The first ever Israel Growth Summit was held recently in Tel Aviv, co-hosted by the Viola Group and the Israel Growth Forum led by Wix, and attended by CEOs and executives from over 150 Israeli tech companies in their growth stage. Although this was an exclusive event, the content was so interesting and valuable, we wanted to make it accessible to the entire community of tech companies and startups in Israel, so over the next few weeks we will be publishing a series of video highlights from 8the event, by speakers from Viola, Wix, ironSource, Mellanox, Check Point, Payoneer, Fiverr, SimilarWeb, Yotpo, Goldman Sachs, Moovit, Zerto and DaPulse. In this post, Wix President & COO, Nir Zohar, shares some lessons and tips inspired by his own journey at Wix.

Nir has been with Wix since 2007 and has been the driving force behind the successful scaling of the company’s operations from a small startup into an international company serving tens of millions of users. Nir spearheads all efforts to develop and implement Wix’ strategic plans geared towards accommodating the company’s growth objectives and business goals.
Source: Wix

Nir is also among the founders of the Israel Growth Forum, an initiative by a group of Israeli tech companies including Wix, Outbrain, Taboola, Perion, ironSource and CyberArk, which aims to make it easier for Israeli tech companies to grow. They do this in a variety of ways, namely working with the government to remove barriers, such as regulations and taxation policies that hinder the operation and M&A activities of growth-stage companies.

Here are highlights from Nir’s presentation:
(Note: The videos are in Hebrew)

Nir Zohar introducing Wix at the Israel Growth Summit 2017 (Part 1 of 6)

In this video: Nir introduces Wix with an overview of some key (very impressive!) stats about the company.

How large growth-companies stimulate the tech industry (Part 2 of 6)

In this video: Large, successful companies inspire and give rise to new companies, so they are important to the growth of the whole industry

Challenges facing Israeli growth companies (Part 3 of 6)

In this video:
The most important growing pains you have to deal with when your company grows to the next level, especially when it means unfamiliar territory for your too
Nir also talks about what lead to Wix’s decision to take their company public

Why startups should generate revenue ASAP (Part 4 of 6)

In this video: Nir talks about the importance of generating revenue as soon as possible

What startups should think about when growing their teams (Part 5 of 6)

In this video:
The importance of hiring people who are not only great, but also happy (important for company culture)
When you hire people, give them a test to demonstrate they can do the job. CVs have become meaningless (people over-embelish or straight out lie)
Sometimes you should hire brilliant people even if they don’t have the requisite experience. Experience can be gained. Brilliance is hard to come by.

The purpose of the Israel Growth Forum (Part 6 of 6)

In this video: Nir talks about the need and purpose of the Israel Growth Forum.

About the Israel Growth Summit
The summit was created to bring together this exclusive group of leaders so that they can benefit from the experience of fellow industry colleagues whose companies have already reached significant growth milestone. The summit – which is held annually – was conceived to provide a forum for tech companies to network and benefit from shared knowledge and connections, in the hope of strengthening Israel’s ecosystem of growth-stage companies as they navigate their journey towards becoming global leaders.

Other videos in our Israel Growth Summit video series:
The State of Growth Companies in Israel (Shlomo Dovrat & Harel Beit-On)
Why is Inorganic Growth so important? (by Tomer Bar Zeev & Eyal Waldman)
6 Guidelines for Change & Growth (by Check Point’s Amnon Bar-Lev)
The challenges of taking your company global (with Or Offer & Tomer Tagrin)
Scaling While Maintaining Culture (with Keren Levy & Vered Raviv Schwarz)
Growth Financing Panel (with Goldman Sachs MD, Jonathan Penkin)