The Nevo Network Unofficial FAQs
Everything you need to know about Nevo — and how to get in.
April 2023 update:
This guide was originally published in early 2022.
As a fellow from the 1st Nevo cohort, I had been getting tons of questions about it. This was an attempt to scale myself and share insights from other fellows as well.
Just one year and a half later, Nevo’s impact, reach and brand grew tremendously. It’s not a surprise that the most frequently asked question went from “What is it? Should I apply?” to “How do I get in?”
Here’s the revisited unofficial FAQs. Hope it helps!
What’s Nevo?
Nevo is the brainchild of Michael Eisenberg, Founder at Aleph (a top Israeli VC), and Abbey Onn.
Its mission is to elevate Olim in tech:
The Nevo fellowship “puts a rocket ship on every fellow” by creating connections and opportunities to accelerate their success.
The Nevo alumni community takes it one step further to create value and impact for ALL Olim.
Is Nevo for me?
- Nevo is not a program for getting a taste of living in Israel. Check MASA instead.
- Nevo does not prepare you for your first tech job in Israel. Check Gvahim instead.
- Nevo is not a development bootcamp. Check ITC instead.
- Nevo is for Olim with 5+ years of experience in tech, at least 2 years in Israel, and demonstrate “exceptional” leadership potential and willingness to help other Olim succeed.
What’s the difference between the Network and the Fellowship?
The Nevo Fellowship is a 10-month, cohort-based program for a limited number of olim in tech. When the program ends you become part of the Nevo Alumni.
The Nevo Network is the extended community, composed of fellows from the current cohort, alumni, mentors and a wide network of supporters and other olim.
How much does the fellowship cost?
The Nevo Fellowship is a non-paid program, run by a non-profit organization.
I won’t say it’s free: joining the cohort demands your investment in time, commitment and energy.
How do I get in?
To join the Nevo Fellowship you need to be referred by another fellow or alumni member. Then you go through a selection process, and a round of interviews, and a final interview with Michael Eisenberg.
There is only a limited number of fellows per cohort (20–30 Olim) with the purpose of tailoring the fellowship for its participants’ goals and needs. The small number of participants per cohort creates deeper and more meaningful connections between each other.
What’s the program like?
The first part of the program is about self discovery and establishing personal goals, while working 1–1 with a coach.
Then, each fellow is carefully matched with top-tier mentors who possess impressive track records in the ecosystem. Some of these mentorships even continue informally after the program.
As the program continues, there are different tracks tailored to the cohort’s professional interests. From events for founders, workshops for managers, to roundtables for venture capital fellows.
Some of my highlight were the off-the-record talks with tech leaders such as Inbal Arieli (Book author & CEO), Yuval Samet (CEO @ Riseup), Saar Safra (CEO @ Beewise), Daniel Schreiber (CEO @ Lemonade) & others.
Events are usually open to the growing Nevo Alumni community expanding everyone’s network. The social activities, plus two weekend retreats, make you go from ‘professional connections’ to a ‘close friends sharing similar challenges and decisions’.
As part of the fellowship, each member contributes to the success of the network and the whole Olim community by launching initiatives on their own (see examples in the next section).
The program is beautifully executed.
But the best of all is the people: your peers, Abbey and Maayan (the directors), your mentor and the extended community. Having access to everyone’s network, including Michael’s, is dangerously powerful.
Community impact
Some of the initiatives launched by fellows and alumni:
- Reboot — a 13.000 member community of Olim from Russian-speaking countries, to help each other land their first job in Israel. It was launched by fellows from the 2nd cohort, and is now a separate Spanish-speaking community launched by fellows from the 3rd one.
- VCAF — a Venture group to help Olim start companies, helped more than 4 companies secure their first round.
- The Nevo Writing Club — A cross-cohort writing group helping fellows develop a strong voice that advances all Olim. One of them got a job offer thanks to it.
- A 24-hour hackathon with more than 120+ participants focused on solving Olim most pressing issues, organized by fellows from the 3rd cohort.
- Niklat — 1st prize at the Nevo Hackathon, it got funded by Nevo and is now available for everyone to use.
- A Women in Tech Leadership event with more than 400 participants.
- A compiled list of 240+ mentors offering office hours to help any Olim. 1000+ conversations already facilitated, and I know of at least 2 people that got jobs thanks to it.
- “Why Did You Move?” an Amazon published book by Gio sharing the stories of people who decide to uproot their entire lives to move to Israel.
- 5 startups launched by fellows (I’m one of them, and Nevo was the match-maker with my Israeli co-founder)
Demographics
- 25% engineers | 18% in product | 9.5% founders | 9.5% in VC | 8% data
- 40%+ in leadership positions.
- 38% women.
- 19 parents.
- 16 nationalities. Proud to say Argentinians is the second biggest majority!
If you have 8+ years in tech in Israel with a strong network in place, the Nevo Fellowship might not be relevant to you. In that case, you could be involved as part of the Network instead.
Do you stay in touch after the program ends?
Definitely. The alumni is an essential part of the network.
I might get into trouble by saying this but you get three times the value after the program ends by being an active member of the Alumni.
For example, I launched a writing & publishing club with fellows from all cohorts. Some joined the Nevo board, and others help in the organization.
We meet for drinks, dinners, birthday parties, and one-on-ones to catch up or get advice. Some are scuba-diving, and hiking together.
There are monthly lunches with Michael, and there’s an annual alumni retreat.
And there’s always something going on in our group chat.
Bonus: I heard there’s an active parents Whatsapp group that is a life saver for those first time parents, having kids in Israel without family support.
What do I get out of it?
It depends on you.
The more defined your goals are, and the more you are willing to commit to them, the more you’ll get from Nevo.
I asked Eli Parkes (Chip Engineer at Apple, 1st cohort) about his experience as a fellow in Nevo. I loved his reply:
Two things:
(1) Nevo gave me the push I needed to begin working on a side-project that had been brewing in my head for years, but which I never believed I could actually do.
(2) Nevo made me feel that I am not merely an observer to the amazing tech sector in Israel. I am in it. I know people. If and when I want to, I can make things happen.
Aaron Bours (VP Marketing at Hyro, 2nd cohort) said:
Nevo is where I met my mentor and friend, Melissa Zelouf, VP Marketing at IronSource, and landed me close friendships with people like Jillian Goldberg and Mikey Weiss, two people I’d bet the house on.
Nevo made it 10x easier for me to recruit at Hyro; I found our Head of Growth Marketing and other marketers through strong connections born out of Nevo.
Nathan Cavaglione (CTO at Fairgen, 2nd cohort) said:
Building a startup is a lonely experience and even more as an Oleh Hadash — Nevo brought to me the circle of people that made me feel I am not alone in this.
I knew nothing about Sales and terribly needed a quick brush up to lead customer calls 2h at the Nevo Sales session gave me exactly this plus unlimited access to experts in the domain that could answer any of my followup questions.
Lia Cromwell (Principal at UpWest VC, 1st cohort) connected another fellow with a job from her portfolio companies. Avital (1st cohort) started her side business helping developers be better storytellers. Matias Sigal (2nd cohort) found the conviction to go all in into his climate-tech startup and raised a pre-seed round leveraging multiple Nevo connections.
As for myself — the first part of the program helped me understand and define my goals by asking the hard questions. It was a guiding force with accountability, support and access to make things happen.
During the program I became a better writer, made my first dollar on the internet with a side-project, sold the company, committed myself to learning Hebrew, and built a strong support network.
Best of all, I met my Israeli co-founder through Nevo, and quit my job to build my startup.
So how do I *really* get in?
With its growing popularity, the limited spots, and all the talented Olim in tech in Israel, getting has become harder.
My advice is the same as with any other selection process:
- Stand out from the crowd.
- Show your potential.
- Explain how you’ll contribute to your peers’ success.
- In contrast to a job application, it’s to YOUR advantage to describe what you will get FROM the fellowship.
What helped me get in
At that time I was working on several side-projects that showed my passion and willingness to help others Olim succeed:
- Hummus and Tech — a podcast for Olim in tech.
- Lazy Words — an app for learning Hebrew on autopilot.
- MyFirstProductJob.com — a site for aspiring product managers.
How other fellows stood out
- Eden & Adir founded the first Olim in Tech FB community.
- Aaron built Open Sukkah.
- Avital taught developers to create compelling stories to grow in their careers.
- Jorge Smu taught actionable programming and data analysis to non-engineers.
- Katerina hosted events promoting Olim inside AppsFlyer.
- Alex organized Sofar TLV, a music & cultural event in Tel Aviv.
- Max August convinced his VC firm to start shop in Israel
- Ariel Fisher is a Rabbi who made a career in hi-tech.
- Alberto connected Israeli companies with Greek talent.
- Marina led a program that brought young Argentinans to have a gap year in Israel.
Side-projects are not a requirement for getting into Nevo. In my personal opinion they help A LOT.
So can you refer me?
When it started, we could refer as many people as we wanted as part of the alumni. We are allowed to refer only one person per cohort nowadays.
→ If I know you personally, reach out.
→ If I don’t know you personally, let’s meet!
The alumni grows with every cohort, so make sure you reach out to your strongest connection.
What’s the commitment?
It’s a big time and energy commitment.
Even if you are passive about the whole thing, and only do the bare minimum, it will take you 2 hours per week.
If you go the extra mile, and want to get as much as you can it can go up to 3–4 hours or more per week.
Word of advice: being surrounded with such talented and good hearted people will make it almost impossible to just sit back and do the bare minimum. Be ready to take it all in.
Ok, so should I go for it?
This is a “legacy” question — I don’t really get this question anymore.
Nevo’s impacts speaks for itself. But just in case you’re still asking it:
100% YES!
If you are given the chance, take it.
The ROI is exponential.
Your invested time and energy will pay off in unimaginable ways. Both to you, and to others you’ll impact.
The skills you’ll learn, the roots you’ll grow, the people you’ll meet, and the bonds you’ll create will be life changers.
