HR The Next Leap
YL Ventures: “The companies retaining talent have replaced the performance of care with the practice of it”
Gye Cohen, VP of Operations and HR at YL Ventures, explains why elite tech talent still holds the cards despite perceptions of an "employer's market" and how the local cyber ecosystem remains insulated from a systemic brain drain, as part of CTech's HR: The Next Leap series.
“The companies retaining talent right now are the ones that have replaced the performance of care with the actual practice of it. Because belonging and feeling genuinely seen is what sustains long-term commitment,” says Gye Cohen, VP of Operations and HR at YL Ventures. According to Cohen, from her stance leading operations at the Tel Aviv-based, early-stage cybersecurity VC firm, “when employees are constantly balancing intense professional goals with profound personal and national anxieties, superficial perks don't just lose all meaning, they feel tone-deaf.”
From active and looming war threats, to AI rapidly and constantly redefining what it means to be productive, running a company in Startup Nation brings with it its own category of challenges and rewards. HR: The Next Leap takes a glimpse into the heart of Startup Nation via the HR professionals shaping its culture. We survey the executives whose jobs are more demanding and more vital than ever, as they heed the future-proofing of their workforce, while simultaneously ensuring business continuity and employee wellbeing during relentlessly unprecedented times.
Examining the local resilience of the workforce and how their portfolio has handled operational continuity under fire over the past few years, Cohen notes, “What stood out is that these companies have essentially institutionalized their response to crises. The latency period between an external shock and an organization regrouping gets shorter every time.”
Meanwhile, when it comes to broader scale factors affecting the workforce, Cohen points to the effect of AI, calling it a “powerful force multiplier, helping founders build leaner, more agile teams with lower operational risk.” However, she cautions that the influx of AI-generated resumes “disproportionately affects younger candidates and those from lesser-known companies who were already starting with less credibility to lean on.” Still, she believes the candidates who will succeed are those “who treat AI as a force multiplier, show up already fluent in these tools, and use them to punch above their weight.” In this new environment, she continues, “that adaptability is the new entry-level premium.”
You can read the entire interview below.
Company Name: YL Ventures
Year of Founding: 2007
Partners/Managers: Yoav Leitersdorf (Managing Partner) and Ofer Schreiber (Senior Partner)
Notable Portfolio Companies: MIND, Orca, Novee, Native, Minimus, Opti
Notable Exits: Spera, Axonius, Medigate, Twistlock, Aim
Website: https://www.ylventures.com/
Social Media: LinkedIn
As of March 2026, the market officially shifted into an 'employer's market'. How have your screening criteria changed, and do candidates - including senior-level ones - still hold any leverage in negotiating salaries and terms?
xAs an early-stage venture capital firm investing exclusively in cybersecurity, we have a clear vantage point on how talent dynamics are shifting. On paper, the macroeconomic trend points to an "employer’s market," but the reality on the ground is much more nuanced. When it comes to the elite technical talent and senior leaders who anchor this industry, they still hold the cards. In seed-stage cybersecurity, hiring has always been incredibly stringent because you are building the core, founding team. You need people who can hit the ground running immediately. Today, that pressure is even higher due to local economic shifts which drive founders to seek maximum capital efficiency. The bar for talent hasn't dropped at all, and securing the best people still requires a highly competitive and collaborative negotiation.
There is also another layer worth naming that has fundamentally changed our screening criteria: the widespread misuse of AI in the hiring process itself. When candidates use LLMs to craft a flawless, but unrealistic version of themselves, it puts recruiters in an impossible position during those earliest screening stages before any real human interaction occurs. Distinguishing what's genuine from what's generated is incredibly difficult. While experienced HR professionals know exactly how to look past the algorithmic polish and cut through the noise, the sheer volume of AI-inflated applications has naturally bred greater skepticism and selectivity. This disproportionately affects younger candidates and those from lesser-known companies who were already starting with less credibility to lean on.
How have/are you managing operational continuity and recruitment while the economy navigates the emergency state triggered by the conflict with Iran? With the threat of escalation looming at any moment, how are you and have you been handling everything from interviews interrupted by sirens to managing teams thinned by massive, ongoing reserve duty?
Our perspective on continuity is shaped by a consecutive series of disruptions over the past several years, beginning with the operational overhauls of COVID-19 and extending through intense regional conflicts. This sustained volatility has fundamentally changed how the Israeli cybersecurity ecosystem looks at leadership. It moved us away from short-term crisis management and toward a permanent strategy of building through instability.
During the recent conflict with Iran, our immediate priority was checking in with our portfolio teams to see exactly how we could support them. What stood out is that these companies have essentially institutionalized their response to crises. The latency period between an external shock and an organization regrouping gets shorter every time. Founders and employees are living a playbook they wrote themselves, embedding a structured flexibility into their daily routines so that interviews and engineering pipelines move forward smoothly. Crucially, because many customer-facing activities and GTM functions are structurally based out of Israel, the impact on global business momentum is heavily minimized.
Beyond the role of empowering employees, which roles has AI eliminated over the past year, what percentage of your workforce was reskilled to avoid being phased out, and how has this impacted entry-level hiring?
We'd be naive to ignore the scale of change AI is bringing. Across the industry, roles focused on repetitive tasks – basic QA, junior analyst work, operational reporting – have shrunk or evolved significantly. That's real, and we shouldn't pretend otherwise.
But in our sector, we don't see AI replacing the core workforce. While modern AI coding agents are highly sophisticated, writing code is only one piece of the puzzle. The true bottleneck in cybersecurity is the ability to architect and build complex, large-scale enterprise-grade systems. That core architectural expertise, combined with the unique engineering mindset developed within the local cybersecurity ecosystem, is incredibly difficult to duplicate.
Instead, AI acts as a powerful force multiplier, helping founders build leaner, more agile teams with lower operational risk. The reskilling story in our portfolio is less about survival and more about velocity. The engineers thriving are the ones who made AI part of their daily workflow, and as a result are moving faster than ever before.
The real structural shift is in entry-level hiring. When companies are focused on cutting development timelines and optimizing execution, the premium is placed heavily on proven, senior experience. That leaves entry-level talent facing a more challenging market. But the answer isn't fear, it's adaptation. The candidates who will succeed are the ones who treat AI as a force multiplier, show up already fluent in these tools, and use them to punch above their weight. That adaptability is the new entry-level premium.
Against the backdrop of the unstable security and political climate, are you seeing an increase in relocation requests or 'quiet quitting' by top-tier talent moving abroad, and what is the most proactive step you are taking to retain them in Israel?
The unique status of the Israeli cybersecurity ecosystem as a primary R&D engine for the entire world largely insulates us from a systemic brain drain. Exceptional talent possesses immense global mobility, and companies are highly agile, routinely offering geographic flexibility to keep their best people connected, wherever they are.
Rather than seeing a mass departure, we continue to see significant inward investment. Global cybersecurity giants consistently acquire Israeli cybersecurity startups specifically to build out or expand their R&D centers here. There is also another deeply ingrained cultural layer that keeps our talent pool rooted: the entrepreneurial trajectory. Many core employees and top talents look at the startups they are working in as an essential training ground for their own future ventures. For them, being physically present in Israel, embedded in the local ecosystem, and absorbing every aspect of the company’s evolution, far beyond R&D work, is critical to their own professional roadmap.
The combination of elite military intelligence training, a tight-knit professional community, and years of deep on-the-job expertise creates a permanent anchor that keeps our talent pool incredibly strong and deeply rooted.
In an era where stability has replaced flashy perks, how are you addressing the deep mental burnout of employees torn between the professional and security fronts, and what is the most critical benefit you offer today in place of the bonuses that have vanished?
When employees are constantly balancing intense professional goals with profound personal and national anxieties, superficial perks don't just lose all meaning, they feel tone-deaf. The real work for HR leaders right now is the rejection of any one-size-fits-all framework.
Through our active advisory work and regular pulse checks with founders and teams across our portfolio, we see that the most powerful thing an organization can offer is the answer to one simple question every employee is quietly asking: 'If things get harder, will this company have my back?'
Answering that requires real operational flexibility, courageous conversations, and a genuine understanding of what each individual is carrying. The companies retaining talent right now are the ones that have replaced the performance of care with the actual practice of it. Because belonging and feeling genuinely seen is what sustains long-term commitment. Not the gift baskets and branded swag that have taken their place. And burnout in this climate is an inevitability to anticipate. The organizations that get this right are the ones that see it coming early, create the safety for people to say 'I'm not at my best,’ and actually do something about it.
