So You Signed a Term Sheet with Glilot Capital, Now What? Value Creation

Dorin Baniel, Head of Value CreationDorin Baniel

July 15, 2021 • 6 min read

We have shared a lot recently and over the years about the importance of adding strategic value beyond the monetary investment that comes along with a term sheet. At its core, Glilot Capital was founded by Founders, for Founders. Kobi Samboursky and Arik Kleinstein, both of whom are serial entrepreneurs themselves and know what it takes to build a successful startup, have built our strategic support for Founders with this in mind. This mindset has yielded ten exits in ten years and a consistent rank as a top-performing VC. For us, being an investor means being a partner and being a partner means bringing value from day one.

As a new member of the Glilot Capital portfolio, what can you expect? While you have already been exposed to several of our Advisory Board members through the due diligence process, the excitement of being a new Glilot family member just settles in. Almost immediately after closing the investment, the Value Creation team will start working with you hand-in-hand to help accelerate the product-market-fit process of your company on a global scale. It goes beyond numbers, but just as an example, 80% of our portfolio companies’ first customers come from our introductions and support (on average). I’m happy to share a sneak peek of our structured process on how we work with our Founders to efficiently achieve PMF, position you for a higher valuation in your next funding round and ultimately, success.

Here’s how we do it:

Step 1: Strategize

  • Our team, including Analysts Leah Zuckerman and Chen Yakar, will share our structured process of accelerating your time to market, real-time detection of red flags, and how we will help you achieve your first POCs and paying customers fast, and you will elaborate on your vision.
  • Who are your potential customers? Who is the potential decision maker? Who is the potential user? Are they one in the same or are they two completely different personas? What are the layers of your offering and is the first enough for an MVP? These are just some of the questions, and we’ll help you explore the answers with one important thing in mind: Focus, focus, focus (as Kobi Samboursky shared in his recent blog on the 10 Commandments of a Successful Startup)

Shai Morag, CEO & Co-Founder at Ermetic, shares: “As a second-time entrepreneur, I knew going into raising funding meant selecting the VC that would support me beyond just capital. Working with Glilot has been great as they have helped us starting in our ideation phase. Even before Ermetic went out of stealth, we were able to have an abundance of market discussions with Glilot’s network of C-levels, many of which have turned into long-lasting relationships and partnerships. Just as an example, with their support, I recruited a strong Advisory Board for Ermetic including Gerhard Eschelbeck, fmr CISO of Google, and Adrian Ludwig, CISO of Atlassian.”

Step 2: Building a pipeline, Together

  • When you’re at such an early stage, closing your first POCs and paying customers feels like you have won the lottery. Over the years, we at Glilot have built a robust Advisory Board of C-level executives who are not just experts in their fields, but forward-thinking and open to innovation. They want to meet you. So yalla! Let’s set those meetings and start building relationships.

Ilan Peleg, CEO & Co-Founder of Lightrun, shares: “Glilot has been a true partner from the very beginning, when we were figuring out how to best approach the market. They supported us by introducing us to real experts in the space, some of which became our very first customers. Through the market discussions we had in the early days, we were able to understand what is most critical to develop first including integrations and platforms to support.”

Step 3: Your Eyes and Ears to the Target Market

  • Within just a few weeks, the Value Creation team at Glilot will help you set up a series of market discussions with our Advisory Board members. It’s not just about the pitch, it’s about the relationship you are going to build. Think of us as your eyes and ears to the market: What does the market want? How can you adjust your offering to fit those needs? This feedback is critical, and we’ll be with you every step of the way.

As Reid Hoffman, an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author, formerly Co-Founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn and currently a Partner at Greylock Partners, said, “Finding PMF is an art rather than a science. PMF emerges from experiments conducted by the entrepreneurs. Through a series of build-measure-learn iterations, PMF is discovered and developed during a process rather than a single Eureka moment. A-ha moments of inspiration do happen, but PMF is not created that way.

Step 4: Iterate and Optimize 

  • Often the first batch of market discussions end up being totally different than the second or third, as you have learned, iterated, and optimized.

“Startups should apply the scientific method just like scientists do: start with a hypothesis, test it, prove it, move on or further iterate on the hypothesis” as said by Steve Blank, Silicon Valley Entrepreneur recognized for developing the customer development method that launched the lean startup movement. 

  • Couldn’t have said it better myself: With market feedback, you will be able to quickly go back to your founding idea and see what works versus what doesn’t. What layers are necessary for your Minimum Viable Product (MVP?) What integrations should you create that are most valuable for the majority of your target customers? It’s all about optimization.

Step 5: Scale

  • After achieving PMF, you are ready to scale – not just quickly, but the right way. Now it’s time to discover our scale up services, from helping you recruit top talent, to consultants for your board and more. Stay tuned for more on this in one of my future blog posts

To summarize, we built the value creation team at Glilot as a way to methodically leverage our relationships and to strategically position our portfolio companies in the market, increase customer acquisition early on, and ensure that as a fund we continue making sharp investment choices. Value Creation has taken shape at Glilot with a main focus on achieving Product-Market Fit, as Nofar Amikam now Partner and former VP Value Creation, outlined in her blog post a little over a year ago as a practical way of illustrating to companies the why and how to PMF. From day one until now, the Glilot Capital Value Creation is a data-driven team, rooted in accuracy with an end goal of each company achieving product-market fit and scaling right.

So if you have a great idea, strong team, and unique vision, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at to learn more. We would love to talk with you about how we can support YOU on your journey to scale.

Dorin Baniel, Head of Value Creation

Written by

Dorin Baniel

VP Value Creation

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