Outbrain: closing a funding round with gunfire in the background -Co-Founder & Co-CEO Yaron Galai

It’s pretty rare that investors have to ask the Founder they’re speaking to if they’re in a warzone, or insist they have to leave their country for somewhere a little more ‘peaceful’ but that’s exactly what happened to Yaron Galai, the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Outbrain. Yaron was a captain in the Israeli Navy before smashing it out the park with a few startups he founded. 

Yaron’s latest company Outbrain (founded in 2006) is one you may not have heard of but you’ve probably used - they power recommended articles on loads of the world’s top news sites. 

They nearly merged with their biggest competitor (Taboola) a year ago only for that deal to not work out and float instead on the Nasdaq for $1.25 billion. 

As Yaron says, an exit is a great outcome but a terrible plan, so what was his plan? How has he got multiple exits under his belt? What are the secrets to his success? 

We talk about:

• The struggle for funding
• Israeli military/life/work balance
• Parents investing to make sure their children got paid
• Exiting for $400m 
• Why it’s easier to make acquisitions when you’re public

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