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OurCrowd Jerusalem Global Summit Opens With $10 Thousand Minimum Investments
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Meet OurCrowd Head of Investments Elan Zivotofsky
Zack Miller, 40, is a partner and the head of Investor Community at OurCrowd. He has been with the company since the beginning and says that he was in the garage together with Jon Medved. Originally from Miami, he came to Israel in 2002 and has an MBA from the Kellog School at Tel Aviv Univeristy.
“I met Jon years ago, ” he told JBN. “I worked at a hedge fund with Elan Zivotofsky (partner, head of investments) and we rented space from Jon at the Jerusalem Seed Fund. Miller says that the three men kept in touch over the years.”
Then a few years ago they were all looking to establish new hedge funds.
Miller says that it is much more exciting to invest directly in startups, especially in Israel, than to run a hedge fund. This is because hedge funds invest in stocks of already established companies and bonds. Startups, in contrast, offer an investor a chance to start something new and help to be there at the advent of new technologies. “That’s what’s so exciting about investing in Israel. All the new tech companies.”
OurCrowd differs from a VC fund in that it lets people from the outside invest as little as $10, 000 in a new company. As Miller explained, they present the new companies to prospective investors and let them choose which company they want to put their money in. VC funds just let people invest into a general pool of money.
OurCrowd is also an investor in the companies that it promotes.
“We put some of our own money into every company, ” he said. “We have our own stake in the game so its better for outside investors.” In other words, if you put your hard earned capital into an OurCrowd startup you know that it is sharing the risk with you.
Uilding.
“The money obviously isn’t equal, ” Miller confessed since $10, 000 clearly does not buy the same influence as millions invested.
As for why you should go to OurCrowd instead of a VC firm, Miller explained, “we provide crowd building meaning the investors contribute not just expertise but also networking to our companies.” Since they represent many investors he said, “We have the power of the crowd! Not just one or 2 people.”
