Start in Israel, but move to Silicon Valley

FixYa CEO Bensadon says access to talent, venture capital is key

Yaniv Bensadon founded FixYa in his native Israel to take advantage of that country's entrepreneurial spirit and lower startup costs.

But once he start looking to raise VC money, after an early angel round, his search in Israel came up dry.

"It was hard to find people (who'd invest)... they'd been burned during the dotcom bubble," Bensadon says. 

So in 2006, he joined a group of Israeli startups on a tour of Silicon Valley, during which he met with several VC firms. One of them, Mayfield Fund, had good chemistry and quickly invested.
"Everything moved very fast," he says.

Once he had a top-tier U.S. investor, Israeli VCs grew more interested, and FixYa ended up receiving funds from Pitango. The company has raised a $2 million round and a $6 million round so far.

FixYa's traffic and revenue are both growing fast, according to this previous interview with Bensadon.
While it's so far been focused on consumers, and recently roled out a service for small and mid-sized businesss, FixYa plans to have a product aimed at enterprise customers by year's end. 

Even apart from the fundraising issue, Bensadon says that he always planned to move the company to the Valley, where there is a larger pool of talent with Internet startup experience. The company now has 18 employees in Israel and 8 in the U.S., including Bensadon.

"We wanted to be part of the culture of the valley," he says.