When Moran Bar was elected one of Girls in Tech London’s 2012 “Top 100 Women In Tech In Europe,” she felt a sense of validation for her hard work.
“Building your startup is a daily struggle,” says the 35-year-old co-founder of Geekmedia, which operates Geektime, the largest tech blog In Israel, as well as the two-year-old startup accelerator VentureGeeks.
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“Knowing that you made a difference, even in only one person’s life, is the reason we continue to create and our motivation to succeed,” she tells ISRAEL21c.
Bar discovered her inner geek while serving in a highly regarded military computer unit, and later earned certification as a Microsoft systems engineer. Raised in suburban Ramat Gan north of Tel Aviv, she also earned a law degree and worked for the Ministry of Justice in specialty areas such as digital signatures and children’s online privacy rights.
ISRAEL21c e-chatted with Bar while she was in New York in April for the all-important TechCrunch Disrupt conference, along with every other serious geek from across the globe.
ISRAEL21c: Do Israeli women feel comfortable and welcome in the high-tech world?
Moran Bar: Being a woman was an advantage, in fact, as the clients remembered me. But the struggle for an equal salary, and to be treated the same way as men in my profession, were in fact obstacles I had to deal with on a daily basis as a young woman.
I21c: What was your goal in starting Geekmedia, Venturegeeks and Geektime?
MB: We (my partner Yaniv Feldman and I) started the company and blog after we discovered that the niche of the tech world was not being covered by tech people. The big newspapers deal only with the finance side, and startup reviews were made only by foreign blogs. We brought the tech world, with our own unique perspective, to the Israeli audience. When a geek writes about technology, it is so different than a writer writing on the same topic.
I21c: What accomplishment makes you feel most proud?
MB: I think that we have created a different blog, and most important – a great and welcoming home for the tech community. Today, we are a source for breaking news from Israel to all of the major blogs and important media worldwide. As a company of seven people, we are financially stable and I’m very proud of my team.
I21c: Where do you see yourself in five years?
MB: We are now on the verge of expanding internationally, with an English version that we are planning to launch at the end of May. I look forward to seeing where I will be in five years. As the tech world is a very dynamic one, who can predict the future? We are busy in creating it right now.
I21c: Why the trip to New York?
MB: New York is the capital of media. I’m here to make sure that everyone that needs to know, will know about the Israeli startup scene and about Newsgeek being the best place to get the information about leading companies from Israel. Later this year we will make some big announcements on that matter.
I21c: Please share some details about your family.
MB: I come from a supportive and humble family, which helped me understand from a young age that I can accomplish everything I wish for and want. A supportive family is the foundation of everything great that I’ve done in my life, and I feel lucky to have a loving partner, two brothers and parents who give me the energy to keep on doing what I love doing.
I21c: How does your “Israeli-ness” impact your business and personal style?
MB: Personally, I’m very ambitious and focused on the success of anything that I do. I believe that me being an Israeli also has a part in the fact that I’m a survivor — which is crucial in the startup world. I think that being an Israeli is all about having the right connections and friends everywhere. It’s a very powerful and united community that will be there for you wherever you go.