{"id":4695,"date":"2020-06-21T13:40:48","date_gmt":"2020-06-21T13:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/"},"modified":"2021-12-15T11:25:49","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T11:25:49","slug":"royanderan","status":"publish","type":"founders-column","link":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/ww\/founders-column\/royanderan\/","title":{"rendered":"“Having one another and sharing the burden is critical to our success.”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1. What is a daily habit you love doing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eran<\/a>: <\/strong>In the past month I have been trying to exercise every day in the morning. It makes me feel good. But the thing I love most is having dinner with my wife and daughters<\/strong>. This is something that definitely became easier lately in the Corona period.

Roy<\/a>: Every day I wake up around 6 AM and meditate<\/strong>. I found myself continuing to do so now at home during the Corona period. I also love drawing and doodling<\/strong>. I throw a lot of them away because I do it so often and I usually draw to think<\/strong>. I have been like that since I was a child. I learned it in school because that was my way of listening in the classroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Drawn during the founders column interview on Roy’s Galaxy Note.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

2. What piece of advice would you give yourself when you started? What advice would you ignore?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

E: <\/strong>Don\u2019t be afraid to fail. I tried too hard not to make mistakes and be successful<\/strong>, but that\u2019s a great example of how not<\/em> to become successful. <\/strong>So I would tell myself to embrace failures and learn from them. That is the main thing to take from starting a company. 

Something I would avoid is accepting people\u2019s advice like it is an \u2018absolute truth\u2019. When we first started, people told us that we\u2019re operating in an over-crowded market, that the company won\u2019t manage without a sales team, that bottom-up adoption isn\u2019t the right way to go, etc. People told us a lot of things with a lot of confidence, but a part of our mentality is that we are always trying to take things with a grain of salt and see what makes sense to us.<\/strong> 

This is something I learned about myself as well: People give you advice out of their own context. They only know what they know, and it\u2019s up to you to figure out what led them to give you a certain advice.<\/strong> Don\u2019t take anything as it is, try to understand the logic behind it. 

I also learned that being pessimistic can make you sound clever, but the real winners are optimistic.<\/strong>

R: <\/strong>My advice would be to train myself to raise money because quite frankly it was a huge source of pain and we sucked at it. Like most people, we eventually learned how to do it by failing and learning from our mistakes. But a lot of those mistakes can be avoided since there are a lot of preconceptions on how to raise money that are not true. <\/strong>We sum up everything we learned about it in Episode 12 in the podcast – \u2018How To De-risk Raising Capital From Investors\u2019<\/a>. 

The types of advice I would ignore are the ones where people tell you you can\u2019t do something. Usually, these are not actual advice, but fears<\/strong>. Sometimes because it comes with authority you \u2018swallow it up\u2019 and think it\u2019s good for you, but any advice that instills fear in you will not make you better.<\/strong> It never helped anyone to be afraid of anything, so if it instills fear in you, don\u2019t listen to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. What piece of content (book\/podcast\/Ted Talk) is your favorite or has influenced your life?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

E: <\/strong>I like the book \u2018The Hard Thing About Hard Things\u2019. Most people tend to speak at \u2018high-level\u2019 about what you need to do in your company. But here\u2019s a founder that gives practical advice and shares real-life situations that can help you cope with things you go through as a founder.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
‘The Hard Thing About Hard Things’ By Ben Horowitz<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2605<\/strong> Oren Buskila, Co-Founder of Innoviz also recommended this book. Read his answers here<\/a>.<\/em>

R: \u2018<\/strong>The story of My Experiments with Truth<\/a>\u2019 by Gandhi. It helped me understand how to deal with a lot of situations we experienced at the beginning – conflicts with people, struggles with the company etc. I asked myself \u2018what would Gandhi do\u2019<\/strong> (as if I can actually know) because I knew he would have a better solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
‘The Story of My Experiments with Truth’ by Gandhi<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

4. What is the most valuable investment (time, money or energy etc.) that you\u2019ve ever made?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

E:<\/strong> I learned to play the guitar. <\/strong>I started fairly late, just <\/strong>a few years ago, and I really enjoy it. I gave myself the time to learn it and really invested in a hobby I love<\/strong>.

R:  <\/strong>It will have to be my morning routine. I take half an hour every morning to meditate. That is the best time I spend. It gives me perspective on things, on what matters and what doesn\u2019t.<\/strong> When you look at things differently or wait awhile, you find a different way to look at it and solve things. That happens to me every day in the morning during meditation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Is there a quote, mantra or message you live your life by and that you resonate with? It can be someone else’s as well.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

E: <\/strong>I’m a big believer in being positive<\/strong>. It’s important to take every day with an open and good outlook. Pushing forward and being thankful for what you have is key and a big part of that is surrounding yourself with positive people and being positive yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. What helps you stay motivated on good and hard days?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

E: <\/strong>I can probably answer this for both of us – what is unique about the way we run the company together is that whenever one of us is feeling low, the other is keeping the morale up and vice versa. I don\u2019t know how founders do it on their own – I feel that having one another and sharing the burden is critical to our success<\/strong>. Somehow, in our relationship and energy, we detect when the other is down and compensate for one another. There\u2019s never a situation where both of us are \u2018low\u2019.

R: <\/strong>Something that makes us happy and pushes us forward is talking about the product itself<\/strong>. We love seeing how the product changes and improves – it motivates and lifts us up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. What are you passionate about other than managing your own company? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

E: I\u2019m<\/strong> lucky to be doing what I am passionate about<\/strong>. Even though I\u2019m a developer and what I do is write code, what I\u2019m really passionate about is creating products people love. Writing code enables me to do that. I get so much satisfaction from seeing someone getting excited from something that I have built. <\/strong>For me, creating a product that people love and enjoy using is truly a form of art. 

Something that I am passionate about other than the product is computer games – and that\u2019s a problem because I get addicted to it. Roy\u2019s addition: Eran was #4 in the world in \u201cRed Alert\u201d when he was young!

R: <\/strong>There is an assumption in your question that we enjoy the \u2018managing\u2019 part of the company but that is something we are not very passionate about – it\u2019s a necessity in order to create a really good product. 

Like Eran, I have been a developer from a very young age and I just love building stuff, in all aspects – also physical things. I love creating things that influence people\u2019s lives, and software just happens to be the best way to do it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. What have you recently thrown away or released from your life that made a positive impact and why?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

E: <\/strong>I deleted all the news apps<\/strong> from my phone since it gave me anxiety.

R: I<\/strong> don\u2019t listen to any news<\/strong> whatsoever. I have been doing it for years now – I don’t listen to any news. I only get recaps from taxi drivers every now and then.

\u2605<\/strong>We see a trend here! Read the answers of Oren Buskila<\/a>, Gad Maor<\/a>, and Israel Krush<\/a> who also mentioned they deleted apps from their phones to better focus.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Share a failure you have experienced and what you learned from it.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

E: <\/strong>I have millions. Before starting monday.com<\/a> I closed a startup, and my biggest failure is that I<\/strong> created a product that nobody wanted. I worked on it for over a year<\/strong> and had lots of misconceptions in my head – that the product had to be fully ready before being released, that it needs to be improved, that a lot of features are missing etc. I learned that I should fail often, get feedback often, and then build something people actually want, instead of investing too much in building scalable technology or a super-impressive infrastructure, because nobody cares.

A big part of our DNA at monday.com is embracing failure. We want to move fast because we understand that execution is a big part of being successful.<\/strong> It means that you are confident, it means you know what you are doing, and that you can absorb failure – all of these things that we hadn\u2019t done in the past.

R: <\/strong>I founded two startups before monday.com. The second one was a game about saving aliens. The game was good, a lot of people really loved it, and the execution was amazing – but it didn\u2019t become a business. No matter what we tried, it didn\u2019t really pick up and we couldn\u2019t understand what was missing and why we couldn\u2019t make it successful. 

I tried so hard for so long, and I lost a lot – I didn\u2019t have a salary for a long time. Closing the startup was a low point in my life. But it was a good move because it allowed me to have the right perspective and try something else. I learned that if I want something, I should be the one making it happen – don\u2019t delegate or think someone else will solve your problems<\/strong>, even not investors. It\u2019s not up to them if they invest or not – it\u2019s up to me and if I worked hard enough to make it happen. I learned to take ownership of everything that has to do with success, not just parts of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. If you could have anyone in the world answer these questions who would it be and why?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

E: Bill Gates<\/strong>. He\u2019s a winner. I like the person he is and respects the fact that he donates a lot of his fortune to do good things in the world.

R: Gandhi, because he can say things I can trust that are good for me<\/strong>. Also, I would like to read Bruce Lee\u2019s answers because he has a lot of depth as an artist and creator<\/strong> that people don\u2019t normally see. We can learn a lot from him. He has a lot of philosophies on actions and how to live, and he learned a lot in his life from the mistakes he\u2019s made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. What is a daily habit you love doing? Eran: In the past month I have been trying to exercise every day in the morning. It makes me feel good. But the thing I love most is having dinner with my wife and daughters. This is something that definitely became easier lately in the Corona […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1864,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_title":"monday.com Co-founders answer 10 Q's | Startup for Startup","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"'Having one another & sharing the burden is critical to our success.' Click here to read advice, failures & motivation of Roy & Eran.","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"startup-stage":[],"main-taxonomy-mobile":[],"zoom-in-tag":[634],"founder-language":[535],"class_list":["post-4695","founders-column","type-founders-column","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","zoom-in-tag-inspirational-ww","founder-language-english_ww"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nmonday.com Co-founders answer 10 Q's | Startup for Startup<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"'Having one another & sharing the burden is critical to our success.' Click here to read advice, failures & motivation of Roy & Eran.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Having one another and sharing the burden is critical to our success."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"'Having one another & sharing the burden is critical to our success.' Click here to read advice, failures & motivation of Roy & Eran.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Startup for Startup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-15T11:25:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Group-11-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"91\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"90\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/\",\"name\":\"monday.com Co-founders answer 10 Q's | Startup for Startup\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Group-11-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-21T13:40:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-15T11:25:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"'Having one another & sharing the burden is critical to our success.' Click here to read advice, failures & motivation of Roy & Eran.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-Uk\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-Uk\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Group-11-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Group-11-1.png\",\"width\":91,\"height\":90},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Founders\u2019 Column\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\""Having one another and sharing the burden is critical to our success."\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/\",\"name\":\"Startup for Startup\",\"description\":\"Powered by monday.com\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-Uk\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"monday.com Co-founders answer 10 Q's | Startup for Startup","description":"'Having one another & sharing the burden is critical to our success.' Click here to read advice, failures & motivation of Roy & Eran.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Having one another and sharing the burden is critical to our success.\"","og_description":"'Having one another & sharing the burden is critical to our success.' Click here to read advice, failures & motivation of Roy & Eran.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/","og_site_name":"Startup for Startup","article_modified_time":"2021-12-15T11:25:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":91,"height":90,"url":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Group-11-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/","url":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/","name":"monday.com Co-founders answer 10 Q's | Startup for Startup","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Group-11-1.png","datePublished":"2020-06-21T13:40:48+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-15T11:25:49+00:00","description":"'Having one another & sharing the burden is critical to our success.' Click here to read advice, failures & motivation of Roy & Eran.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-Uk","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-Uk","@id":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Group-11-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Group-11-1.png","width":91,"height":90},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/royanderan\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Founders\u2019 Column","item":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/founders-column\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":""Having one another and sharing the burden is critical to our success.""}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/","name":"Startup for Startup","description":"Powered by monday.com","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-Uk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/founders-column\/4695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/founders-column"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/founders-column"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"startup-stage","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/startup-stage?post=4695"},{"taxonomy":"main-taxonomy-mobile","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/main-taxonomy-mobile?post=4695"},{"taxonomy":"zoom-in-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/zoom-in-tag?post=4695"},{"taxonomy":"founder-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/founder-language?post=4695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}