Tuesday, February 25, 2025, at 6 PM Israel Time • 11 AM EST
Alon Arvatz, CEO and Co-founder of PointFive, speaks with Jake Laznik, Senior Breaking News Desk Manager at the Jerusalem Post.
Before launching PointFive, a leading cloud cost management company, Arvatz, who received his bachelor’s degree in law and accounting from Tel Aviv University, co-founded IntSights, a cybersecurity startup, leading it to a successful $350 million acquisition by Rapid7. Arvatz is also the author of “The Battle for Your Computer,” which explores the success of Israel’s cybersecurity industry.
In addition to his business success, Arvatz founded the nonprofit organization "Kanfei Kesef", which promotes financial literacy.
“I started my entrepreneurial career at Tel Aviv University,” he says. “The reality was that the university helped a great deal in becoming an entrepreneur, but not because of what I learned in class, but actually for everything around it.” During college at TAU, he Co-founded "Kanfei Kesef" and Insights, a cybersecurity training company for teenagers. “Tel Aviv University was the place where I met the people, got the inspiration, and also got some of the tools to become an entrepreneur.”
Arvatz says that while the war has presented challenges to running his business, specifically in terms of employees who have had to go on reserve duty, he has received a great deal of empathy from customers. “The resilience we show, the fact that we’re going full force, no matter what, actually drives a lot of respect to Israelis and Israeli companies in general. And for me, that’s actually a big advantage. It’s also a big opportunity to show how strong we are, no matter what, and that put us in a completely different and better position in the market.”
When asked what advice he would give to companies that want to build a business model around AI or integrate it into their business, he says, “Talk to as many customers as possible, and do very good validation before you continue to raise money or build a product, because AI is a tool. It is not a value you give your customers. You need to make sure that when you develop something with AI, it is a means to an end that provides real value to customers that they’re willing to pay for.”
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This article was written in cooperation with Tel Aviv University.