Originally from Jerusalem, Alon Maltzov completed his army service in the Israeli Air Force Intelligence and began working at a small start-up called MyCheck. He quickly realized that if he wanted to make an impact in innovation, he would need to first get his undergraduate degree.
Maltzov consulted with co-founder and CEO of MyCheck, an alumni of IDC, Shlomit Kugler (Business Administration, 2007). She convinced him to study at IDC and specifically to participate in the Zell Entrepreneurship program. Maltzov explained that "after a few conversations with Shlomit I realized that the Raphael Recanati International School was the best opportunity for me –the chance to meet people from all over the world, improve my English, as well as build global connections"
In 2015 Maltzov began his studies at the Raphael Recanati International School (RRIS) in Business Administration. He joined the IDC Entrepreneurship Club (IEC) and the Upstart Venture Creation Program. "During this time I was still working at MyChat as well – all of my lecturers supported me with all my commitments, specifically Dr. Yossi Maaravi, Vice Dean of the Adelson School for Entrepreneurship. My professors allowed me the flexibility and support I needed to both work and study, in order to stay connected to the start-up world".
In the third year of his degree, Maltzov was accepted to the prestigious Zell Entrepreneurship program; this was a goal he had set for himself as he realized that this would enable him to make connections with people that would help him realise his life goals. There he met Or Nuri, studying Computer Science at the Efi Arazi School of Computer Science. "We met at Zell and established Adjusti.co soon after. It started small, we had a few customers. We had lots of set-backs but we kept going and finally managed to get big paying customers."
Their start-up, Adjusti.co provides a multi-market intelligence platform for ecommerce. Maltzov explained, that often the advertisers and marketers are left in the dark when it comes to ecommerce platforms, like Walmart or Amazon. "They often keep the data to themselves, so we built a solution that can better understand the "digital shelf" – who the competitors are, what their pricings are and more".
Maltzov credited the many classes with Dr. Maaravi for his understanding of the start-up world, "in one of Dr. Maaravi's classes he would bring founders from different start-ups to tell their stories. This prepared me for what would happen to me later. These classes and the support from so many faculty at the Zell Entrepreneurship program helped me in an indescribable way. It felt like a family that was always behind me and encouraging me to succeed".
After graduating from IDC Herzliya in 2018, Maltzov, together with Nuri, continued their close relationship with IDC. They managed a program within the Zell program called ZellX, which bring Zell alumni in to tell their story and teach about various topics to current students. They also partner with IDC in the Co-Op program, giving students from both the RRIS and the Israeli school internships at Adjusti.co. "Some of these students were from computer science degrees, some from communications and some from business, some Israeli and some international, but all of them gave us an amazing opportunity: to work with us and get others to know our business, as well as keep the connection with IDC strong. This was extremely important to us".
After graduating, Maltzov continued working on Adjusti.co with his partner Nuri. What started as working with small brands and agencies, led eventually to working with huge management platforms. Adjusti.co managed to turn some of the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity, "during Covid-19 people started to sell online more. We were able to gain more customers and we finally had a lucky opportunity to be acquired by one of our biggest global customers, Teikametrics." After working together with the Boston-based Teikametrics for a few months they realized that they shared a vision and were working in the same direction. In October 2020 Adjusti.co was acquired for an undisclosed amount, rumored in the several million dollars.
When asked what helped him most to achieve his success, Maltzov remarks that the many extracurricular programs offered at IDC, the IEC, the Real Estate Club, the Upstart Program and the Zell Entrepreneurship Program. "I use most of the tools I got in my BA, but one I use the most is the network I built. This is the real beauty of IDC".
Maltzov is now working as GM of the Israeli branch of Teikometrics and he plans to stay with them for at least 3 years. After this time he plans on establishing another company with Nuri, joking "I have the entrepreneurship bug which will never go away, so I am sure I will establish, a few more companies in the future." He loves every aspect of being an entrepreneur, commenting that it is so diverse, every single day looks different. "Some days there is a focus on finance, some days sales, other products and others you are just trying to make sure we can raise money and make it to the next month. It is super interesting, and every day is a new day and another fight to succeed. It is a 24/7 job with all the pros and the cons. But it was one of the best things I've done in my life".
When asked what his advice would be to budding entrepreneurs, Maltzov responds "have patience. It is very hard and sometimes you don’t know what you need to do. We knew we were doing a lot of things right, even though a lot of people told us that the industry was filled with competition. Listen to your gut feelings and this will help you the most.”