Photography
TEL AVIV’S INFLUENCE ON
SWAYY FOUNDERS
BY S O N J A H E G M A N
All of this passion for wine and glass might not make sense to everyone, but
Unless you’vehope that by reaching out to the public, they can helpby now that content
Riedel and Gaja been living under a rock, you should know others
has become paramount in does race for being noticed online. While social media
understand why the glass really the matter. Laughing, Gaja leans in toward me
is still important, it theshifting, even maturing. It’s ” he says. I for humorous quips
just before we finished is interview. “Wine is often abused,not just nod,
anymore. for some type of lecture. “It’s served at the wrong temperature
bracing myself
or served with the wrong people. We all laugh and Riedel nods. “See, wine
”
Looking for the content to fill your social media channels can be a challenge,
truly is a celebration.
”
especially if you don’t have the time to create it yourself. That’s where Swayy
Gaja introduced Riedel as the “Emperor of Glasses. Everyone laughed and
”
comes in.
Riedel gave a dismissive hand wave, but Gaja turned to the audience. “I am
Longtime friends Ohad Frankfurt, Swayy’s CEO, and Lior Degani, VP ofonly one of many producers of great wine, but Riedel is the only one who
makes
Marketing, created Swayy with Oz Katz, chief technology officer, and Shlomi these glasses.”
Babluki, chief scientist, all former alumni of The Elevator, an investment vehicle
for early-stage startups, in Tel Aviv. Founded in March 2013, Swayy was built to
help brands and social media managers manage their social content strategy, by
tailoring the content their audience is interested in consuming. It launched for
private, invitation only beta testing and launched on a public beta in September
2013.
Ohad Frankfurt, Swayy CEO
“I have always been a big fan of technology and always came up with ideas for
new products and services I wanted to build,” Frankfurt said. “Luckily for me I
The one
now have the best team in the world, and that helps us turn our ideas into real, key ingredient that these men have in common is their drive and
passion. If Gaja is correct about passion being the key to success (and I suspect
working products.”
he is), there is no wonder these two are at t
Swayy began after a trip back to Tel Aviv from New York when the group
though Gaja is now 73
decided they wanted to start a new product. They noticed that their community
for the
manager spent about two to three hours per day searching for relevant content to
to in
share on the company’s social media pages. They took a weekend to build her a
hopes
solution that turned into the Swayy of today. Everyday, the app they created t
to
would send her a few articles from several sources that were hand-picked. create the
Aqua Panna, Fij
the same again.
heir industries. Even
hey both have big goals
gant nes. He wants to
. As
l, he wan
Lior Degani, Swayy VP of Marketing
ea, s
r. He
of
s
espr
designe
“We immediately noticed that she was free to handle other tasks instead of searching for content every day,” Frankfurt said. “We then
talked with a lot of people and realized this was something worth building.”
.co
ough
Frankfurt and Degani studied together in high school and participated in other tech initiatives together before starting Swayy. Both
were in the military in Israel as all Israeli citizens enter the army at 18. They both gained much of their technology knowledge while
s/ita
enlisted.
“I learned a lot in the army, from the basics to more sophisticated intelligence systems,” Degani said. “Right after discharging from the
army, I continued work in a local Hi-tech company.” From there, Degani went on to college in Tel Aviv to become an industrial
engineer and has been working in tech for the past 10 years, which was useful experience for starting Swayy. To learn more got to
www.swayy.co.
Photos and logo courtesy of Swayy.co.