A weekly spotlight on VC - LGILAB‏

Posted by Liat on 07/02/2008

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Ouriel Ohayon - General Manager

60 seconds on LGILAB
LgiLab.com stands for LightSpeed Gemini internet lab which is a partnership between an Israeli and US fund: Gemini Israel Funds and LightSpeed Venture Partners. It is not a stand alone fund but a faster simpler parallel investment process for young internet startups. We started about 1.5 year ago and I joined to manage this partnership. We invest up to 1 million dollars in the format of a bridge loan with a fast track process (our fastest investment decision was 10 days from first call to decision). We then like to work with our startups and try to help them grow and possibly finance their next round.
 

In what areas are you investing?
Internet in the wide acceptance of the term including mobile and new forms of tv distribution. We like to invest in project where we can measure quickly (within 6-12 months post launch) business milestones.
 

At what stage of the company are you investing? Who should we contact?
We invest at very early stage. We are not afraid to invest at the very beginning of a project when at the idea stage if this makes sense. Just shoot me an email.
 

what should we bring for the first meeting? (executive sumery,business plan, presentation)
Bring a good team. The rest is at the entrepreneurs' discrecy
 

What investments did you make 2006-2007, and what are you looking for in 2008?
So far we invested in 6 startups all operating in the consumer internet space from financial service, to content, social networks and -. Since we invest at early stages not all services are visible but you can check outbrain.com vestopia.com styleshake.com and bahu.com
In 2008 we would like to make more investments. We are tracking in particular the area of video, mobile and social virtual worlds. But all verticals have still great business opportunity. The internet is only beginning.
 

Your tip for an entrepreneur
Having been myself an entrepreneur here are a few things I have learnt In the past. Maybe they will be useful to others:

• Passion is the driver and your main asset. If you don't have it or loose it, it is unlikely you can make something
outstanding out of your project. Ask yourself if you are passionate about your idea before you jump in.
• Forget your ego: build around you a team of people that are better than you in areas where you are weak. This
sometimes means stepping down as CEO.
• Do not be afraid of errors: everybody makes errors. The mistake is to make an error twice.
• A bad news is most of the time a good news you do not know yet. If a VC tells you "no" or a customer is gone to
competition, this is a learning opportunity and if you have the passion (see above) you'll move one and find a
new opportunity
• Execution is the key: most of the time an idea is not so bad. What makes a difference is the ability to execute
and bring to reality with a great product and strong marketing and business road map.
 

How many women work at LIGLAB?
I am the only full time person at LGilab and I still have not planned any surgery operation
 

How to contact you?
I am close to nearly always connected. Email is the best way: ouriel [at] lgilab [dot] com. But you can find more ways to contact me on my blog ourielohayon.com. I use a lot Twitter (/ourielohayon) and I see entrepreneurs contacting me more and more via Facebook…
www.lgilab.com
www.ourielohayon.com