Turns out a walk on the beach can be life-changing.
Yes, that’s how Kahoona was born.
Meet Gal Rapoport, Co-founder & CEO, and Alon Ashkenasi, Co-founder & CTO of Kahoona, a startup providing real-time customer insights and AI-driven hyper-personalization for brands.
Picture this: The moment a visitor lands on your website, you instantly know if they're a loyal customer, a Gen Z-er, an impulsive shopper, or likely to #convert.
Sounds like mind-reading?
That’s Kahoona.
We’ll let them take it from here –>
🔹 What led to founding Kahoona?
When I (Gal) left Amazon's Personalization team to research HCI at the academy, I recognized a fundamental flaw in the digital world: over 95% of online business visitors remain anonymous. I joined forces with Alon, my old surfing buddy from the Technion with deep expertise in privacy, to address this challenge. Together, we founded Kahoona to reshape how businesses engage with their audience through AI-powered predictive segmentation decision-making, delivering immediate, user-level visibility on anonymous visitors.
🔹 What does your startup actually do?
Using gen AI, we enable hyper-personalization in a cookieless world, allowing brands and online retailers to turn the 96% of website visitors who remain unidentified into high-intent buyers. After a few moments of user interaction, our AI predicts a user's purchase probability, pricing level, demographics and other metrics previously obscured.
🔹 What’s the story behind your startup’s name?
Kahuna' is a Hawaiian word that refers to an expert in any field. And the 'oo'? It's for good luck! There's a superstition in our tribe that companies with double 'O' have extra luck. And yes… We can't deny that it also reflects our love for surfing and the sea.
🔹 What has been your proudest moment as a founder so far?
When our very first customer recommended and introduced us to our largest customer today.
🔹 What makes your startup #ICONic?
We bring the Kahoona tribe vibe. We work really hard, but know how to play hard and have fun!
🔹 What were your key takeaways from SV101?
- The startup ecosystem in Silicon Valley has a completely different pace and set of rules than in Tel Aviv.
- Close and transparent relationships with other founders is key for personal growth and success as a founder.
- Ask, and ICON's incredible team and network shall provide.
Gal actually wrote a great summary, check it out here →
https://lnkd.in/d-srtQj4
