Rapid Response: On the ground in Israel, w/Hello Heart's Maayan Cohen

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1:17This was by far the most difficult week of my life. My CTO texted me and said, hey, Israel's under attack. And I was like, yeah, you know, there's rockets. Israelis are tough. And she texted, no, this is really bad. We started sleeping in the bomb shelter. Nobody's hanging out in the streets anymore. It's war. I'm in the office every day. I have 80 employees here that depend on me. So I have soldiers out in the field that, until a week ago, were software engineers. and project managers. And a lot of our team members, their spouses are out in the fields. And I have three team members that are survivors of the strike zone.

2:07And I have to take care of them.

2:13That's Mayan Cohen, CEO of Hello Heart, who's running her business on the ground in Israel. When Hamas attacked Israel, Mayan had employees in the strike zone and has since had other employees called up for military service. I'm Bob Safian, former editor of Fast Company, founder of the Flux Group and host of Masters of Scale Rapid Response. I wanted to talk to Mayan because business leaders are increasingly on the front lines of societal upheavals, and nowhere is that more the case than right now in Israel. While Mayan's challenges are hardly typical of a CEO in duress, dodging rockets, sleeping in bomb shelters, her themes about caring for her team, finding meaning and reward in her work, and staying dedicated to her principles, they apply to any leader.

3:02Her call to action, to speak out against atrocity and hate, and to support those from diverse backgrounds within every community and organization. This episode does contain descriptions of specific acts of violence that may be disturbing. Please take appropriate care. I'm Bob Safian. I'm here with Mayan Cohen, the CEO of Hello Heart. Mayan is coming to us from Tel Aviv as I ask my questions from New York. Mayan, thanks for joining us. Thank you, Bob. So first of all, I just want to ask, how are you doing today? I mean, it's been a difficult last week or so. I think this was actually the toughest week of my life.

3:46And I'm Israeli. I went through difficult things in my upbringing, but this was by far the most difficult week of my life. So tell me, where were you when you first heard about the Hamas attacks? Yeah, for sure. So I'm a tech entrepreneur. I run Hello Heart, which is a digital therapeutics company based in Silicon Valley and in Israel. We actually have employees all over the US. and I was flying to Las Vegas to a tech conference and we were about to launch our new women's heart health campaign to promote equality for women around heart disease and heart attacks. And a couple of hours into the flight, my CTO texted me and said, hey, Israel's under attack.

4:32It's bad. And I was like, yeah, you know, there's rockets. Israelis are tough. We deal with like conflict all the time. Every couple of years, there's something. And she texted, no, this is really bad. Open the news. And we have 80 employees in our Tel Aviv office. And when I started to realize what's happening, I was completely shocked. So I immediately checked in on my family in Israel, on all my friends, and we did a check-in with all of our team members in Israel. And we quickly realized that Rotem, one of our HR team members, is in the strike zone. She's pregnant. And she texted us that she locked herself in a bomb shelter with her two kids.

5:18Rotem was in a bomb shelter for 30 hours. She texted us that all she can hear outside is yelling and screaming. And she was trying to keep her kids quiet because she didn't want to draw attention. because the terrorists went house by house, came in, broke down the door, shot everyone, and the lucky ones died. The unlucky ones were dragged into the Gaza Strip, including kids and elderly Holocaust survivors. And she was just trying to keep them quiet so they won't pay attention to them. So they hugged each other. They colored. One of her kids took a sticker of a rocket and put it on his arm and told her, don't worry, mommy, the rocket's going to protect us.

6:05And thank God, 30 hours later, her and her kids were rescued safely. And she's now in a better place physically. But as she defined it, I'm alive, but I can't say that I'm okay. She realized that her neighbors, her family in the kibbutz were all slaughtered or worse, They were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip to go through unthinkable things. And this is all unfolding in Israel. You're in Las Vegas at this point. Yeah. It was a very, very surreal experience because the contradiction between what I know that's starting to unfold and is happening to my team in Israel and what's happening around me is complete opposite.

6:55You know, dazzling lights and slot machines and music and people laughing and people drinking. And I know that my team is at risk and I know that there's terrorists banging on people's houses. We, by the way, had three team members that are in the strike zone. I didn't really know what to do. I think I was in shock for a few hours. Got myself into the hotel and I didn't want to leave the room. I just sat there and talked to the team and we all started to connect rescue teams with people that were on the ground because everybody were hiding in their house and they didn't know if it's the army knocking on their door or it's the terrorists pretending to be the army knocking on their door.

7:39There were even situations where people locked themselves in a shelter. Terrorists realized that and they went outside and burned down the house to get the people to flee out so they can shoot them in the street. so the worst thing about the digital world is Hamas videoed all of this and posted it in social media so it was everywhere it was on Twitter it was on LinkedIn you were just surrounded by horrific videos of people you know that are going through these things this is like the worst the cruelest psychological warfare ever created after a couple of hours I figured out how I'm taking the first flight back, which was the next day.

8:21And I was trying to keep myself together because what else can I do? So I tried to project business as usual, canceled most of my meeting, did my panel and got on the first flight out home. And when I got here, I started to do whatever I can to get my family and my team to be in a place where they're safe and we feel secure. Is your family in Tel Aviv also? So my family is now in Tel Aviv. I split my time between Silicon Valley and Menlo Park and Tel Aviv these days. So my family was here too. They were not in the strike zone. They were not at risk. But the next thing, of course, that happened is a bunch of rockets fell on our heads.

8:59So we all moved in together, the entire family. And we started sleeping in the bomb shelter with mattresses on the floor. And that's my life now. So we, you know, try to live a semi-normal life between, you know, fire alarms and bomb alarms while running to shelter. We sleep in bomb shelters. Nobody's hanging out in the streets anymore. There's no kids. It's war. Yeah. It can be hard sometimes for those here in the United States to appreciate how relatively small Israel is. Like how far is Tel Aviv from the danger zone and from Gaza? It's a little under an hour drive. It's very close. And the first wave of the attack started getting into the small villages and kibbutzes around Gaza.

9:55They started taking over small cities in the south that are completely normal cities. We were very scared because we didn't know when it's even going to stop. and Israel was shocked. Hamas have always said that they're freedom fighters. You know, the South is considered a peaceful area in terms of the borderline. There are some incidents, there's rockets once in a while, but it's not a severe conflict area. So there weren't a lot of military forces around. They basically conquered parts of Israel and now they're hurting the Palestinian people too. It's insane. My heart goes out to all victims of this situation, the Israelis and the Palestinian.

10:35We just heard yesterday that there are areas in which there are terror tunnels, so the Israeli army need to get into and destroy those infrastructures. And Hamas won't let Palestinians get out of there. They took their IDs and they took their car keys and they won't let them flee the area. So my heart really goes out to all victims on all sides of this horrific conflict. You're talking to us today from your offices, from the office of your company, with all this going on, how do you think about what your role is and the role of your business versus is it all about taking care of your team? Do you go back to work as usual?

11:19I'm a business leader. I'm not a politician. I'm not a war expert. I can do what I can. And I knew that I have to come back. And I'm in the office every day since. I have 80 employees here that depend on me. We had several folks that were drafted into the army reserves to protect the country. They're now either in the north or in the south because Israel is scared for its existence. For the first time in history, we're actually scared that the country won't exist anymore. So we have insane amount of army reserves. So I have soldiers out in the field that, you know, until a week ago were software engineers and project managers.

11:58And a lot of our team members, their spouses are out in the field. So the first thing we did is consulted a trauma expert that helped us understand that when you're going through something so severe, the best coping is actually to do and not just sit at home, take a step back and think about your emotions. Because if you do that, the horrors that we just witnessed are so overwhelming that a human soul can't contain them. So you have to move people from emotions to actions. We started taking actions. We opened an aid and logistics center in our office. I have dozens of packages right here beside me in the office of protective gear, of raincoats, socks, and anything that the soldier out there needs.

12:45we started to help our teams that were in the strike zone. We're supporting them with housing. We're supporting them with toys, baby foods, anything that they need. And that gives our team hope. We decided that anybody that wants to volunteer in the aid center are not working and the rest are covering for them. So work now has meaning and that helps everybody cope. But people still zone out. I still zone out. Every day I find myself a few hours just unable to focus. Everybody struggles to sleep, not just because they're sleeping in a bomb shelter, because the things that we've seen and to know that it didn't happen in so far away land, it happened to our team, to people we work, that we see in the office every day is unimaginable.

13:34So we started support groups for the team, for parents, and we're trying to do whatever we can to get other business leaders and our friends in the U.S., the majority of the companies actually based in the U.S., to acknowledge what happened. And this is not about, you know, left and right or pro-Palestinian and pro-Israelis. This is a moment in time where a horrific, cruel, unprecedented terror attack happened on civilian houses with cruelty level that I don't think I've ever seen, definitely not in live videos. There's been a lot of misinformation and disinformation on social media. Is that kind of buzz having an impact within Israel?

14:22No, because we know these people. We have team members that go to funerals several times a day. There's kids in these pictures that are our friends' kids. These are grandmas we know of our friends. And if you want to pretend that you're a freedom fighter, you start to create misinformation. This is not AI. These are bodies that were brought to graves now of kids decapitated. This is not science fiction. It's not a movie. It's not up for debate. This is happening live. And unfortunately, there's even a worse fate than death. We have our friends that have been kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. Girls that are now rape victims.

15:13Kids that just saw their parents die. Five-year-olds that were dragged into the Gaza Strip alone. It's horrible. And if anybody cares about humanity and empathy for human life, they need to speak up. Silence is very apparent in this situation. somebody asked me hey why aren't you going back to the U.S. I can't I'm Jewish I have a house in Manlobark of course I can go back but if Israelis won't be safe in Israel Jews won't be safe anywhere else I have a team here my family is here and I have to do whatever I can to protect my country if I want to be a free Jew in here or anywhere else in the world Hamas's mission statement is to kill all Jews everywhere.

16:05If Israel goes down, the West is next. And where will I go? So I don't really have a choice. I realize I'm making you delve into maybe some emotions you don't necessarily want to so much. Yeah. The easy option was to stay in Vegas, get my family on a plane back. There were a bunch of people that fleeted here, they can get a plane ticket out very easily. But I can't. I need to be here. Mayim's emotions and fears are palpable, while her personal choices are inspiring to support her team as a leader, to choose action over despair, to accept risk in the hope of a better future. After the break, we'll hear about how she's balancing near-term decisions and planning ahead.

16:58We'll be right back. Real leaders don't back down when the stakes are high. They innovate, they push forward, and then they take the stage at the Masters of Scale Summit. Join us in San Francisco, October 7th to 9th, to hear from the CEO of the New York Times, scientists using cutting-edge technology to find cures, the leader of crypto powerhouse Coinbase, a retired four-star general, and many, many more. Apply now at mastersofscale.com slash apply 25. That's mastersofscale.com slash apply 25. If you're ready to take your startup from idea to impact, then AWS is your launchpad. From data storage to machine learning to secure app hosting, AWS gives you the tech trusted by the world's fastest scaling startups.

17:52And here's the best part. Join AWS Activate today and you could score up to$100 ,000 in AWS credits tailored to your stage and network. Go to aws.amazon.com slash activate and start building. Expanding your business in the US can feel like a maze. Every state has its own payroll, benefits, and compliance rules, which can pull your focus away from growth. That's why founders use Deal. Deal is the professional employer organization, or PEO, that gives you a dedicated HR expert plus Fortune 500-level benefits for your team. The National Association of PEOs says businesses can grow twice as fast if they use one.

18:36So if you're scaling, make it simple with Deal. Go to deel.com slash MOS and get up to three months free. Before the break, we heard Mayan Cohen, CEO of Hello Heart, talk about grappling with war in Israel. Now she talks about her experiences in the Israeli military as a tank driver, how she's balancing near-term reactions and planning, and what her plea is to other business leaders. You served in the Israeli military when you were younger. Does this bring back any of that experience? So war is war and war is a horrible thing in which everybody loses and all sides, people die. I lost multiple friends in my army service that unfortunately died protecting our country.

19:31It's bad. It's sad. But what happened is a thousand times better. People that live a peaceful life, kids in their homes, any four-year-old grandmas. To have people that come into their house, rape their daughters, burn down the house, and take grandma into the Gaza Strip is not war. It's the most barbaric thing that a human mind could think about. If you lose friends at war, it's hard. It's tough. I lost friends at war. But you know what you're getting yourself into. You put in a uniform, you take a gun, and you take the risk of not coming back. Attacking civilians and kidnapping him is the worst war crime you can think about.

20:14In my army service, I was a tank driver. I was a sergeant. And, you know, I was willing to do whatever it takes to protect my country. Ratan from our HR team did not sign up for that. She didn't sign up her kids for that. None of the young girls that were kidnapped and have been raped did not sign up for that. It's a very, very different experience. And I see the team members that were drafted. They're scared, but they know what they're going into. Their families are saying goodbye to them, and they know that some of them may not come back. I hope and pray that they all will, but we know that people will die.

20:55Unfortunately, given Hamas's action where they don't let the civil population in Gaza evacuate, we know Palestinians will also die. That breaks my heart. And it really does. They didn't do anything bad either. But if we won't be able to live in this country, if my team members won't be able to live peacefully in their homes, then we can't live in Israel. And then what? Where would we go? because if they take over Israel, we just don't have a choice. We need the world to acknowledge what happened. We need people to understand how bad this was, how inhumane that was. This was not just another terrorist attack.

21:38We're used to terror attacks. We're used to, you know, suicide bombers explode on a bus. We're used to rockets sent to our house. This was an unprecedented situation, I think in the Western world ever. How do you think about planning and what comes next for you and for those you work with? Or do you not right now and you just sort of each day, one day at a time, one hour at a time? So I think the first week was one hour at a time. Like, where are we now? Are we safe? Do we have a bomb shelter? Are they making their move next? I have now a knife, pepper spray, and a hammer in my bag. I don't even know what I'm going to do with it, but I feel I need to be protected.

22:25So I carry a backpack with all this equipment and water to just be safe. I asked my team this morning, we had the first team meeting in a week, and I asked them like, hey, what are you scared of? They're like, we're scared for our kids. We're scared of a chemical attack. We're scared that they're going to take over Israel. We're scared that it's going to happen again. You know, people can't even digest what happened and we're just full of fear. So it was one day at a time, prepping bomb shelters. I think now we can plan a few weeks ahead. We know that this is not going to be over soon. This is a very hard situation to be in as a country, and there's a lot of internal conflict.

23:06But I think now things are starting to stabilize. The troops are out in the field. We continue to send them supplies. But it's one day at a time. Sometimes we have two bombings. That's a good day. Other days we have a bombing every hour. Yesterday when I was driving my five-year-old to grandma, because she also has a bomb shelter and there's no schools now, I found myself in a highway during a bomb attack. And I just, you know, stopped the car, got out of the car, laid down on the ground and protected my head. That's our reality now. I think it's going to be at best a few weeks, hopefully not longer, but probably longer.

23:45And we have to think about the future. So we're planning ahead. We're trying to figure out which features we can release that will help more users improve their heart health, because that's what our company does. Our mission is to empower people to understand and improve their heart health. We're a company that's all about living longer life, happier life, helping people. So we're trying to do whatever we can to help the ones that depend on us, our users, our clients. I spend my mornings probably around 6 a.m. till 4 p.m. just helping the war. Rain started yesterday in the north. They didn't have tents.

24:24So we started buying tents. And from 4 p.m. till midnight, I'm a CEO. And I work with our U.S. team and our clients. They've been phenomenal too and helped us shift gears. So we were able to keep business continuity. But it's hard. It's hard for our team to focus. We will get out of it eventually. Hello Heart is going to continue to thrive as a company. We now have services for 2 million people. And, you know, I want to get it to 100 million people. We're going to continue to build risk alerts that help people understand that they're at risk for heart attacks and strokes. and to build our prediction models that we're starting to work on now.

25:01And here in Israel, we're going to try and stabilize things and process what happened. But I don't think my soul is still able to contain the horrific videos and stories that I'm hearing from my team members on what happened. We will need a lot of time to process this and know we're not okay. Do you have any messages or requests that you'd put to the listeners? Everyone needs to speak up, especially business leaders. Your team is looking at you. You have Jewish team members. You have Palestinian team members probably too. You have to speak up. You have to show humanity. You have to show empathy.

25:51If you ignore it, you might not understand the level of damage you're creating. We have to acknowledge what just happened, which is a very, very, very cruel, barbaric attack that's unimaginable on civilians. Help us raise awareness to whatever you can to free the hostages. But most of all, just listen to the stories. Don't be numb. If you see videos and you have the gut to watch them, watch them. This is a moment in time that will be remembered for generations to come. And it's our job to speak up and acknowledge what happened. That's all. You can, of course, donate money. You can do a lot of other things.

26:32But the most important thing is just to speak up. Well, Mayan, thank you for taking the time and sharing and giving us a glimpse of the reality that you're going through. it. Really appreciate it. Thank you, Bob.

26:49This is not a usual episode for Masters of Scale, but as Mayan points out, this is not a usual situation. What I take away, along with a healthy dose of uneasiness, is to resist the impulse to turn away from difficult realities. However complicated the situation, we all need to do the hard work to try to understand and in the process to show empathy and humanity. I'm Bob Safian. Thanks for listening. Meet Nicole Nicholas, Capital One business customer and co-owner of Ansett Uncles, a plant-based restaurant and community space in Brooklyn, New York that got its start from a need for unity. The inspiration, it was born from the desire to create a space that felt like home, where we can connect community culture, good food, and come together with family and friends.

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