Lgilab

No, LGiLab is not an incubator

Since we receive the question/comment every other meeting, i thought it was important to precise that LGiLAb is not an incubator (“Hamama” as we say in hebrew)

So let me precise what i mean by that: LGiLab is a joint venture of two funds dedicated to invest in israeli internet startup at very early stage. So far nearly no difference with an incubator and maybe the “lab” expression combined with “very early stage” can bring some confusion.

We are providing initial cash (up to a million dollars) to entrepreneurs to start off quickly their business and prove there is a good market feedback before taking an option on investing further. We are not hosting companies, or providing vertical services such as HR, marketing, finance, legal, which is what an incubator also does.

However we are trying to work with our portfolio companies and help them in specific issues

• recruiting some key employees
• review regularly their activity
• access to specific internet companies
• open doors here and there by leveraging our network

But this is not done on a full time basis and certainly not a by a team dedicated to it (i am the only full time personn on the internet lab).

We are very close to the way angels work with their companies, bearing in mind we are looking a step further and try to help our company grow enough to get to an A round.

If you are an entrepreneur what you should know is that the Internet Lab has a format of investment that can help you get quickly some money so you can run your company as fast as possible to a milestone of success.

Look forward to questions/comments if any

 

Can you build a world class winner without being in Silicon Valley?

If you are an entrepreneur i urge you to read this post by Saul Klein, current VP at Skype and recently appointed Venture Partner at Index Ventures.

He explains how and why internet giants can be built out of the US (this is already the case). He even mentions Gemini in is examples of supporting VC to this new wave.

I think his analysis could have been totally extended to Israel where what is missing most is not so much the entrepreneurial culture, the technical know how, or VC structures but the understanding of what it takes to build a true consumer internet play.

I believe also this is changing. There are already signs of it (ICQ and Shopping already did it) and some companies are on a good way (MetaCafe could do great for example) and there is a list of new web israeli companies that start to get there.

What is certain is that innovation in internet is no longer the monopole of some happy few graduates from Stanford or Harvard. And big players start to be financed in Europe and also in Israel.

Tags: saulkein, indexventures