Successful Pivots on Product, Market, Business Model: Gigya Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Eyal Magen (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What happens next?

Eyal Magen: We went through the whole Internet boom. The bubble exploded and we had to survive. Eventually, we sold the company. When the company was sold, there was a comeback in the Internet and for raising money. Out of Hotbar, for example, came out seven or eight startups. These were people who were working on that company.

I also thought about starting my own business. I offered this opportunity to my two co-founders. Both of them were also early employees at Hotbar. The three of us were managers. I came to them with an idea. The idea was very different in many ways from what Gigya is doing right now. I had noticed the early rise of social networks on the Internet. At that time, it was Myspace. Facebook didn’t even exist at that point. We started working on an alpha version. Myspace was somewhat close to what we are doing right now—your identity and self-expression on the Internet. Everybody could have their own page and customize it to their own liking. We decided that we want to try and bring this experience to the inner environment. We went out to develop what we call the email for the Myspace generation. It was supposed to be an email where you would see your friend’s faces. You can send them customized emails with videos in it. It’s more of a personalized experience over email. We were a strong founding team comparably for Tel Aviv. We went to raise money.

Sramana Mitra: You were raising on a concept?

Eyal Magen: No, we actually had a running beta.

Sramana Mitra: You funded that running beta?

Eyal Magen: Yes, we worked from home for over half a year. My co-founder is also a graphic designer. He was designing and specifying the product with me. Eran and another early employee coded the system. I was the only one that didn’t have anything to contribute in the technology so I was the one who was making coffee all the time.

We were very excited about it. I don’t know if you remember Google Wave. They did something like it. With that concept, we raised money in Israel. Eventually, we raised money from Benchmark Capital who at that point had a branch in Tel Aviv. We raised money from a partner called Michael Eisenberg who is a very well-known venture capitalist in Israel.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Successful Pivots on Product, Market, Business Model: Gigya Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Eyal Magen
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