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The sale of Israeli insurtech company Next Insurance for $2.6 billion to a European insurance giant was announced during an especially competitive week, even by the fast-paced standards of Israel’s high-tech sector. Just two days earlier, another blockbuster deal had made waves: cybersecurity firm Wiz was acquired by Google for $32 billion.
But for those curious about the mental roller coaster behind the polished media images of confident, arms-crossed entrepreneurs, the Next Insurance story offers a deeper look. More founders and investors are using LinkedIn to share their failures and struggles and the tech industry has endured enough upheaval - from economic downturns, war and the COVID-19 pandemic to constitutional crises, spectacular exits, and dramatic collapses - to create a need for space where its members can share their emotions, allowing them to process and rebuild.
Recognizing this growing need, Gali Bloch-Liran, a coach for entrepreneurs and investors, has become a leading authority on the complex psyche of Israeli startup founders.
Executive coaching is a well-established practice abroad, helping top executives manage challenges such as layoffs, burnout caused by too much pressure, workplace politics, and the toll of an all-consuming career.
In Israel, where tech is the fast-paced driving force of the economy, there is a unique demand for specialized coaching, tailored to the technological-business sector, and above all, there is also a need for collective awareness of the personal costs that come with the "Startup Nation" mentality.
Alon Huri, co-founder of Next Insurance, which was recently sold, shared a sobering personal story on social media and on Bloch-Liran’s podcast. He recounted how he suffered a heart attack while driving on Israel’s highway after years of postponing routine health checkups, maintaining a poor diet, and neglecting sports activity, as he was under the relentless pressures of starting a company.
"Everything glitters in this world, but only on the surface," Bloch-Liran observes. She recalls mentoring a brilliant entrepreneur in his twenties, still a bachelor, who once told her: “Gali, I don’t sleep, I don’t eat, I don’t exercise, but it works fine for me."
"So, maybe at certain points in life, and for a very short time, you can get away with that,” she says. “In the startup world, speed and total commitment have value, and they demand extraordinary resources. But at some point, you hit a stop sign in the form of burnout, exhaustion, or your body is simply shutting down, whether in the form of anxiety attacks or as Alon described, a heart attack."
The toll isn’t just physical. Bloch-Liran warns that startup founders often face divorce, social isolation, and even complete mental breakdowns as the cost of their all-consuming pursuit of success.
For example, Shaul Olmert has spoken openly about loneliness, the distancing from his wife and children, and the feeling of losing himself amid the meteoric rise of his company, Playbuzz, Bloch-Liran relates.
Entrepreneur Jonathan Matus, CEO of Fairmatic, recalled a paralyzing experience at a major conference in Las Vegas, where he suddenly collapsed and had to be taken out in a wheelchair.
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There are numerous examples of the personal, mental, and familial toll of the startup grind. You can’t run blindly and obsessively for a decade without paying a price, Bloch-Liran warns.
Many founders believe that once the Exit happens, they’ll finally be able to rest, thinking that the discomfort is only temporary.
"Even good things can trigger trauma, even the exit itself," says Bloch-Liran. "If you cash out in a massive deal at a young age, feeling that luck was on your side, and suddenly find yourself managing, say, $20 million, it shifts your entire worldview and changes your relationships. I know several entrepreneurs who made big exits and then fell into depression. The ‘baby’ they nurtured for years is suddenly gone."
And that’s not even considering that not all exits are happy, lucrative, or fulfilling. Some serial entrepreneurs go through the process of making an Exit three or four times, fully aware of the heavy toll it takes on them and those around them, yet they keep going, simply because they don’t know how to do anything else."
'Israeli high-tech culture involves more ego, less emotion'
Gali Bloch-Liran, a former senior marketing executive in the tech industry and a mother of three, was never a startup founder herself. Her path to the world of entrepreneurship took a different route.
After spending two years in Georgia (Eastern Europe) due to her husband’s diplomatic posting, her family relocated to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a strategy director for Israel’s Ministry of Finance delegation. There, she worked alongside Moshe Bar Siman Tov, now director-general of Israel's ministry of health, best known for his role during the COVID-19 crisis.
Her real introduction to the startup ecosystem came when she joined SOSA, a startup innovation hub that, in the past decade, was led by investors such as Chemi Peres and Zvika Limon.
"As a marketing executive, I used to sit on the rooftop in South Tel Aviv, having conversations with countless entrepreneurs to prepare them for meetings with investors and potential clients.
Some of those startups were later acquired, and others collapsed. But it was during those rooftop talks that they opened up about the challenges they were experiencing, such as loneliness, tensions between co-founders, marriages that fell apart while they were consumed by their startups, and balancing parenthood with entrepreneurship," she says.
While taking a coaching course, everything clicked together - her life experiences, her psychology studies, her business background, her work with entrepreneurs, and her relocations abroad.
"I was fascinated by the entrepreneurs around me. They were incredibly smart and performance-driven, but at the same time, I sensed they were disconnected from their emotions, which served as a survival mechanism to help them get through the journey. That’s where I realized I could step in."
In 2018, Bloch-Liran launched her executive coaching firm, The Human Founder, dedicated to mentoring entrepreneurs. In 2021, she expanded her reach by launching a podcast under the same name, where she conducts in-depth interviews with key figures in Israel’s startup ecosystem. Guests have included Gigi Levy-Weiss, a founding partner at NFX, and Eynat Guez, CEO of Papaya Global.
Israel’s military-driven culture fosters a strong sense of ego, making entrepreneurs less inclined to discuss emotions. Maybe after October 7, this will start to change.
Alongside her coaching work, Bloch-Liran has mentored students in Reichman University’s prestigious Zell Entrepreneurship Program, as well as founders participating in Google for Startups programs, and in accelerator programs for alumni of Mamram, the Israel Defense Forces' elite technology unit.
Over the years, she has advised startups such as Ludeo, Finout, Agora, and OpenWeb, which recently made headlines.
"Most entrepreneurs come to me through word of mouth. Investment funds sometimes recommend a founder to apply to me, but that can be a delicate issue," says Bloch-Liran. "If a VC recommends an entrepreneur to come and speak with me, the founder might wonder: ‘Is this mandatory? Is this just a recommendation? Can I really speak openly?'"
She believes that Israel’s military-driven culture fosters a strong sense of ego, making entrepreneurs less inclined to discuss emotions. "Maybe after October 7, this will start to change. We might finally recognize that empathy and soft skills are essential for leadership, both in business and beyond."
Some founders also question whether she, not having built a startup herself, can truly understand their challenges. To that, she responds with an analogy: "A male gynecologist has never given birth either, but experience and knowledge make all the difference."
One of the key moments when entrepreneurs turn to Bloch-Liran is during their company’s growth phase, when they must also grow as leaders. A startup that began in a garage with five employees operates very differently from a global company with thousands of employees.
Such a scenario happened to Monday.com co-founders Eran Zinman and Roy Mann, who launched their company in 2012, and today, they run together a publicly traded company with over 2,000 employees, only half of whom are based in Israel.
"As the company expanded, they realized they needed to adjust their leadership structure. Instead of the traditional founder dynamic of CEO and CTO or CPO, they transitioned into a co-CEO model, overseeing all aspects of the business together," explains Bloch-Liran.
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Monday.com co-founders Eran Zinman and Roy Mann 'Transitioned into a co-CEO model'
(Photo: Netanel Tobias)
"That's also the magic of entrepreneurship, it’s a constant journey of learning and growth. The sense of vitality it gives you is incredible."
Bloch-Liran’s new book, The Human Founder – How to Build a Startup and Stay Alive (published by Matar), brings insights she has gathered from countless hours spent with entrepreneurs. The title is no coincidence.
"I grew up in Zichron Yaakov. I was an active kid who loved dancing, was involved in different programs, and even chaired the student council. I was the middle child between two high-tech brothers, with grandparents on both sides who were Holocaust survivors. They instilled in me both resilience and a deep love of life," she shares.
Bloch-Liran’s professional path included a legal internship and work alongside Chen Lichtenstein during the merger of ChemChina and Adama (formerly Makhteshim Agan). She was preparing to relocate with her husband, Rotem, just two months after their wedding. Then, tragedy struck.
"My father took his own life. I was in my third month of pregnancy with my eldest son. It came out of nowhere, there were no warning signs."
Where were you when you learned of the tragedy?
"I remember exactly where I was," Bloch-Liran recalls. "I was sitting at a café in Tel Aviv’s Basel Square, a place where all the mothers push strollers and sip coffee, just going about their day. I was there with a friend when suddenly my husband showed up and said, ‘Gali, we have to go'."
"I always need to know what’s going on, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell me. So, I stood up and called my mom. I never could have imagined what she was about to say, because how could you? She just said, ‘Gali, dad committed suicide.’ As simple as that."
To this day, she says, she hasn’t fully processed it. "I remember screaming and crying, completely blindsided. From that moment on, everything felt like a fast-moving film - the funeral, the Shiva. People came and shared incredible stories about him, and I was just trying to grasp what had just happened. There’s mourning and trying to process the loss, and then there’s trying to comprehend such loss."
The circumstances of his death changed everything you thought about your family, which involved harmony and serenity in Zikhron Ya'akov.
"It changed the story of everything," says Bloch-Liran. "I was the one with the most ‘normal’ family, growing up in Zikhron Ya'akov, with a view of the sea, a father who was an engineer, and a mother who was a school principal. And then suddenly, a shadow was cast over everything."
She describes how such a loss reshapes one’s perception of life. "There's a story you tell yourself about your life, and then, out of nowhere, that story is covered by a cloud that never disappears. It’s part of me, I didn’t choose it. I don’t see it as a stain, just as something that is now woven into my life story."
"It forced me to confront death, loss, and the understanding that he made the choice himself. It was an unnatural death," she recounts. "I stayed with so many questions unanswered. There was confusion, anger, but how can you be angry at someone who isn’t here anymore? And guilt - how did we not see it? And there was also compassion, because you try to imagine the kind of pain that makes people take their own lives. He truly must have felt there was no light at the end of the tunnel."
What did you learn about his pain over the years?
"We didn't discuss it much. We knew he was a combat officer in the battle of Suez (at the Yom Kippur War), and there was this amazing picture of him in my grandparents' house, where he looked handsome and charismatic, which, as a child, I always looked at with admiration.
Only after his death did I understand the depths of the sadness that was reflected in his eyes, and that he wasn't just handsome and a hero. He was appointed IDF company commander after his predecessor was killed in action, and then the comrades around him were also killed.
"He felt he had to hold everything together," Bloch-Liran reflects. "As the son of Holocaust survivors, he grew up with the ethos of enduring hardship without showing weakness. As the eldest son, he carried the weight of absorbing everything without burdening those around him, because his parents had already been through immense trauma themselves before immigrating to Israel. Now, in the aftermath of October 7, we’re all living through a version of that experience."
When did you, as a family, understand what was tormenting him?
"A decade after his death, we held a gathering with all of my father’s closest friends from the army. I completely broke down hearing stories about what he had to carry within him all those years," Bloch-Liran recalls.
"The event brought together 40 veterans, all in their 70s, who suddenly opened up to each other about their private struggles with post-trauma. But their stories about their pain and emotions stayed with me long after."
"I couldn’t save my father, but I wanted to take what I've learned and use it to help others."
'It really is like couples therapy'
When Bloch-Liran works with startup founders, she says the emotional dynamics that emerge often resemble couples therapy. Issues around money, family, and self-esteem, which are intensified by the extreme nature of startup life, come to the surface.
"It really is like couples therapy," she explains. "The first thing I ask them is: 'Are you willing to do whatever it takes to make this work? Are you ready to invest time, money, and energy in this process? Because if not, there’s no point'."
She also makes sure they understand the stakes. "Do you realize that if one of you leaves, the startup might not survive, or at the very least, it could spiral and be delayed?"
"The challenges often stem from fundamental differences. For example, one founder may come from a stable background and have the patience to build a company gradually, while the other might not have that luxury. I always ask: How long can you afford to live the all-in startup fantasy? Or do you have mortgage obligations and financial pressure?"
Another common gap is management style. "One founder might come from a corporate environment, while the other operates with a more flexible mindset. Sometimes these differences can be bridged, and sometimes they can’t."
What else divides founders?
"Conflicts often stem from differing motivations," Bloch-Liran explains. "One founder might want a quick exit, while the other is determined to build the company for the long haul. There are also teams with imbalanced dynamics where one founder, often the idea's originator, is more dominant, or one has a larger equity stake than the other."
What are the challenges faced by founders who are also parents?
"For founders who are also parents, I would advise not to aim for daily balance but rather a weekly one. Over the course of a week, it’s easier to map out time for the kids, the board meetings, and the team. On any given day, you might not fit everything in, but across a week, you can."