Growth+
"Sudden success can also be the end of the business"
As part of the Growth+ project by Calcalist and Poalim Tech, Micha Kaufman, founder and CEO of Fiverr met with Li-ran Navon, CEO of Sauce: "The level of resilience required to compete globally, while dealing with everything happening here, is immense."
Micha Kaufman, founder and CEO of Fiverr, sat down with Li-ran Navon, CEO of Sauce, which develops delivery infrastructure for restaurants. The conversation was held as part of the Growth+ project by Calcalist and Poalim Tech, now in its third year, a series of one-on-one meetings between founders of leading tech companies in Israel and entrepreneurs of promising startups, aimed at providing advice, support, and practical tools on entrepreneurship, creativity, startup management, and building companies for growth.
Micha, tell us about a crisis or challenge you encountered early on and what you learned from it that could help entrepreneurs starting out?
"When Fiverr went live in 2010, it happened quite quietly. We didn’t do any PR or make any noise. But two or three weeks after the launch, ABC News in the United States somehow discovered us and featured us on its morning show. That exposure nearly brought us down. At the time, our only payment option was PayPal. Suddenly, due to the massive traffic, PayPal shut down our account because they suspected fraud. At the same time, major email providers saw an unusually high volume of outgoing messages and blocked us because they couldn’t handle the load. Those were the toughest 24 hours I’ve ever experienced. The main lesson is that there are no easy solutions when dealing with crises."
Li-ran, what was your most significant challenge this year?
"We are building a global business from Israel. An entrepreneur based in San Francisco or New York has an easier environment, with fewer external challenges. The Israeli reality, alarms, sirens, employees who are suddenly drafted or unable to work, takes a significant toll. The level of resilience required to compete globally, while dealing with everything happening here, is immense. It amplifies the inherent challenge of operating a company outside its primary market."
Micha, what advice did you give to Li-ran?
"I think you have to be very humble when speaking with an entrepreneur whose domain is not your area of expertise. You need to recognize the limits of your perspective. So this was more of a joint thinking session, and ultimately, it’s up to him to decide what to take from it."
What did you learn from each other?
Li-ran: "I learned from Micha that sometimes it’s important to pause, allow yourself to think big, even a bit naively, and build a vision without limits. Even when you’re moving fast and growing, you need to stop occasionally, reset your perspective, and identify new dynamics and opportunities."
Micha: "I learned about a business I’m not deeply familiar with, I mostly know it as a consumer. I also saw entrepreneurship driven by a very strong global mindset from Israel, and an interesting approach to a market that may appear mature, where a winner seems already established, though I’m not sure that’s actually the case."
Is there anything surprising you discovered about each other?
Micha: "We both come from the world of aviation, so we started the conversation by talking about our shared passion for flying."
Li-ran: "I discovered that Micha is a true adventurer. He has taken his passion for aviation and turned it into experiences that most people don’t get the opportunity to have."
Micha Kaufman’s golden advice: “There has never been a better time to start a company than now.”
