Israel Venture Capital 2.0

Super Bowl - The Advertising holiday (Part 2)

Super Bowl is over, and it was a good game. the first 3 quarters were truly boring, and the ending was amazing. Still, it wasn't as engaging as last year (when my beloved Patriots played).

On the commercial side, it was clearly a "different" year. Many many movie trailers, and NO American cars. How can you enjoy a Super Bowl without Chevy (and specifically trucks).

I enjoyed the Conan O'Brien Bud light commercial, and also the Doritos Crystal Ball. But my favorite was the Pepsi "Refresh Anthem". If you haven't seen it yet, you can see it now.

Super Bowl - The Advertising holiday

It's Super Bowl time, a true sports holiday. Although I am not as excited as last year (the Pats didn't make the playoffs), I am already counting the hours till the game. On the sports side, I am totally for Arizona, mostly because of an old dislike to the Steelers (Goes way back to 1978), and also because of the true love to Warner the underdog.

But beyond the football, it's the advertising holiday - A time when the best (and most expensive ads are shown). If you want to enjoy all of these ads, go to Adland, for the full Super Bowl commercial archive. Many of them are great, and have become legendary in their own right. Check out rate MSNBC for the best Super Bowl ads of all time.

I personally think that each one of us is obliged to name his own 3 favorite Super Bowl ads. It's like naming your 3 all time favorite Rock bands. Below are my 3 favorites:

1. Apple - the 1984 Commercial for the Mac. Probably the most famous Super Bowl ads ever made has just celebrated 25 years. 25 years after it's one and only broadcast it's still a real masterpiece. Check Wikipedia for the story behind this commercial.

2. McDonalds - The Showdown. In this 1993 McDonalds commercial, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan compete in a series of progressively more ridiculous hoop-shooting contests. Every aspect of my life in the 90's is shown in this short commercial: The constant crave for junk food (McDonalds opened in Israel in 1993) while watching our NBA heroes play at 1AM Israel time. I guess a more modern version will include Lebron James play Kobe Bryant for a healthy hybrid salad.

3. Pets.com - Please don't go. Probably not the best ad of all time, it's the one that symbolizes the rise and fall of the Internet Bubble. There were a few Web 1.0 Super Bowl ads (eTrade, Pets.com, Netpliance, Computer.com). When web 2.0 emerged, companies didn't make that same mistake again. Instead startups spent their advertising money on Google. I actually think that SEM became less effective as well, so for Web 3.0 we will probably see new kinds of promotion strategies.

What about an Israeli perspective? As far as I know, there was never an Israeli related commercial that was aired during the Super Bowl (let me know if I am wrong). But - many Israeli companies and technologies participated in the various Super Bowls. Check MobileAccess networks, New Age Security, and Radvision.

Forever Young (The Israeli Hall of Fame)

I went to see my beloved Patriots play the 49ers at Candlestick Park. The Patriots rarely make it to the bay area, so I couldn't miss the opportunity to see them playing live. However, I am not going to talk about the game. In 2 sentences: I had fun, the Patriots won, it's still not the same without Brady, and the first touchdown (Cassel to Moss for 66 yards) was amazing.

But the best part of the game was at half time. The 49ers officially retired Jersey #8 in honor of Steve Young. It was a very emotional ceremony with fireworks, and a lot of kids on the field wearing a red, #8 shirt. The crowd was extremely supportive (of course, why not?). Overall, it was well done, in good taste, and I am sure it was fun for Steve Young himself AND for the crowd.

Now, here is a question? Why don't we have events like these in Israel? Specifically in sports (Why can't we have our own Israeli soccer version of the football hall of fame), but not only in sports. I think we should put a lot more effort in honoring successful artists, writers, businessmen, and even politicians. We do have the Israel prize, but we should have much more than that. It creates a sense of belonging (affiliation), and it teaches the importance of respect. My partner Adi Pundak Mintz quotes Bill Clinton about the importance of respect. If we will respect our past heroes, it will help us respect one another (especially true of VCs).

With the New Year just starting, and being inspired by Steve Young today, I thought of 4 people that are "must haves" in my personal hall of fame.

1. Shalom Hanoch – for creating the Israeli rock music.
2. Ed Mlavksy (from Gemini) – for creating the Israel Venture Capital industry, and for founding Gemini.
3. Ruby Shapira – for making my Hapoel Haifa dream come true (at least for a short while).
4. Dov Lautman – for showing that peace is something that needs to be created, and not just received

Sports as portfolio management

As a New England Patriots fan, yesterday was a bad day. We have lost a regular season game for the first time since Dec. 10^th, 2006 (Dolphins then, Dolphins now). As the game ended, I thought about all my beloved teams (Hapoel Haifa, Patriots, Mariners), and decided to show similarities between the teams and a VC portfolio.

1. Hapoel Haifa – Clearly, this is the rising star. Think of a cute company (ok management, niche market, high motivation) that is really showing great results in the first 2-3 quarters of sales (won all 3 games of the season so far, without giving away any goals to the opponents). It's clear that tough days will come (This winning streak won't last forever), but hopefully the current momentum will help in the future (Similar to cash collection).
2. New England Patriots – The unexpected disappointment. Think of a great company (big market, A+ management) that loses its star CEO. With an interim CEO running the company (Cassel), it's hard to show the same results, and the company (team) seems to be completely lost. 1^st quarter without the star CEO seems somewhat ok (last week), but the quarter after is a disaster (today).
3. Seattle Mariners – A clear dog. Not worth mentioning at all. The Mariners are currently the worst team in all of Major League Baseball. That's like having the worst portfolio company in the industry. Thinking about the mariners, the good news is that the sports portfolio starts all over with the new season.

Pictures below tell the whole story. In the meantime, good luck to all.

My top 5 “What If” moments in sports history

As I spent the past week at home (with the baby) I had the opportunity to watch the Chelsea-Man united game on ESPN 2. It was a great match, with an unbelievable ending. Chelsea was so close to win, just think… what if John Terry would NOT have slipped. What if…

What is a "what if" sporting event? Some matches in sports are very decisive. When Man United beats Arsenal 4-0, there is no "what if". Man United was the clear winner, and nothing could have changed that. Unlike that, there are many matches that are decided by one small play, one last minute event, leaving the crowd with an amazing thought: "what if" that exact play wouldn't have happened? The best "what if" matches have an impact beyond the actual game. In the case of the case my beloved Patriots (way back in February), the last Giants drive made the difference between an 18-1 season and a 19-0 season.

When I wrote about the Pats game, Guy Horowitz, an ex-Gemini and a good friend commented about his favorite "what if" moments. His comment inspired me to list my own top 5 "what if" moments. I have been "sitting" on this post for over 3 months, but the game on Wednesday gave me an incentive to finally publish. Anyway, I went through a fascinating process to dig out old sporting events, and talk to people about their own "what if" games. To be honest, I can easily mention 40, 50, and even 100 games. But the focus here will remain on MY OWN top 5.

Event	Sports Category	Description	What if…
Michael Jordan shoots the winning basket on Game 6 between the Bulls and the Jazz (1996)	Basketball	On his last championship game (before the second retirement – out of three), with ~20 seconds to go Jordan steels the ball from Karl Malone and a couple of seconds before the end of the game, hits a 20-foot game-winning jump shot. At that time, it was almost certain that this would be his last NBA shot. How appropriate it was that it was the shot that brought him the 6th championship.	What if Jordan hadn't stolen the ball or hadn't made the shot? Would that stain Jordan's winner reputation? What effect would that have on the US market? (No kidding, the Air Jordan shoe is still the highest selling shoe)
Bob Rensenbrink misses the winning goal for Holland during the world cup finals (1978)	Soccer	The Orange dream team of the 70's made it to the finals twice: Germany 74 and Argentina 78. In an amazing game that is tied at 1:1, with 2 minutes left to play, Rensenbrink hits the post, sending the game to overtime. Holland breaks apart, and Argentina wins their 1st ever world cup.	What if Rensenbrink would have scored? Holland would have entered the exclusive club of World Cup champions (instead of Argentina), and would have been the only European team to win the cup outside Europe.
Buffalo misses a last minute field goal, losing the super bowl to the giants	Football	With 10 seconds left on the clock and a 1-point lead for the Giants, Scott Norwood from Buffalo missed a field goal, giving the championship to the Giants. Buffalo lost in their first super bowl appearance. They made it to the super bowl in the next 3 seasons after that, but lost in all their appearances.	What if Norwood would have scored? Buffalo is also the only team to win four consecutive AFC Championships, though they failed to win any of the subsequent Super Bowls. Maybe Norwood's field goal would have been the difference between the best team in history and the worst team in history.
Bill Buckner's Error in the World Series vs. the Mets (1986)	Baseball	The Red Sox faced the Mets in game 6 of the World Series. Boston led the best-of-7 series 3 games to 2. The game was tied at the bottom of the 10th, when Mookie Wilson hit a ground ball to Bill Buckner at first base. The ball rolled under Buckner's glove, through his legs, and into right field, allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run, forcing a seventh game, which the Mets won.	What if Buckner had caught the ball? Could the Red Sox win the championship 18 years before 2004? The reality is that Buckner is the symbol of the Red Sox performance (Curse) till 2004.
Boris Becker almost loses to Joakim Nystrom in the 2nd round of Wimbledon (1985)	Tennis	An unknown kid (17 years old) by the name of Boris Becker played the 7th place player Joakim Nystrom. Nystrom served for the match in the 5th set, but Becker managed to break the serve, and win the last set 9-7, later advancing to win the entire championship	What if Nystrom would have won? Tennis would have lost its youngest Wimbledon champ, and won of its greatest players. I was in London in 1985, and watched the Becker games with high interest. Nystrom would have had a major impact on me…

 

Picking just 5 means that there are many great moments that didn't make the list: Derek Sharp's winner shot for Maccabi Tel-Aviv in 2004, Oscar's last minute header saved by Dino Zoff in Brasil's 3:2 defeat against Italy in 1982, Dave Roberts stealing second base in the bottom of 9^th of Game 4 of the ALCS, reversing the Bambino curse after 86 years, and Ronnie Rosenthal missing a great opportunity for Israel against Columbia in the World cup qualifying match of 1990.

There are many other great moments like these. All bring great memories and inspire great "what if" dreams.

Lessons Learned from Super Bowl XVII

A couple of months ago I wrote about my love to the Patriots, and how odd it is to support such an amazing winning team. Till yesterday, they had an amazing ability to overcome any situation and be the first at the finish line. Every time you would watch a Patriots game you would know, that no matter what, the end result will be a victory.

Till last night.

So much has been written about this game. I decided to take the VC view (BTW – I am not the first one, check out Furrier.org). If E.T. would land on this planet today, and hear that a team had an 18-1 record, he would assume they are the champs. After all, why lose the last game, when you can lose one of 16 regular season games and still be champions (and the best team in the history of football). Clearly, the Pats should have lost the last game of the regular season (to the Giants) and not the last game of the Playoffs (to the Giants). What is the VC analogy to this? It reminds me of a company that receives a huge up-round valuation and then goes out of business. That's the big lesson of the day. Focus on the end game, not optimizing on the milestones along the way.

One more thing: I love playing "what if" in sports. Till today, my #1 "what if" moment was the goal missed by Rensenbrink at the 1978 World Cup finals. This will now be replaced at #1 by the "almost tackle" on Eli Manning with 1:05 remaining on the clock. If he would have been tackled, it would have been a very different outcome.

See you next year.

PVR Blues

I love Mondays (Really). Since our partners meeting starts early (6AM US, 4PM Israel), I can be back home rather early, and get in front of the TV at 5:30PM for Monday night football. This week, should have been even better as New England were playing Monday. Unfortunately, I was speaking on a panel for the BLC (More details here).

Since I couldn't see the game live, I was happy that I have a PVR. I easily set the system to record the game, looking forward to seeing it on Monday night. At 9PM I was in front of the TV (wearing my old Drew Bledsoe shirt), pretending I am seeing the game live. It was a great game, although New England were not playing well (2^nd week in a row). Toward the end of the 4^th quarter, with a couple of minutes till the end of the game, the Patriots were trailing, but Tom Brady was leading them to a great run down the field. I was anxiously watching the play, the clock ticking down, when suddenly…

The show stops. The programming guide was configured for 3 hours, and not a minute more. With a minute left on the clock and the Patriots still trailing, I was left hanging. What a frustration! What a bad experience! Well, a couple of thoughts following this:

1. New technology is great. If you get 99% uptime that's amazing. But that 1% can really hurt sometimes.
2. Luckily, everything goes online quite fast. I was able to catch the last part of the game on You Tube (Check it here).

Finally, something to the Israeli, Hebrew speaking crowd. This reminded me of the great Uri Zohar scene: La Marmur by Ferlesh. I searched for it (and found it!) on the net, and couldn't stop laughing (again and again).

My (winning) team – The New England Patriots

All my life I have been supporting 3 teams. My favorite Israeli Soccer team: Hapoel Haifa (most important), the Seattle Mariners in Baseball, and the New England Patriots in Football. How and why these teams? Not clear, but with the exception of the Mariners (Fan for only 17 years), I have been supporting the Patriots and Hapoel Haifa for more than 30 years.

Till 2001, my life was simple. With some exceptions (Mariners of 1995, Hapoel Haifa of 1999), my favorite teams were always losing teams. Any good game was a positive surprise, and overall I had very little expectations. Suddenly, things have changed, and in the past few years, the Patriots have become an unbelievable force.

Suddenly, I have to adapt to a new situation. It is MY TEAM that is beating the opponent (every week) by 56-7. It is MY TEAM that is by far the most favorite to win every game, and it is MY TEAM that wins the game by the end of the 1^st quarter.

Well, I have to enjoy it while I can. There is no way Hapoel Haifa will win the Israeli championship again. The Mariners will never make it to the World Series. So, I will focus on the good times with the Patriots. I have a strange feeling that in 10 years, I will be back to my losing threesome.

       

Avram Grant = Shai Agassi 2.0

There are a few Israelis that made it to the top in the high-tech scene. Shai Agassi (SAP) and David Perlmutter (Intel) are good examples. We cannot say the same about Sports, especially as it relates to Sport Management. But Avram Grant made it, and I think this is great news for the Israeli sports. Is it good for Chelsea? Maybe or Maybe not, but it doesn't matter.

Hopefully, like in high-tech, he will bring back experience that will help the Israeli soccer move to the next stage. Let's call it: Israeli Soccer 2.0.

Hapoel Haifa – High Hopes?

Summer is ending and with that, a new soccer season is starting around the globe. Most people (myself included) get very excited by some of the games in the UK (Liverpool – Chelsea!), Spain, and Italy. However, I am still putting most of my "soccer energy" in the hopes that Hapoel Haifa will make it to the premier league in Israel. We are off to a slow start (Lost 1:2 in the opening game), but… there is still a long season ahead. Good luck…