Talmon Marco is an Israeli-American entrepreneur who was born in Israel. His journey began while working as the CIO for the Israeli Defense Forces Central Command.
He then completed his degree in Computer Science and Management from ‘Tel-Aviv University‘. Talmon later moved to the United States of America and spent the majority of his adult life.
In the year 1997, Talmon co-founded ‘Expand Networks’. He worked as the President of the company until 2004.
Again, in 1998, he went ahead to co-found ‘iMesh’ and was its President till 2010.
Then in 2010, he co-founded yet another company called ‘Viber with Igor Magazinik, a friend from the Israel Defense Forces. He served as its Chief Executive Officer.
Also Read: https://thetecheducation.com/what-made-former-trump-voters-change-their-mind/.
Talmon And His Journey With ‘Viber’
Viber is a cross-platform voice over IP and instant messaging software application. Talmon made a mark with ‘Viber’ in the Middle East, Europe, Central and South American and Indian market.
It uses voice over internet protocol to make free calls, send free texts, photos and videos to anyone across the world. ‘Viber’ connects users across tablets, laptops and mobile devices.
It had over 750 million users before being acquired in 2014 by Japanese multinational company Rakuten for $900 million. It is now provided as freeware for the Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux platforms by Rakuten.
Talmon still continues to spearhead ‘Viber’.
He says that the value of Viber lies with its people. So, hiring the best people is the most important thing he learned from his journey as an entrepreneur.
When an interviewer asked him about Viber’s market in India. Talmon said that India is a very important market for Viber. It is one of the only places where they have set up a local team.
In terms of daily downloads, India is among the top 3 markets for Viber. It is one of its fastest-growing markets in terms of new users and usage.
Talmon also shared one of his experience in Saudi Arabia, when the government demanded them to give them access to user content.
‘Viber’ was the only company that took a moral stand not to provide data. As a result, ‘Viber’ was blocked from continuing its operations in Saudi Arabia.
Talmon’s Experience With ‘Juno
Talmon and Igor somehow repeat their success story with a new company called ‘Juno’ in 2016.
Juno is a taxi-service which wants to take an ethical approach towards the ride-sharing business.
Interestingly, Talmon goes out of his way to pay taxi drivers across New York City to download Juno. He does so with the prime objective of overtaking ‘Uber’ and other competitors like Lyft, Gett etc.
In the end, Talmon’s plan didn’t work out and it was sold to one of its rivals ‘Gett’ for $200 million.
When co-founder and CEO Shahar Waiser of ‘GetTaxi’ interviewed Talmon he said “The name Juno means many things to many people,…To us, it’s about building something great. We’d rather let you decide what it means to you.”
