I get asked quite a bit where I suddenly appeared from.
I haven't been here for about 6 years.
The answer is that I was in a post-startup.
Yes, there is such a thing. Six years.
After the fifth startup, the systems simply collapsed.
I ran from project to project. Five trips around the world with pirates, sharks, storms, wrecks, and a market that turns on you along with the investors, customers, and employees.
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I got the worst ship in the navy.
The first thing I told them was simple: the ranks on the shoulder have no meaning here.
Only how we live together here in this tin can, in any weather, matters. About a year later, something strange happened....
I once lost an exit because of one sentence I said to someone.
We had an acquisition offer on the table a little over a year after starting the venture. We were growing insanely fast and got the kind of offer that really sets you up.
Two days after the offer, one of the four partners came to me. No shouting, no drama. He simply announced that he deserved a bigger share of the sale than the other founders.
Our product simply didn't work. Customers were fleeing like wildfire, and I was sure that in a second our main investor would bring me a cardboard box and tell me to pack the planter. (And rightly so, by the way. I would have been fired at that moment too).
This was my previous startup. We raised $15 million. Offices in Paris, London, New York, Silicon Valley, and São Paulo. On paper? An empire. In practice? Titanic.
One of the main reasons I started startups is because I just wanted to be at dinner with my wife and kids. West Coast conversations can be done from home.
As an only child and an IDF orphan, I grew up in a reality where this was my greatest deprivation. This togetherness around the table.
My wife and I sat for ten minutes with a potential partner for a new venture.
When he left, she said one thing to me: "Don't even start a WhatsApp group with him."
I, a man-man, a soldier in the Navy, insisted.
I explained to her that he was "ours," that he was exactly what the project needed. (What an idiot).
It cost me two wasted years of my life and amounts of heartache that could have filled an ocean.
SERVICES
NOT JUST SOCIAL BUTTERFLIES
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT
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CONTENT CREATION
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INFLUENCER MARKETING
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SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING
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RESILIENT MINDSET
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COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
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An investor once caught me at a conference. His eyes gleamed as if he were talking about the Messiah.
"An ideal CEO," he told me in awe, "is someone who lives on a plane. Two meetings in Tokyo, a flight to London for an airport meeting, and from there a connecting flight to meetings in New York. Three weeks a month away from home."
I nodded. What was I supposed to say to him? It’s like a carnivore trying to explain the juicy, red perfection of a ribeye steak to a vegan. There is no real conversation to be had here.
Two-meter waves. A crazy undertow. The lifeguard is shouting through the megaphone that anyone stepping into the water will get a 750-shekel fine.
Saturday morning, I’m sitting on the beach with my son, pointing out a gray vessel way out there in the sea foam.
"Look at how miserable your dad used to be," I told him.
Every week, at least four full days out at sea, bouncing on the waves, 20 kilometers left, 20 kilometers right. That’s how three years of regular service and another 20 years in the reserves flew by.
Nowadays, everyone is building AI-based dashboards to show them where the money is. Back in 1993, my dashboard was a 60-year-old fisherman named Shaul, with fingers made of iron and zero patience.
I was a deputy ship commander on terminal leave back then. I was used to tracking every single pixel on a screen, telling you exactly where you were every second. None of that helped me catch fish.
One day, we are out at sea right after a winter storm. The water is smooth as glass, and there are no navigation tools. Shaul stops the boat in the middle of nowhere. "Dive here," he tells me. "Tell me what you see."
Insights from the field
Leadership, culture, entrepreneurship and what really happens inside companies
Short thoughts from the field, the sea, companies I have built, and my work with founders and executives.
Each post continues on LinkedIn, where you can also see the voices and perspectives of leading practitioners and the discussion around each insight.
Contact
Phone: +972-54-8142030
16 Nissim Aloni, Tel-Aviv, Israel
© 2026 by Sink Or Scale
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