Author: BKadmin

A very promising startup: VocalZoom

BKadmin

How many times you wondered what it’s like if you had a “Knight Rider” car which you could talk to and just tell it what to do. This car identify you when you come, just as if it was your human assistant, and perform simple tasks at your request. How many times you had to operate a device while your hands are full, simple tasks, like answer a call  while holding a baby, or turn ON the light while carrying a heavy box.

Many applications and technologies try to address those needs today as well as Virtual assistant applications such as Siri(Apple) and Cortana(Microsoft). These applications fail to reach what we call the “usability threshold”. In the world of User interface (UI) and User experience (UX), if a device like a mouse, keyboard or touch screen has even a small error probability, the user gets frustrated and stop using it. By the way, it doesn’t matter if it’s a complex task to operate this device. Take for example keyboard. This is still the interface of choice for typing. Even in smartphones. Keyboard is an extremely complicated task to learn. But users are willing to go for it, because once you master this, it’s convenient and seamless to use. Gestures using touch screen, experts for Laughed at Apple when first lunched, saying this is not a natural way to communicate. Today we all use it.

In parallel to these un-natural-UI devices, new technologies like voice control and eye tracking evolved. These are considered much more natural interfaces for humans, but no one uses it. Why? Because it’s still suffer from robustness issues and errors. It’s easier to master, but the fact that we need to repeat words, even if it’s once every 10 words, or that we need to move our eyes again and again when the light conditions are bad for the camera, creates the feeling we have no control of the device. Or, as Steve Jobs said, the device should feel like an amplification of ourselves, an extension of our body, which we have full control of.

VocalZoom has developed a multi-functional Human-Machine-Communication (HMC) device, which enable accurate voice control and voice authentication. This super small and low cost sensor, has the ability to measure micro-meter vibrations on a human face and extract the voice out of these vibrations. The human face vibrate only because of the human voice and is not affected by background noise and the voice of other speakers. This way the sensor can listen to the speaker in front of the sensor. Using VocalZoom, Voice control software such as google voice, Siri and Cortana, can perform in a very accurate way and exceed the usability threshold.

Another important usage of the sensor is for voice authentication. The sensor not only improve the accuracy by having a cleaner signal, it also guarantee the voice comes from the speaker in front of the sensor. This is an advantage over conventional microphones which hear the voice from all directions and can detect other people speaking in the background. The market for these applications become larger as online payments become common as well as self-service kiosks such as ATMs.

The ability to measure very small movements and accurate distance, enable many additional applications such as replacing the need for buttons, vibrations measurement in machines to detect failures, proximity sensing and 3D imaging applications. Also battery operated devices require accurate indication for speech to turn the device ON just when required (Smart phones, BT headsets etc.).

VocalZoom today partner with lead customers in the consumer electronics and the automotive, and first products, which use the VocalZoom technology, expected in the market before end of 2016.

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Written by: Tal Bakish, CEO at VocalZoom. Mail: tal@vocalzoom.com

 

 

 

 

Look at the new skin cancer screening platform- Dermacompare

BKadmin

 

DermaCompare is a revolutionary skin cancer screening platform that enables physicians to identify and monitor changes in their patients’ skin characteristics. DermaCompare was developed by Emerald Medical Applications, a digital health startup. Emerald’s technology utilizes the knowledge of military image processing and big data analytics to improve the analysis of medical images for the benefit of patients and the medical community alike.

Melanoma (skin cancer) is very aggressive cancer. The only way to save lives is early detection. 60% of melanoma cases caused by new moles, and 40% cause by changed moles.

Who’s in high risk ? people with personal or family history of melanoma, have more than 50 moles over their body, have light skin, expand many hours to the sun.

We follow our 3T model Take – Track – Treat: Take a photo of your skin, Track it by sharing with your doctor, and get the relevant treatment on time.

The doctor can’t remember our skin over time, and neither do us. Total body photography (TBP) is our “skin memory” on the pixel level. Only few minutes of your time, to take photos at the clinic or at home, and that’s it.

We developed 2 products: DermaCompare system for the dermatologist, and Mobile App for the crowd. The photos that are taken with the mobile App will be sent to the dermatologist. The dermatologist will review the photos, and the system will show him the differences over time. A change like mole’s border or color for example, is a notification for the dermatologist to pay more attention.

Brooks – Keret invited us to a TBP day in their site. This is part of taking care of the workers welfare, and increasing the awareness to early detection of melanoma. Every participant got CD with his own photos, for further tracking.

We invite everyone to come and take Total Body Photography – regular camera, no screening, pregnant woman can participate, 18 years old and up, wearing underwear/swimming suite

Send us name, email and cell number to set an appointment at info@dermacompare.com

You can download our mobile App: DermaCompare for self tracking at home.

 Adi Zamir

VP Product & Operation

Emerald Medical Applications

Mobile:  +972-54-4861247
Email :  adi@DermaCompare.com

**** All pictures were taken by: Orly Yancovich– the photographer of DermaCompare   ****

DermaCompare …. saving life by finding the tiny differences, to make a BIG difference !!!

TEDx Berlin : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBVzcVixN5I
DKV Hamburg : http://youtu.be/mfvl-w7mDEk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5f633Tpe-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8g6y9wz5S8

 

How to Manage a Cap-Table for Your Business?

BKadmin

 

A cap table (aka capitalization table) represents a breakdown of your shareholders’ holdings. When a company first starts out – everything is quite simple – there is usually one or two classes of shares and few shareholders. But quickly enough (let us hope), things get more complex: the company seeks to raise a seed round, and needs to calculate its pre-money and post-money valuations, in order to make a sensible offer to investors

Cap tables play a crucial role in creating wealth for entrepreneurs. You can build a great company worth millions, but if your cap table is a mess, you might encounter problems and disappointments when it’s time to cash out. Of course, as your company matures, the capitalization will increase in complexity with the addition of various preferred and convertible securities. If you don’t know how these instruments work, you might wake up one day and realize you are only entitled to 2% of the cash even though you own 10% of the company.

No Excel sheet has ever been able to capture all of your commitments, obligations, employment agreements and compensation packages as cap table does. Automatically updating your cap tables on an ongoing basis, it allows you to get an accurate snapshot of your company’s current holdings and do all the number crunching you need in order to make the most informed decisions.

Cap tables may seem like a simple document, but they are not. They are significant evidence of the company’s DNA, management style, and ultimately, its history and success rate. Cap tables document every transaction ever made with regard to stocks, options and other capital compensation components. Your cap table gives you a real snapshot of the decisions you have made along the way and your options management. It reflects the cost of those decisions and their outcome. Therefore, keeping real track of them is priceless.

This is where Cap.TAble comes in- an Equity Management Software of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Cap.TAble automates and streamlines the entire tracking and updating process, producing up-to-date, clear and concise cap tables. This software as a service (SaaS) application is a state-of-the-art answer to the old ways of doing things. It automates option management from granting to vesting, and enables users to generate, share and circulate up-to-date automatically-generated cap tables in real time. TASE’s Cap.TAble also enables users to calculate distributions at any given date, run investment scenarios, compare term sheets, receive an accurate snapshot of their option pools, grant and sign options seamlessly – all at the push of a button, and understand the real meaning of any exit offer and scenario.

In short, in today’s fast paced capital market environment, Cap.TAble allows you to keep track of your company’s holdings in a seamless, highly reliable way. It thus frees you up to focus on what really counts and make the right informed decisions regarding financing, exits, and option plans; allowing you to take optimum care of your company, shareholders, employees and yourself.

Yes, you can now grant options automatically and calculate vesting dates easily. We hope yours will vest soon.

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Written by: Lior Navon, Product Manager at TASE For Private Companies – Cap.TAble.

 

 

3 INTERESTING ISRAELI MUSIC APPS

BKadmin

Our smartphones became our primary media player. Today, there’s a huge community of developers that create apps that can better the experience on our phones.

This time I chose to focus on 3 Israeli Music Apps that make this experience much better.

Fusic “takes the selfie to the next step” according to its app store listing. The app lets people film videos of themselves singing, lip-syncing or dancing to their favorite songs, with that footage then being integrated with the song’s original video, for sharing.

This Israeli app lets users integrate their version of a song with the one sung by their favorite singer.

Fusic features about 200 songs from licensing agreements with a number of “second-tier music distributors,” said Sade-Sternberg the CEO, but she expects to land a licensing agreement with one of the world’s largest distributors in the coming months, substantially increasing the app’s library. Most of the music videos on the site now are from the pop charts, which Fusic’s core audience, teens and young adults up to age 25, like the most, with a smattering of other genres, such as 80’s rock, disco and show tunes

SoundBetter is a “music creation marketplace” that helps musicians “finish your song” by connecting them with studios, mixing and mastering engineers, producers and session musicians. Artists can post a brief, and then get quotes from these various professionals for how much their services will cost.

Recording is only the first step of the process, and every song that is recorded needs to be mixed, mastered and produced by skilled professionals. That’s millions of songs every year.

SoundBetter is disrupting a $15B/year inefficient music-production services market by connecting musicians with vetted professional mixing & mastering engineers, producers, singers and other production pros who get musicians to a great sounding finished product. SoundBetter is democratizing the last mile that musicians needed democratizing.

 

YOKEE allows users to have an entirely private karaoke experience on their smartphone. Founded in 2013, by Gil Selka and Ariel Yaloz, the application has an impressive 30 million users who have come to appreciate the opportunity to partake in their very own “empty orchestra”.

In Japanese, the word ‘karaoke’ literally means “empty orchestra,” which may be the most accurate description of the interactive sing-along activity that entertains the masses. But until now, in order to enjoy an evening of karaoke, you had to head out to a crowded karaoke bar or befriend someone with a home karaoke machine.

Yokee presents its users with an extensive library of licensed songs from US publishers in some twenty languages, as well as access to YouTube’s database of sing-along videos. Everything from classical opera to pop, rock and country genres are represented on the platform so that users can really test out their range. Yokee simultaneously records and saves a song, so that your harmonies don’t go to waste.

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Written by: Carmit Oron, VP Marketing, Brooks-Keret Financial Management.

carmit@brooks-keret.co.il

How to Properly Pitch to a Venture Capitalist

BKadmin

When it comes to pitching to a venture capitalist who may be interested in the products or services that you provide, it is still primarily an art form that combines facts, potential and persuasion. However, there are still effective guidelines that you can follow which will maximize your chances to impress and get the financial support of someone who might change your business for the better.

The first step is preparing your pitch so that it is short and gets straight to the point. In fact, many successful pitches to venture capitalists have been made in 15 minutes or less. You will need to tighten your pitch so that it gets straight to the heart of why the venture capitalist should invest. With that in mind, here are a few ways to spice up your pitch to maximize its effectiveness.

Big Possibilities

There are good ideas and then there are ideas that produce substantial results. You will want to emphasize the potential of what you are presenting so that the capitalist can see what the end goal will be for their investment. Every good venture capitalist understands that risks are involved, so the potential must be substantial for them to go forward. Asking them to invest for twice in return is hardly worth their attention, but ten times their return will peak their interest.

Change the Game

Basically, a venture capitalist understands that ideas which change the market are the ones to invest. A product or service that makes people look at an industry in an entirely new way is the ultimate goal. A company like PayPal for example changed the way people think about banks. So too must your idea be large enough that it will cause customers and then competitors to follow.

Big Market Potential

This is a basic guideline, but the bigger the market potential, the more interest your idea will generate. So, you will want to be talking about something that millions of people may have an interest in buying or using for a venture capitalist to really see the potential. This is because they understand that the results may only be a fraction of the potential. So, the bigger the potential, the bigger the profits will be.

Problem Solving, Target Market, & Uniqueness

Most of the questions that venture capitalist will ask revolve around the problem that your idea will solve, the size and nature of the target market and the unique nature of your product as compared to the competition. You must be prepared to address each of these questions in your presentation. Otherwise, you might have the capitalist walk out of your meeting unimpressed.

Of the three, solving the problem is going to be the most powerful and persuasive part. So, you’ll need to emphasize the size of the quandary and how many people are affected and then how your product or service will address it. That approach will definitely impress the venture capitalist to listen and if they see the problem the same way you do, the battle is mostly won.

The more you can prepare, the better your pitch will be. Remember to keep it short, simple to understand and emphasize the potential which is your main goal.

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The writer is Carmit Oron, VP Marketing at Brooks- Keret Financial Management , www.brooks-keret.co.il .

Mail: carmit@brooks-keret.co.il

Fundraising for Startups

BKadmin

Fundraising for startups can be a daunting prospect and often the success or failure of your pitch comes down to your own personal performance and credibility as an entrepreneur.

If you’ve identified investors there are four key areas you need to know inside out in order to impress and really showcase your talent and ability; in short they are absolutely key to entrepreneurial performance.  Let’s examine them.

Impetus

You have to be able to demonstrate that your venture has impetus. This could be in the form of pipelined sales, user numbers, existing business partners etc.  Investors want to see traction; not the finished article, but enough potential to invest.

The Team

Your management team is key to securing any investment.  Any investor is going to need to be personally impressed by you as an individual or your management team.  If you have a team member whose talents lie in different areas to presentation or outward credibility, leave them at home!  Harsh but true; think what’s best for your business.

Know your Market

You need to know your market inside out; where you fit currently, where the growth potential is, how you intend to get there, etc.  Knowing the national spend in your field is not knowing your market; investors want to see that you are well-researched and fully immersed in your market.  Metrics are important; use them and get them right.

Money

The vast majority of investors will want you to be able to demonstrate that you can put a large enough amount of money to work and will want a significant percentage of the business to justify their scrutiny.  You need to be prepared for the fact that you are likely to be giving away somewhere in the region of 20 – 25% of your company as a minimum; 15% is a rarity and anyone looking to invest at 8% may not be serious or will be looking for a bigger cut further down the line.

Help is at Hand

At Brooks-Keret we have been developing and cultivating entrepreneurs for over five years.  Our aim is to support aspiring entrepreneurs in gaining better exposure to investors and garner helpful feedback on their ventures and their approach to gaining investment.

Our specialist panels come together once every month where startup companies from all sectors can come to pitch their ideas and tap into our wealth of experience.  We are interested to hear about what your startup’s goals are and you get the opportunity to convey these via a one hour presentation.  Our expert panel will they have questions for you; questions that every entrepreneur looking for investment should know!  The best thing is if you don’t know the answer, think of our panel as a dry run; you’ll be better prepared to wow potential investors next time.

 

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The writer is Gil Keret , CEO at Brooks- Keret Financial Management , www.brooks-keret.co.il .

Brooks-Keret is celebrating 20 years in business

BKadmin

20 years passed from our very first customer in 1995 who believed in our ability to create value through our financial services, to become the growing financial management services company we are today, with approximately 300 clients and thousand along the journey.

This year marks a major milestone for Brooks Keret as we celebrate our 20th anniversary. What began in 1995 as an idea sketched on a placemat has grown into a leading company of 100 employees who are committed to building a model company focused on your success.

We owe this achievement to the dedication of our employees, the strength of our partnerships, and the success of our customers.

We thank all of our customers and partners for helping make our vision a reality.

Brooks-Keret celebrating 20th anniversary- you are invited to watch this video.

How to Pitch to Angel Investors

BKadmin

For entrepreneurs that are making a presentation to an angel investors, you will need to avoid the common mistakes that can cost you their support.
A presentation for angel investor does not need to be a pure sales pitch nor a droning rundown of data and obscure information. You will need to find the right tone in order to create a bond with them.

Here are a few tips that will help you sharpen your pitch so that you can land the services of an angel investor.

Connect with a Personal Story

Stories are by their nature simple, powerful ways to connect emotionally with this type of investor. How you started out your journey and the sacrifices made will help paint a positive picture of why you need their assistance. You don’t have to be overly dramatic, just tell your story in positive way so that you can make the connection.

Present your Story Visually

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and using images can reinforce your presentation for angle investor. When you consider that we think in images, presenting just a few photos will help engrain your story into the investor’s mind. It is a known fact that images are far more likely to be retained than just words, so find a few appropriate photos to really make your story sell.

Use Charts, Graphs and Tables for the Details

You will naturally need to present the little details, percentages and other minutia that is part of your pitch. So, use interesting graphs, tables and charts that the investor can see instead of having to hear it all from you. Of course, you can point out the different percentages and other detailed information, but presenting the information visually can really get to the point of your presentation.

Be Passionate

Your presentation will have to include your passion to help you succeed. In order for anyone to fully succeed with their business, they need the drive to accomplish their goals. An angel investor will want to see that in you. You do not have to be demonstrable in your presentation about how passionate you are, but you will need to show something beyond just saying how you feel.

Show How Your Efforts Address a Need

This is how you should wrap up your presentation by demonstrating the need for what you are trying to accomplish. All businesses, projects and endeavors have a goal which not only propels the owner and investor to success, but also how it helps others in what they are doing. This will broaden the emotional impact of your presentation for angel investor and humanize your endeavor.

Overall, if you hit the right notes then you will maximize your chances of impressing the angel investor to the point of having them push your project forward. Remember to keep it to the important points and be as succinct as possible without skimping on the important details. If you can do that, then you just may have an angel investor at your side.

Online Product or Mobile App – Which One is Better?

BKadmin

2014 marked a change in internet usage trends. Cellular phones replaced the PC as a gateway to the internet. This change in usage trends affects the way we use and design online products from the ground up.

To adapt products to several screen sizes we can create a responsive platform, develop a mobile application or provide both. How will we know which is best? The answer, as always, depends on what you are developing.

The difference between a responsive or mobile adapted product and a mobile application is simple. If a product required access to the mobile’s inherent capabilities (camera, GPS etc.) than a mobile applications needs to be considered. If the product’s design and functionality is straight forward, for example a content based product (Newspapers, Blogs etc.) or even regular commercial sites with simple management requirements; you should create a responsive product.

Contrary to responsive products, when taking the application route the following needs to be taken into account:

  1. An application is a piece of software. To use it, a user must download it to his/ her device. As such, it is not exposed to indexes of traditional online search engines.
  2. An application needs to be adapted to each device type and/or operating system.
  3. An application might encounter performance issues as its performance is device related. If the owner of the mobile phone uses many applications it might affect the reaction of your application.
  4. An application’s design is completely different than a responsive design. Since most users open a profile when logging into an app, the application can provide a user biased experience. Moreover, with Push notifications, you have a direct access to the user. For example, when we receive a message on Facebook, the device alerts us of the message by raising a small circle with the sender’s image. In addition, the app can save usage habits such as credit card information, preferences, etc., which helps users get to their destination faster, and so on.

To understand what is the correct option for you, you need to take into considerations all of the above points. They will help you choose wisely.

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The writer is Ayelet Geva,  , Expert Product Manager, www.pmod.co.il.

Mail: ayelet@pmod.co.il

 

A Closer Look at Entrepreneur: Lior Tal – CEO RepnUp

BKadmin

What gave you the idea to create RepnUp?

Today, many meaningful events in person’s life such as getting into college, getting a job, keeping a job and finding a life partner, are dependent on what they “look” like on social media. The idea to build Rep’nUp came from reading articles about college admission officers that review applicants’ social media profiles before extending admissions offers. The articles explained what types of content will lead students to get eliminated from the applicant pool. We thought that we can develop a service that will help applicants by detecting this types of content and allow them to deal with that before applying. When we solicit feedback from friends, they indicated that there are two bigger addressable markets for such service, such as users who are looking for jobs and people who engage in online dating.

What advice would you give someone who wants to make a social networking website?

Try to work from day one with multiple social media networks and not only one.

What do you spend all of your hard earned cash on?

We spend most of our budget on two fronts – R&D and M&S.

Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?

Most of my professional life I spent in startups. I co-founded two that were acquired by IBM and McAfee so I think it is in my blood.

Is there anyone that you look up to and model yourself on?

I look up to people like Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of AirBNB.com a company that created a market that was not there before and build a fast growing business around it.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Execution trump everything else. Eventually you’ll get a product that works more or less as you thought it would but it is all about getting to the market and succeeding in getting sales/users/partners.

What advice would you give to a Young Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

First, get a strong team around you. Investors invest mostly in teams and they are looking for an experienced and capable members.

What are your plans for the future?

We are growing at a fast rate and we need to make sure we continue to grow.

 

Find out more about RepnUp.