Aviad Harel | Team8 | How to Build a Thesis About the Future Worth Millions

Description

Aviad Harel, Managing Partner at Team8 and previously a co-founder of Sisense, on how to build startup theses at the earliest stages — before product, traction or revenue. The conversation moves from resilience lessons at Sisense, through Team8's foundry process, to how founders should think about AI, agents, go-to-market, validation and founder-market fit in a world where you can build faster — but where results are expected faster too.

Key moments

1. 00:00 · Intro
2. 00:29 · Who is Aviad Harel: Sisense, Team8 and going from founder to investor
3. 01:51 · The big lesson from Sisense: "not dying long enough"
4. 03:48 · What Team8 does and why it defines itself as a builder
5. 05:34 · Maintaining 4–5 theses in parallel
6. 08:10 · Why product marketing and biz dev join at the thesis stage
7. 10:03 · The structure of a thesis: problem, solution and go-to-market
8. 11:26 · What has changed since founding Sisense
9. 15:05 · How AI changes expectations from founders
10. 18:04 · What Team8 looks for in a founding team
11. 21:24 · Two kinds of theses: solving a problem vs. a vision of the future
12. 25:10 · Agentic AI, trust, security and the new organizational knowledge
13. 31:39 · Where the money is going in the VC world
14. 34:01 · How to build a thesis without Team8's machine
15. 37:47 · How many customers you need to talk to for confidence
16. 40:28 · A big vision vs. first wins
17. 42:35 · Roadmap, planning and pace in a fast-changing world
18. 44:35 · Who should be in the room during ideation
19. 49:11 · How to sell to traditional organizations
20. 53:18 · How to get in touch with Aviad