Acknowledgments

We wish to thank all those professionals who dedicated time to reading the book and who gave us helpful comments and guidance in their fields of expertise (the names are listed in alphabetical order):

Gil Alon (Partner, Heidrick & Struggles), for his comments on recruiting and remunerating employees; Tali Eitan, Advocate (Managing Partner: Eitan, Perl, Letzer, and Cohen-Tzadok), for her comments on intellectual property; Israel Eliyahu (CPA), for his helpful comments on valuation and capital markets; Avi Feldman, Advocate (Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade); Avi Fischer, Advocate (Managing Partner: Fischer, Behar, Chen and Co.), for his insights; Ariella Lahav, Advocate (Partner: Goldfarb, Levy, Eran and Co.); Dr. Amikam Levanon (CEO: Asia Gate), for his comments on the perspective of a venture capitalist; Professor Nahum Melumad (chairman of the accounting division, Columbia University), for his mentorship and for his helpful comments, and in particular to the chapter on valuation; Dr. Avraham Ortal, Advocate (Partner: Zelermeyer, Pelossof), for his comments on raising capital; Enrico Friz, Advocate (Managing Partner: Walder Wyss and Partner, Advocates), for the information on capital raising; Ori Rosen, Advocate (Partner: Danziger, Klagsbald, Rosen and Co.), for his comments on legal and business matters; Benjamin Strauss, Esq. (Pepper Hamilton LLP), for his insights on Delaware law; Tzahi Yagur, Advocate (Partner: Shavit, Bar On, Inbar), for his comments on mergers and sales; Dr. Giora Yaron, for his assistance; Ron Zackay, Advocate (Yigal Arnon and Co.), for his contribution to the chapters on incorporation and mergers; and Dr. Ezra Zuckerman (Stanford University), for his helpful comments.

We owe special thanks to Raffi Gidron (the founder of Chromatis), for his contribution in general and his "insider" insights on the Chromatis-Lucent transaction in particular. Special thanks to Dr. Eyal Shenhav and Benny Kalifi, Advocate, for their knowledge of taxation; to Naomi Shenkar, Advocate, for her competent translation and editorial work, and to Gil Goshen, for his competent research work. We are grateful to Eviathar Matania (Managing Partner: Arcanum) for his insights and comments on the various drafts of the book.

Above all, we are grateful to our special advisors: Chemi Peres, the managing partner of Pitango Ventures, Davidi Gilo, the founder of DSPC and DSPG, and Ron Lubash, a managing director at Lehman Brothers, for their comments, insights, and support.