Background
As the COO and president of Wix, Nir Zohar is leading one of the unicorns of the Israeli Startup scene. The company was founded in 2006, when founders Aavishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami and Giora Kapla, wanted to build a website for their startup. They noticed that it was a long, costly process, and that most existing tools in the market were designed for developers. So they decided to build a product with a drag and drop functionality, which will make website building simple enough so that everyone who knows how to use a computer could build their own website.
Today, Wix is one of the largest startups in Israel and they are still growing rapidly. The company even had its own super bowl ad recently and is considered to be one of the best places to work for in Tel Aviv.
The Interview
Nir talked to us about his job as COO, which he describes as “getting shit done” no matter which obstacles he has to deal with. He mentioned his army service – like many of our interviewees before him, he served in the Israeli army on a missile ship. He also mentioned the resemblance he finds between building a startup and keeping a battle ship floating. In his words “It’s a small boat, if it sinks, everyone will drown”.
He believes that the best way to build a great culture for the company is to get people drunk, together. So, every once in a while, the people of Wix use to go to a bar together, open a tap and allow everyone to order whatever they like.
His vision for Wix is to take over the world, and to be more specific – to build more and more services for people who are using the Wix service, because once you’ve built your website you still have many other complimentary services you need, such as an eCommerce tools, billing tools and more.
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