He Built A $1.8 Billion Business And Now Raised $34 Million To Leverage AI To Hire The Right People

Dr. Shay David, a seasoned tech entrepreneur with multiple exits, has had a remarkable journey through varied technological landscapes, from navigation to video to HR.

His story is a testament to his adaptability, strategic acumen, and commitment to leveraging technology for a positive impact on the world.

In a candid and insightful interview, Dr. Shay Davids shares his experiences, from growing up in Israel to co-founding successful companies and ultimately venturing into a neglected industry.

The conversation touches upon key lessons learned, the importance of time to market, and the evolution of technology.

Listen to the full podcast episode and review the transcript here.

From Israel to Silicon Valley: Nurturing Innovation in Adversity

Born in 1973 during a tumultuous period in Israeli military history, Dr. Shay reflects on his upbringing in Israel. Contrary to expectations, he describes a serene and adventurous childhood spent outdoors, emphasizing the Israeli ethos of self-sufficiency.

His early exposure to Silicon Valley sparked a deep appreciation for the potential of technology, which eventually led him to pursue computer science in Tel Aviv and embark on an academic journey in American universities.

After finishing elementary school in Israel, Dr. Shay went to high school in Palo Alto.

Dr. Shay vividly recalls his first experience with personal computers in the 80s, highlighting the efficiency lessons learned from programming within tight constraints. With prior booking, the library allowed each user an hour of computer time on a T99 at the Palo Alto Public Library.

Computers didn’t have recording devices at the time, so users had to type and program within an hour. This experience taught Dr. Shay important lessons in efficiency and writing code without too many bugs before he ran out of time.

Thirst for Knowledge

Dr. Shay went on to do his Master’s at New York University, Ph. D. at Cornell University, and post-doc at Yale University. He reminisces how he tried to stay a student as long as he could to satisfy his hunger for more knowledge and wanting to be surrounded by smart people.

Dr. Shay explains his academic area of expertise. He studied open and collaborative information systems, understanding things like Wikipedia and open-source software.

He talks about examples from military history about open-source biology that explain how large groups of people come together to build large-scale information systems.

Dr. Shay’s objective was to understand the impact of technology and the very complex relationship between technology and society. He also explains that curiosity is a trait in successful entrepreneurs since they are eager to learn and find new things.

The Inception of Mind Echo

Dr. Shay’s entrepreneurial spirit emerged during his first venture, Mind Echo, where he gained valuable insights into the crucial aspect of time to market. He realized that great technology alone is insufficient for success; you must also know how and when to market the products.

At Mind Echo, Dr. Shay was first the team lead and then went on the business side.

The company developed collaborative filtering and recommendation systems, and he was in charge of developing some of the applications, also striking deals despite never having gone to business school.

The ability to recommend individual media tracks to people today was unavailable 25 years ago.

The main challenge Mind Echo faced was that there was no market for selling individual media tracks or understanding the value of recommending media to people. Its technology was looking for an application.

As Dr. Shay realized, timing to market is absolutely essential when commercializing technology like that, especially on the front end and on the edge of technology development. The company couldn’t get the intended outcomes, so Dr. Shay sold the IP.

He likens the technology ecosystem to a coral reef where the smaller fish get eaten by bigger fish and debris falls to the ground, but the ecosystem itself remains very lively. The experience taught him important lessons, which he carried to his next venture.

Destinator Technologies: Navigating the Future with Innovation

Dr. Shay’s next venture, Destinator Technologies, is a pioneering GPS navigation company. Facing challenges of limited device communication in the early days of smart devices, the team developed proprietary compression technology, unlocking the potential of handheld navigation devices.

Dr. Shay calls the technology the MP3 of navigation because it was specifically designed for types of navigation applications. It was helpful for fleet tracking and car navigation and could unlock the environmental potential of devices like the Panpilot by using compression.

Dr. Shay understood the technological environment early on and that these devices are becoming ubiquitous.

To use devices for other applications, users needed data, and to get the data, users needed compression, so by focusing on compression, they had unlocked a whole world of applications.

The company’s success, including going public and reaching a valuation of half a billion dollars, reinforced the significance of understanding technological landscapes and identifying market needs.

Dr. Dhay recalls how they collaborated with Lockheed Martin, Acer, and HP and basically brought that technology into an end-to-end Integrated enterprise solution.

Kaltura: Riding the Wave of the Video Revolution

Building on his experiences, Dr. Shay co-founded Kaltura, recognizing the transformative power of the emerging video revolution. He partnered with Ron Yekutiel, Yaron Garmazi, and Michal Tsur, recognizing the media revolution.

The iPhone had just come out, and a billion people had the means to produce videos in their pockets via a billion mobile cameras in mobile video devices. An equal number of screens on multibillion devices had become endpoints that could consume these videos–an incredible opportunity.

Kaltura aimed to control this video revolution by rebuilding the video stack and addressing challenges in publishing, monetizing, and measuring video content. They aimed to eliminate the buffering and data security issues.

Dr. Shay talks about how they understood that the next iteration of culture would be in video since humans are multimedia creatures. They also realized that the world needed a simple-to-use platform as a service video stack that could seamlessly integrate into diverse ecosystems.

Kaltura’s journey included going public with a peak valuation of $1.8 billion. Dr. Shay and his co-founders decided to bring in senior, talented management not just to scale the company, but also to entrust the company into capable hands with industry-specific expertise.

Accordingly, they brought in a set of professionals who could help build the company, from operations to finance to the general management of the company’s divisions. By 2020, the company was stable and growing, and Dr. Shay started thinking about what he could do for human resources.

Retrain.ai: Harnessing AI for Empowering People

As the tech landscape shifted towards AI, Dr. Shay founded Retrain.ai with a vision to empower people rather than replace jobs. He explains that it is an entirely new company with a fresh team and investors, though some of his investors from Kaltura joined him.

Dr. Shay partnered with Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf and Avi Simon. Avi came from the Israeli army and was experienced in building large-scale state systems as the CIO of the City of Israeli military intelligence.

Isabelle came from HR tech, was well-experienced in building HR technology, and worked in financial and operational roles within the Israeli tech ecosystem.

Their objective was to understand how AI would disrupt the business landscape and how to implement AI into the business. Dr Shay talks about how they could see that AI would take people’s jobs away and he wanted to reverse that equation.

The company’s HR co-pilot, based on natural language processing and extensive data training, assists organizations in making intelligent decisions throughout the employee lifecycle. The focus is on skills, creating jobs, and addressing the global skills gap.

Fundraising for Retrain.ai

Retrain.ai acquired funding worth $34M led by Radical Ventures, Square Peg, TechAviv, and 406 Ventures, which reflects confidence in the company’s vision. Dr. Shay discusses the significance of having smart and strategic investors on board to shape the company’s trajectory.

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Looking Ahead: The Future of Work

Discussing his vision for the future of work, Dr. Shay envisions a world where individuals focus on skills, own their skills passports and career development, and engage in lifelong learning.

Retrain.ai plays a pivotal role in enabling organizations to make informed decisions around skills, fostering employee engagement and productivity.

Dr. Shay emphasizes the importance of strategic thinking in board meetings, encouraging a “whiteboard meeting” approach. He underscores the need to understand market trends, competitive landscape, and strategic differentiators to build a successful business.

Revolutionizing the Future of Work: Closing Thoughts

In the closing remarks, Dr. Shay David advises aspiring entrepreneurs to focus on customer value, urging them to clearly articulate how their product provides unique benefits compared to the competition.

Reflecting on his journey, he shares that, armed with his current knowledge, he would emphasize the importance of having a crystal-clear understanding of the value proposition before diving into product development.

As he continues to revolutionize the future of work with Retrain.ai, his insights provide invaluable lessons for the next generation of innovators.

Listen to the full podcast episode to know more, including:

• Dr. Shay David underscores the importance of timing to market, emphasizing that great technology requires synchronization with market needs for successful commercialization.
• Growing up in Israel during turbulent times shaped Dr. Shay’s focus on self-sufficiency and innovation, which later influenced his entrepreneurial journey.
• The success of Destinator Technologies highlighted the significance of understanding technological landscapes and developing solutions that address market challenges.
• Kaltura’s success demonstrated the transformative power of recognizing and addressing challenges in the emerging video revolution, reshaping how content is published, monetized, and measured.
• With Retrain.ai, Dr. Shay aims to use AI to empower people, create jobs, address the skills gap, and reshape the HR landscape to focus on skills rather than replace jobs.
• Dr. Shay advocates for strategic whiteboard meetings, emphasizing the need for entrepreneurs to understand market trends, competitive landscapes, and strategic differentiators.
• Driven by a vision where individuals own their skills passports, engage in lifelong learning, and organizations make informed decisions around skills, Dr. Shay’s Retrain.ai aims to revolutionize the future of work.

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