Infinita Club

Most companies when pipeline is down: CEO: "Why aren't we hitting our numbers?" CTO: "Engineering is focused on product" COO: "Sales needs better processes" CMO: "We're crushing our MQL goals" CFO: "Just cut the budget" CRO: "Need more headcount" But here's what elite companies do differently: CEO: "I'm joining key customer calls this week" CTO: "How can Product help close deals?" COO: "Let's optimize our GTM motion" CMO: "Marketing drives revenue, not leads" CFO: "Here's budget for sales enablement" CRO: "Let's remove friction from the sales process" Here's the thing... Pipeline generation isn't a sales problem. It's an organizational problem. It's the lifeblood of each company. When one team misses their number EVERYONE misses their number And the moment your entire org realizes this Is the moment WE start winning.

My own Key takeaways (as accelerator leader but still humble startup founder), from Helena Frumson's super insightful presentation to our Founder Institute ISRAEL 2024 cohort last night: 🎯 *"Niche to Dominate"* your early stage MVP (and even pre product) even if what you are building serves many, many more verticals and geographies. 🤝 *"Sell through Partnerships"* of existing critical mass to hack customer development and feedback. 🥧 *"Demonstrate humility"* and shelf the ego. Customer feedback is a critical step in every stage of a ventures lifecycle. Thank you again for a brilliant and valuable session. #startuplife #venturecapital #womeninbusiness #funding #femalefounders #womenentrepreneurs #investors #womenintech #mentoring #startuptips #networking #investment #womenleaders #knowledgesharing #womanentrepreneur #entrepreneursuccess #womanownedbusiness #womenbusinessowners #socialentrepreneur #growth #executives #womenhelpingwomen #womenenterpreneurs #foundersclub #businessscoaching #coachinginbusiness

𝗔𝘀 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝘄𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲, 𝗜 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲. It was a year of profound losses but also one of remarkable gains - a year that redefined leadership for me and a year when I was actively redefining leadership, with a focus on unity, collaboration, and mutual growth in the face of global conflicts, political upheavals, and personal transitions. This year marked a leap toward absolute freedom for me: the freedom to rediscover my purpose, work with extraordinary new people, and reconnect with past impressive collaborators in fresh and inspiring ways. 𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀: 𝟭. 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆: True leadership means fostering unity and mutual respect. It’s about building and rebuilding, never giving up, and shedding old definitions and constraints like a snake shedding its skin. 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆: Leadership isn’t just about taking the lead; it’s about passing forward the lessons, opportunities, and support you’ve received. When we uplift others, we all grow stronger. 𝟯. 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘁: This year taught me the importance of speaking openly, even in the face of disagreement. We must relearn the art of civil discourse - the ability to argue, challenge, and disagree while maintaining respect. If a connection is lost in the process, so be it. Growth often requires uncomfortable conversations, ideally over a cup of coffee or a game of backgammon. Yet if someone wants me dead- the coffee is over. 𝟰. 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻: Women’s leadership and rights are under siege in many spheres - from the corporate boardroom to geopolitical landscapes. This erosion must stop. Women are not a minority; we are half of humanity, with 100% of the potential and power to drive progress. Let us respect, invest in, promote, and protect all women, not just a select or appointed few. Equality is not negotiable. 𝟱. 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗼𝘀: In a world fraught with division, let us prioritize focused action and unity over anger and fruitless shouting, whether on the streets or in boardrooms. Passion must be channeled into building solutions, not deepening divides. 𝗔𝘀 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀 - 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗺𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵, 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀. 𝗧𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿, 𝗹𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁, 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. Here’s to the opportunities and challenges ahead. Let’s lead with courage, conviction, and compassion. Thank you Elevate City® NeoClear the female factor Founder Institute ISRAEL The Hebrew University Business School Risky Women friends and colleagues!

Bad VCs kill more good companies than any other cause. By far. It happened with Bench. It happened with thousands of other startups. And it will continue to happen, until the burned bridges and the unnecessary carnage sow the seeds of destruction for the VC asset class as a whole. I’m not anti-VC. Far from it: I believe VC plays a critical role in the economy. For certain types of startups—especially for those in winner-take-all markets that require significant investments in R&D and marketing prior to generating positive cash flow—venture capital makes far more sense than bootstrapping. And about 10-20% of VCs are some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. There’s insane brain power in the upper echelons of the VC world. The way that venture capital often works for the other 80-90% of VCs, however, is a joke. I often invest alongside VCs, but I’ve got to be honest here: Most of what you guys say and do is complete nonsense. You all claim to be founder-friendly, but you turn against founder-CEOs the minute they’re not able to meet impossible growth forecasts. You call yourselves contrarians, but you never invest until someone else has agreed to lead the round, at which point you race to secure allocation in the round. That’s not the worst of it, though. All of those things, as humorously annoying as they might be, would be bearable, if you were actually good at your jobs—if you really did deliver supranormal returns for your LPs and create value for your portfolio companies. But too many of you don’t. You staff your firms with people who fundamentally don’t understand value creation for startup businesses, and you shoehorn your portfolio companies into business models that anyone with the slightest knowledge of their respective industries would know are infeasible. You act as if revenue growth at any cost can solve any issue, and—at least until recently—you literally scoffed at the concept of fiscal discipline. For decades, this arrogance has left a path of destruction across the entire startup ecosystem: Dead companies that would have had viable business models if VC-dominated boards hadn’t overcapitalized their balance sheets. Liquidity events turned down because VCs wanted to wait for a “20 bagger” instead of taking a 5x MOIC that would have been life-changing for the company’s employees. Pension-fund LPs getting the same rate of return as the S&P 500 with double the level of risk. Eventually, it will come to an end. ZIRP isn’t coming back. Institutional investors have learned the hard way that most VCs don’t generate the Sharpe ratios to make their fees worth it. Multiple generations of founders have learned painful lessons about the ways that most VCs operate once checks have been signed, and they—as well as the young first-time founders they mentor—want little to do with the VC industry. Hopefully, VCs learn, adapt, and start to do better. I’m sure the smart ones will. Hopefully the rest of the asset class fast-follows quickly.

Happy Holidays from Infinita Club team!

A Few days ago, I rushed from a trustees board meeting at the First Light Charity, reflecting on the remarkable work being done in 2024 to support victims of domestic abuse. Their leadership, dedication and compassion are inspiring, yet it struck me how little society understands the very definition of abuse. This lack of understanding perpetuates the harmful question: “If it was so bad, why didn’t you leave?” From there, I tuned into Cecilie Fjellhøy compelling interview at the Risky Women event, only to find a striking connection - financial crime and abuse often share a foundation of exploitation. 𝗖𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗲’𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗹𝘆, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗺 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗲 - 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲, 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀, 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘀.  As a society, we must stop blaming victims and start standing up to abusers. Too often, silence or inaction allows perpetrators to continue unchecked while victims remain vulnerable. "Make yourself less attractive target" I've heard once from a police officer. Today, I celebrate the positive action driven by people like Cecile, organizations like First Light and Risky Women and countless advocates worldwide who tirelessly amplify this message and support survivors. Together, we can foster awareness, resilience, and change. Michelle Davies MBE Franka Fueller Kimberley Cole

Google, Harvard, and more are offering FREE AI courses (no payment required) Here are 8 FREE courses to master AI in 2024: 1. Google AI Courses Google offers 5 different courses to learn generative AI from the ground up. Start with an Introduction to AI and finish having a solid understanding of AI as a whole. 🦾 https://lnkd.in/eW5k4DVz 2. Microsoft AI Course Microsoft offers an AI course that covers the basics and then more. Start off with an introduction and continue through learning about neural networks and deep learning. 🦾 https://lnkd.in/eKJ9qmEQ 3. Introduction to AI with Python Harvard University is offering a full 7-week course to explore the concepts and algorithms of AI. Start with the technologies behind AI and end with knowledge of AI principles and machine learning libraries. 🦾 https://lnkd.in/g4Sbb3nQ 4. Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT This 6 module course by Vanderbilt University offers beginners a starting point to writing better prompts. Start by learning effective prompting and complete the course knowing how to bend ChatGPT to your will. 🦾 https://lnkd.in/d-rCb-AM 5. ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Devs OpenAI in collab with DeepLearning is offering this course taught by Isa Fulford and Andrew Ng. Start off with best practices and finish with a better understanding of prompting with hands-on practice. 🦾 https://lnkd.in/gtGc5Znp 6. LLMOps Google Cloud in collab with DeepLearning is offering this brand new course taught by Erwin Huizenga. Go through the LLMOps pipeline of pre-processing training data and adapt a supervised tuning pipeline to train and deploy a custom LLM. 🦾 https://lnkd.in/gMXDr7MJ 7. Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics In this 4 module course, the University of California - Davis covers big data and introduces IBM's Watson. Start by learning about big data opportunities and end knowing the limitations of AI. 🦾 https://lnkd.in/gVEf3Dvm 8. AI Applications and Prompt Engineering edX has an introductory course on prompt engineering that goes beyond the basics. Start by learning the basics and end knowing how to create your own applications. 🦾 https://lnkd.in/g2P9U_Bs Take Coursera courses without the trial: First, go to the course you want to take and click 'Enroll for free', then 'Audit the course'. Note: You'll need to create an account to take courses, but won't need to pay anything. ————— Need to learn ChatGPT? Start studying ChatGPT with my bestseller bundle „Ultimate ChatGPT guide“ Master AI/ChatGPT With Bestseller Books 🔗 https://lnkd.in/d8GKtUSK —————— ♻️ Repost this to help others in your network. And follow Paul Storm for more! 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀, 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 - 𝗺𝘆 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗔𝗜 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝘀 >𝟮𝟴𝟬.𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲, 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗔𝗜 & 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵: https://lnkd.in/eFNvmcYa

It has been a privilege to mentor, support, scale, sell and even run startups over the past 21 years. This journey continues to bring me immense joy and purpose, and I am honored to contribute to the incredible cohort of the Founder Institute /Founder Institute ISRAEL Israeli chapter. What’s remarkable about this chapter is its truly international nature. I couldn’t even deliver my presentation in Hebrew, as the cohort attracts a diverse group of founders from around the world. This melting pot of innovation includes founders from all walks of life - religious and secular, younger and seasoned - each bringing energy, curiosity, and determination. Their voices echo with Hebrew, Arabic, and other accents, and they cheer one another on, united by a shared vision to create and grow with a healthy ROI in place. If this isn’t the embodiment of collaboration and shared growth, I don’t know what is. Let’s continue to work together to support this phenomenal group and bring more sustainable, successful businesses into the world - businesses that make our planet a better and more prosperous place for all. A special thanks to my fantastic co-mentor, Dr. Sharon Tal Itzkovitch , for an enlightening deep dive into the market opportunity model. Sharon's insights are invaluable - don’t miss her books! And kudos to Gordon and Muhammad for braving the stage! Here’s to creating a brighter future, together. Thank you Ruth Rubin and Moshe David Rubinstein for your invitation, support and welcome!

10 BIG IDEAS to share European 2025 according to Linkedin:

The power of community!