeev, Solo VC Managing $3B, on Why Code Is No Longer a Moat, Surviving Navan's Worst IPO of 2025, and the Dangerous 10x Growth Mindset

    On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with Oren Zeev, a one-man VC with $2.7 billion AUM. Over the last three decades, Oren has quietly built one of the most remarkable track records in venture capital, backing category-defining companies including Audible, Chegg, TripActions/Navan, Tipalti, Houzz, Riverside, and more. Operating without a traditional partnership or even an office, Oren runs Zeev Ventures largely from Café Venetia in Palo Alto — relying on speed, conviction, and founder relationships to make investments that others often miss. In this candid and wide-ranging conversation, Michael and Oren unpack the psychology of venture investing, why most partnerships create “negative feedback loops,” and why missing a great company is far worse than making a bad investment. Oren explains how he evaluates founders in a single meeting, what makes a company defensible in the age of AI, and why adaptability matters more than code. They also go deep on the incredible story of Navan: from an accidental street encounter that sparked the investment, to existential battles with Delta Airlines, COVID reducing revenue to nearly zero overnight, near cash collapse during hypergrowth, and surviving one of the worst IPO receptions of 2025. The conversation also explores: Why AI is both destroying and strengthening moats The mental model behind successful venture investing Why proprietary data matters more than ever Lessons from Chegg’s collapse in the ChatGPT era Founder-led companies vs. corporate “dinosaurs” Why venture capital is entering its greatest era Israeli founders, resilience, and building global companies The dangerous obsession with unsustainable hypergrowth Oren Zeev is the founder of Zeev Ventures, a solo venture capital firm managing billions in assets and backing some of the most important technology companies of the last two decades. Prior to founding Zeev Ventures, Oren was a General Partner at Apax Partners. He has been repeatedly recognized as one of the world’s top venture investors and is known for his concentrated, high-conviction investing style. If you want to understand venture capital, startup moats, AI disruption, founder psychology, and what it takes to build enduring category leaders, this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS  00:00 – Intro  02:38 – Why Venture Partnerships Fail 04:42 – Missing 100x Companies Hurts More 07:00 – How Oren Decides in 24 Hours 10:04 – The Tiny Signal Behind Riverside 15:10 – Why AI Destroyed Chegg 18:27 – The New AI Moats 22:00 – Why Oren Is Bullish on Venture 25:04 – “Microsoft Will Kill It” Again 27:12 – The Accidental Navan Investment 31:08 – Delta Nearly Killed Navan 35:18 – COVID Sent Revenue to Zero 39:06 – Leadership Under Existential Pressure 44:18 – The Worst IPO of 2025 48:56 – Why Oren Still Believes Navan Wins 59:59 – The Dangerous “10x Growth” Obsession RESOURCES Follow Oren on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozeev/  Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc  Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20  ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom  Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic  Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar  Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir

    Oren Zeev, Solo VC Managing $3B, on Why Code Is No Longer a Moat, Surviving Navan's Worst IPO of 2025, and the Dangerous 10x Growth Mindset

  7. May 6

    Elad Raz, Co-Founder and CEO at NextSilicon, on Outperforming Nvidia on Efficiency, the Architecture No One Thought Possible, and What Happens When the Memory Bottleneck Breaks

    On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with Elad Raz, Founder and CEO of NextSilicon, for a deep dive into the future of compute - and why the AI revolution may be bottlenecked by the very chips powering it. In this technical and provocative conversation, Michael and Elad unpack what it actually means to “reinvent compute,” why today’s dominant architectures from Nvidia, Google, and Amazon may be fundamentally limited, and how NextSilicon is taking a radically different approach—one that replaces traditional CPUs and GPUs with a dynamically reconfigurable chip architecture. Drawing on Elad’s background in elite Unit 8200 and decades of experience in high-performance computing, he explains why most AI chips are solving for the present—not the future—and why the real breakthroughs may come from entirely new paradigms like dataflow computing. He also shares bold claims about performance, including running workloads up to 10x faster at a fraction of the power, and discusses NextSilicon’s role in building next-generation supercomputers for U.S. national labs. They discuss: - Why the world is entering the “age of compute” - What Nvidia—and the rest of the industry—may be getting wrong - The real bottleneck in AI: memory vs compute - Why faster AI often means dramatically higher cost - The difference between training, prefill, and inference architectures - Why future AI models may look nothing like transformers - The economics of chips, data centers, and trillion-parameter models - How NextSilicon’s architecture could reshape both HPC and AI Elad Raz is the Founder and CEO of NextSilicon, a deep-tech company redefining high-performance computing and AI infrastructure. A graduate of the IDF’s elite Unit 8200, Elad brings more than 20 years of experience in technology, entrepreneurship, and executive leadership. Before founding NextSilicon, he founded Integrity Project, which was acquired by Mellanox Technologies in 2014. Elad resides in Ramat Gan, Israel, with his wife and three sons. If you want to understand where AI infrastructure is really heading—and why the next wave may not belong to today’s incumbents—this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS  00:00 - Intro - “10x Faster, Quarter the Power” 00:35 - Secret Supercomputer in U.S. Labs 03:27 - “Reinventing Compute” vs Nvidia 05:27 - Why the World Needs Infinite Compute 08:23 - Throwing Away CPUs and GPUs 11:25 - 30x–100x Chip Throughput Explained 12:47 - “What Jensen Missed” 13:00 - Why Dataflow Failed—Until Now 17:23 - Top 500 Supercomputer Reveal Tease 25:22 - Why Faster AI Gets More Expensive 30:33 - “AI Chips Are the Dumbest Idea” 33:49 - Why Transformers Won’t Last 34:02 - “Fastest Compute on Earth” Claim 38:36 - NextSilicon Is NOT a Feature 58:03 - Compute Replaces Food and Energy RESOURCES Follow Elad on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eladraz/  Learn more about NextSilicon: https://www.nextsilicon.com/  Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc  Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20  ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom  Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic  Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar  Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir

    Elad Raz, Co-Founder and CEO at NextSilicon, on Outperforming Nvidia on Efficiency, the Architecture No One Thought Possible, and What Happens When the Memory Bottleneck Breaks

  8. Apr 15

    Amir Fischer, Teen Venture Capitalist, on Raising $2M, Cold-Emailing Billionaires, and Why His Generation May Have the Most Agency Ever

    On this episode of Invested, Michael Eisenberg sits down with Amir Fischer, a 16-year-old investor, podcaster, and emerging venture capitalist who is building an entirely new investing thesis: teenagers backing teenagers. In this sharp and unconventional conversation, Amir explains how he started investing in public markets at age 10, built a $15,000-a-month ad agency at 14, cold-emailed 3,000 financial titans to launch his podcast, and raised a $2 million venture fund - legally set up in his mother’s name - to back the most exceptional teenage founders in the world. Michael and Amir explore what makes this generation different: growing up with the internet, adapting early to AI, and developing leverage far earlier than previous generations ever could. They also debate whether school is still the best use of time for ambitious young builders, why maturity matters more than intelligence, and how short-form content and algorithms are creating a “Great Bifurcation” between high-agency and low-agency people. They discuss: Why teenagers may be the most overlooked investment category in the world How Amir landed guests like Steve Cohen through relentless persistence Why some of the most talented teens are already working in crypto, AI, and trading The dangers of algorithm-driven short-form content How access to information is reshaping ambition, learning, and opportunity Where elite teenage founders actually come from Why Amir sees himself as a “kingmaker” for his generation Amir also reflects on identity, conviction, and the fear of mediocrity - and why young people should use their age as an advantage, not a limitation. Amir Fischer is the founder of Noar Ventures, a venture fund focused on investing in exceptional teenage founders, and the host of Generating Alpha, where he has interviewed some of the most prominent investors in the world. If you want to understand where the next generation of founders, investors, and capital allocators is coming from, this episode is essential viewing. Please rate this episode 5 stars wherever you stream your podcasts! KEY TOPICS  00:00 - Intro 01:55 - Why Invest Only in Teenagers 03:22 - Maturity Matters More Than Intelligence 06:16 - The Teen Who Made $100M 07:15 - Dylan Field Said Drop Out 08:01 - Is School a Waste of Time? 09:43 - Use Your Age as a Weapon 11:33 - Teen Talent Stories Are Insane 16:00 - Started Investing at Age 10 17:56 - Built a $15K/Month Agency 19:30 - Cold Emailed 3,000 Billionaires 20:25 - How Persistence Landed Steve Cohen 24:02 - YouTube, AI, and High Agency 26:36 - The Great Bifurcation Is Coming 28:03 - Why Short-Form Content Is Dangerous 30:57 - Why Teen Founders Should Choose Amir 35:06 - Sometimes the Best Advice Is None 36:16 - Biggest Mistake: Moving Too Fast 41:20 - Why He Wants to Be Kingmaker 44:12 - Why More Jews Must Speak Up 46:47 - What Happens When Amir Ages Out 47:11 - Why This Generation Is Different 51:00 - What Being 16 Still Can’t Do 52:24 - Where He Finds Exceptional Teenagers 55:01 - The Secret Teen Networks Online 56:58 - Core Value: Be Genuine RESOURCES Follow Amir on X: https://x.com/AmirF15336  Subscribe to Generating Alpha Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@generatingalphapodcast  Subscribe to Invested: https://content.aleph.vc/invested Learn more about Aleph: aleph.vc  Sign up for Aleph’s monthly email newsletter: https://newsletter.aleph.vc/ Subscribe to Aleph’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aleph-vc/ Follow Michael on Twitter: twitter.com/mikeeisenberg Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mieisenberg/ Follow Aleph on Twitter: https://x.com/aleph?s=20  ‍Follow Aleph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aleph-vc/ ‍Follow Aleph on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleph.vc/ CREDITS Executive Producer: Erica Marom  Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld Video and Editing: Nadav Elovic  Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar  Content and Editorial: Jackie Goldberg Design: Nimrod Sapir

    Amir Fischer, Teen Venture Capitalist, on Raising $2M, Cold-Emailing Billionaires, and Why His Generation May Have the Most Agency Ever
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5
out of 5
32 Ratings

About

How can values create value? Join Venture Capitalist and Author Michael Eisenberg as he speaks with global business leaders to explore the values and purpose behind their businesses, the impact of technology on humanity, and the humanity behind digitization. Michael Eisenberg is Co-Founder and General Partner of Aleph, an early-stage venture capital fund with $850M under management in Tel Aviv, Israel. Aleph is an early stage venture capital fund focused on partnering with great Israeli entrepreneurs to build large, meaningful companies and impactful global brands.

Information

  • Creator
    Michael Eisenberg
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    79
  • Rating
    Explicit

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