That turned into leadership roles at Knotel and Public, side quests as an a16z scout and angel investor, and now Zori’s new gig—the first senior venture hire at the venerated New York firm Lerer Hippeau. “Serendipity,” as Zori describes it. His new boss, Ben Lerer, disagrees. “I’ve never met anybody in my life like that,” Lerer tells me from his firm’s headquarters overlooking the Hudson River, about a 10-minute walk from the Mercer Hotel. “I feel like Ron meets people like this twice a week.”
Zori, a pro soccer player in Israel before going to Columbia, has always had an eye on growth. He worked as the head of revenue at Knotel, a WeWork competitor that eventually filed for bankruptcy during the pandemic, joining the company in its infancy and helping take it to $370 million in recurring revenue. While at Knotel, he would meet with startups renting office space and occasionally write angel checks. His first was into a small fintech company called Public, which would gain unicorn status just a couple of years later. Zori joined in 2020 to work on business development. It was his second time experiencing a startup’s rocketship moment, as Public went from a few thousand users to a few million. “That was the rush,” he tells me. “That’s what I’m here for.”
At the end of 2022, Zori left to focus on his own investments, raising capital for special-purpose vehicles and deciding whether to start his own fund. He’d kept up a friendship with Lerer over the years, often feeding him deal flow. They also co-invested, including in Duet, a health tech startup led by former Knotel executive Jonathan Goldberg that helps nurse practitioners launch their own practices. “Ron was existing in my head as something between an emerging manager and a super angel,” Lerer tells me. He thought that Zori could have the most impact on startups by joining a platform with capital and resources like Lerer Hippeau. “It feels like a real value to get to work with somebody who you have an existing, trusted relationship with,” Lerer says.
Zori started at the firm two weeks ago and will have a hefty portfolio during this critical juncture for the venture industry. One priority will be looking at sectors where Zori has been in the trenches of “zero-to-one,” namely fintech and consumer, and figuring out where they’re headed. Another will be building Lerer Hippeau’s pipeline to Israeli and European startups, with Zori planning to spend about two months of the year out of Israel. “This marriage with Lerer Hippeau, I think, provides us the opportunity to actually give these founders the best platform as they expand to the U.S. market,” Zori says.
