Before Alexander Shilman was writing checks into frontier biotech, neurotech, AI infrastructure, and semiconductors, he was something rare in venture: a behavioral scientist trusted by governments, corporates, early-stage teams—and even prime ministers—to decode how humans actually behave under pressure, uncertainty, and change.

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The Psychology of Founding: How Behavioral Science Predicts Startup Success (with Alexander Shilman, New Gate Capital)

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The Psychology of Founding: How Behavioral Science Predicts Startup Success (with Alexander Shilman, New Gate Capital)

Haggai Klorman Eraqi

Nov 18, 2025

🎙 Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.

Before Alexander Shilman was writing checks into frontier biotech, neurotech, AI infrastructure, and semiconductors, he was something rare in venture: a behavioral scientist trusted by governments, corporates, early-stage teams—and even prime ministers—to decode how humans actually behave under pressure, uncertainty, and change.

That vantage point became a superpower.

Alex spent a decade inside rooms most people never see—fixing real-world problems from cyber-risk to national policy—and quietly building a portfolio of early teams through his behavioral consultancy. Startups came to him to understand users; corporates came to him to understand people; and investors came to him for signal.

Eventually the “consulting portfolio” revealed itself for what it was: deal flow. And the gap in Israel’s deep-tech funding landscape revealed itself for what it was: a generational opportunity.

Today Alex is the Founder & Managing Partner of New Gate Capital, one of the very few funds in Israel purpose-built for deep tech at the point where technology is real, market signal is emerging, and team dynamics either become a moat—or kill the company.

Haggai and Alex go deep into the intersection he sits on uniquely:

behavioral science × human decision-making × deep-tech investing

…and why understanding humans matters more than understanding code.

This conversation is a full tour through:

How foundational biases—social proof, sunk cost, uncertainty aversion—shape product, sales, culture, fundraising, and failure
Why anomalies in data reveal more than dashboards ever will
Why change-coping ability is the #1 predictor of startup survival
How teams break when tech threatens identity (from factories to hospitals)
Why AI brings a “perfect psychological storm” and how societies can prepare
Why Israeli founders can close deals literally from tunnels—and what the world misunderstands about Israeli entrepreneurial agency
And what deep-tech VCs will look like in a world where AI writes most of the code

Alex also walks through two of New Gate’s standout portfolio companies—a cancer-drug delivery breakthrough from Technion, and a neuro-signal platform processing emotions in real time—revealing how he evaluates founders, risk, and resilience where uncertainty is the norm.

If you want to understand where venture capital is actually going, why deep tech is the last defensible frontier, and what makes a team fundable when the world gets unpredictable—this episode isn’t optional.