What was the first job you ever had?
David: I was in IT support at age 11.
Liron: I was babysitting at age 10
Baruch: I was selling flowers door-to-door at age 11.
What’s the background of your startup? How did it all start?
It all started with a good cup of coffee, like all good things in life do. That’s how Honeydew was born.
But even before the founding of Honeydew, we each had experienced the struggles of working with data, of understanding the internals of the data processing engines, of knowing the dynamics of the data market.
David founded a data infrastructure company selling into data teams, along with built internal analytics. Baruch architected and lead the development of a sales intelligence product, first in a startup and then in Salesforce. Liron founded a company that built a data driven product and sold data to fashion brands.
We knew that most of the analytic work that we had experienced is hard, slow and error-prone, so our focus was on how to help analysts. Before jumping on a specific approach for a solution, we interviewed over 200 data, analytics & operations professionals and startup founders and we started seeing patterns that echoed our own experiences. We realized that the struggles are real, and that our concepts on how to tackle them make sense.
Can you provide an example of a situation where security concerns impacted a decision or strategy within your startup?
We had certain customers that requested the data path to remain entirely within their network. This required us to develop a jdbc proxy component that could be deployed within the customer’s network.
If relevant, when did you realize compliance was a non-negotiable?
The bigger and more mature a company is, the more value it gets from our product. Our initial design partner was a large fintech company. They requested SOC 2 compliance right from the start. Without that, we could not start the POC.
How do you maintain a work-life balance while dealing with the fast-paced environment of running a startup?
David: I don’t work during family hours. Other than that, what’s the problem? Startup life is fun!
Liron: I won’t lie; this is extremely challenging as both a founder and as a mother of two toddlers. We tried to build a company that enables work-life balance. We are all older and we all have kids. The team members also have children. We believe in what we are doing and we are working hard to make this vision a reality. Personally, during the weekend I try not to work and to spend time with my family. I pick up my daughter early from her daycare and have lunch with her; I take my son to his daycare late and have breakfast with him—small things that make a huge difference to both them and me.
Baruch: I put my laptop and phone aside during the weekend – from Friday afternoon until Saturday evening. This is the time that I’m fully dedicated to my family.
Any tips for other startup founders that are new to scene?
Life is short, so during the time you have, do things you truly believe in. Always question whether what you are working on is a “must-have” or a “nice-to-have.” Listen to other peoples’ feedback and learn from it.
Anything you wish you could take back or do differently since starting Honeydew?
Everything that we did, our mistakes especially, helped us learn and improve, and also molded the path that we are on now. Had we skipped all those important lessons in our journey, we probably wouldn’t be here today—the company we are, with our partnerships and customers. There are always things we could have done differently, but then our present would be different. We don’t think we would want that.
What’s your go-to podcast or publication?
David: Matt Levine’s “Money Stuff” and Dan Carlin’s “Hardcore History”.
Liron: Japanese writers’ audio books.
Baruch: Benn Stancil’s blog.
