Moving a Technology Company from Israel to America: Perfecto Mobile CEO Eran Yaniv (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Eran Yaniv is the CEO and founder of Perfecto Mobile, a company which provides cloud based mobile testing, automation, and monitoring products and services. Prior to founding Perfecto Mobile, he was the vice president of product marketing at Comverse America. He also served as the general manager of the Comverse Mobile Data Division and led a major turnaround in the performance of the division by bringing in accounts such as Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile. Prior to Comverse, Eran was the general manager of the Valisys Quality Management business unit at Tecnomatix, where he also served as the director of research and development at Tecnomatix Ltd. in Israel.

Sramana: Eran, let’s start by reviewing your past so that we can understand where you you’re your entrepreneurial roots. Where are you from, and where did you grow up?

Eran Yaniv: I am originally from Israel, which is where I was born. I spent most of my life in Israel. When I was a kid, I moved with my parents to the U.S. and I lived in Philadelphia for three years. That gave me a good taste of what America is like. When I had to join the army, which is required of everyone in Israel, I postponed my enlistment by three years so that I could attend school and earn my engineering degree.

After I left the military, I worked in Israel for a while and then I moved to the U.S. I lived in California for three years, from 1997 to 2000. Those were the hype years of the boom. I managed a company in the space of quality engineering for mechanical parts. We had customers like the automotive industry and the aerospace industry as our customers. In 2000 I joined a company that created WAP gateways. It was the birth of the data era in the mobile industry. I was the COO of the company, and we were based in Israel. We were acquired by Converse America for $500 million. That was my first experience in the realm of mergers and acquisitions.

Sramana: Were you directly involved in the M&A negotiation?

Eran Yaniv: I attended part of it, but I was not a decision maker. I then moved to Boston, where I managed the overlay sales organization for Converse and we sold into the mobile operator space. I lived in the Boston area for three and half years before returning to Israel to found Perfecto Mobile with my partners.

After I spent a few years in Israel getting that company off the ground, we decided to move the headquarters to the U.S. Boston seems to be a good place for us. I already knew the area. We intended to drive the product value towards the enterprise, so the Northeast seemed like a good location in which to get things going.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Moving a Technology Company from Israel to America: Perfecto Mobile CEO Eran Yaniv
1 2 3 4 5 6 7