How Strategic Networking Catalyzed a $110M Exit with Shahar Erez - fnGlobal Keynote & Roundtables (May 18, 2022)

In November 2021, freelance marketplace Fiverr announced it had acquired freelance management platform Stoke Talent. The acquisition meant a $110 million exit for Stoke Founder Shahar Erez who had begun working on the startup just 24 months earlier.

While the timetable might seem short, Erez says the startup exit was the product of a well-laid foundation backed by strategic networking.

“We focused a lot on building our network, nurturing our network, and keeping our potential competitors close as collaborators,” Erez says. “Fiverr was one of our potential competitors and now we’re becoming its B2B arm.”

At the Founders Network global keynote on May 18, 2022, Erez will share his founders journey and detail how his past experience and advanced planning set his startup up for success. He’ll also detail how strategic networking helped him access key opportunities along the way.

He’ll also discuss:

• How to raise funds on slides
• The importance of connecting your mission to your past
• Go after the puck
• The importance of working your network relentlessly

Opening Remarks & Chapter Launch @ 9:30am PT

Join us for opening remarks with Kevin Holmes, Founder & CEO @ Founders Network, to get the latest updates from the Network and opportunities for getting involved.

Keynote Speaker @ 9:40am PT

Shahar Erez

Erez is the co-founder & CEO of Stoke, an on-demand talent platform empowering companies to adopt a hybrid workforce model that scales as quickly and efficiently as needed. A tech-scene veteran in Israel and Silicon Valley, Erez has 20 years of executive experience in engineering, product and marketing under his belt at companies like Mercury, HP, VMware and Kenshoo. He has built a reputation as a strategic thinker who leads organizational change and drives growth by developing talent and promoting a learning culture. Outside work, Shahar is a proud father of 3, an amateur cyclist and an avid reader.

Stage-Based Roundtables @ 10:30 am PT

Community Partners

Blake Caldwell

Dec’13 Cohort Blake Caldwell is the CEO & Founder of FoundersBoost. He has 350 alumni, 100 new startups a year, 8k newsletter readers. He's driven by his passions to create and build community. He's also the founder of 2332 Collective (music production & festivals with the goal of bringing music to West LA) & The MoGuard (consumer product cup attachment protecting glorious mustaches).

FoundersBoost is a free pre-seed & seed stage mentorship driven pre-accelerator helping promising tech-startups with accelerators, investment, and revenue.

Max Shapiro

Max Shapiro founded PeopleConnect in 2000 to help early-stage high-tech companies find the talent they need to succeed. PeopleConnect’s clients are in technology, biotech, cleantech, apps, services, medical devices, and consumer products.

Their team of outstanding recruiters finds C-level executives, talented managers and experienced leaders who will bring their client companies to the next level. They provide traditional contingency searches as well as their one-of-a-kind 'Employees Without Paychecks' program, which he created after the dotcom bust to help promising companies find top-level talent willing to work for equity only until the company gets their funding.

As you can tell by the name of his company, Max likes to connect people and would love to know if there is any way that he and his team can help you add some fantastic, startup experienced people to your team, like PeopleConnect has been doing for 20 years.

Guests Are Welcome!

Please bring a guest! Every member can bring one (1) guest to each event. Each guest must be a full-time tech startup founder so they can bring new perspectives, skillsets, and experience to your chapter.

All guests must be full-time tech startup founders and you can register them directly on this function page. See How to Register a Guest here.

Confidentiality Reminder

All information shared within Founders Network is strictly confidential. We are built on a foundation of trust, and the community takes confidentiality seriously. Investors, members, and staff all share experiences and opinions off the record. In this roundtable forum, we continue to model our fnValues of Reciprocity, Humility, Authenticity and Inclusivity.