Every few months, on average, I suddenly find myself in the middle of building a prototype
You probably feel that making decisions is getting harder, whether because of age—I am a little sensitive about that, having just entered my thirties—because of the fast pace of digital life, or because of the sheer abundance the world offers us.
I agree with those who call decision-making a rare art. Some people are good at deciding under pressure. Others prefer to make a pros-and-cons table before every decision. Still others go with their gut.
I want to explain what helps me make decisions, mainly business decisions, and suggest a different way of looking at new projects.
As part of a Lean Startup approach, I try to take a DIY, do-it-yourself, attitude toward entrepreneurship. I build some kind of prototype with my own hands and live with it for a while before deciding whether to enter a venture. Read on for a practical decision-making approach: build a prototype before committing to the business.
Does a pale blonde at 6.1% count as a prototype?
For my sins, I spent quite a few years in nightlife and alcohol. I should say that I appreciate alcohol, enjoy a drink, and respect the industry’s creativity and traditions.
Those were the exciting early days of my degree and student life, with all the advantages that came with them. I decided to investigate the feasibility of launching a new liqueur. Yes, years later, plenty of people would tell me I had anticipated Tubi 60').
Together with a chef friend, I spent hours and days creating unusual strong drinks, 50% alcohol or more: vanilla and saffron, pear and cinnamon, Arabic black coffee, chili liqueur, and others. Some were truly exceptional.
I learned a tremendous amount, mostly through trial and error, about that world, my target audience’s tastes, distributors’ preferences, and alcohol manufacturing regulations in Israel.
Making the drinks gave us tremendous momentum. It disappeared when a new differential tax regime suddenly increased the price of our alcohol by about 250%. Our liqueurs became an adventure gathering dust on a shelf.
A few years later, the liqueurs gave way to homemade craft beer, but the principle stayed the same. Through hands-on experience, I realized I preferred making alcohol as a hobby rather than turning it into a career.
Without diving into yeast and malt and experiencing the entire process myself, I would never have understood whether I wanted to compete in this market or remain a happy amateur.
In retrospect, I might now have been competing fiercely with excellent Israeli breweries that started around the same time, such as Malka, Alexander, and Hadubim. All while working in a small, competitive industry I had never really dreamed of joining professionally.
When prototyping starts on your parents’ roof and ends in business insights
Making things with my hands continued in my first startup, Desky.
My partners and I built our first prototypes on my parents’ roof using a jigsaw. Some Israelis call it a “Jackson.” If you think you know the right name, leave your answer below. I would also like to settle another terminology debate: arm brakes or hand brakes—what do you think?
Even after we became more professional and hired an industrial designer for the project, we kept building things ourselves, largely thanks to TAMI’s wonderful workshop, making additional prototypes and mechanisms.
The more prototypes we made independently, the more clearly I realized that I did not want to become a professional carpenter. As company managers, we also could not keep making furniture in a noncommercial way.
I also realized that we needed more professional industrial design, engineering, and design-for-manufacturing support. Making things—enjoyable and satisfying in itself—taught us a great deal about the product. Materials, processes, timelines, costs, and finishes are just some of the issues that emerge when you start bringing a product to life.
The founder who brought me an idea for living in harmony
I still take a DIY approach from the earliest stages of any interesting venture that comes my way.
A few months before I wrote this in 2016, Tal contacted me. We had met a year earlier while working together on Smartag. Tal is a founder and a practical person who is not afraid to work with his hands—exactly the kind of person you want working on a physical product idea.
Tal came to our meeting with an idea for an aquaponics venture. There was a problem: I knew very little about the field. Aquaponics combines plants and fish in a single symbiotic system, encouraging organic life in harmony.
Tal’s idea was simple and beautiful, with two qualities I strongly connected with. First, it was a physical product. Second, it had the potential to create a green environmental system that could make a difference in the world.
I found it difficult to decide about the venture, so I knew I had to try the system myself. Tal and I began designing a similar system to understand whether the venture interested me personally and whether it really worked.
Taking that step helped me make a much more informed decision before moving toward a commercial venture. At the time of writing, the aquaponics system had been running for about two months. It was a real wonder that drew in both me and my beautiful partner, who was growing strawberries there. Her smile in the photo says it all. You are welcome to stop by for natural organic tea any day.
Editor’s note, 2025: after a few months, I discovered that, despite the technology and symbiosis, keeping these systems alive was very difficult without daily attention and a little luck. I therefore decided not to pursue it as a business.
The message for founders is simple: if you have an idea that is not too difficult to try, experiment, make it, and make mistakes. Building a prototype can spare you the gray hairs that might come from pursuing the wrong venture. This applies to bald people too.
Whenever I tried building the product behind a venture I was considering, I learned and drew conclusions. Doing it myself saved a great deal of money or frustration. What do you really have to lose?
Go build your prototype and take pictures along the way. I promise you will enjoy it.
The satisfaction of creating is greater than any other. As for the aquaponics system on my roof, I promise another article on that.
I would love you to share photos in the comments of the first products you built yourself. If you have questions, I am here.