Welcoming Barrel Kfir to Team DTC

When Barrel Kfir set out at the age of 15 to earn a degree in computer science, he knew one thing: he liked technology but did not want to spend 12 hours a day in front of a computer coding. By later happenstance, venture investing presented a way to combine his technical strengths and his strong interest in product. As DTC’s newest investing partner, Barrel is based in Israel and will focus on investing in early-stage enterprise tech companies across Europe and Israel.  

Welcome to the team, Barrel. In talking with you, it seems almost like your career in venture happened almost by accident. It’s been ten years, so a good accident then?

In the 10th grade, I joined a university program for people good at math. I chose to study computer science because it felt like it would relate to anything I might do later on. After I earned that degree and joined the IDF, there was this assumption that because I got a CS degree so early, I must be a hacker. And I was like, “OK, if you say so.”

At the time, I felt like I was in between groups – the people I studied with in the CS program and my friends outside that program who tended to be more sports-oriented. I am sort of a geek in my curiosities. I felt like a geek with my sports friends but like a raw potato with my tech friends. It was very natural over time for me to move from purely technical roles to ones where you need to understand technology, but you’re also highly connected to the business side. So, product is, I think, the most interesting position there is.

When I left the army after seven years of service and having earned an MBA, my friends were telling me we should start a company. I didn’t think I was ready to be an entrepreneur then. I’d never sold anything to anyone. I’d never issued a PO. I felt very comfortable with technology, but what do I know about building companies? So, I talked to a GP at Jerusalem Venture Partners, thinking I could get a product manager role at one of their cyber portfolio companies. Instead, they recruited me as an associate.  

Since your time as an associate, you’ve led deals, joined boards, launched one of the most respected startup accelerators, and have spent time at a growth-stage and fund-of-funds firm. How have those experiences shaped your approach to early-stage investing?

It’s a very good question. And it’s funny before I joined Vintage, I used to say that I would always do early stage. That’s the most interesting stage to me and it relates more to my background. But early growth stage investing was interesting because it holds a lot of the characteristics of early-stage investing. You have to be able to see quality early, understand the product and the competitive landscape well, and have a thesis about the market, but you’re also able to combine that with signals regarding usage, performance, and financials to predict future success.

When you invest in early-stage companies, you want them to at some point become growth-stage companies. You have to be able to see what the company looks like in two, three, or five years out. So, I feel like the best investors are the ones that understand both growth and early stages.

What are your first conversations with entrepreneurs like?

I like open conversations that start over coffee or at a bar versus flipping through a pitch deck. The conversations don’t need to be super technical. You’re not building a technology or a product, you’re building a company. We’ll focus just as much on the go-to-market challenges and the competitive landscape as the tech itself.  

The things that get me excited in those conversations are being able to see how the founder thinks and how they operate. Do I feel like they are super compelling, not because they’re overly prepared from pitching a deck a hundred times, but because they know exactly what they’re doing? I hope to see that opinions are super thoughtful and based on speaking to a lot of people in the domain. And that they understand the domain, the competition, and the market.  

Where will your focus be as an investor on the DTC team?

Cybersecurity is still super interesting to me. It’s one of the unique sectors that will always have innovation within it – new technologies mean new security gaps. The benefit of focusing on security is that in order to understand how the solutions work, you have to understand the technology you are securing. I enjoy learning a lot about broader technologies from people building in security.  

I am also interested in deep tech, especially technologies that are tangible or that I think could change the world in a dramatic way like robotics or quantum. I’ll be investing in Israel but also in Europe. Europe is very strong in deep tech, probably because the startup scene is very university-oriented. Also, the B2B/enterprise scene is getting stronger across Europe. There are many promising companies that are doing well in local markets, with products and services that will have a global appeal. Those companies aren’t as under the radar as they used to be, but you can still find opportunities to be the first institutional investors.  

And the question we always wrap with: When you’re not knocking on the doors of the next cybersecurity or deep tech breakout company, what do you do for fun?

I don’t have a lot of time for fun, but it usually ends up with sports. I swim every morning. That’s for both my mental health and my physical health. Outside of that, I play soccer. Or really, for any type of sport with a ball, I’ve probably tried it and spent a lot of time doing it.  

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