Ex-CEO of Waze Noam Bardin on What Really Happens at Google, Life After a Billion-Dollar Acquisition, Building the Ultimate Community-Based Business, and What No One Gets About OKRs

On this episode of Invested, Michael hosts Noam Bardin, an Israeli entrepreneur and high-tech executive. He is best known as the CEO of Waze, leading the company from its early days in Israel in 2009, through its acquisition by Google for $1.15 billion, and later serving as a Vice President at Google until 2021. Under his leadership, Waze grew to 150 million monthly users and became a globally beloved brand.

Since leaving Waze, Bardin has returned to Israel, and is active in technology entrepreneurship, mentoring young entrepreneurs and startup investments.

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KEY TOPICS 

• [00:00:00] Intro
• [00:02:50] Founding Waze
• [00:08:00] Reacting to Google Maps: Waze Mistakes
• [00:10:45] Competition in the Startup World
• [00:12:15] Fitting in to Google’s Culture
• [00:14:30] Building Community-Based Business Models
• [00:24:40] UX/UI Of Waze
• [00:28:45] Waze Vs. Google Maps
• [00:31:50] Do You Regret Selling to Google?
• [00:34:50] What Could Have Been Improved in the Beginning of Waze?
• [00:38:15] Founding in a Small Country
• [00:40:00] Noam’s Controversial Letter About Google Culture
• [00:45:00] Should Companies Have OKRs and KPIs?
• [00:49:20] An Insider’s Critique of Google
• [00:58:25] Impact of Oct. 7th
• [01:05:22] Reimagining Government Structures
• [01:11:45] Tension Between Transparency and Security in Government
• [01:14:00] Israel Needs to Double Down on Tech
• [01:16:00] How to Bring Talent to Israel
• [01:17:45] Closing Questions

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CREDITS

Executive Producer: Erica Marom 

Producer: Yoni Mayer

Video and Editing: Ron Baranov

Music and Art: Uri Ar 

Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring

Design: Rony Karadi