Episode Details

Yael Barsheshet, partner at Deep33, spent 11 years as a Major in the 8200 unit of the IDF. When she left, every door in Israeli cyber was open to her. Three founding teams wanted her. The network was there and the choice was obvious.

But Yael said no to all of it.

Instead she joined Zebra Medical Vision, an early-stage AI company doing deep learning on medical imaging, because she believed the technology could change how people receive care.

That decision set off a chain that took her through venture investing at Hetz, a semiconductor deal most generalist funds wouldn't touch, and eventually to Deep33, a new $200 million fund backing Israeli founders building AI infrastructure. The unglamorous, essential layer: compute, memory, energy efficiency, the bottlenecks that determine whether AI actually delivers ROI at scale.

She sits in the New York office while her partners Michael Broukhim, Joab Rosenberg, Ori Amsalem, Lior Prosor cover the LA and Tel Aviv offices.

Yael shares what 8200 actually teaches you, why deep tech in Israel is hitting its moment now, and what it looks like to build a thesis around the parts of the AI stack nobody wants to explain at a dinner party.

Watch now!

Hosted by Yoel Israel

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00:00 - Intro: Meet Yael Barsheshet, Partner at Deep33

01:30 - What is Deep33 and why three coasts?

04:45 - Why WhatsApp beats Slack for a fast-moving fund

07:00 - The deep tech flywheel: Mellanox, Mobileye, and what they built

09:45 - 11 years in 8200: what those units actually teach you

15:00 - She left cyber money on the table. Here's why.

16:45 - Zebra Medical Vision and the bet on deep learning

19:30 - How you actually learn to be a VC: meet 500 companies

22:00 - AI infrastructure explained: what the bottlenecks actually are

27:00 - Energy, compute, and why Israel is positioned for this moment

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Check them out at Rhydlwood.com

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