Between Mind and Heart, Sarit Firon's Leadership Approach That Leads To Success

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Even as a middle school student in Ra'anana, Sarit knew how to calculate how many salaries she would need to pay off a mortgage. She grew up in a family with no financial security, with both parents working "blue-collar" jobs. However, growing up in central Israel created a sense of comparison with the outside world from a young age. Sarit transformed her starting point into a source of driving force and strong internal motivation. Her existential financial anxiety became a source of significant growth and networking that helped her develop professionally and manage the ups and downs of entrepreneurial investments in a stable and contained manner throughout her career.

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From childhood, Sarit developed an important distinction between investments and expenses, which serves as a compass for every significant business decision she faces. During our conversation, it was fascinating to notice how her childhood struggles led her to adopt an approach where responsible financial management is the best way to handle crises. Her internal mechanism knows very well how to manage when she encounters a crisis, mainly because of her unique approach, where every complexity is a challenge she is eager to tackle. Sarit tends to see the positive side of every problem that arises because she holds onto the enjoyment she feels from the "moment after."

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The Right Moment for an IPO

An IPO indeed provides a significant stamp of institutional and serious branding, but the company’s flexibility necessarily decreases. In our discussion, Sarit offered her personal and professional perspective on the optimal timing for a company's IPO. Her experience over the years in venture capital made her realize that an effective IPO can only occur when the company has undergone a significant process in executing its strategy and has a relatively high level of maturity. Sarit describes this process as consuming a lot of the company’s operational resources, and it is crucial for the CEO to manage this tension optimally and thoughtfully.

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“Ultimately, good decisions are related to people”

What do you do when the investment bank guiding you goes bankrupt just as you’ve started the IPO process? This happened to Sarit when she was leading MediaMind’s IPO in New York, and suddenly the ground fell out from under the company. A significant external event, unrelated to the company but affecting it strongly and directly, suddenly occurs. Sarit’s approach in unstable situations is to conduct a cold, dry analysis of the situation and address what is needed at that moment. They decided to cut 10% of the staff but gave them an extended exercise period to provide them a fair chance to exercise their options if the company returned to profitability.

Professionally, Sarit excels at gathering data, analyzing it, and making good decisions accordingly. However, she also shares that there is no data on the human side of decisions. One needs to understand what motivates people, what frustrates them, how to engage them, and ensure that they have both an interest in the company’s success and their own well-being. Sarit knows that external events will continue to happen, but she understands that to handle them effectively, one needs good people who work well together. According to Sarit, a manager must have soft skills and be humane first and foremost. Ignoring personal aspects can lead to failure.

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“The” Moment

Today, Sarit reflectsand knows she has led dozens of significant business processes. Thanks to her guidance and mentoring at Datorama, the company raised a significant $900,000 while still in the seed stage, and in 2018, they achieved the largest exit in the country for that year. Sarit realized that this was her moment for her own IPO. From that moment, she decided to go independent and understood that the winning combination for a venture capital fund is to provide both funding from a reputable and strong fund and hands-on experience. This is the essence and vision behind her role as the founder of Team8 Capital, Team8’s venture capital arm. Her conclusion from her unique path is to "Trust the process," a message that is not always easy to embrace in the entrepreneurial world, although it often proves itself time and again. In the end, doors turn to where we need to go. However, our experience along the way can be easier for us if we learn to put obstacles and failures into perspective and understand that we will emerge from them wiser and stronger.

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Sarit’s unique path is a testament to growth from a challenging starting point, to composure alongside humanity, and to the formation of her vision through walking a path full of complexities up to the realization of her dream. Over the years, Sarit has learned to balance optimism in the face of failures, manage in a cold-distanced manner versus a personal one, and ensure she reserves time for creativity and sculpting to create a peaceful sanctuary for herself. Sarit teaches us how perseverance, internal motivation, empathy, and vision can create a significant impact and enjoyment from the journey.