Rapid Response: On the ground in Israel, w/Hello Heart's Maayan Cohen

The very best founders I know are brilliant at building systems. They connect teams, they remove bottlenecks, and they eliminate single points of failure. And yet When it comes to their own wealth. Most are running a disconnected stack. A tax accountant here and a state attorney there, a wealth manager who doesn't talk to either one of them.

Creative planning was built to fix exactly that. One integrated team of tax professionals, state planners, investment specialists, all coordinated by a dedicated wealth manager who sees your full financial picture and keeps every piece working together. Proactive tax efficiency, state strategy, investments all under one roof. Creative planning where wealth works together. Learn more at creative planning dot com slash masters of scale.

Global hiring is such a headache when you're building fast, but companies like Eleven Labs are scaling effortlessly with deal. They quadrupled their workforce in twenty twenty five. Without hiring an HR team. Build your global team with deal. Visit deal.com slash MOS and start expanding your business today. That's D E L

dot com. Slash M O S. Hey, folks, Jeff Berman here. I am thrilled to share some of the new names who will be joining us at this year's Masters of Scale summit. This may be our biggest stage yet. Reed Hastings, Meredith Whitaker, Van Jones, Amjad Masad, and more.

Will be there with us October 20th through 22nd in San Francisco. If you're building something great, or you want to build something great, We want you there with us too. Join us at masters of scale dot com slash apply twenty six. That's mastersofscot com slash apply. Twenty six.

This was by far the most difficult week of my life. My CTO texted me and said hey Israel's under attack. And I was like, Yeah, you know, there's rockets, Israelis are tough. And she texted no, this is really bad.

We started sleeping in the bomb shelter. Nobody's hanging out in the streets anymore. It's war. I'm in the office every day. I have eight employees here that depend on me.

So I have soldiers out in the field that Until a week ago, we're software engineers and project managers. And a lot of our team members, their spouses are out in the fields. And I have three team members that are survivors of the strike zone. And I have to take care of them.

That's Myan Cohen, CEO of Hello Heart, who's running her business on the ground in Israel. When Hamas attacked Israel, Mayan had employees in the strike zone and has since had other employees called up for military service. I'm Bob Safian, former editor of Fast Company, founder of the Flux Group, and host of Masters of Scale Rapid Response. I wanted to talk to mine because Business leaders are increasingly on the front lines of societal upheals.

And nowhere is that more the case than right now in Israel. While Myan's challenges are hardly typical of a CEO in duress. Dodging rockets, slinging in bomb shelters. Her themes about caring for her team, finding meaning and reward in her work, and staying dedicated to her principles are They apply to any leader.

Her call to action. To speak out against atrocity and hate. And to support those from diverse backgrounds within every community and organization. This episode does contain descriptions of specific acts of violence that may be disturbing. Please take appropriate care.

I'm Bob Safian. I'm here with Mine Cohen, the CEO of Hello Heart. Myan is coming to us from Tel Aviv as I ask my questions from New York. Myan, thanks for joining us. Thank you, bub. So first of all, I just want to ask How are you doing today?

I mean it's been a difficult last week or so. I think this was actually the Toughest week of my life. And I'm a I'm You know, I'm Israeli, I went through

Difficult things in my upbringing. But this was by far the most difficult week of my life. Mm. So Tell me. Where were you when you first heard about the Hamas attacks?

Yeah, for sure. So I'm a Tech entrepreneur. I run Hello Heart, which is a digital therapeutics company based in Silicon Valley and in Israel. We actually have employees all over the US. And I was flying to Las Vegas. To tech conference.

And we were about to launch our new women's heart health campaign to promote equality for women around heart disease and heart attacks. And a couple of hours into the fight My CTO texted me and said, Hey Israel's under attack. It's bad.

And I was like, Yeah, you know, there's rockets. Israelis are tough. We deal with like conflict all the time, every couple of years there's there's something. And she texted No, this is really bad. Open and news.

And we have eighty employees in our Tel Aviv office. And when I started to realize what's happening I was completely shocked. So I immediately checked in on my family in Israel. All my friends and we did a check in with all of our team members in Israel.

And we quickly realized realized it brought him. One of our HR team members Is in the strike zone. She's pregnant. And she texted us that she locked herself in a bomb shelter with her two kids.

Rotum was In a bomb shelter for thirty hours. She texted us that all she can hear outside is yelling and screaming and she was trying to keep her kids quiet. Because she didn't want to draw attention.

Because the terrorists went house. By house? Came in, broke down the door. Shot everyone. And the lucky ones died.

The unlucky ones were dragged into the Gaza Strip, including kids and Elderly Holocaust survivors. And she was just trying to keep them quiet so they won't pay attention to them. So They hugged each other.

They colored. One of her kids took a sticker of a rocket and put it on his arm. And told her. Don't worry, mommy. The rocket's gonna protect us.

And Thank God, thirty hours later. Her and her kids were rescued safely. And she's now in a better place physically but as she defined it, I'm alive.

But I can say that I'm okay. She realized that her neighbors Her family in the kibbutz? We're all soldered.

Or Worse. They're they were kidnapped into the Gaza Street to go. Through unthinkable things. Mm. And this is all unfolding in Israel.

Your In Las Vegas. At this point. Yeah. It was a very, very surreal experience because the contradiction between what I know

That's starting to unfold and is happening. to my team in Israel. And what's happening around me is is complete opposite. You know Dazzling lights and sloth machines and music and people laughing and people drinking and

And I know that my team is at risk, and I know that there's terrorists banging on people's houses. We by the way had three team members that are in the strike zone. I I I didn't really know what to do. I like I think I was in shock. For a few hours. Um, got myself into the hotel.

And I didn't want to leave the room. I just sat there And talk to the team and We all started to connect rescue teams with people that were On the ground. Because everybody were hiding in their house and they didn't know if it's the army knocking on their door.

Or it's the terrorists pretending to be the army knocking on their door. Th there were even situations where people lock themselves in a shelter Terrorists realize that. And they went outside and burned down the house. to get the people to flee out so they can shoot them in the street.

So The worst thing about the digital world is Hamas videoed all of this and posted it in social media. So it was everywhere. It was on Twitter, it was on LinkedIn.

You were just surrounded by horrific віdeos of people you know. that are going through these things. This is like the worst, the cruelest psychological warfare ever. Created. After a couple of hours. I figured out how I'm taking the first flight back, which was the next day.

And I was trying to keep myself together,'cause what else can I do? So I tried to project business as usual, canceled most of my meeting, did my panel, and got on the first flight out. Homes. And when I got here I started to do whatever I can to get my family

And my team to be in a place where they're safe and we feel You know, secure. Is your family in Tel Aviv also? My family is now in Tel Aviv.

I split my time between Silicon Valley and Menlo Park and Tel Aviv these days. So my family was here too. They were not in the strike zone. They were not at risk. But The next thing, of course, that happened is a bunch of rockets fell on our heads. So we all moved in together, the entire family. And we started sleeping in the bomb shelter with mattresses on the floor. And that's my life now.

So We we, you know. T tried to live A semi normal life between You know.

fire alarms and and bomb alarms uh while running to shelter. We sleep in bomb shelters, nobody's hanging out in the streets anymore. There's no kids. It's It's war. Mm. Yeah, it can be hard sometimes for

those here in the United States to appreciate How relatively small Israel is Yeah. is Tel A from the danger zone and from Gaza.

It's a little under an hour drive. Yeah. And The first Wave of the attack started getting into the small villages and kibbutzes around Gaza.

They started taking over small cities. In the south. That are completely normal cities. We were very scared because we didn't know when it's even gonna stop. And Ізралшот.

Hamas have always said that they're freedom fighters. You know, the south is considered a peaceful area in terms of the borderline. There's some incidents, there's rockets once in a while, but it's not a severe conflict area, so there weren't a lot of military forces around. They basically conquered parts of Israel. And now they're hurting the Palestinian people too. It's insane.

My heart goes out to all victims of this situation. The Israelis and the Palestinian. We just heard yesterday that They're Areas in which They're terror tunnels, so the Israeli army need to get into and destroy those infrastructures.

And Hamas won't let Palestinians get out of there. They took their IDs and they took their car keys. and they won't let them flee the area. So my heart really goes out to all Victims on all sides of this horrific conflict.

Mm. Yeah. You're talking about. to us today from your offices, from the office of your company, with all this going on. How do you think

Think about what your role is. And the role of your business versus Is it all about taking care of your team? Do you go back to work as usual? I'm a business leader.

I'm not a politician, I'm not a war expert. I can do what I can. I knew that I have to come back, and I'm in the office every day since. I have any eight employees here that depend on me. Uh we had several

Folks that were drafted into the army reserves to protect the country. They're now either in the north or in the south because Israel is scared for his existing. For the first time in history, we're actually scared that the country won't exist anymore. So we have insane amount of army reserves, so I have soldiers out in the field. Yeah. You know, until a week ago were software engineers.

And project managers. And a lot of our team members, their spouses are out in the field. So the first thing we did is Consulted a trauma expert that helped us understand that When you're going through something so severe, the best coping is actually to do.

And not just sit at home. Take a step back and think about your emotions because if you do that. The horrors that we just witnessed are so overwhelming that a human soul can't contain them. So you have to move people from Emotions to actions.

We started taking actions. We opened um an aid. And logistics. Center inner office. I have you know dozens of packages right right here beside me in the office. Of protective gear of raincoats, socks, and anything that the soldier that out there needs.

We started to help. our teams that were in the strike zone. For supporting them with housing. Or supporting them with Toys.

Baby foods, anything that they need. And that gives our team hope. We decided that anybody that wants to volunteer in the aid center. are not working and the rest are covering for them. So work now has meaning.

And that helps everybody cope. But people still zone out. I still zone out. Ever every you know, every day I find myself a few hours just unable to focus. Everybody struggles to sleep. Not just because they're sleeping in a bomb shelter, because

The things that we've seen And to know that it didn't happen in some far away land, it happened to our team. to people we work, that we see in the office every day. Is unimaginable. So

We started support groups. For the team. For parents. And we're trying to do whatever we can to get other business leaders and our friends in the US. The majority of the company's actually based in the US. To acknowledge what happened. And this is not about, you know

Left and right, or pro Palestinian and pro Israelis. This is a moment in time. We're horrific. Cruel. Unprecedented terror attack. Happen on civilian houses.

Were the cruelty level that I I don't think I've ever seen definitely not in life videos. Mm. There's been a lot of misinformation and disinformation on social media. Is that kind of buzz having in

Impact within Israel. No, because we know these people. We have team members that go to funerals Several times a day. Mm.

There's Kids in these pictures that are her friends' kids. These are grandmas we know of our friends. And if you want to pretend that you're a freedom fighter You start to create misinformation.

This is not AI? These are bodies that were brought to To to graves now. Of kids decapitated. This is not science fiction. It's not a movie. It's not up for debate.

Mm-hmm. This is happening live. And unfortunately there's even a worse fate. Than death. We have our friends that have been kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.

Girls. That are no rape victims. Kids. That just saw their parents die. Five year olds that were dragged into the Gaza Strip alone.

It's horrible. And If anybody cares about humanity An empathy for human life. They ні to speak up.

Silence is very apparent in this situation. Somebody asked me, Hey, why aren't you going back to the US? I can't. I'm Jewish. I have a house in Mellow Bark, of course I can go back.

But if Israelis won't be safe in Israel? Shoes won't be safe anywhere else. have a team here, my family is here. And I have to do whatever I can to protect my country. If I wanna be a free Jew

In here or anywhere else in the world. Hamas's mission statement is to kill all Jews everywhere. If Israel goes down, the West is next, and where will I go? So I don't I don't really have a choice. I realize I'm making you delve into

Maybe some emotions you don't necessarily want to so much. Yeah. The easy option was to stay in Vegas. Get my family on a plane back. There were a bunch of people that fleeted here. They can get a plane ticket out very easily.

But I can't. I need to be here. Mayan's emotions and fears are palpable, while her personal choices are inspiring. To support her team as a leader, to choose action over despair, to accept risk in the hope of a better future. After the break, we'll hear about how she's balancing near term decisions and planning ahead.

We'll be right back. When you've built substantial wealth through your business, it's often tied up in a single equity position. The upside is real, but so is the risk, and knowing when to act isn't always obvious. Creative planning works with business owners to build a strategy around concentrated equity. When to diversify, how to manage tax risk, and how to protect what you've spent years building.

Creative planning where wealth works together. Learn more at creativeplaning.com slash masters of scale. Hey there, it's Jill Slasinger. I'm launching a new show. It's called Money Moves, and your money is going to move. We're gonna help you make better financial decisions. We're gonna call out the BS you're finding all over social media. We're gonna give you actionable guidance to make your financial life clearer, less stressful. We're gonna answer your financial questions and take the mystery out of your financial life. Follow and listen to Money Moves with Jill Schlesinger wherever you get your podcasts. Hey listeners, Bob here. If you listen to Rapid Response on Masters of Scale, you may be missing half the show.

Because every Friday we release a second rapid response exclusively in the Rapid Response feed. The guests and topics are just as compelling and timely from Ford CEO to NASA's administrator to the lessons from The Devil Wears Prada. It takes about 10 seconds to find, just search rapid response wherever you listen to podcasts and hit follow to make sure you never miss an episode. I hope to see you there. Before the break, we heard Myan Cohen, CEO of Hello Heart. Talk about grappling with war in Israel.

Now she talks about her experiences in the Israeli military as a tank driver. How she's balancing near term reactions and planning. and what her plea is to other business leaders. You served in the Israeli military when you were younger.

Does this Bring back any of that experience. So war is war. And War's a horrible thing in which everybody loses and all sides people die.

I lost multiple friends. In my army service. That unfortunately died. Protecting our country. It's bad.

It said. But what happened is a thousand times better. People that live a peaceful life. Kids in their homes. Any four year old grandmas.

To have people that come into their house. Rate their daughters. Burn down the house. And take grandma into the Gaza Strip does not war. It's the most barbaric thing that a human mind can think about.

If you lose friends at war, it's hard. It's tough. I lost friends at war. But do you know what you're getting yourself into. We put in a uniform. You take a gun. And you take the risk of not coming back.

Attacking civilians and kidnapping him. Is the worst war crime you can think about. Інмає армії сервис, а воз атак дriver, а за сажан. And you know I was willing to do whatever whatever it takes to protect my country.

Rat and from our team. Did not sign up for that. She didn't sign up her kids for that. None of the young girls that were kidnapped. And have been raped.

Did not sign up for that. Mm-hmm. It's a very, very different experience. And I see, you know, the team members that were drafted. They're scared, but they know what they're going into.

Their families are saying goodbye to them and they know what some of them may not come back. I hope and pray that they all will. But We know. the people will die. Unfortunately given H Hamas' action where they don't let The civil population in Gaza.

Evacuate. We know Palestinians will also die. That breaks my heart. It really does. They didn't do anything bad either. But

If we won't be able to live in this country. If my team members won't be able to live peacefully in their homes. Then we can't live in Israel. And then what? Where would we go?

Because if they took over Israel We just don't have a choice. We need the world. to acknowledge what happened. We need people to understand how bad this was, how inhumane that was.

This was not just another terrorist attack. We're used to terror attacks. We used to be, you know, suicide bombers explode on a bus. Rooster Rocket's center house. This was

An unprecedented situation, I think in the Western world ever. How do you think about planning and what comes next. For You and

For those you work with. Or Do not right now and you just sort of each day one Day at a time, one hour at a time. So I think the first week was one one hour at a time.

Like where are we now? Are we safe? Do we have a bomb shelter? Are they making their move next? I have now a knife. Pepper spray and the hammer in my back. I don't even know what I'm gonna do with it. But I feel I need to be protected.

So I carry a backpack with all this equipment. And water. To just be safe. I asked my team this morning, we had the first team meeting in a week and asked them like, Hey, what are you scared of? They're like We're scared for our kids.

We're scared of a chemical attack. We're scared that They're gonna take over Israel. We're scared that it's gonna happen again. You know People can't even digest what happened and we're just full of fear. So

It was one day at a time, prepping bomb shelters. I think now we can plan a few weeks ahead. We know that this is not gonna be over soon. This is a very hard situation to be in. as a country and there's a lot of internal conflict, but I think now we're start things are starting to stabilize. The troops are out in the field. We continue to send them supplies.

But it's one day at a time. Sometimes we have Two bombings, that's a good day. Other days we have a bombing every hour. Yesterday When I was driving my five year old to grandma.

She also has a bomb shelter and there's no schools now. I found myself in a highway during a bomb attack. And I just, you know Stop the car. got out of the car, lay down on the ground and protected my head.

That's our reality now. I think it's gonna be at best a few weeks. Hopefully not longer, but probably longer. And we have to think about the future. So

We're planning ahead. We're trying to figure out which features we can release that will help more users improve their heart health because that's what our company does. Our mission is to empower people to understand and improve their heart health. We're a company that's all about living. Longer life, happier life.

Helping people. So we're trying to do whatever we can to help the ones that depend on us, our users, our clients. I spend my mornings probably around Six A. M till four PM. Just helping the war.

Rain started yesterday in the north. They didn't have tents. So we started buying tents and from four PM till midnight I'm a CEO. And I work with our US team and our clients. They've been phenomenal too and helped us shift gears so we were able to keep business continuity, but It's hard. It's hard for a team to focus.

We will get out of it eventually. is gonna continue to thrive as a company. We now have services for two million people. And

You know, I wanna get it to a hundred million people. Uh, we're gonna continue to build risk alerts that help people understand that they're at risk for heart attacks and strokes. And to build our prediction models that we're starting to work on now. And here in Israel we're gonna try And stabilize things.

and process what happened. But I don't think my soul is still able to contain The horrific videos and stories that I'm hearing from my team members.

On what happened. Mm. We will we will need a lot of time to process this and no, we're not okay. Do you have Any um

messages or Requests. That you But uh The listeners.

Everyone. Needs to speak up. Especially business leaders. Your team is looking at you. You have juice members, you have

Palestinian team members probably too. You have to speak up. You have to show humanity. You have to show empathy. If you ignore it

You might not understand the level of damage you're creating. We have to acknowledge what just happened, which is a very, very, very cruel Barbaric attack. It's unimaginable. On civilians.

Help us raise awareness to whatever you can to free the hostages. But most of all just Listen to the stories. Don't be numb. If you see videos

And you have The gut to watch them, watch them. This is a moment in time that will be remembered for generations to come. And it's our job to speak up. And acknowledge what happened. That's all.

You can of course donate money, you could do a lot of other things, but the most important thing is just to speak up. Well mine, thank you for Taking the time and sharing and Giving us a glimpse of

The reality that you're going through. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Bob. This is not a usual episode for Masters of Scale, but as Myan points out. This is not a usual situation. What I take away along with a healthy dose of uneasiness.

Is to resist the impulse to turn away from difficult реаліті. However complicated the situation, we all need to do the hard work. To try to understand, and і не процес. To show empathy and humanity. I'm Bob Safian.

Thanks for listening. Humans will never be more intelligent than AI. There's gonna be two types of companies. Those were great at AI and those that went out of business because they weren't. How do we build a future? That is human centered.

I'm Rana El Chayubi. And on my podcast Pioneers of AI, we answer that question and so many more. As an AI scientist, entrepreneur, and investor, I know what it takes to build AI that works for everyone. Every week, I sit down with the pioneers shaping our future. And we take you behind the scenes of the AI that's transforming our lives. Find pioneers of AI wherever you tune in.

Masters of scale rapid response is a wait what original. I'm Bob Safian, your host and Masters of Scales editor at large. Our executive producer is Chris McLeod. Our producers are Chris Gautier. Adam's excuse.

Alex Morris Tucker Legurski. And Mashamakutonina. Our music director is Ryan Holiday. Audio editing by Timothy Lu Lee.

Our CEO and chairman of the board is Jeff Berman. Wait what was co founded by June Cohen and Darren Triff. Special thanks to Jodine Dorsey, Alfonzo Bravo, Tim Cronen. Erica Flynn, Sarah Tarter. Katie Blazing.

Mariel Caracter. Chine may ozuquena. Colin Howarth Brandon Klein Sami Aputa

Kelsey Saison. Luisa Vales Nikki Williams and Justin Winslow. Visit masters of scale dot com to find the transcript for this episode and to subscribe to our email newsletter.

What you see above is a preview of the first minutes. One unlock costs 3 credits and covers this episode forever: full segment and word-level timestamps on this page, plus .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like.