Ori Levy On Selling His First Company For $100 Million, Taking His Second Public, And Now Bringing Tennis To Your Home

In the heart of Ori Levy’s entrepreneurial journey lies Strikeco, a groundbreaking venture that transcends the boundaries of traditional tennis training and playing. The collaboration with tennis veteran Yoni Willand sparked a vision to transform how tennis enthusiasts practice, learn, and compete.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Strikeco’s inception was fueled by a shared passion for tennis between Ori Levy and Yoni Willand. True innovation often arises when personal interests align with a vision for change.
• Strikeco transcends geographical barriers, aiming to create a global community of tennis enthusiasts. The platform fosters connections, allowing players to engage, practice, and compete with others worldwide.
• Strikeco’s unique approach integrates hardware and software seamlessly. The tennis simulator, akin to a Peloton for tennis, combines real-world racket play with virtual tracking, offering a holistic training experience.
• The incorporation of sensors and AI enables a real-time feedback loop. Players receive immediate insights into their technique, creating an ongoing learning process and enhancing the overall training experience.
• The strategic decision to keep Strikeco under wraps until it was market-ready showcases the importance of timing in the startup journey. Avoiding premature exposure allowed for a more impactful entry into the market.
• Strikeco’s vision extends beyond professional players, catering to different age groups and skill levels. It transforms tennis into a family and community activity, making it accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
• Ori Levy’s journey from Trendum to Strikeco imparts crucial entrepreneurial wisdom. Persistence, visionary thinking, and adaptability are key elements that underpin successful ventures in the dynamic startup landscape.

SUBSCRIBE ON:

For a winning deck, see the commentary on a pitch deck from an Uber competitor that has raised over $400M (see it here). 

Remember to unlock for free the pitch deck template that is being used by founders around the world to raise millions below.

About Ori Levy:

Ori Levy has diverse work experience spanning various roles and industries. Ori is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Strikeco since October 2021.

Prior to that, Ori co-owned INK Hotel Tel-Aviv starting in June 2021. Ori also served as a Board Member and later became Chairman of the Board at Pomvom from January 2017 until March 2021.

Ori has been an active private angel investor since January 2005. In the past, they were the CEO of 76Hudson (formerly Sense of Fashion) from June 2010 to December 2012.

Ori also held the position of President at Nielsen Online from June 2007 to January 2010. Before that, they founded and served as President of Nielsen BuzzMetrics from September 2005 to January 2010.

Ori’s entrepreneurial journey started at Trendum, where they founded and acted as the CEO from January 2000 to September 2005.

Ori Levy attended The College of Management Academic Studies from 1998 to 2001, where they completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Marketing and Finance.

Connect with Ori Levy:

• Crunchbase
• RocketReach
• TheOrg
• Bloomberg

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: Alrighty hello everyone and welcome to the dealmakerr show. So today we are with us a really incredible founder. You know founder that he’s built the you know incredible stuff. You know, build scaled finance. Exited you name it. You know all the good stuff that we like to hear. And now you know he is building a rocket ship a rocket ship that I’m actually very excited to be part of as well and they super super inspired by what the team has done. You know in the sport you know of tennis now bring it to your living room so without further ado. Let’s welcome. Our guest today. Ari Livy welcome to the show.

Ori Levy: And handle. Thank you for having me I hope I can live to the expectations now.

Alejandro Cremades: Absolutely so originally born in Tel Aviv and raised there so give us a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up over there.

Ori Levy: So I go up in Israel the oldest for three boys and my father was one of the parnies of market rich research in Israel he was affiliated before the Gallup organization is based in the Us. And both of my parents walked in the business for thirty something years until they sold it to the global organization. The.

Alejandro Cremades: Now I’m sure I’m sure that was quite inspiring for you because obviously growing up seeing the ups and downs the cycles that you go through as an entrepreneur. How was that for you because I’m sure that you also spent some time there in the holidays and in vacations and weekends you know seeing them. You know, pushing and and and and and fighting you know to to to make things happen.

Ori Levy: Yeah, actually I learned I learned a lot of lessons I spent most of my free time at at the office doing all sorts of stuff from typing in questionnaires to doing phone interviews from sitting in meetings. I Love. To be to be involved in everything I remember that almost every only there was some in vacation I used to be in the office and it wasn’t just for the money I mean I Really enjoy it learning new thing influencing. My parents did a lot of work for the Israeli Chief Scientist Office. So I remember seeing a lot of a lot of inventions. A lot of innovations and I learned a lot by that.

Alejandro Cremades: Now your father had ah quite ah, an influence in you. You know someone that had the opportunity of of dealing with very high profile politicians. You know businessmen I Guess how how would you say that he has influenced. Your career your personal life I’m sure your mom do but at a business level. You know, having him you know and obviously having your dad you know, having that level of of approach and influence. You know Also in others you know with that type of profile I’m sure that was really powerful for you.

Ori Levy: Yeah, my father was a was a character. He was a great Person. He was a great father. He was very smart. Very charismatic full of ideas and Vision. We used to say that he used to wake up every every morning with the with a new Id for a startup But. He wasn’t a great executor so he was big visionary but he wasn’t a great executor and one of the most very ballacent I learned is that starting with a great idea is maybe 5% of the journey but you need to have the other 95% executing. It.

Alejandro Cremades: So in your case, the army. You know why say the next stop. You know a must there in in Israel I guess how do you think that the discipline that that brings you know to to 1 You know what? what kind of discipline and perspective did. The experience of being involved with the army bring to you.

Ori Levy: Yeah I mean the army in here in Israel. It gets us from from from teenagers into men that that’s the that’s the the journey that we go to when in the us you go to college we have to go to the army. We learn a lot of things we see a lot of things. I was in the army doing that time of the intifada so it. It was I seen a lot of sight that you’re not supposed to see and it’s really get you going up faster I would say. And I spent the last year in the army not doing too much and I felt that my brain was but like brain forced so just following down me while all my friends went into big trips. That’s what usually what they do in Israel following down me you go and you travel 1 year in the world I started learning just. Straight out of the army I start doing my my master’s degree.

Alejandro Cremades: Now for the masters too I mean it was a really interesting blend between marketing and finance. So why blending those 2

Ori Levy: And I think it’s attracted me the most I was really into marketing also because of my background in in the office and finance I needed to touch it because I didn’t have a lot of understanding in it and um and I was certain. That in my future will need to have a good understanding in Numbers. So I measured in these 2 which by the way proved a lot following that when I started my first company.

Alejandro Cremades: And when when you started the first company to there was really a triggering event there that was a conversation with your father that involved Trends is that right.

Ori Levy: Yeah, yeah, so um, just as I finished university I remember that one day. My father told me a story that when he was in ucla there was a guy that used to predict trends based on how Ben on measuring how many inches. They got in the press so we used to follow a lot of fields measure. How much inches that were written about them and that’s how we predicted trends and now when I started the company. It was 2000 I said everything now is becoming digital. It was the the dot com but it it was the.com period. Everything became digital and we can do it in an automated way and but not only that I also wanted to measure world of mouth because back then it wasn’t. Social media yet it was a mainly discussion boards and chats. So I could measure the influence the press hand of has on world of mouth and what affects what and what pushes? what? so I wanted to measure both a. So I started a company called tendndom. It was February 2000. It was perfect timing because a month later the baber bursts and the dot com ba and’m not sure everybody knows but the the nasdac.

Ori Levy: Went I mean before the dot com the nasda gained 800% and then in the two years following March Twenty it fell 78% so it was another great lesson because companies forgot.

Alejandro Cremades: Wow.

Ori Levy: That and the end of the day they need to make money and they need to be profitable and when I start at random it was impossible to waste money just impossible but I wasn’t really discouraged by that I was very young and persistence and I was bootstapping my way. On executing my vision.

Alejandro Cremades: And how are you guys making money with trendum What was the business model there.

Ori Levy: Yeah, so at the beginning I actually sold research works to just to finance the company. So I remember for example I did the project for 10 people the magazine it was actually my my my first client. And I measured the the buzz for women singers in the discussion forums and and bulleting boards and what we discovered is that actually back then. Britney Spears was gaining a lot of negative momentum and I showed them the results and they were shocked 10 people I mean you know it’s their business is there was a big article back then and they yeah they became my first client team people i. Also remember a story when I did work for Hbo on the serious the the yome we just aired back then and we analyzed the buzz for that series. And I fly to New York there are 20 people sitting in the room and I gave them the results of what we see people love that serious I I remember they complained a bit about the the vocabulary because it was very very house vocabulary I would say and then.

Ori Levy: Following that meeting. They asked me what do I think about the series we told them I never watched it because we don’t have Hbo in Israel back then and they were in complete shock because you know I just spent an hour telling them about the series that I never saw and they became our second client. And so you know that’s how we started.

Alejandro Cremades: And then how do you end up raising money because a obviously not an easy fee. You know you are in Israel you’re now travelubling back and forth to New York you are bootstrapping the company. How do you end up racing money here.

Ori Levy: So the first money I ever raised was ah when when I used to fly to New York and and and do those presentations I took friends with me to to the room so because you know I’m 24 twenty five years old.

Ori Levy: I can get nervous I can sometimes forget the words in english I hope it won’t happen in this ah podcast and so I took one of my father friends called it’s it’s hak fisher which is he was a big interpret. No and i. Take him to this meeting and the the head of research for the company walks up and does the introduction to his team and said this is all we levy from Israel and he is one of the a biggest invention I’ve seen in 20 years and I looked at itsik and it goes wow I haven’t seen that opening and when we left. That meeting. He says how much do you need to hundred two hundred thousand dollars I mean and it became my first investor and lay and end my mentor also I learned a lot from him and then then we started going up a bit and. I really approached raising money in 2005 I already had 12 paying customers including as I mentioned 10 people Hbo. We also have Cnn a lot of the sd louder brands and the company was biking given I had 8 employees and we we were biking given. And when I start meeting rees they looked at me like I’m a ghost because they they were not used to companies that are making money so early on and that i’ breaking even so I was offered all sorts of deals from the top v in the world. But one day its ha calls me.

Ori Levy: And says on the way to Palo Alto stop in York for a meeting with Nilsson says. Okay, the next day we sit in the room and the Ceo of near Nilson walks in the room and I tell him the random story for half an hour he walks up. He says okay I have another mytic to attend and he’s giving his cfo do the deal with him after 30 minutes so we ended up going with newsson and we raised $6000000.

Alejandro Cremades: Wow and then obviously you know that triggered a really nice same you know. Unfolding events that happen as a result of that because when you raise money from someone like that you know such a large corporation. You know that has the the level of of recognition like Nielsen I’m sure that that sends some really positive signaling to the market and as a result of that you started getting calls and one of them. You know, ended up. Really triggering m and a action. So so walk us through what happened there you know that phone call that you received and what happened after.

Ori Levy: Yeah, so when I started trenddom I was completely alone in the industry of measuring buszz. But by the time we did the needs and they deal there was several companies in the space. So when we announced the deal just actually literally the same day. We announced the deal in the newspaper I get a call from the. Ceo of a company called busmetricx in New York his name is ah Jonathan Carlson which is a close friend today and he he saying you know congratulation. What an amazing deal for you. You know, let’s sit for coffee we never met let’s ah sit for coffee we sit for coffee the next day and then three months later we did the we did an acquisition um an m and a with with Bazz metrics and they instead of using the money I raised for Nielsen to start a Us operation. We got a brand new start. Which much faster instant presence they had grating with multiple talents and we shot out time into market when we announced the ba metrix deal. We got another call from another company that actually was bigger than both of us. Frominsanity called the Intel Isi and three months later we bought them as well. So we ended up doing a 3 way. Merger.

Alejandro Cremades: And how difficult is that because at this point you’re getting like 3 companies together 3 different cultures 3 different teams. You know how how was that integration like.

Ori Levy: Ah, that was challenging m and as are always challenging. This was very challenging because we had a company in Israel with our difficulties with the company in New York in Telesik in cinannnati.

Ori Levy: I mean just the difference between Cincinnati and Weo is I can write a story about that. But also the founders of inelequalindian so a lot of mentality clashes. But you know I think when you have good people that share the same passion. You find you find the path to success. And eventually we ended up building a beautiful business and in 2007 Nielsen bought the the entire company.

Alejandro Cremades: So walk us through that because that day was a smashing outcome north of a 100000000 of a deal so walk us through how the transaction with Nielsen you know happen make make make us insiders of that deal. So.

Ori Levy: Actually it’s a it’s in this six story because we we ended up doing that deal just before the another bubble bursts and before we did the niilsen deal. We actually add 2 or 3 offers to do an ipo. I still remember the book from lemon brothers that says $400000000 valuation on the cover. But I remember we sat in a board meeting and esig said you know we have all these books but it’s it’s it’s a air in a bubble. It’s gonna burst and I don’t want to jump over my heels. But when Nielsen saw that we got those offers obviously there had other interests in the company. They decided to buy it eventually. Um, it was you know I actually you know I grew up.

Alejandro Cremades: How was that for you.

Ori Levy: Not me think much so I wasn’t really going from poor to rich I would say but ah in a humble way I would say that I wasn’t really surprised you know I. Throughout the history of tendom I used to exercise shells when I could because you know we always bullish on the company. But as a young kid you know you you want to get some money out so you can you know, buy an apartment I wanted to get married so they were I was lucky enough that they gave me the opportunity to do so. In the um when the deal was done. It was fun but you know we continued.

Alejandro Cremades: Now talking about continu I mean first company first mashing outcome. So unbelievable, but hey you know like you go from things for unfolding the right way to things not unfolding. The way that you had hoped for with the next company that you joined so that you started obviously investing in startups and then you joined this marketplace in fashion and everything that went well before didn’t go so well. The second time around. So I guess there’s this saying that is you either succeed or you learn. So now you know where you are going from success to all of a sudden you know this this this this catastrophic event. You know that you haven’t hoped for you know, unfolding in front of your eyes. How humbling was that for you and what what lesson do you take from that.

Ori Levy: Yeah, so my next experience with senseor fashion which was a marketplace for fashion and all the things that went well in in tendom for example, 9 of my first 10 employees. Remain employees in the company until we accepted 9 out of 10 my first 10 employees in sense of fashion I was left with only 1 or 2 eventually after 2 years because we you know things evolve. We don’t make the right decisions. I bet a lot of money on ah on a team in the us that wasn’t very successful and that cost a lot I mean much more than it cost in Israel and we also made some wrong turns. In terms of strategy and the things didn’t evolve the way we hoped for and I remember that it taught the end of the company. There was a merger offer on the table. With another company that does not single stuff but they had an insistent concept and I remember talking to my investors about this company and this Ceo that I thought we should merge with and from the beginning I told the other Ceo that the.

Ori Levy: If we do this merger. We are bringing an external c o to manage the entire operation because I wanted to take the ego out of the question. So neither I or him will manage the company because I thought that he wasn’t very successful. And I even remember raising money for that operations from my current investors for new investors they were willing to invest in the company and I did this so to put him for two weeks and following that I realized that he wasn’t the right man for the job and. When I start talking to him who should while we picking for that role. He says I will be the Ceo I told him we agreed that you’re stepping out I’m stepping out as well. Then he says no I’m sure I should be the Ceo when I said okay, then we don’t have a day. And I I closed the company I mean I I didn’t want to waste more money for my investors and I decided to close the company.

Alejandro Cremades: Wow now obviously you know here many many lessons. You know that you took away from you I mean with you from that journey and then as as as the next one you know part of this investment and and involvement with companies then you get involved with this other company called pombum. And it was more like at the chair level and they’re basically you know like what you were able to do was to help this company in ramping up. You know, in fact, they’re going to be doing an ipo. They did the ipo there in Israel the Ipo is coming soon to Nasdaq with 100 and ah hundred and twenty five million ah hundred and twenty three million valuation I guess as part of pombo first what was the company. What is the company doing and then 2 walk us through what makes a board effective because here you were the chairman so obviously board dynamics and what makes a board effective.

Ori Levy: Yeah, so first of all pom vom does photos and media distribution from the packans and events. We now probably just the largest company in the space walking with the with mailing Warner butddles 6 flags. All the major companies in the industry and I joined as a chairman just a month after the they they started the company. The Ceo and the ceoto I joined as an investor and active chairman and actually spent 50% of my time. With pom vom I was very active and I think pom vom story which was dead great technology but that market is very very hard to penetrate because there are. The tenders go probably every 3 to 5 years and there is a you know there’s a bidding and several companies in the industry and for a small company from Israel great technology as it is but we we didn’t have the personal relationships to win those tenders. So it was very difficult for us to penetrate the market and we had and a big investment offer on the table just before covid started from a company in in Switzerland and when covid started I get a phone call from the Cfo.

Ori Levy: We were supposed to sign the deal the next day and he tell me listen Owen sorry but you know it’s freeze everybody now we we freezed the entire operation I literally had to pay money for my own bank account to them place back then and then a month later and into covid I get a call from the Ceo tells me the largest company in the space. Just went back up into administration I told him great news were going to buy them and he says to me you’reuc. You know we don’t have money to pay Seller. You want to buy this company out of an administration I said yes. Now we have a story that company did the year before a $100000000 in sales and we bought it out of administration it a months later we raised $5000000 we bought that company from administration and. Build the entire business once now you have clients you have technology and we just need to put the puzzle back into pieces a until the ipo in 2001.

Alejandro Cremades: My god you know talking about conviction. You know, obviously the the the ipo there 2021 you know was how really people tell a year for Youtube because that was really what pushed you into shifting gears towards really bringing to life. You know a really exciting company called stryco and definitely 1 thing that happened there in 2021 was you crossing paths with Yoni willand. So how do you guys? Cross path. How are you able to really have the exposure to what yoni. You know had he mind and and what he was working on and and how do you really decide hey I think that this is this is my next chapter.

Ori Levy: Yeah, so in 2018 I moved to a new house in Amata Sha in Israel literally a hundred yards formed the country club with several tennis courts and there is a great tennis coach that. We went to my my kid went to a kindergarten with him and he says oh let’s come come play some ball so you know I started playing tennis and I go up playing soccer most of the time I never really played tennis and I started practicing with him and I became. Totally obsessed with the spot. It’s an individual spot. It’s completely different from anything that I knew the mental toughness. It’s different athleticces and concentration. It’s ah it’s a whole new ballgain and at the end of the day you are yourself ah standing on the court. There is no one else to blame I love that it’s a wonderful filling. So I started practicing and I started playing matches and more than I love winning I hate losing I so I became obsessed with the game I started watching Youtube videos. Slow motion videos I register to different websites. But now it’s even more frustrating because you watch a lesson online on Youtube and you want to practice it but you can only do it on code. So it’s it’s it’s frustrating.

Ori Levy: Sometimes the court is not available now. It’s signing you need to drive there. It’s it’s frustrating and by the time you get to court you forget what you saw and also you never see yourself. Hitting the ball. You now you’re onot you won’t open the phone and watch the Youtube video. It’s a very flat learning co it. It takes a lot of time to get better I started looking for tonyines, 10 aids and honestly the variety of the training gaug is very limited. You realize that. The best thing now done is an elastic rope that ties to a ball on one side and to a water tank on the other I mean it has been like this for 40 years the best selling product on Amazon is a ball connected to a rubbbel po. That’s it I mean I realized that the tennis old. Is thriving for for innovation and one day out of the blue I get a call from a friend urging me to meet someone in knows from them. Yoni Willand Yoni is a tennis veteran over 20 years of experience is playing tennis’s. Teaching tennis. He owns one of the largest tennis academies in Israel over 500 players but most importantly is a real passion for the game and a deep understanding of the game so much my curiosity peak I invite yoni to come and meet me.

Ori Levy: And he shows me this fantastic vision on on tennis how he wants to transform the game the game how he thinks we should practice better with this tennis simulator that he envisioned. And how people will be able to play together regardless of their location. The skill level everybody can engage in playing tennis right from the comfort of the home and they I told you only let me think about it. I. Thought about it for 24 hours I give him a call and tell him your name I mean that’s it I’m leaving everything else that I’m doing and I want to dedicate my time with you and bring this vision to life and that’s how we start a cycle.

Alejandro Cremades: I Mean that this this is this is really exciting to I mean obviously not an easy play. You know from what you were used to and what you had seen because obviously in this case, you have the software and the hardware coming together. So. And I know that you guys have been very much under wraps you know on low rate under the radar up until you know now. But how did you guys go about you know, really putting thought into how this would shape up and and make sure that. That software and that hard work came together in the best way possible from 2021 all the way up until now because I know that now you guys are even working on the next version you guys have done different iterations. So What do you think has taken you to really be like okay I think that we are now ready to. Unwrap this thing and let the world know about stryco.

Ori Levy: Yeah I think one of the breakthughs that we had is a three or four months ago we did a road trip to the us with a prototype that we on in myself and we visited several academies in the New York area and. When we showed it to people they went crazy I mean I literally got offers to buy the prototype as it as is and I told them I can’t sell it to it because I I want to find something else to to show to demonstrate. So I think that’s where we learned that what was burning inside us. Now. He’s ready for prime time and and and the reaction that we get I mean the direction that people tell us it’s ah it’s amazing. it’s it’s amazing we have 2 pogamers in the company that never touched a racket in the life. They started playing tennis when we started taiko. And now on colde they’re winning matches they’re playing we are playing their winning matches. They never touch a record all they did was playing with trio I’m playing for 15 minutes almost every day in psycho and my tennis level improved exponentially.

Alejandro Cremades: So how is strike like for the people that are listening describe Strike what is strike what does the machine. The experience look like.

Ori Levy: So streo is a tennis simulator that is composed from a a tennis device that is connected to a Tv I mean think of a peloton for tennis he holds ah a real tennis ball that you hit with your own racket. But you will hit the ball the same way you would hit it. Unco it’s not vl. It’s not a we controller you actually and literally hit the ball with your own racket inside the ball we have sensors they measure the direction speed. And spin of your shot and that’s why we know where the shot is landing on the device. We also have a built-in camera we use computer vision and ai to track your movement in the womb and to see and understand your technique and once you hit the ball. In the real world with own aet the ball flies to the virtual world on the screen where you can learn how to play practice and compete against other players worldwide worldwide. We are also developing the world first ai tennis coach. Using the camera. Just say that mentioned the system learns your technique and can give you guidance on how to improve your shots and create telomade tennis polom because one of the most important assets that we have is real time feedback. We analyze how you eat different shots.

Ori Levy: We know where the ball is going so that’s a closed loop. We know in what percentage you hit the ball and the system can guide you on how to improve them. You can think about that as the largest and biggest tennis ball tennis club worldwide. You can compete against other players. Twenty Four seven become a champion gain points where there will be a ranking system where you can see how you rank against your friends. How are against other players in the world may we’re going to change the game.

Alejandro Cremades: Now Typically when you are an entrepreneur you know, building something so exciting like this you want to let the world know about it. You know it’s really remarkable that you guys have been able to contain yourselves not to not to tell Anyway, I mean you you don’t even have a website. You know it’s so hard to. Even come Across. You know some of the videos that you guys have developed ah around this unless you receive it from you guys. So So why? why did you do that? How were you able to really contain yourselves from not like putting it out there on the internet and just like making sure that. You had it right? that it was right for market and and and how do you know that you guys are now ready for it.

Ori Levy: It’s it’s a great question because I think it’s a combination a we were lucky enough to raise money without exposing the product too much to the market because usually in companies like us from what. We have learned is that they start showing or showkising the product 2 or three years before it’s life and by the time they go to market people ah already I would say let down from it and we saw a lot of companies that does that. And it sounds some sort of a low slow start. So once we were lucky enough to waste enough money and became under the radar. We were able to contain that and only.

Ori Levy: Showcase it to the markets when it’s ready for pine time and ready for production and that’s where we are today because we want to start selling next year

Alejandro Cremades: Now obviously you know for this too. You need money to develop this so you guys have raised him a few million from angels mainly in in as a disclosure you know to the people that are listening and to everything I’m involved you know also as an investor technically you know we can say. Now when you think about investments and you think about investors. You also got to think about vision because it’s very important to relate that to people to enroll them into the future that you guys are living into because obviously there’s so much that you could do here I mean you guys are just starting out. So I guess if I was to. Give you the opportunity of going to sleep tonight Ori Levy: and you wake up in a world where the vision of stryco is fully realized what does that world look like.

Ori Levy: So it’s a it’s a great question I think that it caters to different needs of different people so you can wake up, you can do a fifteen twenty minutes walkout even walk out. Sweat a bit before you go to walk or instead of riding your bike or doing your 10 mill exercise and then your son comes back from school and now he wants to walk on his Costco or he wants to play against. Other friends. Maybe even in the same neighborhood or from different areas of the of of a city or for other plays in the world so he does this tournament when he plays against other people. He wins matches. His confidence can go higher his self-esteem is not now sitting on the couch playing playstation or whatever so he moves and then my wife which is not a great tennis fan but when I bring the the system home. She loves it. She can also practice a bit. She hates going on court because she is not very successful but at home she can get better and now the system can correct her technique and again build the confidence in you will play and then when I comes home.

Ori Levy: Can beat everybody and it can be a family event. You know we can do so all sorts of competition in-house. You just different sort of competitions. So it’s it’s a full world of tennis I It’s you can think about it as the largest tennis club in the world I would say.

Alejandro Cremades: And people really underestimate the um, the impact of tennis because how many how many people play tennis nowadays.

Ori Levy: Worldwide it’s about 100000000 that are registered somewhere. So I believe that number is probably 3 times higher because I play I’m not registered everywhere I know my friends.

Alejandro Cremades: Yeah.

Ori Levy: Talk to people in the us. So I guess that number is probably around 300000000 or something like that.

Alejandro Cremades: Same same with me and I find that their gamification of something like this is gonna be so amazing to Us. You guys developed this because now you’re gonna be able to play against your friends. You know that you are playing Proy you know in. Your club or something and if it’s knowing if it’s raining you know like doesn’t Matter. You can still play from your living room which is absolutely remarkable Now let me bring you back in time I’m going to put you to a time machine because we’re talking about the future here but I want to talk about the past with a length of reflection. So Let’s say I was to bring you into a time machine. Back to the moment where you just had that conversation with your dad about Trends and now you were thinking about a world where you could build a company and bring that company to life to really solve and and cover that gap that need that you were seeing in the Market. And let’s say you were able to have a sit down with that younger self and being able to give that younger self one piece of advice before launching a business. What would that be and why given what you know now.

Ori Levy: Wow, that’s a big question and I think the one of the biggest lessons is persistence I think never let go. Trust your instincts I mean you can listen to other people but 10 people will tell you 10 different things take the things you believe in and continue always forward I mean always go forward I think that’s. In in two sense. That’s the lesson I would take.

Alejandro Cremades: And just to double click on that because I’m sure that there’s I mean especially at the beginning you know it’s like 90% of the days are very gray right? and and it’s hard to pick yourself back up and keep going. You know as a founder and I’m sure there’s a lot of people that can relate to that that are tuning in.. How do you keep going and believing yourself when things are gray and things are you know a little bit bumpy in front of you.

Ori Levy: I really think people underestimate the journey of I mean definitely opening a new business but even starting a new startup I mean that’s what I can relate to the the roller coastal I mean the highs are so high. But the lows can be very low so you can one day be so happy and you know energetic and pumped up with the good news that you got but just the day after can be like a hundred mile down here. So you really need to try and maintain your inner self not get too excited from the good news and try not to get too frustrated with the bad news. It’s not 90% I think I would say it’s probably fifty fifty these definitely these days. A. I was I would say even luckily enough that I built my first company when the market were so tough so I learned all the lessons. The hard way was impossible to raise money just impossible to raise money in the even nowadays it’s. A more difficult than it was a year ago I would say but that’s the way I believe companies should be built I mean I’m not a big fan of companies that raise tons of money and then they start with the massages in the office and to our business lunches.

Ori Levy: And just invest invest invest and no revenues and no no returns on investment. That’s the companies I try to stay away from. There was one company that I loved and I thought had the great business models. But when I met the Ceo. It was in this penthouse flow I saw the office I told him you’re out of your mind your startup you you told me you flew to to meet a client last week how did you flew business I said. Okay, if you are flying business. I’m flying out of it and that company by the way wasn’t successful. A so always be humble or title.

Alejandro Cremades: I Love it. So for the people that are listening Ori that will love to reach out and say hi. What is the best way for them to do so okay.

Ori Levy: A I think the best way is a email oh aieOri.levyelevvy@tricodot I o or Linkedin both ways walk o handle.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing! Well is is he easy he you know worry is he you know worry well Orie. Thank you so much for being on the deal maker show today. It has been an honor to have you with us.

Ori Levy: Thank you very much Alejado I Totally enjoyed it.

*****

If you like the show, make sure that you hit that subscribe button. If you can leave a review as well, that would be fantastic. And if you got any value either from this episode or from the show itself, share it with a friend. Perhaps they will also appreciate it. Also, remember, if you need any help, whether it is with your fundraising efforts or with selling your business, you can reach me at [email protected]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More