“One of the things I love about the tech ecosystem in general, and very much in Israel, is that everyone is willing to talk to everyone and you always meet amazing people.” -Ilanit Tseyrefman on why she loves tech
Ilanit Tseyrefman is as passionate as anyone about the Startup Nation’s tech ecosystem, making her an incredible asset to the 2bcloud team. She is the VP Marketing at 2bcloud, but like many others, did not always see herself in the role that she currently has. Ilanit’s journey started at Bar-Ilan University, where she graduated with Bachelor’s in Political Science and Public Communication. She initially envisioned herself working in the public sector, but about halfway through her studies she decided she preferred the private sector. Wanting to work in marketing in the future, she started her career in sales, believing that to be the appropriate path. Although Ilanit credits her years in sales for helping develop some essential skills, she would probably advise a younger version of herself not to spend too much time there because “sales consume you for a while.”
Eventually, Ilanit returned to Bar-Ilan University for an MBA in Marketing and began a position as a marketing director for many departments at KPMG, a fintech company. After about 2 years, she moved on to Glilot Capital, a VC that invests in many tech entrepreneurs in Israel. Ilanit enjoyed her time at Glilot, stating that it was really enjoyable working with and assisting new startups, but after another 2 years, decided that it was time to move on again. A friend put her in contact with Gil Ron, co-founder and CEO of 2bcloud, who was searching for a VP Marketing for his new startup. Ilanit loved the company and founders’ DNA, and decided to join the 2bcloud team where she has been for the last 18 months.
2bcloud is a cloud technology startup that offers managed services on Azure (onboarding, consultancy, and support) and specializes in working with tech companies. 2bcloud helps its clients navigate and build their solutions so that they can offer the best product possible to their own clients. Cloud technology is becoming more essential by the day as companies continue to conduct global business, and 2bcloud is here to help.
I asked Ilanit why cloud technology is important for companies to use. Her response was straight-forward but powerful:
“Cloud technology is pretty much everything.”
She gave some examples, acknowledging its importance in online shopping, Whatsapp conversations, and picture sharing. She continued to explain to me that if a company wants to grow in scale and reach their customers, it needs to be done on the cloud. Hosting solutions on premise is extremely limiting because a lot has to be invested into physical infrastructure which will need to be constantly upgraded as the company grows and hardware becomes out of date. Azure has data centers all around the world that can be reached easily globally allowing smooth business worldwide.
Our interview then progressed towards Ilanit telling me about her job in particular. In her words, “being VP Marketing at a startup means you’re not just marketing.” She told me that among her responsibilities are customer relations, welfare, inner communication, and customer communication. A typical day for her can contain a little bit of everything such as a call about a new campaign that’s being run, switching to a different customer support portal, creating customer success stories and posting them, and organizing global webinars, for example. Before joining 2bcloud Ilanit knew she was in for what she called a “roller coaster ride,” but she has loved serving as the VP Marketing nonetheless.
Ilanit and the rest of the 2bcloud team are very ambitious and are excited for what the future holds for their business. Currently, 2bcloud already has a global presence with customers worldwide, but Ilanit sees them having an even stronger presence 5 years from now. She believes that at that point 2bcloud will have a more physical presence globally with employees working from locations such as Germany, England, both coasts of the United States, and Canada. Ilanit envisions 2bcloud adding another cloud to their services since the world is multi cloud and cloud technology is always developing and improving.
Our conversation proceeded with discussing what the future of cloud technology might look like in the future. Ilanit anticipates that the cloud will start to become more widely adopted among businesses and that things will start to move dramatically towards the public cloud and stray away from traditional on-premise solutions. She also thinks that more companies will be born directly to the cloud as the technology becomes more popular. One of 2bcloud’s clients, a digital insurance company, was created on the cloud, something that Ilanit told me would have been unheard of just two years ago. While Ilanit was fairly confident in her predictions, she said that the future of the cloud technology field truly is a “billion dollar question.”
Ilanit concluded our call by providing me with some advice that she would give to someone looking to learn about and pursue a career in the cloud technology field. Her two biggest pieces of advice were to be willing to learn and ask questions during the process. She explained that the process really does not have to be complicated, because all the information is out there either online or in the form of help from more experienced people. Being a technology expert from the start is unnecessary, all that is needed is a passion for the subject which paves the way for endless opportunities. Speaking with Ilanit was surely an invaluable experience as she provided plenty of insight on the career journey, finding a passion, and developing professionally.
To learn more about 2bcloud, visit their website here.