Elan Zivotofsky: Good Management, Risk Taking Are Keys to Success of Start-Up Companies

Elan Zivotofsky is a General Partner and Head of the Investment Team at Ourcrowd, a leading global equity crowdfunding platform. Elan has over 15 years of extensive, on-the-ground experience, focused on researching, raising capital for, and investing in Israeli companies. Elan has deep knowledge of the Israeli investment landscape, startup scene and the overall Israeli capital markets. Until recently, Elan was the Managing Partner of the Prelude Israel Fund, which was a hedge fund focused on Israeli companies. Elan was a Senior Vice President and the Head of Technology investment banking at Lehman Brothers in Israel from 2005-2008. Prior to that position, Elan was a portfolio manager at a global .5 billion hedge fund with a focus on long/short, catalyst driven and special situation investing. Between the years 1997-2002, Elan was a top-ranked Israeli technology research analyst at Goldman Sachs. Elan started his career as a technology research analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York (1994-1997). Elan received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania (magna cum laude).

This is your first time in Bulgaria. What are your impressions of the country?

Yes, it is my first time here. I have been a few hours here so far. It is a beautiful city (Sofia), beautiful country so far and from an economic and technological point of view, it seems to me there is a lot of great potential here.

According to you, which area holds the greatest potential?

I am not an expert on it yet, I am just learning myself, but I think one of the key things I see already is a very large pool of highly-talented IT professionals.

How exactly would the Israeli innovation model help us?

I think it is important...