![]() Hearing founders talk about their vision, their disregard for the status quo, and how they went from concept to reality, inspired him to go support and empower the next generation of disruptors and led him to Lightspeed. During that time, he worked on the Tink / Visa, Peakon / Workday, Instana / IBM, Dialog / Renasas, and Spacemaker / Autodesk transactions. Adrian’s father worked in the space satellite industry and his passion for technology spilled over into the home, inspiring a shared excitement around and deep appreciation for technology.Īt Qatalyst, Adrian spent the majority of his time advising leadership on their strategic options, including M&A. Their key objective was to guarantee their children the best opportunities, instilling the values of hard work, determination and resourcefulness in the process. “There is so much innovation coming out of Europe - there are more European privately-held unicorns and world-beating solutions from start-ups across Fintech, Gaming, Marketplaces, Music, RPA, Security and Travel than ever before,” says Adrian.īorn and raised in the U.K., Adrian’s parents emigrated from Romania following the revolution, making England their new home. Prior to Lightspeed, Adrian worked at Qatalyst Partners, where he advised European technology companies on M&A. He brings experience and a perspective to his day to day that “there is no one correct approach to scaling in venture, but being authentic and genuinely yourself goes a long way in this industry.” It’s very similar to a startup.Adrian joined Lightspeed in 2021 as a Partner on the Growth team focused on U.S. “I worked with a small unit of 10 to 12 people,” he says, “so I learned a ton about managing bottom-up, managing small teams, keeping small teams together, and staying motivated. It’s a huge privilege to spend my time working alongside them.”Įven his time as commander in the Israeli Defense Forces informs his approach to venture. “ The founders we partner with are some of the smartest, most ambitious people in the world. Still, as a former founder and product guy, he relies heavily on his own background and pedigree to help other entrepreneurs navigate the company-building process. “I almost always ignore CVs and pedigree when evaluating a team.” ![]() “I’m drawn to the scrappier, ‘hacky’ founders,” he says. Since then, he’s focused on consumer marketplaces, SaaS, and fintech companies throughout Israel. He got along with Yoni and David so well, and respected Lightspeed’s increasingly bullish approach to the market, that when Sequoia phased out its Israeli investments in 2016, he joined Lightspeed full time. Lightspeed’s office happened to be adjacent to Sequoia’s, and soon Tal made acquaintances with Yoni Cheifetz and David Gussarsky. When the latter eventually sold, Tal made his way to Sequoia Capital’s Tel Aviv office, where for four years he helped lead the firm’s consumer investments in Israel. It was the training he needed to run product teams at two Israeli startups: an e-learning company and a fintech company. What’s not to love?”Īfter undergrad, he moved to the Bay Area to earn an MBA at Stanford, where he further cultivated his interest in entrepreneurship. “It’s tons of smart people, talking about all kinds of curious things, helping founders build their companies. “It was a revelation that venture existed,” he says. It was around then that he was introduced to venture capital. It’s not something many people say about their job: “If I won the lottery tomorrow, this is what I would do the day afterward.” But most people aren’t Tal Morgenstern.Īfter paying his dues as commander of a special ops team for the Israeli Defense Forces, Tal became cofounder and CEO of a test-preparation company, all while earning a BSc in biomedical engineering at Tel Aviv University.
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