Curious Minds

Founded in 2004, Curious Minds is a privately-held company that builds, operates, and invests in technology startups.

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Curious Minds is a startup that builds other startups. You can think of Curious Minds like a factory for building lean start-ups. Some call us “Venture Builders.” We’ve created really big companies (including TeleSign) and we've created a few companies that were acquired (Ringadoc, Brand Reporter). We've also created a few promising companies including a TechCrunch Disrupt finalist (ShowKit). CM's focus is on developing and launching seed and early stage companies. We research ideas for new companies thoroughly. We design and architect experiments to test our assumptions. We build prototypes and MVPs. And when applicable, we create teams that develop our most promising products into independent companies.

Lean Lab @ CM

CuriousMinds’ approach to business development is inspired by Eric Ries’ Lean Startup method. This lean approach aims to reduce risks and expenses by iteratively building products that meet the needs of their early customers.

CuriousMinds’ Lean Lab helps turn great business ideas into Minimum Viable Products, by guiding founders through the critical yet often overlooked processes of market research and customer development.

  • The Lean Lab helps founders understand the core assumptions in their business model, and identifies risk factors that may impede success.
  • The Lean Lab designs experiments to validate and invalidate the riskiest, most critical assumptions of each business model.
  • The Lean Lab analyzes customer frustrations, the effectiveness of existing alternatives, and proposed solutions.
  • The Lean Lab determines product-market fit by incorporating customer feedback into the development new product.

Featured Companies

TeleSign protects the world's largest Internet properties against fraud with two-factor authentication. TeleSign Intelligent Authentication identifies and substantially reduces online fraud and spam using the most widely deployed technology — a user’s phone.

  • Grew 2013 revenue to $50 million, from $25 million in 2012
  • Ranked #15 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500TM (2011)
  • Named Visionary in Magic Quadrant for User Authentication by Gartner, Inc.
  • Has raised $78 million in venture capital

Ringadoc provides cross-platform communication software for healthcare professionals, their patients, office staff, and cross-coverage providers. Leveraging existing technology and natural behavior, Ringadoc brings doctors and patients closer than ever while making the lives of healthcare professionals easier.

  • Raised $1.9 million in seed funding from Founders Fund's FF Angel, Siemer Ventures, Telegraph Hill Capital, and other top Silicon Valley investors
  • Used by over 1.5 million patients nationwide

ShowKit is a software development kit that enables developers to easily add interactive features such as video conferencing, audio conferencing, screen sharing, and gesture sharing to their mobile apps.

  • First mobile solution for real-time support
  • Acquired 2000+ beta testers since launching in 2013
  • TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2014 Finalist

Brand Reporter helps companies to fight counterfeiters with a white-labeled, cross-platform reporting application. Through the app, employees report infringing items, which companies can then investigate and respond to as they deem necessary.

TSN Advertising seeks to become the new billboard...just without traditional billboard pricing. With over 150 wrapped advertising trucks and clients including the Clippers, Chumash Casino, Jamba Juice, and Boost Mobile, TSN Advertising seeks to reinvent the outdoor advertising space.

Investments

Due to the impressive opportunities emanating from Israel, Curious Minds Israel was formed in 2013 and is led by two seasoned technologists, Nimrod Kimchi and Yohai Rayfeld. Whether it's building a company from scratch or investing in an existing one, CMI has expertise in identifying partnership opportunities, team building, investor introductions & foreign markets scaling.

Team

David Gonen

Co-Founder

David Gonen is a perpetual early adopter with expansive knowledge of technology trends. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology school of Medicine, David co-founded Curious Minds and serves on the boards of TeleSign, PowToon, and ShowKit.

Jonathan Gonen

Co-Founder

Jonathan Gonen co-founded Curious Minds in 2004 with the aim of launching disruptive technology companies. He is a founding member of TeleSign and has held Board of Director seats for Ringadoc, 800LoanMart, IsItYou, and TeleSign. Jonathan received his bachelor's degree in political science & economics from Emory University.

Yohai Rayfeld

General Partner, CMI

Yohai is a pioneer in scaling startups into international companies. He is the Founder of Unicell (largest VAS for mobile in Israel), Chairman of Pango (largest cellular parking system), and Founder & Chairman of Tweegee (leading children's portal in Russia, Turkey, Israel, Italy, and Argentina).

Nimrod Kimchi

General Partner, CMI

Nimrod has been involved in the Tel Aviv tech scene and a business partner of Yohai Rayfeld for more than ten years. As a Founder & President of Unicell, Director of Pango, and Founder & Director of Tweegee, Nimrod possesses an extensive networks of investment contacts on a global scale.