Field: Virtual reality
Capital raised: $15 million
Personal: 45 | Married with three children | BSc in industrial engineering and management from Ben Gurion University of the Negev; MBA from New York University.
A platform for marketing virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). "In order to create good VR content, you first of all need technological know-how. That also requires new thinking, because you can't continue with the two-dimensional thinking of television and movies. We can create content that surrounds you 360 degrees.
"Up until now, you went to the museum and saw art works. We took a painting by Salvador Dali, for example, and enabled people to get inside it. This technology shakes up the whole experience of art, and makes it possible to redefine the entire experience of a trip somewhere."
Porter-Rubinshtein was VP marketing at Amdocs, and then VP strategy and marketing at Microsoft's development center in Israel. "I started becoming interested in VR when I was at Microsoft. I met people, talked about the potential, and was turned on. It's changing how the world works, and I wanted to be part of this change."
"The decision wasn't easy, but after so many years at big companies, I was ready for something else. The experience I acquired in them was one of my biggest assets, and I apply a lot of what I learned."
"Gigi Levy-Weiss was with me every step of the way, and he still is to this day. I got to know him when we worked together at Amdocs. Already then, he had the unique ability to look at challenges and spot opportunities. He has a combination of business logic and strategy with a profound understanding of all the facets of a deal. His involvement with us was one of the factors that helped me dare to make the leap."
"The different between a startup and a large company is the need to be more versatile. In the company's first years, I was more like a COO than a CMO, because we had to wear several hats. Flexibility is important, and also the realization that different capabilities will be called for in different periods."
"We thought that it would be awfully simple to raise money in the VR sector, but the industry has slowed down, and the market itself was slower. Had we known that the pace of the market would change, we might have done things differently. It all turned out fine in the end, though, because RTL, one of the world's best media concerns, has become our partner and investor."
