"We asked ourselves not only what we do, but who we are"

Ron Yekutiel, co-founder and CEO of Kaltura, met with Chen Berger, co-founder and CPO of StudyWise, which has developed a system that uses AI to automate assessment processes such as tests. The conversation took place as part of the Growth+ project by Calcalist and Poalim Tech, now in its second year. The initiative aims to strengthen the resilience of Israel’s high-tech industry through a series of one-on-one meetings between experienced entrepreneurs and early-stage startups, designed to advise, support, and share knowledge on entrepreneurship, creativity, startup management, and building companies for growth.

Ron, tell us about a challenge you encountered early on, and what you learned from it that could help young entrepreneurs.

Yekutiel: “At the beginning of Kaltura, we were a B2C company—we created a collaborative video editing tool. We even won an award at TechCrunch and began to see success. But we realized it wouldn’t grow into the billion-dollar company we envisioned. Then the 2008 financial crisis hit, and we needed to raise more capital. So, we pivoted to B2B, and the crisis became an opportunity.

“I learned the importance of challenging established paradigms: identifying two megatrends and combining them—in our case, crowdsourcing like Wikipedia, and video like YouTube.

“Perhaps even more importantly, we asked ourselves not only what we do, but who we are, what matters to us, and why we do it. For us, the answer was pluralism and openness. That DNA remained with us even after we changed business direction.”

Chen, what has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced this year?

Berger: “Implementation. We’re a startup in the education sector, and much of our work involves educators and academics—some of whom are less tech-savvy. The challenge is how to implement the system in a way that helps them see that it will ultimately make their lives easier. One of the hardest parts is reducing their fears and breaking down barriers to adoption.”

Ron, what advice did you give Chen on this issue?

Yekutiel: “I think the most important factor in implementation is understanding who really controls the budget. We identified that their primary growth potential is with corporations. The key question becomes: Who will actually buy the system? Where is the budget, and how hard is it to access it?

“I also shared what I call the ‘sun or moon’ dilemma: Are you the sun of your ecosystem, or are you a moon orbiting someone else’s sun? I suggested differentiating based on data and insight, not just on user experience.

“Chen was already thinking along those lines, with a deep understanding of the market. We built on that together, discussing integrations with existing systems, how to develop a community and network effect, and how to focus on Semitic languages like Hebrew and Arabic that are written right-to-left.”

What did you learn from each other?

Berger: “The importance of ‘why’—the purpose and values behind the company—and how organizational culture drives everything else: architecture, strategy, and execution. That’s one of the biggest takeaways for me, and I’ll definitely be thinking about how to implement that in our company.”

Yekutiel: “I was impressed by their smart bootstrapping, their pragmatic approach—building exactly what’s needed and not wasting resources. There’s a lot of flexibility and multidimensional thinking at this stage. Chen seems to have his head in the clouds but his feet firmly on the ground—which is the trick of entrepreneurship. It’s very impressive.”

Tell us something interesting or surprising you discovered about each other.

Berger: “I didn’t know Ron had a dog and that he’s really passionate about dogs. It was nice to see the person behind the CEO persona.”

Yekutiel: “Chen is about half my age, but we have a lot in common. He’s from the north, and I’m originally from Haifa. He played basketball when he was younger - so did I. He traveled through South America - and so did I.”