Ariel Sterman (Bessemer Venture Partners): The Pass Note That Won the Deal, Making Partner, and Playing VC's Long Game

About the guest. Ariel Sterman is a Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners in Israel, where he invests primarily at the seed stage. He began his career at Stripes Group in New York, made Aliyah in 2018, and rose from associate to partner through Bessemer's apprenticeship model under Adam Fisher. His first investment, Quack, exited within 18 months. Outside the fund, he hosts the podcast 70 Years and has taught a weekly Jewish philosophy class in Tel Aviv for seven years — now a community of 200+. Key takeaways: Anxiety and caring are the same muscle. Ariel's social anxiety comes from caring intensely about every interaction — which he's converted into an edge: honesty, over-communication, and closing loops the same day. The pass note is a product. A thoughtful, honest rejection ("here's exactly why, and here's what would change my mind") kept a founder relationship alive for two years and won Bessemer the round when it mattered. Mensch is a strategy with a threshold. Below a certain check size, kindness alone gets you into rounds. To lead rounds, kindness has to ride on top of speed, conviction, and hard terms — "those things can come together, and I don't think that's a paradox." Diligence didn't shrink, it moved. The 5-week process became 3 days by (a) being willing to cancel everything for a true "wow," (b) raising the bar so you filter faster, and (c) doing the roadmap work before the company ever shows up. Meet founders before they found. Once someone says "I'm starting a company," term sheets fly within a week. The person-diligence has to be done years earlier. "If you're in the room, there's a reason you're in the room." His decade-long journey from silent associate to confident partner — built by watching the smartest people in the room ask his unasked questions. "The past was determined." The lesson from Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen's writings that he applies after hard board meetings: close it, learn, move. Real optimism is the alpha. Anyone can list why a company fails. "The alpha is when you can identify why it will work." Connect with Ariel: LinkedIn Resources & mentions: Bessemer Venture Partners · Adam Fisher · Stripes Group · Quack (first investment) · DriveNets · Wonderful · Michael Eisenberg / Aleph · Rabbi Shais Taub · Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin · Ariel's podcast: 70 Years

Israel Duanis sold his first company, then started Linx Security, an identity security platform for the AI-agent era. This conversation is the honest version of the founder journey: the loneliness of every decision, why he turned down a seven-figure deal, building with a co-founder he's known for 23 years, the family cost, and the restless drive to "prove something to someone." Plus why identity is the security battleground of the AI era.   A raw, personal conversation for anyone building or thinking about it.   Chapters: (01:00) Conviction, people & values (06:00) Saying no to a 7-figure deal (11:00) Co-founding with your best friend (18:00) The loneliness of deciding alone (26:00) Why he's really doing this (34:00) Who are you trying to prove yourself to? (38:00) Beating the comparison trap (51:00) AI agents & the identity problem (1:05:00) "Just show up"   Guest: Israel Duanis, Co-Founder & CEO, Linx Security (linx.security) Follow & subscribe for a new founder conversation

Erica Brescia has done it all in tech: she founded and sold Bitnami, served as COO of GitHub during the launch of Copilot, and is now a Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures, where she decides which startup founders get funded.  In this episode of Founder Stories, Erica shares how she closed a $2.7M deal with Microsoft just days after giving birth, drove to her Y Combinator interview with a two-week-old, and the "chip on the shoulder" she now looks for in every founder she backs. It's an honest conversation about venture capital, ambition, motherhood, resilience, and learning to trust your gut when every decision is a one-way door.  A must-listen for startup founders, aspiring investors, and anyone building something of their own.  In this episode:  - What VCs really look for in founders  - Closing a major deal as a brand-new mom  - Why "trust your gut" is the hardest lesson in investing  - Balancing startup life and family  - Hiring for EQ over IQ  Guest: Erica Brescia (Redpoint Ventures, ex-GitHub, Bitnami)  Follow the show and subscribe for new episodes every week.

Steve Ward has been a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, a Secret Service agent who ran one of the first computer-network wiretaps in U.S. history, the CISO of Home Depot, a partner at Insight Partners, and an early backer of Wiz,  Abnormal and a dozen others . Today he runs his own cyber venture fund, Bright Mind — named after his son.  But this isn’t a victory lap. Steve talks openly about the engine underneath all of it: a relentless feeling that he doesn’t belong and doesn’t deserve what he’s achieved, and what that’s cost him. He shares why the Wiz money is going into a trust for his son with autism, the ego that pulled him away from his family, the mentor he’s spent two decades trying to find, what he looks for in founders, and how he now defines success — hint: it has nothing to do with the wire transfer.  Honest, raw, and unexpectedly moving. As Steve put it: “It was like a free therapy session.”  A conversation about cybersecurity, venture capital, and the cost of ambition — hosted by Ephraim. Chapters:  00:00 Intro  01:00 The Wiz acquisition call — and why he posted it  04:00 “The real heroes are the siblings.”  05:30 Naming Bright Mind after his son  10:00 Steve at 17: farms, dirt bikes, and a lost kid  13:00 The Coast Guard and the roommate who taught him to learn  24:00 Home Depot: “I chased my ego.”  29:00 “A magnifying glass over an ant” — the CIO who humbled him  42:00 Secret Service, hackers, and 41 arrests across 11 countries, Steve Ward  43:00 The Wiz job he turned down  47:00 Learning venture from 24-year-olds at Insight  57:00 Why he started Bright Mind  01:03:00 Trust vs. proficiency: building a Navy SEAL team  01:08:00 “I don’t belong and I don’t deserve” 01:14:00 Paying off his brother’s mortgage  01:21:00 What he looks for in founders  01:23:00 What success actually means  01:31:00 Advice to his younger self

Niv is the co-founder and CEO of Noma Security. He raised a $100M Series B and scaled from 20 to 100 employees in a year, as a first-time founder, in cybersecurity, in the middle of a war that started the day Noma launched. In this conversation, Niv talks about what it actually takes to win: the four-day POC sprint with no product, the candidate they signed three days after he'd already signed with a competitor, the customers he turned away because the feature didn't justify a company, and the toll it takes when you're a founder who's "never full." We also get into the stuff founders don't say on stage — the loneliness, the lost sleep, the stress that physically catches up with you, and the slow realization that the company you're building starts to look uncomfortably like you. ▬▬▬ CHAPTERS ▬▬▬  00:00 Cold open  01:05 Intro  01:30 What "winning mentality" actually means  03:25 The 4-day POC with no product  06:30 How Noma signed a candidate who'd already signed elsewhere  08:45 How to cultivate culture at scale  14:30 How fast to let someone go when culture doesn't fit  18:30 Niv's childhood and where the competitiveness came from  22:00 "I'm never full" — the founder hunger problem  24:30 The day-to-day suffering of being a CEO  28:20 The 5% empty glass mistake every founder makes  32:30 Has anyone told you you're too transparent?  36:30 Strong opinions, loosely held — the anti-blaming culture  41:00 The hardest part of giving up control as you scale  45:30 Loneliness, sleep, and the hidden cost  46:30 What Niv got right as a first-time founder  48:30 Why he told customers to buy from Palo, not Noma  51:30 Did you have this vision on day one?  53:30 Are you the same person you were 2 years ago?  57:30 The biggest blind spot: social media and branding  1:00:00 When Niv became the bottleneck  1:03:30 The moment he realized Noma was something different  1:07:00 Does he ever take a moment to appreciate it?  1:08:30 The sticky-note values exercise that defined the company  1:10:30 Inside the $100M Series B decision  1:13:30 What success actually means to Niv  1:14:30 Is Noma your full identity?  1:16:30 Legacy 1:18:30 What people misunderstand about him  1:21:00 Closing     If you want the producer notes, the clips, or to get in touch with the show: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ephraimyarmak/

Raj grew up in a town in India with two traffic lights. He's now the CEO of Jetstream, a cybersecurity startup he founded after leaving CrowdStrike, which then turned around and invested in his company. In this conversation: his mother's anything less than #1 pressure, the failures behind the successes (a WhatsApp competitor he didn't build, Cylance's missteps), the July 19th CrowdStrike outage and what it taught him about leadership, why he believes older founders have the real edge, and the five core values (CRUSH) he built Jetstream around. A masterclass on differentiation, conviction, and starting a company in your late forties.

Shachar Hirschberg, Co-founder & CEO of Artemis Security, on building a cybersecurity company with thirty employees, one manager, and no traditional titles, only "Builders." We get into the flat-org experiment, why he thinks AI-era product velocity makes traditional hierarchies obsolete, the hiring process that gets candidates an offer in 24 hours (sometimes 3), the decade-long career plan that led to founding Artemis, and what competitive tennis taught him about surviving the founder rollercoaster. Plus: how they raised a $15M seed and a $70M Series A, the five values set before the first employee joined, and the first customer who asked to pay before being pitched. A useful one for anyone building, hiring, or rethinking how to run a team in 2026.

In this episode, I sit down with Dean Shahar to discuss the reality of venture capital decision-making. Investors often have to make high-stakes decisions with incomplete information, especially when startups are reaching critical inflection points. Topics include: • The hardest part of venture capital • When startups transition from early customers to enterprise • How investors evaluate risk • Why hindsight makes investing look easier than it actually is A must-listen for founders, investors, and anyone curious about how venture capital really works.

Lia Cromwell, Partner at UpWest, joins us for a candid conversation about venture capital, founder psychology, and the signals most entrepreneurs misread during fundraising. We discuss: – What VCs really think after your pitch – How to know if a meeting actually went well – Israeli vs American business culture – Why conviction can’t be built in one meeting – Founder red flags investors notice immediately – The importance of equity splits and co-founder chemistry – Gut instinct vs data in venture capital Lia also shares the personal story behind turning down a job, moving to Tel Aviv in 30 days, and building her career in early-stage investing. This episode blends tactical advice with personal conviction for founders who want to build the right way.

In this powerful conversation, We sit down with Shay Sandler, co-founder of Vega, to unpack how grit, identity, and discipline shaped his journey from immigrant kid to elite operator to cybersecurity founder.Shay shares raw lessons from his upbringing, the mental battle of running marathons, and how those experiences shaped the way he builds companies and leads teams. They dive deep into what’s broken in modern security, why “more alerts” don’t equal safety, and how Vega is giving security teams real leverage instead of more noise.You’ll also hear how radical transparency, relentless consistency, and a sales-first mindset became the backbone of Vega’s culture and growth.Whether you’re a founder, CISO, investor, or aspiring operator, this episode is a masterclass in mindset, endurance, and building with intention.Key themes:• Immigrant mindset & resilience• Marathon mentality for founders• From sales to startup founder• Why cybersecurity is broken• Building culture through transparency• How elite performers think🎙 Hosted by Ephraim Yarmak🚀 Guest: Shay Sandler (Vega)