Chapter 6. Are you a programmer? Build me software!

Immediately after I was discharged from the army, I returned to Ashkelon and started looking for work. I wanted to take a short break, work for a few years as a programmer, gain experience, feel the high-tech world from the inside and then take a new and interesting direction.

I made a beautiful resume by all the rules and sent hundreds of copies to all the high-tech companies - from the big ones, such as Amdocs and Intel to the smallest ones.

It's been a week, two weeks, three. Answers began to arrive. But not the ones you expected. "You are not suitable for us", "At this point we have decided not to hire you", "You have too little experience", etc.

It was the twentieth year in which the Nasdaq (the American stock exchange specializing in stocks of high-tech companies) collapsed and the high-tech bubble burst.

Even experienced and necessary programmers were fired en masse. Others cut wages. The salary of experts has dropped from $6000-$9000 a month, to $2500-$3000, and only prayer in their mouths - that they will not be fired. By contrast, I was a rookie and of course no one hired me.

I felt terrible: I lived in my parents' house, even though I was used to living alone! I had gotten used to an independent life! I wanted to stay up late, I wanted to sleep until one in the afternoon, I wanted to listen to loud music, I wanted to creak the bed at night, I wanted to make a mess! But in my parents' house it was impossible ... I wanted freedom, but I had no money to pay for it! H E L P!

Almost a month had passed since I returned to Ashkelon. I was climbing the walls out of boredom, playing computer games, eating and sleeping. I slept and waited for someone to call and offer me a job.

I remember the moment when I received another refusal in the mail, this time from Amdocs. I crumpled the letter and threw it in the trash. But when I calmed down, I took it out of a trash can, straightened it up and put it in a folder, as a souvenir. This letter is still with me.

Today, many years later, I am happy that the crisis broke out and I that was unable to get a job. If I had been hired, I would have been buried there for life. I would sit today in some boring office, typing in a keyboard under the quiet hum of the air conditioners, working for others, hoping they wouldn’t fire me, dreaming of a Mazda 3 at the employer’s expense and counting days until retirement.

At the time of my release from the military, Dad's store had become a cute and stable boutique for jewelry. Dad already had four employees. There were a lot of regular customers.

One evening I was sitting with my dad in the living room, we were talking, and he said to me: "I'm tired of managing all of this in Excel. You're a programmer, you need to know how to build this kind of software, right?"

I, with the pride of a super-guru-programmer, who has just graduated from the Technion, answer that this is a simple task and I will finish it in a few weeks.

The next morning I sat down at the computer to build software and... I realized that a Technion certificate is definitely cool, but in reality, except for self-pride, it gives nothing.

Without experience you are worth nothing.

I did not know where to start. At the Technion we studied complicated algorithms and theory, but all this wisdom had nothing to do with reality.

What to do? Anyway I was still stuck at home and not doing anything. So told myself, let's start and see.

I went to a bookstore, bought two dozen different books on programming and started studying. In theory, we should have learned all this at the Technion, but like I said, the knowledge acquired at the university and the practical reality are very far apart.

It turned out that the software that Dad wanted to build was the real school and the real university for programming! I would wake up at seven in the morning, learn from the books and immediately go over to apply what I had learned - build and improve the software. I would go to bed long after midnight - programming had become my new passion.


Writing software for my dad. In the middle of work.
In the evenings, when my dad would come back from the store, we would go over the software and he would say what else to add to it, what was wrong and what needed to be improved.

Within a few months, from simple software for managing a small store, it became a huge software for managing a company, warehouse, money and bank accounts.

Of course, I worked on it for a lot more than two weeks, but it made me a real programmer. Thanks again Dad! His constant dissatisfaction with the software, his constant desire to improve and add things to it, did what the Technion failed to do.

I spent almost an entire year at the computer. From early morning until late at night I was immersed in writing the software. Everything was given second priority - career, money and freedom. All my time was devoted to software.

But everything always comes to an end. One day the software was ready. My ass had become square from sitting in front of the computer. I wanted to move on, I wanted action, I wanted money! The money I earned in Haifa was almost gone. There were only a few thousand left - it was time to make a profit.

I wondered, what should I do? As always, one should take advantage of what is there! What do I have? I know how to talk to people, I know how to program and I have software ready!

I called the software Money Inspector, that is, the treasurer, and decided to sell it to businessmen. Why not?

In fact, there was no software like Money Inspector on the market yet. There was of course Excel and similar software. But in any case, these programs were not adapted to the Israeli reality, certainly not to small businesses in Israel.

I changed the software a bit, removed all the modules that were related to the jewelry business.

In my usual way, I started going from door to door, from business to business - the tried and tested method always works. I went into all the stores, all the offices and asked, "What software do you use to run the business?" They would answer, "What do we need software for? We get along well without software."

So I would ask the following question: "Do you know exactly when the check should go out? When and how many checks should come in? From which customer and in what amount? Do you know on what date the loan repayment goes and from which bank account? And oh, do you have five accounts? Do you remember all the dates of all expenses and control every expense?"

An average Israeli businessman, who has several bank accounts, who issues a dozen checks a day and offers customers merchandise for a deferred payment - of course was unable to answer all of these questions.

So, after my questions, they would get stuck. Then I would take my laptop out, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, and showed them Money Inspector, explaining how easy and convenient it is to work with the software and how many useful capabilities it has.

I would say to the business owner: "Work with Money Inspector for a month for free. In a month I will return and if you are interested in the software, pay me $35 per month."

I adopted the approach from working at Clalit Health Fund when I sold their contracts as a student. What works - needs to be copied.

In one day I was able to reach 5-7 business owners. More than half of them would agree to work with the software. They risked nothing and lost nothing.

Many business owners sought to add unique modules from their business to the software. They paid a few thousand shekels more for these modules and I would add them.

At one of these meetings I met a very interesting guy named Seth Davis. His occupation was to find products with a good potential on the market, and to convince the owners of these products to upload them to online stores, which had gained momentum - wallashops, olsale, sakal and more. For every sale he would receive his commission.

The regular entrepreneur would not be able to reach all of these online stores, but Seth would be able to get the goods picked up within a week for almost all existing stores.

Seth liked the Money Inspector software and said he wanted to upload it to stores. But there was one "but" - it could only be sold for a one-time fee and not as a monthly subscription, as business owners paid me.

I was faced with a dilemma: if I started selling the software at a fixed price - I would lose the customers who pay me a monthly fee. I already had about 250 such customers. I did not want to lose a regular passive income. Plus, I wasn't about to spoil my name - what would my customers think of me, when they find out they're paying a monthly fee for what others can buy at a one-time price?

The solution was not long in coming: I created another version of the software and called it Money Inspector 3.12. I removed from it some of the functions intended solely for advanced business people. For the simple version of software, I set a fixed price of $120 Of that money, the online store took $30 for itself, Seth also took $30 for itself, and I had $60 left. Not bad.

Seth tested the new software. He liked it and said that the product was suitable not only for business people but also for regular users, who wanted to control their income and expenses.

At that time, there was no software on the market in Hebrew similar to mine. The software in English did not suit the Israeli market - the Israeli reality is significantly different from the European and American ones. We use a checkbook, we make payments in installments, we have everything from right to left, etc.

The only normal software where it was possible to somehow manage an expense and income account remained Excel, but it was very tedious. My software was completely adapted to the Israeli reality and was very easy to operate. Within half an hour it was possible to learn how to use it.

A few days later, Money Inspector 3.12 software appeared in online stores. Already that day, the first sales began. Late in the evening Seth would send me the names and addresses of the customers. At night I would record the software to disks and in the morning I would run to the post office to send them to customers.

I understand that today it sounds delusional - to record software on disks and send it by mail, but in those days, not everyone could download software online. There wasn't even internet in every home.

Money Inspector 3.12 became a hit and gained momentum day by day. The programs sold like hot cakes - 5 programs, 10 programs, 25 programs per day!

Online stores saw that the software was in high demand and promoted us on their sites. Sales just blew up the market. Everyone was happy - online stores were happy, Seth was happy, customers were happy, and I was happy to the sky - it was finally time to enjoy the new profits :)

I wanted to be involved in everything that was going on with the software, so I decided to put my private phone number on the disk box. Many customers called me - some to share, some asked to add additional functions and some who were unable to install the software on the computer.

I would go to my red Opel and drive to the clients' office or apartment, even if they lived in Jerusalem or Eilat. I would go myself and help them install the software. Sometimes the way to the customer was more expensive than the software itself.

Usually a week after sending the disk, I would call customers to find out if they had received the software, if they had been able to install it, if they had any suggestions or questions. Customers would greatly appreciate such an approach.

If the buyer was not satisfied with something in the software, I would offer him a refund and on the same day transfer him $120 to the account. Moreover, I would leave the software to the buyer as a gift.

True, I would lose money, because neither Seth nor online stores would return their share to me. But I won a lot more than money. A good name is worth a fortune. It is better to lose money, than to have a disgruntled customer who will spoil your name.

One customer was so surprised by my act, who called me the next day and again paid for the software because he decided to use it. He also asked me to add three unique modules to his business and paid me $2300. We later became good friends and he would order new software from me for his business on a regular basis.

My customer base was growing day by day. Every day money came into the account. Not millions, of course, but it was enough to move from my parents' apartment to my own private apartment, open a small office, hire two programmers there and dedicate myself to marketing.

For me now it was a serious business: office, employees, accounting. Before that I did everything myself - I wrote the software myself, sold it myself and also paid a salary for myself. But now everything was different, more serious. I needed to take care of tasks for programmers, monitor, pay salaries.

I entered a new world, with lots of mistakes, falls and unexpected surprises. Employees would not always get to work on time. They did not always meet the tasks. They did not always work properly. I had to learn to deal urgently with the problems that arose from every corner.

I rented an office on the main street of Ashkelon, Pedestrian Street. The office was small, 23 sqm, on the third floor of an old commercial building, so the rent was not so high.

It was time to focus on marketing and sales.

I would increase the customer base, call all customers and look for new businesses that wanted to use my software.

While getting to know me, many people would find out that I was a programmer and the owner of a software house and would say to me: "Build me a website!".

They had a stereotype in mind: if you are a programmer and you have a software house, then you are building websites. The year was 2002 - a boom in website building. Anyone who had the financial option, wanted their own website.

I would answer that I do not build websites. I had to repeat this sentence almost every day, until I finally got the message: "Do not refuse customers! Give them what they ask for!".

Of course, web design was not my main field, but as a programmer I became interested in a new subject. In addition, it would allow me to expand the quantity of my products and increase the number of customers.

I took another programmer who was an expert in building websites and started building websites for business people. These customers were more pleasant and had more money. Business people were my target audience. Almost everyone who ordered a website bought the software. And vice versa.

It turned out that website building was a very lucrative business. For each site, I was paid an average of $1500 to $3000. Not a bad income for a small company.

I would pay the programmer $400 - $700 for each site and I was in sales.


My first office in Ashkelon. Giving tasks to the programmer.

Money Inspector sales had been very successful, but I knew this happiness would not last long. Competitors would soon enter the market with new software. Good products and ideas are always copied quickly and you need to be prepared for it in advance.

To prepare for change and to develop my business, I built a new software - Pinkas. It was software for managing and producing invoices, receipts, payroll calculations, inventory management, etc.

Money Inspector did not have these functions because they are only required for account managers. At first I thought of expanding Money Inspector, but realized that it is very difficult to profit from software updates. It is much easier to profit from the sale of new software.

There was nothing in the market like my new software. Only one software - "Hashavshevet", but it was written for accountants. It was big, awkward, looked horrible and was unbearable. To the average businessman it was impossible to understand it on his own. A special course was required to learn how to use it. Seriously.

I wrote the Pinkas software for ordinary business people, for simple people, who did not have to put a lot of thought - just run the software and everything is immediately clear - on which button to press and what to do.

Selling Pinkas was a real pleasure. When I entered the market with Pinkas software, I had a huge pool of satisfied customers from Money Inspector. I offered Pinkas to all customers and about 80% of them purchased immediately, without question. They knew that Eli does not produce garbage and can be trusted. I did not sweat in vain for a whole year on Money Inspector and traveled to my clients in Jerusalem and Eilat!


In a few minutes, the customer can install the Pinkas software.
For several months we successfully sold Money Inspector, Pinkas, and built websites until one day my dad came along and said, "Please build me a website for my business, but do it so I can run it myself, without programmers."

I was amazed: "But how to do it without programmers?"

"I do not care how" said my father. "I want to be able to change the content, categories, design and graphics on the site myself, arrange the content in different places on the site. I'm not going to study programming! Do it so I will not have to make an effort!" And he went.

A challenging task! Today all sites come with a control panel, but back then the application was on the verge of science fiction. So websites were built like houses - forever - you do not move the pictures, you do not change the texts. Especially flash-based sites. But suddenly you are asked to build a website so that an ordinary person, not a programmer, can run the site himself!

My dad is a cannon in setting impossible tasks :) He always knew how to raise my continuum to an unrealistic level, but my stubbornness makes the impossible task a reality.

For about three months we worked like donkeys, ate pizza and would go home at two in the morning, but we managed to build a site with a control panel. For us it was like writing a new Windows!

The panel turned out to be so convenient and simple, that I myself wanted to work with it, my programmers wanted to work with it, and as it turned out, their relatives also wanted their own private website with such a control panel.

Here a new idea was born: maybe it would be worthwhile to build an entire system so that everyone can build a website for themselves, without any programmer skills?

I started talking to people and asking - from the owners of the restaurants where I ate lunch to the neighbors in the office: "Do you want to build a website yourself?"

They looked at me strangely. Most of them said: "For what do I need to build a website for myself? There are programmers for that. They will build the site!"

With everyone I talked to, at every door I knocked - I came across a concrete wall and a misunderstanding. For the first time in my life, I could not explain to people why they needed what I was selling.

But in my heart I felt that I had found a new trend and that people will soon understand that websites with a separate control panel are very necessary. The more dynamic their site and content are, the more convenient they will be. More and more people wanted to build a website - fast and cheap.

I decided to take a risk and build a complete system that would allow any unprofessional person to build their own websites. But it required resources - powerful servers, professional programmers, designers, it was necessary to link each website to a clearing system. The development required quite a bit of money.

Of course, my business made a profit, but most of the proceeds went to salaries, office rent, taxes and family. By this time I was already married, with one child.

We started looking for an investor. We found him quickly. His name was Avi Miller. He was a friend of my dad's. He had money available and he was looking for where to invest it. We sold him part of the company and received funding to launch a new project.

After a few weeks we moved to a larger office, in Ashkelon Center. I started putting together a team. I posted ads on job search websites. Hundreds of resumes came and I met with dozens of candidates.

A month later we had three powerful programmers, a designer, a hardware manager and two experts in building clearing systems. A serious and powerful staff. We were ready to take off!
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