Moving to New York? Don’t forget your Chutzpah!

“While trying to speak ‘American’ and fitting in, don’t forget your Israeli Chutzpah,” say the executives from IoT cybersecurity company Firedome. “Hustle and use it to get the intro, and to land the deal. We’re Israeli, we have this superpower - use it.”

Firedome’s Moti Shkolnik, Sharon Mirsky, and Orr Chen. Photo: PR

General background on the founders/senior managers:

Background on the product/service/platform/solution:

1. Relationships are key. Unlike Israel, where there is a maximum of two degrees of separation between any two people and you can call your buddy from your army unit to hear about any potential client, employee, or investor, the US. is massive and the way to build trust is through establishing value-oriented relationships.
2. New York is not the U.S. The U.S is huge and people are very different from one state to another and one city to another. Being in New York is being in the center of the world. You have art, technology, the best schools, and an amazing and eclectic population.
   

Things you learned about American investors as a result of starting operations there:

1. American Investors will not tell you outright what they think and are polite with business acumen (Israeli investors are blunt and direct). Board meetings with American investors are usually also calm and civil.
2. From our experience with U.S investors, we feel that they have respect for the different roles and values of founders/operators vs. board members. The American VCs we have worked with do not try to take the driver’s seat and enable founders to lead the company and make the operating decisions while they advise and provide support from the sidelines.
   

1. Utilize the Israeli community. The Israeli Tech Community in New York City is very tight-knit and helpful and any Israeli founder can and should reach out to other founders and startup executives in the city. It saves a lot of time and can truly accelerate success.
2. Learn the subtleties of American feedback to save time and frustration. If someone said it’s very interesting - you will most likely never hear from them again! If someone said they want to ‘do coffee’ - they probably don’t want to speak with you.
3. When you grow your team to non-Israelis remember to only speak English next to them. It can be very hard to crack into Israeli startup culture. Help your team members by speaking English and bridging the cultural gap. For example, if you’d say to an American employee “how about that idea?” they will go ahead and execute it, whereas an Israeli employee will probably debate whether or not this is the right decision.
   

The Firedome Team. Photo: PR

1. While trying to speak “American” and fitting in, don’t forget your Israeli Chutzpah Hzpa. Hustle and use it to get the intro, and to land the deal. We’re Israeli, we have this superpower - use it.
2. That said, be professional. Don’t be late for meetings. Come prepared, send follow-up emails on time, be process-oriented, and be respectful to everyone involved.
   

1. In the U.S, people do not talk about personal life at work, whereas in Israel everything is fair game and there are no filters.
2. In the U.S, the culture is very politically correct, which includes not speaking about politics, being very sensitive to the potential misinterpretation of words, and being respectful to all minorities. In Israel, there is much less sensitive to these issues, no political correctness and everything goes.
3. In the U.S, disagreements and arguments are civil, whereas in Israel, we live for passionate and loud arguments.