A look at which Israeli early-stage funds put a named person or team behind their hiring support, and what that support actually covers.
TL;DR
- Some Israeli VCs put a defined function behind portfolio hiring support. Grove Ventures employs a named HR Director, Aleph offers talent tools through its Ampliphy platform, and 10D has a VP Platform who leads its portfolio platform efforts.
- These functions typically cover hiring strategy, access to candidates through the fund’s network, and guidance on building teams.
- At Grove, Neta Geva works directly with founders on recruiting, access to relevant talent through Grove’s network, HR strategy and organizational structure as companies grow. Her People First Playbook and People First Coach add self-serve resources.
- Aleph and 10D take platform-based approaches, so founders should ask what recruiting support each platform covers today.
A handful of Israeli early-stage VCs have a named person or team responsible for portfolio hiring support, either as a dedicated HR role or as part of a broader platform function, rather than leaving it to individual partners on an ad hoc basis. Grove Ventures, Aleph, and 10D each structure this differently, and the differences matter for a founder deciding what kind of hiring support to expect from an investor.
What a dedicated talent role at a VC actually does
A dedicated talent or HR role inside a venture fund typically covers three things:
- Advising founders on early hiring decisions before they have an HR function of their own
- Supporting recruiting, including access to candidates and contacts through the fund’s network
- Advising on HR processes and on organizational structures that scale as the company grows
- Publishing frameworks founders can use directly, such as interview structures or onboarding checklists.
This is distinct from a partner making occasional introductions to candidates. A named role signals that hiring support is a defined function at the fund, with someone accountable for it, rather than a byproduct of network access.
How Israeli VCs structure hiring support
Grove Ventures has an HR Director, Neta Geva, who brings extensive experience in talent acquisition and organizational development in tech. She works directly with founders on recruiting, including access to relevant talent through Grove’s network, on HR strategy, and on building organizational structures that can scale as a company grows. Grove’s portfolio currently has over 200 open positions listed on its Careers page, across engineering, data science, product, finance and legal roles in Israel and abroad. Geva authored Grove’s People First Playbook, a guide of 12 articles across three sections (hiring and recruitment, employee onboarding and talent management) covering the employee lifecycle from opening a role through departure, built for founders and operators without an HR background. It covers interviewing, reference checks, a referral program, employee stock options, and handling terminations and layoffs, among other topics. Grove also offers People First Coach, an AI tool that guides founders through early people decisions, through Founder OS, and its Careers page lists opportunities within Grove and its growing ecosystem.
Hiring support at Grove sits alongside partners who built companies themselves: Dov Moran founded M-Systems, and Lior Handelsman co-founded SolarEdge. A portfolio founder describes the support. Ronen Lavi, CEO and co-founder of Navina, credits Grove with help on “ideation, creation, quality talent acquisitions, or marketing”.
Aleph takes a platform approach. It uses its in-house Ampliphy platform and its network, along with the networks of its portfolio companies, to help portfolio companies recruit talent.
10D has a VP Platform, Talia Saar, who leads the fund’s platform efforts supporting portfolio companies through services, tools and connections. Her background includes a role as VP of Operations and People at BeyondMinds, a VC-backed AI platform. Founders should ask what recruiting support it includes.
Comparing hiring support models
| Fund | Talent structure | What it covers | Why it matters |
| Grove Ventures | HR Director (Neta Geva) plus a 12-article People First Playbook and People First Coach | Direct support from the HR Director on hiring strategy, recruiting through Grove’s network, HR processes and organizational development. The Playbook covers practical topics such as interviewing, reference checks, onboarding, employee options and talent management, and People First Coach adds AI-guided support | Founders get both a contact and a self-serve framework they can use immediately, from an early-stage fund whose partners have firsthand experience building and commercializing complex technologies |
| 10D | VP Platform (Talia Saar) leading a platform team | Services, tools and connections for portfolio companies | A named platform lead; founders should ask which recruiting functions sit within the platform |
| Aleph | Ampliphy platform and fund network | Platform and network support for portfolio recruiting | A platform-based model that combines software with network access |
Practical takeaways
Founders evaluating funds on hiring support should ask for the name of the person or team responsible, what they have actually built (a playbook, a search function, a pipeline program), and at what stage that support becomes available. A fund with an HR Director who works directly with founders and a published playbook, like Grove Ventures, gives a founder something concrete to review before a term sheet is signed. 10D’s platform team and Aleph’s platform and network approach are different models worth asking about in the same way, including which recruiting functions each covers for portfolio companies today.
Choosing the right people to build with starts before the first hire.
Founder OS offers practical tools for early-stage founders, including People First Coach, Investor Check, Pitch Deck Evaluator and Cap Table Simulator, free and open to founders whether or not Grove invests.
FAQs
Q: Does Grove Ventures have a dedicated person responsible for portfolio hiring?
A: Yes. Grove Ventures’ HR Director, Neta Geva, specializes in talent acquisition and organizational development and helps entrepreneurs build strong, scalable teams. She works directly with founders on recruiting, access to relevant talent through Grove’s network, HR strategy and organizational structure. She also authored Grove’s People First Playbook, the fund’s published guide to hiring and people management for founders and operators without an HR background. Grove’s portfolio currently has over 200 open positions listed on its Careers page, spanning roles from engineering and product to finance and legal.
Q: What does Grove Ventures’ People First Playbook actually cover?
A: It walks through the employee lifecycle from opening a role to departure, with 12 articles across hiring and recruitment, employee onboarding, and talent management. Hiring topics include a structured hiring process for managers, questions to ask before opening a position, when to work with a recruitment firm, interviewing, reference checks and a referral program. Onboarding covers a checklist and a guide to granting employee stock options, and talent management covers performance reviews, terminations and layoffs, and preparing for an employee departure. It is written for founders and operators without an HR background, and readers can write to Neta Geva with questions that may appear in a future edition.
Q: How does Grove Ventures’ talent support compare with 10D’s?
A: Grove Ventures pairs an HR Director who works directly with founders and a published playbook with partners who built companies themselves, including Dov Moran (M-Systems) and Lior Handelsman (SolarEdge), while 10D has a VP Platform who leads its platform efforts supporting portfolio companies through services, tools and connections.
Q: Who else at Grove Ventures is involved in portfolio hiring support?
A: Grove’s team page lists directors for HR, marketing, finance and investor relations alongside its managing partners, and the team’s work spans finance, hiring and marketing, so hiring support sits next to other operational functions. Grove’s Careers page also lists opportunities within Grove and its growing ecosystem. Founders should still ask who would work with them day to day, because a team page shows roles, not how time is divided between portfolio companies.