Here they are again, the winds of change… At the end of this month, the Lightspeed Gemini Internet Lab will officially end, and Ouriel will be leaving. Ouriel? If you don’t know what I am talking about, you have not been part of the Israeli and European Internet scene during the past 3 years.
In 2006, When we started the (LGiLab) we were looking for a great GM. Our thought – someone who has a great understanding of the industry, with good contacts and strong knowledge. We looked hard, and finally found Ouriel Ohayon, who was then the editor of Techcrunch France and doing Biz Dev at ICQ.
Back to 2009, I can easily say we made the right decision. Ouriel did a great job as he became the master of knowledge on everything that was consumer internet and mobile. He helped us find great opportunities, and analyze all of the many projects that came through the lab. He was personally responsible in finding us both Outbrain and Eyeview.
Now, after 3 years of working together, Ouriel is going back to his roots: Being an entrepreneur. He will be leaving the Lab in order to find the best possible project for him. It may be Appsfire, it may be Topify, and it may be a whole new project (that I haven’t seen yet). All I can say, he has A LOT of great ideas. Check out his blog to read more about his specific plans.
| In regards to our lab, as I said, we are officially done. We will continue being best friends with Lightspeed, but the official partnership is over. Both funds will continue to invest in early stage (seed), and we will definitely do joint deals when relevant. As it relates to Gemini, we will continue having a lab-like program, but it will be run with internal resources. In other words, we are still very open to invest in early stage Internet companies. |
In fact, with the help of Ouriel, we just closed an Internet seed deal (on our own). We are officially announcing this deal later today (Check later today on this blog). I am sure there will be many more like those in the next 24 months.
Ouriel – good luck on your new journey. I am sure you will build great things.
It took you sometime to understand (and mainly admit) that Ouriel made a lot of damage to Gemini in the last 3 years. Good luck to you both !
Posted by: Dan | September 13, 2009 at 12:48 AM
Why was Outbrain funded but not Spotback, another Israeli site?
Spotback were doing ratings AND content aggregation a few months before Outbrain, launching their ratings widget in March 2007: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/11/spotback-launches-their-rate-everything-widget/
But then in May, Outbrain does its seed round: http://www.webx0.com/2007/05/outbrain_gets_f.html
Spotback never got a mention Ouriel's blog. What happened here?
Posted by: twitter.com/hackerlinks | November 05, 2009 at 06:52 PM