Growth+
"The challenge at the beginning was understanding that we were a high-tech company"
As part of the Growth+ project by Calcalist and Poalim Tech, Ira Belsky, CEO of Artlist, met with Nadav Benoudiz, CEO of GenieLabs, who said: "It’s easy to hear ‘listen to the customer’ on podcasts, but it’s not that simple in reality."
Ira Belsky, co-founder and CEO of Artlist, met with Nadav Benoudiz, CEO of GenieLabs, which develops an AI-based platform that helps produce branded visual content for the gaming industry. The meeting took place as part of the Growth+ project by Calcalist and Poalim Tech. Growth+, now in its third year, consists of 1:1 meetings between founders of leading tech companies in Israel and entrepreneurs of promising startups, with the goal of advising, supporting, and providing tools, knowledge, and practical guidance on entrepreneurship, creativity, startup management, and building companies for growth.
Ira, tell us about a crisis or challenge you encountered early on and what you learned from it.
“We started in the north of the country, not at all with the goal of establishing a startup, but out of a personal need of mine and my partners. We said: ‘Let’s make a website and go with it.’ We were not connected to any ecosystem. The challenge at the beginning was understanding that we were a high-tech company. Investors started approaching us because they saw a company that was advertising and generating revenue, and they began asking questions in terms we didn’t know, ARR, for example. We didn’t know what that meant, and we didn’t even know that we were considered a ‘bootstrap’ company. It took us time to understand this world, who we were, and whom we should consult.
“I learned to think simply and not be ashamed of not knowing. As someone without an academic degree, I went on to become a senior legal advisor and CFO with 20 years of experience. I realized that if you understand your product, company, and market, you can apply clear, simple logic to any field and succeed in managing it.”
Nadav, what was your biggest challenge this year?
“I started the company shortly after graduating, and like Ira, I didn’t really know the world of startups. The first time we raised money, we were sure everything would now run smoothly, employees would come, customers would buy, and we wouldn’t have to do much. In practice, for a long time we weren’t able to get things moving, and we realized we wouldn’t be able to raise money again.
“The real challenge was finding something that truly provides value and that someone is willing to pay for. It’s easy to hear ‘listen to the customer’ on podcasts, but it’s not that simple in reality. We learned to knock on doors and ask direct questions: ‘Where are your bottlenecks?’ ‘How much would you be willing to pay for a solution?’ That’s how we understood what the gaming industry actually needed. We built a meaningful product and started delivering real value.”
Related articles:
- Artlist reaches $260 million in ARR as it repositions around AI
- Artlist CEO: "Our mission is to keep exploring, questioning, and creating the best tools for video creators"
- “We quickly realized that to reach our potential we needed to build a broad platform that could compete with the largest players”
Ira, what advice did you give Nadav?
“After we understood his personal motivations as an entrepreneur, we talked about how to grow the company and build a scalable future. We discussed how to maximize the potential of the industry they are already in and how to open doors to additional industries. I tried to emphasize the importance of mental flexibility and not becoming fixated on a single direction.
“Nadav and his team have already demonstrated that flexibility: they started in one niche, saw that things weren’t progressing even after raising money, knew how to pivot, and managed to reach revenue. It is easier to change direction when you don’t yet have a successful product. Once you have customers and revenue, it becomes much harder to move. I advised him to maintain that flexible mindset.”
What did you learn from each other?
Nadav: “We live in an era of AI, where everything moves very fast. Opportunities are constantly opening and closing. I was interested in learning from a company that has already paved the way for how to maintain mental flexibility and stay relevant in a rapidly evolving market.”
Ira: “I was interested in seeing how Nadav takes AI capabilities and models that are similar to what we use at Artlist and applies them to a completely different niche.”
Is there anything surprising that you discovered about each other?
Ira: “Nadav is getting married in a month and a half.”
Nadav: “Ira views challenges as a ‘bonus’, with a mindset of ‘how great that I’m in this situation and get to solve it.’”
