Fiftyfaces Focus - Inspiring Women in Tech and Beyond

Ahryun Moon is Founder and Head of Company Strategy at GoodTime.io a company designed to boost employee productivity by making scheduling meetings easier. This is not her first time founding a company – she also founded Etch Keyboard and previously worked as a financial accountant and financial analyst.

We start with her upbringing and the hackathons that awakened her interest in tech and problem solving.  When she noticed that recruiters were spending the bulk of their time on scheduling meetings, she went "under cover" at large companies in Silicon Valley in order to scope the extent of the problem.  This was the seed that generated GoodTime.io, and we turn then to her experience as a founder, raising capital, developing an all-remote team and being productive in a "Couple-preneur" arrangement (her husband is also a partner at GoodTime.io). 

We dig deep into what Ahryun terms the "female founder discount", why this persists and the way that it erodes company value and prospects. This is a passionate discussion that uncovers the inequities that continuing and we pick apart how to address them. 

Charna Ambers is founder of CB Design NY, which specializes in corporate brand and marketing design for clients across a range of industries, including in particular healthcare, lifestyle, and real estate. 

Our conversation starts with her upbringing in upstate New York, her first roles and how she came to the decision to launch her own firm. We talk about her vision for branding and design, and how she builds her network. We delve in particular into her LInkedIN strategy, and how she was an early adopter on the platform and has ultimately garnered more than 30,000 followers.

We speak then about her use of a business coach and how that has been pivotal in growing her business and in offering the sounding board and advice needed to navigate through changing times. 

This podcast is brought to you as a bonus episode featuring inspiring women in tech and beyond with ties to Israel. 

Hilla Bakshi is the founder of Hameetupistiot and works as a marketing  and business development co-ordinator at Women on Stage. Women on Stage is a global platform which showcases, books, and trains women professional speakers for any tech event, conference, meetup, or webinar.

In our interview, we discuss how Hilla came to champion women in hi-tech. Hilla describes how her growing awareness that she was usually the only female in the room inspired her to ask why. We talk about what she learnt when she asked that question and how it inspired her to launch a community for female professionals. 

Hilla also discusses with me what she learnt through working with WomenonStage and the transformative effect it had on the participants’ confidence, their  storytelling and their ability to rebrand themselves. Finally, Hilla opens up about having stage fright, the agility of dreams, and her future goals. HaMeetupistiot has an active presence on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/meetupistiot/?originalSubdomain=il linkedIn. You can also check out Hilla’s work here https://www.womenonstage.net. 

Efrat Fenigson was featured as one of StartIsrael’s 2021’s most promising marketing leaders in Israel who is focused on social impact.  Efrat is currently the  CMO at Mindspace and is the co-founder of the G-CMO forum.  She is also, among many other things, a feminist, activist, and Videocast host.

In our interview we discuss how Efrat started out as a programmer in Australia and chucked it all in to take a risk and start her own business there.  She talks us through her  journey from running that business to becoming CMO at Mindspace.  Efrat discusses why marketing appeals to her and how she uses the skills learnt there to engage in social activism. Hear how marketing skills, and the ability to distill information into simple, digestible form and tell a story, can be useful in other walks of life. 

We also explore  the importance of identifying  your values and knowing what your redlines are so that you choose the right job or purpose in life. Throughout the interview, Efrat returns to the themes of failure, fear and uncertainty,  and the importance of challenging those insecurities in order to grow. She also talks very openly about feeling her own fears and vulnerabilities, life's ups and downs, and how she relies on the people in her own life to help gain insight into herself. This concept of getting feedback from valued friendships is one that she believes is key to continue to grow and build self-awareness. 

Hosted by Maeve McQuillan.

Avigail Bar-Timor Rosen  is currently a Business Operation Associate at Payoneer. Prior to this she was a community manager at  "Women in Hitech”, which has more than 14 thousand members.  Avigal continues to   promote and work for the  representation of women in the Israeli tech industry. 

In this podcast we talk about how hard it can be to know what you want to do in life. Avigail describes how her  journey to discovering her career path was not a straightforward or easy one, and how she took many different turns in her quest to find a job that spoke to her. She touches on how difficult that period of searching was and how in the end she learnt that it’s not about a job title, but about  knowing your values and what you want. We also talk about the practical steps that she took in order to find her career  and the importance of networking, mentors ,and coaches. 

We touch on the theme of money and how for women it’s hard to ask for their worth or even admit their goal is to make money as this can still be frowned upon by society.  Avigail’s own experiences have made her passionate  about promoting women in hi-tech.Through her involvement in various women’s organisations, she’s helping women see their worth, ask for their full value and  encourages them to promote themselves within their careers in order to continue forging ahead. 

There are more details about Avigail's affinity groups here:   https://www.linkedin.com/company/meetupistiot/?originalSubdomain=il and here https://women-in-tech.org/il/. 

Hosted by Maeve McQuillan.

Rachel Zalta is Global Lead at the Creative Shop @ Taboola in Tel Aviv. She originally studied psychology, and has a strong interest in online trends and persuasion and is an expert on online behavior. She was born in New York City and moved to Israel when she was 6 years old.
Rachel was one of the first guests that I approached for our Inspiring Israeli Women in Tech Series and is a perfect person to finish our third series. I was quickly fascinated by her blend of psychology and technology and how she was a fount of insights into how we behave online and what triggers certain behaviors.
In a world where we are increasingly bombarded by messaging, tailored advertising and in which brands are constantly evolving to be more "on trend" it is interesting to see what works and what doesn't in winning our "engagement".
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.

Adi Eckhouse Barzilai is co-founder and CEO at DeeDa:Do, based in NYC, and was the founder of RealFace, a company focused on bringing back human perception to digital processes.
In this conversation we discuss her journey from sitting with an inspired idea to finally taking the plunge and leaving the security of her well paid job to set up RealFace. She emphasizes how vital it is to work with partners who share the same core values as you and the importance of surrounding yourself with talented people who you can learn from. Adi talks about RealFace getting acquired by Apple and the bittersweet nature of selling a company that you built with a view to longevity. She also speaks candidly about embarking on her new startup DeeDa:DO and what she wants to do differently this time around. An eternal optimist, Adi believes that it’s absolutely necessary to look at the world through rose-coloured glassed if you’re going to be an entrepreneur and touches on the importance of creating your own narrative when faced with setbacks.
One of Adi's other interests is chess, and as a former chess champion she is passionate about teaching chess to girls. We hear about the program she has set up to do that in NYC and the importance she places on STEM subjects and making them accessible to all.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.

Maya Tutian Matosevich is Global Marketing Director at Dassault Systemes, a French company and is based in Israel. She has had a long career in marketing within the software sector, where she has developed business plans and sales strategies on a regional and a global basis.
Our discussion covers her successful career - how she established herself as a leader in global marketing and developed a global team and client base. An excellent example of her ability to pivot and respond to the changing needs of her clients is the "business must go on" campaign that was initiated in response to the Covid-19 disruptions. This innovative campaign relied on fresh thinking and pivots to reframe business in a new reality without face to face meetings and the usual tools to build relationships.
Just as business must go on, so must life, and our conversation then turns to the sacrifices that are made in the name of careers and how working mothers in particular are often pulled in many different directions. We acknowledge the strain this can take, but also admit that high powered careers are not cost-free.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld

In our podcast, Dafna describes how she grew in a family of entrepreneurs and discusses her time in the Israeli army where at the age of 18 she became a lieutenant overseeing a group of 20 men. This experience shaped Dafna and made her understand what she was capable of. So much so that when Dafna moved to America in her twenties, she realised that she needed to set up her own company, as no one in the US quite understood her skillset and potential. Hence, D|Rolls was born.
A great believer in coaching, Dafna used it to help build both her business and navigate her role as CEO. Although D|Rolls business headquarters are in Boston, Dafna and her family moved back to Israel after 10 years. Initially, Dafna found the challenge of being a long-distance CEO fraught, but ultimately she used it as an opportunity to change and learned the importance of letting go a little. Dafna, who is a big supporter of female entrepreneurs, also shares her insights into why they sometimes give up too soon and the importance of hanging on in there. A firm believer in optimism in both business and life, Dafna discusses the value of persevering in the face of obstacles, the necessity of having a good support system, and the beauty of being above forty.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.

Naomi Krieger Carmy is a Senior VP at Social Finance Israel, an Israeli not-for-profit organization that issues Social Impact Bonds. She has had a global career that has spanned roles in investment banking, economic development and policy, and has recently had a particular focus on furthering innovation through the UK Israel Tech Hub a public/private venture to promote business and tech collaboration between the UK and Israel. Her most recent role prior to the current one was as VP and Head of the Societal Challenges division at the Israel Innovation Authority, where she was was responsible for policy, programs and funding for R&D of impact tech and development of human capital for the innovation ecosystem.
Our conversation starts with her education and time in the Israeli army, tracing her path from economist to investment banker to policy expert. We then turn to her more recent work focusing on some of the human capital challenges that come with companies in stages of fast-paced innovation. We examine what these challenges are and what works to address them, in particular to get more gender balance into such organizations.
We close with a discussion of the growing of social impact bonds, what kind of impact is targeted and how it is measured. This is an area we are likely to hear much more of in coming years and this podcast is an excellent primer.
This podcast was made possible with the kind support of Emanuel Arbib of IAM Capital Group, a global alternative investment group, and the individuals Elissa Bayer and Avital Eusgeld.