These are powerful and mission critical to fighting any info war. And clearly, we are in one.
I remember when Steven Spielberg document testimony from my grandparents and their stories from the Holocaust, and so thankful he did.
We need more of it..
That’s what I’m excited to support Wendy Sachs and Debra Messing and the rest of their team in producing a piece that will detail and document this antisemitic disease that’s beginning to rot away our society.
In any society, antisemitism is the canary in the coal mine for a deep, uglier reality. It needs to be exposed because light is the best antidote for darkness.
Interviews will include some of the most active and vocal voices like Noa Tishby, Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Rapaport, Dan Senor, Einat Wilf, Hillel Neuer, Sheryl Sandberg and more
There’s lots more to do but this is just another initiative of many that’s needed.
EXCLUSIVE: Actress, producer, and activist, Debra Messing, has signed on to executive produce the feature documentary, Primal Fear about the explosion of antisemitism on college campuses, on social media, and in the streets since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. Wendy Sachs, the co-director and producer of SURGE, is directing the film and will also serve as an executive producer.
It’s kind of hard to imagine anyone smiling in a terrorized home where your friends and family were murdered or kidnapped.
And knowing some of those family members are still being held hostage in unimaginable circumstances.
Or hearing stories about being the very first tank into Gaza, knowing full well you’re unlikely to make it out alive, and that many of your friends did not.
The stories are endless.
But there we were..
For the first time since 10/7, some people from Kibbutz Reim, one of the places closest to the border and attacked, came home to begin the new process of rebuilding.
They heard about @ryanjdaniels and @avivlazar3 crazy idea to get a crew together from the US and Israel to come south and start the rebuilding effort with them.
So we went..
And others joined..
And together we did what we’ve always done and will continue to do:
Some call it “Tikkun olam”
A Jewish concept that refers to actions intended to improve and repair the world.
But for us, it was about new and old friends..
And letting them know, they are not alone.
And this antisemitic, hate-filled disease that’s emerged once again, will be destroyed and will be another chapter in our very long story.
I recently listened to Lex Friedman’s interview with Jeff Bezos. If you want to hear someone speak with incredible clarity and wisdom, listen to Jeff. There’s a reason he is the second richest person in the world.
But there was one topic that resonated with me more than anything.
Truth.
It seems like the world doesn’t care much about it these days. Just skim through social media and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
However, Jeff reminds us that “truth” is arguably the single most important factor that leads to success and prosperity.
“Yes, challenging. They [truths] can make people defensive even if that’s not the intent. But any high performing organization, whether it’s a sports team, a business, a political organization, an activist group, I don’t care what it is, any high performing organization has to have mechanisms and a culture that supports truth-telling.” – 1:29:14
The evidence is irrefutable. As of this writing, Amazon has about a 1.6 trillion dollar market cap making it the fifth richest company in the world.
If you look at the world’s most successful companies, they all have this trait.
They consistently engage in the pursuit of truth, employing critical thinking, problem-solving, and scientific methodologies in their approach.
“And so science is all about truth-telling. It’s actually a very formal mechanism for trying to tell the truth. And even in science, you find that it’s hard to tell the truth. Even you’re supposed to have a hypothesis and test it and find data and reject the hypothesis and so on, it’s not easy.” – Jeff Bezos, 1:30:10
Elon Musk also famously refers to “truths” and first principles:
As of this writing, Elon Musk is the number one richest person in the world, with companies that launch rockets into space (SpaceX), produce self-driving cars (Tesla), and let humans transmit information electronically with just their brains (Neuralink). You only do that with capable leadership and truth-seeking.
There is another place where this truth-seeking discipline has taken shape over the past few decades leading to some incredible human achievements and prosperity, including, but not limited to the development of things like:
While we're at it, here are other things they should add to the Jewish boycott list:
– Salvarsan, siphillis drug – Digitalis, heart disease drug – Novocaine, toothache drug – Insulin, blood sugar drug – Pyramidon, headache drug – Antypyrin, headache drug – Spiro, high blood… https://t.co/drxpZz9UQc
This country also ranks #7 in the world for creating the most unicorns, has more than 100 companies listed on US exchanges, with a combined market cap of more than $150 billion, and has the fourth most companies listed on the Nasdaq after the United States, Canada, and China.
And if that wasn’t enough, Israelis have among the world’s highest life expectancies and lower rates of “deaths of despair” from suicide and substance abuse. It’s also one of the few populations that are young and growing while all other wealthy democracies are aging and shrinking. According to a recent UN report, it is also the fourth happiest nation in the world behind Finland, Denmark, and Iceland.
These achievements would not have been possible without dedicated hard work and a relentless quest for truth.
But, truth is hard.
“You have just asked a million-dollar question. So if I generalize what you’re asking, you are talking in general about truth-telling and we humans are not really truth-seeking animals. We are social animals.” – Jeff Bezos, 01:28:21
This brings us to today.
War.
There is a hot war in the Middle East and an information war online.
Both sides understand the importance of truth or lack thereof.
Iran and their proxies, like Hamas, understand that “we are social animals” and so the more death, destruction, and oppression they can inflict on their people (look what Israel did to us!), the more sympathy they can create for their cause.
In short, they can prevent “truth-seeking animals” by pulling on the strings of our most animalistic tendencies and emotions, using social media megaphones we all have in our pockets. Who wouldn’t get upset when they see the photos coming out of Gaza? I know I do. It’s horrible and tragic. But that’s the point. They recognize that “truth-telling” for most people is hard, and so they prey on the ignorance and lazy thinking that many people have.
But ultimately, truth will prevail.
And the truth is this:
One side wants dead Jews.
The other side does not want to die.
And if you don’t believe this, then just look at the track records of truth.
In the world of technology startups, it seems many people look to a few select sites to figure out what products are new and exciting. Product Hunt is one of those sites. At the time of this writing, Product Hunt has 4,007 products listed, 15,795 comments, 71,842 upvotes, and 29,021 subscribers from around the world. So I was fascinated to see a company called Zula generate as much engagement as they did during their launch of their new product called ZCast.
Why was I fascinated?
ZCast is a podcasting product. It enables anyone to podcast live with friends and let anyone listen and interact in real time. In other words, it removes the barrier to podcasting.
With the world moving towards augmented reality and virtual reality, it seems like sometimes we take for granted tried and true mediums that people are accustomed to. According to the Washington Post, podcast downloads passed the 1 billion mark in 2014, and monthly podcast listeners reached as much as 75 million per month. By mid-2015, ad marketing spend on podcasts reached $50M. Several new podcasting services launched in the past two years, each promising new and exciting ways to allow users to broadcast themselves.
I sat down with Hillel Fuld, the CMO of ZCast, who recently led their launch to gain some insights into their product, their space and into their product launch.
Hillel Fuld, CMO of Zula.
Dan Reich: This ZCast launch was pretty nuts. Most upvotes on Product Hunt, tons of press, and from what I can see, tons of traction. I opened the app and there were tens of upcoming casts. How did you pull off this launch?
Hillel Fuld: Yes, the ZCast launch was bonkers. I mean the team worked for months preparing for it and we hoped it would be good, but definitely exceeded our expectations. I’d like to offer some magical answer that anyone can just do and pull off a launch like this but the truth is, it was a whole lot of hard work. Building relationships for years on Twitter and other platforms, writing content myself so when I ask friends and followers to support the launch, most people were happy to after reading my content daily for years. I mean, there are definitely some useful tips I can offer like to coordinate the Product Hunt aspect of your launch way in advance. Choose the tag line, the person who will hunt it for you, write your first comment in advance, and make sure to spend time on Product Hunt for months before the launch. I wrote many more tips on Medium the day after launch. Read that post here.
Reich: I actually want to focus on Product Hunt a little more. It has become quite a central platform in product launches and you nailed it. I’d love to know five things you would recommend to anyone launching a product on Product Hunt.
Fuld: Sure. Here we go.
A: Spend a lot of time on the platform well before you intend on launching. Give back to the community there because without that, you can’t expect them to support you during your launch. By the way, apply this rule to all aspects of marketing. Give a whole lot more than you take.
B: Before you decide on your one liner, write 20-30 options down, gather feedback from people, team members, colleagues, and anyone else who will offer their opinion. The tag line should obviously talk to the Product Hunt community so be geeky but also make sure the tag line says clearly what your product does.
C: Make sure your graphics stand out. Whether it is screen shots, a video, or any other visual assets, remember that all people will see when determining whether to upvote is the name of your product, the tag line, and the visuals.
D: Find the right person to hunt it. In theory, you, the maker of the product should hunt it but if you don’t have a large audience there, then find someone who does and can hunt it for you.
E: Here’s something I learned the hard way. Coordinate the Product Hunt launch time with the press. In other words, if you sent out your release under embargo till 9:30 AM, then don’t launch on Product Hunt any earlier than that. If you do, the press can and probably will see the product on Product Hunt and write about it before, which might annoy other reporters and prevent them from covering the launch. I made this mistake and almost paid the price.
F: Bonus: Never ever ask for upvotes. Sharing the link to your page on Product Hunt? Totally fine. Asking for Upvotes in a Facebook post, tweet, email or any other way? Not ok.
Reich: So tell me about ZCast.
Fuld: ZCast is the most exciting product I’ve ever been involved in building. I can tell you that over the last five years, I’ve tried many times to podcast. I’m a big believer in content of all kinds and audio content is no different. The problem is that creating a podcast is super challenging. Either you sit in a studio with your guests and record the podcast with high-end equipment or you need to use some serious software to record the conversation then edit it after the show to make it into a podcast format.
With ZCast, choose a topic, invite your co-hosts and go live. That’s it. You’re podcasting. Approximately ten second setup time. The goal with ZCast is to do to audio content what YouTube did to video. Make it accessible to anyone. For now, it’s iOS and a full-fledged web app that enables you to listen, interact, and cast from your web browser. On Android, you can use the browser as well but an Android app is obviously on the roadmap.
Reich: What are your next moves with ZCast and what are the challenges?
Fuld: The launch was the “easy part”. Now getting content flowing into the platform is the challenge. The amount of casts we had on the first few days is astounding but now we need to take this momentum and leverage it to build out the community. Of course, there is also the fund raising, which is an essential part of building out a vision as ambitious as ours. Finally, we will be working closely with some strategic partners on ZCast. Think entertainment, think podcasting networks, and think different types of content creators who always wanted to podcast but simply couldn’t.
Reich: What was the most exciting part of the ZCast launch?
Fuld: Well we haven’t spoken about this publicly yet but we had many, many visually impaired individuals interact with their audience while ZCasting. Taking questions, answering them, and just literally hosting their very own interactive podcast. I am not talking one or two people, there were many. It was inspiring.
Reich: So I’ll just ask what many people want to know. What does being number one in terms of votes on Product Hunt, getting countless positive reviews in the press, and endless social promotion do to your download numbers? How is that going?
Fuld: Well, obviously it is too early to talk numbers but what definitely matters to us most is the amount of time each user spends on the platform. Downloads are less important to us since the web app has all the functionality needed to ZCast. Having said that, the numbers both in terms of downloads, average ZCast time, and just overall ZCast sessions are super exciting. We didn’t expect them to be this high and that’s an understatement. The retention, in other words, the people that start a ZCast, then come back to do another one? That is the number we are most proud of!
Reich: What’s the stage of Zula, the company? Are you raising capital now? Tell me about that.
Fuld: Zula is a small company with 6 team members. Two marketing, one iOS, one UI/UX, and The CEO. Super lean. Yes, we are talking to a few investors now about raising a round of financing primarily to be used to build out the ZCast platform and make it available to more people, starting with Android users.
Reich: If you had one wish for ZCast, one goal, what would it be?
Fuld: I think our dream here is to offer users everything they need to create high quality engaging audio content. My dream? To have ZCast accompany talk radio shows, sports events, and other less geeky and more mainstream events. We see ZCast as sort of the next-generation talk radio.
Reich: And you? What’s your end game?
Fuld: Well I am super excited about the future of ZCast and I think there is tremendous potential here. I can’t wait to start my own weekly podcast. Soon we will add recording in ZCast and I’ll be hosting my own show. The topic? Stay tuned. Other than that, helping push the Israeli ecosystem forward. It is exciting times for us with ZCast and exciting times here in the Israeli startup ecosystem!
In 1948, at the Henry Hudson Hotel in New York City, the most unlikely startup was created. It’s founding members dropped everything to fly across the country to Manhattan for secret meetings to launch their endeavor.
Just a year before, one of it’s founding members Leon Frankel was already running a highly successful business buying and selling used cars making $100 to $200 a pop on every sale. Not bad when you consider this is 1947.
But then Leon and a few others got a phone call that would change their lives and put them in one of the harshest environments to build a new organization.
As Leon put it, “I just made up my mind and nothing was going to stop me.”
When you’re building any new venture from scratch, that attitude is critical. When you’re building an air force amidst an ongoing war, that attitude is absolutely required.
Today, the Israeli Air Force ranks second to none globally, according to a study conducted by military experts for Business Insider. “Pilot to pilot, airframe to airframe, the Israeli air force is the best in the world,” said Chris Harmer, a senior naval analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.
In a new documentary called Above and Beyond, which debuted in NYC this past weekend, Nancy Spielberg tells the story of how a few young Americans started what is today considered the world’s leading air force.
Nancy Spielberg with Israeli F-15, Hatzor Air Base, Israel
I was able to sit down with Harold Livingston, another founding pilot who also happened to write the screenplay of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, to ask him a few questions about how this highly unlikely organization was formed.
Dan Reich: I can’t imagine the numerous challenges you confronted, but what was the biggest obstacle you faced when building the Air Force?
Harold Livingston: The United States Government who prevented us from taking the aircrafts out of the country. They enforced an embargo against any aircraft weighing over 25,000 pounds being sent without an export license.
Reich: In the beginning, there wasn’t a blueprint or playbook for what you were doing. How did you train and recruit new members?
Livingston: We played it as it was, with what we had. Recruiting was achieved through word of mouth, airline and/or ex-military friends of friends, various Zionist organizations, even to the point of scanning Air Guard rosters for pilots and crewmen with Jewish-sounding names. Training was another matter: everyone had to be thoroughly checked out by the handful of experienced people (obviously airline and military veterans) available. This was why we were always so woefully short of skilled crewmen, and towards the end forced to hire some dozen (non-Jewish) mercenaries.
Reich: In any new venture, partnerships are very important to achieve success. Were there any partnerships that facilitated the growth of the organization?
Livingston: Czechoslovakia of course was essential, without their assistance and cooperation, we would have been in deep trouble. Same for the Panamanians, although they (Panama) were led to believe we truly were establishing a national Panamanian airline. That “franchise” allowed us to fly the airplanes out of the U.S., and on to Israel.
Reich: In hindsight, what steps would you have taken differently in growing and building the organization?
Livingston: No, not even in hindsight could we and probably would we have done anything different. Under the circumstances, there was nothing we could have done differently. We were, as stated, a “start-up” organization, and therefore learned as we went. And, for sure, from our mistakes.
Harold and Leon’s “nothing was going to stop me” attitude continues to permeate throughout the rest of Israel’s high tech institutions today. With nearly $15 billion in exits through mergers and acquisitions and public offerings, 2014 was an all-time record year for the Israeli hi-tech industry, compared with a mere $1.2 billion raised in 2013, according to a PwC report for 2014. The exits were spread out between a variety of tech industries, including Internet, IT, life sciences, communications and semiconductors.
According to Hillel Fuld, CMO of Zula and startup advisor, “Last week there were $910 million in Israeli tech transactions. In one week!” This past week, the Israeli ecosystem continued to deliver with both VCs and startups raising substantial capital. Some of the financing announced include companies and firms like like Vintage, Singulariteam, ClickTale, Addallom and Kaminario. That amount of capital is highly unlikely for any set of companies, and yet, these businesses and others continue to grow despite the many challenges the region faces.
